Ipswich Town should seal West Brom transfer to fill potential Omari Hutchinson void | OneFootball

Ipswich Town should target West Bromwich Albion attacker Tom Fellows, especially if Omari Hutchinson does depart Portman Road this summer.

As they come down to the Championship once again, Ipswich Town will be looking at an immediate return to the Premier League and one man they should look at to help them in that quest is West Bromwich Albion attacker Tom Fellows.

The Tractor Boys took the EFL by storm in recent years with back-to-back automatic promotions from League One to the Premier League but, under the management of Kieran McKenna, they have failed to be competitive in the top-flight this season and are heading back down with a bit of a whimper.

There have been some signs of positivity but the biggest thing for Ipswich will be the experience that their players have gained and the fact they now head back down with something of an all-star Championship team.

That said, they could still do with some extra added depth in key positions and one man that stands out as a potentially excellent addition would be Tom Fellows – especially if key man Omari Hutchinson was to depart Portman Road this summer.

Ipswich Town have somewhat of a Championship dream team on their hands

Last summer, Ipswich spent quite heavily on building a squad for the Premier League, but it was squad building that most definitely had an eye on how they could shape up if the likely outcome of relegation was to happen.

The Suffolk-based outfit went on a spree of recruiting the best players from the second-tier, such as Hull City’s Jacob Greaves, Jack Clarke from Sunderland and Sammie Szmodics, who had been the top scorer in the Championship with Blackburn Rovers the previous season; as well as adding players relegated from the Premier League that have had standout spells in the second-tier such as Arijanet Muric from Burnley and Chiedozie Ogbene from Luton Town.

They continued to build on that in the January transfer window too, with goalkeeper Alex Palmer arriving from West Bromwich Albion alongside Jaden Philogene from Aston Villa, who had been sensational in the second-tier for Liam Rosenior’s Hull in the 2023/24 campaign.

They are expected to lose Liam Delap this summer with Manchester United reportedly closing in, and rumours over the future of Hutchinson do persist due to a £35 million release clause, and those departures would leave a void in the attacking areas of the pitch.

Ipswich Town should target Tom Fellows for their Championship mini-rebuild

Hutchinson has developed into a player that, initially an out-and-out winger, now plays as a number ten ahead of the likes of Szmodics and Conor Chaplin at Ipswich, albeit both have had injury issues throughout this season.

Fellows, an England U21 international, has not necessarily racked up the numbers in terms of goals for West Brom, but his quality and attacking versatility have been clear throughout the season, and he has marked himself out as one of the most exciting players in the division.

Despite those lack of goals, he has still been contributing in the final third of the pitch with 14 assists for the Baggies last season - nine more than any other West Brom player in the Championship.

Fellows would fit well into the fluidity and flexibility of McKenna’s front foot and attacking Ipswich side, with an ability to play both out-wide and as an attacking midfielder – or even occasionally up-front.

It would be an ambitious move for Ipswich but the sale of Delap and potential sale of Hutchinson, as well as Premier League parachute payments, mean they have the money to potentially rival Everton, who have previously been linked with the 21-year-old.

Ipswich have the nucleus of a team and a squad, as well as the manager, that gained promotion from an extremely competitive and high-standard Championship two seasons ago, and they came back down with an even better squad.

There are only a few players required to make them standout out as title favourites next season and a versatile attacker such as Fellows would be a dream signing for the Tractor Boys this summer.