Ipswich Town has been one of the season’s surprises thus far, it would be safe to say.
Even though Kieran McKenna’s team is currently in 18th place, they have generally played excellently for a team that was just promoted, and with victories away to Tottenham Hotspur and draws against teams like Manchester United and Brighton & Hove Albion, we wouldn’t be shocked to see the Tractor Boys escape the drop come May.
Although this cliche has been shown to be incorrect in the past, the Suffolk team has too much quality to drop right back down with players like Liam Delap, Leif Davis, Sammie Szmodics, and Axel Tuanzebe.
Additionally, one of their summer acquisitions is beginning to establish his value, and judging by comparisons to other elite players, he may be worth a lot in the years to come.
Let’s examine a few of Ipswich’s other standout players from this season before moving on to the man in question. Liam Delap is the obvious choice.
After just 12 games this season, the former Manchester City star has already scored six goals and given one assist, placing him alongside Danny Welbeck and Ollie Watkins on the scoring statistics. He has been one of the league’s most dangerous strikers thus far.
But the Suffolk team hasn’t only focused on attacking after a testing phase that saw him ship four goals away to City, fellow summer signing Arijanet Muric has been in impressive form.
For instance, FBref claims that his 46 saves rank fourth in the league and that his current post-shot expected goals minus goals allowed figure of + 0.6 indicates that he has above-average shot-stopping ability.
Given the guys he has already faced this season, this statistic—which is outstanding in and of itself—becomes even more remarkable.
However, while both of these summer signings are proving their worth for the Tractor Boys, another shone on Sunday and could be worth a lot of money in the future.
Omari Hutchinson is the youthful sensation we are discussing, even if a number of other players, including Szmodics and Clarke, joined Ipswich in the summer.
In June of this year, the former Chelsea prospect made the move permanent with a club-record £20 million acquisition, after initially joining the Tractor Boys on a season-long loan last summer.
Though the 21-year-old jewel finished the previous season with a solid total of 11 goals and six assists in 50 games, he had a rough start to the current campaign and didn’t score until gameweek six.
Thankfully, he seems to be back on track again, and he is playing more of an impact in attacking midfield and against Spurs before the international break, where he received a 9/10 from journalist Alex Jones, as well as against United on Sunday.
The “fantastic” talent, as McKenna called him, opened his goal scoring account against the Red Devils with a magnificent curling effort from outside the penalty area—a distance from which another Premier League star, Dominik Szoboszlai, has been likened to Hutchinson.
In this case, the Hungarian is the second most similar offensive midfielder or winger to the Englishman, according to FBref, which ranks players in similar positions in the Premier League and then generates a list of the ten most comparable players for each.
We can now look at the underlying measures that show the duo ranking most closely to have a clearer understanding of how this result was reached. These variables include progressive carries, non-penalty goals plus assists, shots on target, goals per shot on target, and tackles won, all per 90.
Ipswich should be thrilled about what this could signify for their midfield star’s future worth, even though being compared to a seasoned international and a player who plays for the nation’s top team is cause enough to celebrate.
For instance, Szoboszlai is valued at €75m on Transfermarkt, which is roughly £63m. Given how similar their styles are, why wouldn’t their values be comparable?
Ultimately, Hutchinson has been a superb player for Ipswich over the past few games, and if he can maintain his recent level of play, there’s no reason why he can’t soon be as expensive as Szoboszlai.
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