Is Ivo Pinto seriously considering a move to Ipswich Town?
According to Sun journalist, Tom Barclay he is and the two clubs are talking about a deal.
Understand Ipswich are showing late interest in taking Ivo Pinto from rivals Norwich. Pinto's contract is up in the summer but he can leave for nothing now. Club still a way apart in negotiations for the player, but if a deal can be struck he would be interested in going to #itfc
— Tom Barclay (@TomBarclay_) January 31, 2019
Pinto’s contract is up in the summer, as we all know, and he hasn’t had a look-in this season at right back. Ivo missed a large portion of pre-season through injury, with Ben Marshall starting the season until the emergence of Max Aarons in early September. After that, Ivo has had to sit and watch from the stands and has rarely even made a bench appearance due to the homegrown players rule.
Tom Barclay reckons that City will allow the Portuguese defender to leave for free and that the player would be interested too.
What does this mean though, really?
Pinto’s biggest asset has always been his pace. He’s very quick and more often than not it would be his pace that got him (into and) out of trouble. He’s not the best crosser of the ball and as a one-on-one defender, he’s not great either. The bottom line for us is that Ivo is going to be a high earner, as he was signed whilst City were last in the Premier League, and losing that salary would be hugely beneficial to the club, obviously.
From a “legacy” point of view, a move to Ipswich would ruin the good feeling that he had built up with the Canary faithful via his regular use of social media #PitchWar and all that.
He was the Captain last season when he was fit, but since he hasn’t been playing there hasn’t been much talk of pitch wars.
If I’m being brutally honest, Ivo is great at fan interaction but average at best on the field of play and he was never near being Premier league standard. He’s been nowhere near the first team in the league this season and isn’t going to be any real loss to us. Is he really about to sign for Ipswich, with relegation a distinct possibility? Surely he would be better off earning more money and then letting his contract run down here in the meantime. As a free transfer in the summer, he could command a much better package and not in League One either.
Maybe this is just a six-month thing or maybe it’s just paper talk. By 11 pm tonight we’ll know for sure.
UPDATE
Understand this deal is off due to personal terms regarding what would happen if Ipswich get relegated so that's that
— Tom Barclay (@TomBarclay_) January 31, 2019
OTBC