Ipswich Town hit the jackpot with Sunderland transfer | OneFootball

Ipswich Town hit the jackpot when they brought in Grant Leadbitter from Sunderland in the summer of 2009.

In the summer of 2009, Ipswich Town made the excellent signing of Grant Leadbitter from Sunderland, and it was one whereby the Tractor Boys can look back on as having struck gold with his arrival at Portman Road.

Former Sunderland boss Roy Keane had arrived mid-way through the 2008/09 Championship campaign and led Ipswich to a ninth-placed finish in the second-tier, with the expectation being that they would mount a more sustained promotion challenge in the 2009/10 season.

Right before the close of the summer transfer window, Ipswich brought in Leadbitter, alongside his then-Black Cats teammate Carlos Edwards, who arrived in a separate deal, from Sunderland for a fee believed to be in the region of £2.6 million.

Having started the season with two draws and three defeats in their opening five matches of the campaign, Leadbitter was brought in to add steel to their midfield that would eventually see them turn their form around.

Instead, Ipswich would go winless up until the final day of October, beginning the season with no wins in their opening 14 matches, but, after Leadbitter’s debut in a 3-1 loss to Middlesbrough at the Riverside, they only suffered three defeats in their next 20 matches – with the Chester-le-Street-born midfielder proving his worth in solidifying and raising the level of Ipswich’s all-round play; something he would go on to do for the next few years, too.

Leadbitter became a key man at Ipswich

Having made well over 100 appearances for Sunderland during the first few years of his career, including playing a key role in their promotion from the second-tier in 2007, Leadbitter’s drop back down to the Championship was seen as a bit of a coup by Ipswich.

Ipswich were underwhelming by finishing 15th in his first season, but it looked as though it could and should have been so much worse with that woeful winless start to kick off their campaign.

Leadbitter’s presence and added maturity and bite in the middle of the park raised the floor of what Ipswich were at the time, and eventually allowed them to build to a comfortable mid-table finish from what had been a miserable start.

The steadiness of Leadbitter, and his general reliability in terms of quality and availability, was once again on show in his second season at the club during the 2010/11 campaign.

He went on to make 44 appearances in the Championship for Ipswich, matching his overall tenacity and aggression with a bit more of a box-to-box role, showcasing scoring talents with six goals across all competitions.

His performances remained strong despite the changes going on behind the scenes, with Keane, who he had succeeded under at both Sunderland and Ipswich, replaced by Paul Jewell in mid-January.

That was right on the eve of an EFL Cup semi-final tie against Arsenal, of which Ipswich famously won the first-leg by a goal to nil at Portman Road before succumbing to a second-half blitz at the Emirates Stadium to lose by three goals to one on aggregate – but Leadbitter had dominated the first-leg as one of his most impressive standout performances.

Leadbitter became the mature leader at Ipswich

Despite the change in management and the man who had given him his couple of chances, Leadbitter remained instrumental in the Ipswich side as they finished 13th at the end of the 2010/11 season.

He was of such importance to the side that Jewell then named him first-team captain, and he once again continued to be one of the key men for an Ipswich side that were underwhelming in the league, with yet another bottom-half finish in 2012.

Leadbitter eventually departed for Middlesbrough, where he would again go on to become a Boro captain and lead them to Premier League promotion in 2016.

He made nearly 250 appearances for ‘Boro during a seven-year stint on Teesside, and there will be a tinge of regret for Ipswich supporters, seeing what he went on to achieve in the north east as they had a prolonged period in the EFL.

Ipswich continued to be a bit of a rabble and remain in Championship obscurity, but they had a midfielder who, before and after his time in Suffolk, was the driving force of promotion-winning campaigns in the second-tier.

Had they got the rest of their house in order, there will be a feeling that they had the man that could skipper them to Premier League glory already in the building. Either way, he was an excellent signing by the Tractor Boys and will be remembered that way.