Ipswich Town never truly benefitted from 2019 Spurs transfer deal: View | OneFootball

One Premier League signing did not work out for the Tractor Boys back in 2019

The 2018/19 season proved to be something of a disaster for Ipswich Town in particular.

Across the whole of that campaign, the Tractor Boys won just five of their 46 league games in the Championship, which unsurprisingly led to them finishing bottom of the final standings.

As a result, the club then faced the prospect of playing in the third-tier of English football for the first time since 1957.

It was perhaps no shock to see the club were rather active in the 2019 summer transfer window, ahead of that drop into League One.

Ipswich needed to bounce back after a dismal relegation

Having produced a string of such disappointing results during the previous campaign, there did seem to be a clear need for Ipswich to strengthen their squad in the summer of 2019.

Indeed, with the pressure on them to secure a swift return to the Championship, they will have wanted to put together a group of players who could achieve such success for them.

In total, nine new players would be added to the squad available to then manager Paul Lambert, before the window closed that summer.

One of those who was brought into the club was Anthony Georgiou, with the winger joining on loan from Premier League side Tottenham until January 2020.

That deal also included an option for the Spurs man's stay at Portman Road to be extended until the end of the season.

The then 22-year-old had already made one competitive appearance for Spurs, as a substitute in a 3-0 win over Cypriot side AEL Limassol in the Champions League in September 2017.

He had also spent second-half of the previous season on loan with Levante, playing for their B-team in the third-tier of Spanish football.

However, once he had completed his move to Portman Road, things did not exactly work out for Georgiou as an Ipswich Town player.

Anthony Georgiou struggled to make an impact for Ipswich

After completing his temporary move to the Tractor Boys on the 19th August, Georgiou was eligible to go straight into their squad for the visit of AFC Wimbledon the following day.

The winger was named as a substitute for that game, coming off the bench at half-time in a 2-1 win for his new side.

That, though, would set something of a trend for the Tottenham loanee during his time at Ipswich Town.

Over the course of his time with the Tractor Boys, Georgiou managed to make a total of 13 appearances in all competitions for the club.

However, all ten of his outings in the league would come from the bench, with his only three starts being in the FA Cup and EFL Trophy.

Initially, that may have been no surprise, with Lambert perhaps unwilling to change a winning formula, as Ipswich made a strong start to the campaign, going top of the early standings.

But even when results began to drop off, Georgiou was still unable to force his way into the starting XI, although that may also not have been a surprise, albeit for different reasons.

When coming off the bench or starting in the cups, the Tottenham loanee also struggled to make an impression for the Tractor Boys.

Across his 13 appearances for Ipswich in total, the winger failed to score a single goal, and provided just one assist in an FA Cup first replay win against Lincoln City.

Consequently, Georgiou was unable to make the sort of impact those at Portman Road would have hoped for, from a player brought in on loan from one of the bigger clubs in the Premier League.

As a result, it was announced in late December 2019 that the winger had returned to Tottenham prematurely.

That came after he had made just three league appearances in the previous two months, further underlining his limited involvement and impact for Ipswich.

Ironically, Georgiou struggled even more when on loan with another League One club - Bolton Wanderers - in the second half of the campaign, making just two appearances.

Meanwhile, the Tractor Boys saw their own League One promotion push falter badly, finishing 11th in the third-tier standings, with the season ending early due to the pandemic.

There will therefore be many things about the 2019/20 season that those connected with Ipswich Town will want to forget, and there is a good chance that Georgiou's loan spell is one of them.