"Unfortunately” – Ipswich Town boss Kieran McKenna backed over difficult contract decision | OneFootball

FLW's fan pundit Adam Wilkin believes the departure of Massimo Luongo from Ipswich Town this summer is the right choice from the club.

This article is part of Football League World’s ‘Terrace Talk’ series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Ipswich Town have suffered a fairly humbling relegation from the Premier League, suffering a 3-1 defeat to West Ham United at Portman Road on the final day of the campaign to mean the Tractor Boys collected just 22 points from their 38 games.

Kieran McKenna, who guided them to back-to-back automatic promotions in order to return to the top-flight, does have what appears to be an impressive squad on paper for the Championship but there are still improvements that need to be made in key areas of the pitch.

One player that is departing this summer is Australia international midfielder Massimo Luongo, who will leave the Suffolk-based club at the end of his contract.

Massimo Luongo set to depart Ipswich Town - it's the right call

Luongo, who came through the academy at Tottenham Hotspur before a loan spell at Ipswich as well as Swindon Town, joined the latter on a permanent deal in 2013 and became a key man for the Robins.

He moved on to Queens Park Rangers in 2015 and made 152 appearances for the Hoops before then going on to make 73 appearances for Sheffield Wednesday between 2019 and 2022.

After a difficult time of it at Middlesbrough, where he failed to make appearance for the club between September 2022 and January 2023, Luongo eventually moved on to Ipswich and was a fundamental part of those back-to-back promotions to the Premier League.

However, after a tough step up to the Premier League whereby he managed just 11 appearances in the top-flight, it has been announced that he will depart the club.

FLWs Ipswich fan pundit, Adam Wilkin, has praised the contribution of Luongo at Portman Road but suggests that the time is now right for the 32-year-old to leave the club this summer.

Adam said: “I’d say that Luongo has been the best free transfer signing the club has made in a long time, if not full stop.

"He came in in the League One season and formed a great partnership with Sam Morsy, and they continued that into the Championship.

“He’s struggled with game time in the Premier League. I think, given his age as he’s 32 now, the step up, the fitness and everything, it feels like the right time to move on now.

“He’ll want to move on and play regular football, potentially making more appearances for the Australia international team and it seems clear that midfield is an area that Town need to invest in and it has been the weakness in the Premier League.

“I think if you’re looking for transfers this summer with promotion back to the Premier League in mind, I think to create that space, Luongo’s got to go unfortunately.

“He’s been a great servant and created some incredible memories but it’s his time.”

Ipswich Town potentially have big plans - Massimo Luongo will be an unfortunate casualty

As Adam mentions, the likelihood is that Ipswich do focus on midfield as a priority this summer with club captain Samy Morsy turning 34 in September and a couple of players, Jens Cajuste and Kalvin Phillips, leaving at the end of their loan deals.

Ipswich spent relatively heavily over the course of the season, perhaps with a view to building a side that would be able to immediately attack the Championship as one of the title favourites.

Stars from previous Championship seasons such as Jacob Greaves, Chiedozie Ogbene, Jaden Philogene, Sammie Szmodics and Jack Clarke remain at the club alongside the nucleus of the side that gained promotion a couple of seasons ago.

With the likelihood being that Liam Delap departs this summer, Ipswich, with that fee as well as parachute payments to potentially reinvest, are likely to focus on improving their midfield in order to cope better with Premier League football in the future, should they indeed immediately bounce back.