Ipswich Town, despite not picking up a win in their last three Championship fixtures, surprisingly still find themselves at the very top of the second-tier summit.
Kieran McKenna’s men have stunned the league this season, winning promotion up from League One and taking the division by storm to be placed above Leicester City and Leeds United, two clubs who were playing Premier League football at the same time the Tractor Boys were facing off against the likes of Fleetwood Town and Burton Albion.
Additions to the Suffolk-based club’s ranks this January have undoubtedly helped to strengthen this unlikely promotion push, with Kieffer Moore signing on loan from AFC Bournemouth a fantastic deal for Ipswich as the Welshman has bagged six goals from 15 league games since joining.
Beating promotion rivals to Moore’s signature, Ipswich will have to soon worry about who can fill his boots when the Cherries man returns to his parent club with this forgotten-about Tractor Boys attacker patiently waiting for his time to shine.
Gassan Ahadme’s time at Ipswich
Making only eight appearances to date for Ipswich, Gassan Ahadme might not be the most instantly recognisable name to supporters of the Championship title candidates at first glance.
Netting just once from his brief time in the first-team in Suffolk, the former Norwich City youth player has failed to really set the world alight since relocating to the Canaries’ arch-rivals.
Ipswich didn’t just go after Ahadme with no adequate planning in place however, the 23-year-old had become a feared striker with Burton at League One level before moving to Portman Road by netting nine goals from 29 games at the Pirelli Stadium.
Ahadme has managed to pick up from where he left off in a Brewers shirt back at that level this season, becoming a potent goalscorer once more whilst donning a Cambridge United strip on loan.
The fringe Ipswich man could well have breathed life back into his stuttering Tractor Boys career with the goals he’s managed with the U’s this campaign, firing in 12 goals from 29 games in all competitions this season.
Described as an “outstanding” talent by previous Cambridge boss Mark Bonner before his sacking, Ahadme remains Cambridge’s top scorer this season as well despite missing large chunks of the campaign owing to injury difficulties.
It might viewed as a risk, with this information in hand, to throw him into the deep end of playing for Ipswich soon, considering McKenna’s men know all too well about strikers pulling up with injuries in George Hirst who has been out of action since the end of December.
Yet, Ipswich will hope that Ali Al-Hamadi’s success story in rising up from League Two to play for an Ipswich side teetering towards the Premier League can be replicated somewhat by the forgotten figure of Ahadme on his return from Cambridgeshire.
Al-Hamadi has taken to the jump-up in quality admirably well, helping himself to four goals in the depleted centre-forward positions in Suffolk after lining up for AFC Wimbledon in the fourth tier not too long ago
McKenna will no doubt want more bodies to pick from up top next season whether Ipswich do seal an unbelievable promotion or stay put in the second tier, with the Tractor Boys potentially giving Ahadme a clean slate at Portman Road in the process after failing to utilise him effectively in the past.
With Moore potentially ditching Ipswich to return to the South Coast, and the likes of Kayden Jackson and Freddie Ladapo being moved on as reserve options up top, it might well finally be Ahadme’s big break at Ipswich if everything aligns.
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