Reports this week have linked Ipswich Town with both Derby County Striker Steve Davies and West Ham striker Sam Baldock.
Whilst Baldock has also been linked with a move to Crystal Palace, Davies has been attracting interest from Leeds and Bristol City after being transfer listed by Derby manager Nigel Clough.
Both strikers will offer Ipswich different options upfront but which will be the right fit for the club?
Davies is a player that Paul Jewell will know all about considering he was the man who brought him to Derby from Tranmere in 2008. Considering Davies has had a lot of injury problems at Derby his goal record of 21 goals in 83 games is probably an unfair representation of his goal scoring potential.
Incredibly, Davies has had 6 operations during the 4 years he has spent at Derby and injuries have certainly affected the 24 year old’s career. At just over 6 foot tall Davies would give Ipswich the option of using a big man upfront when necessary and he can also play as a left winger.
Baldock is certainly a lot shorter and is a different type of player from Davies. After a couple of impressive seasons at MK Dons, Baldock scored 6 goals in 6 appearances for the Dons at the start of 2011/12 season. His impressive form caught the eye of West Ham who signed him for a fee rumoured to be as high as £2-3 million. Baldock has made a total of 23 appearances for West Ham 11 starts and 13 as a substitute, scoring 5 goals. His West Ham career did look promising early on as he scored goals in his first few starts for West Ham. However, an injury prevented Baldock from carrying on his good form and once West Ham signed Nicky Maynard and Ricardo Vaz Te his first team chances were limited.
It is likely that West Ham will be looking to recoup a large amount of the money that they paid for Baldock should he make a permanent switch. I don’t think that Ipswich will be looking to sign Baldock permanently and a loan move is a more likely because Ipswich won’t be wanting to spend their a large part of their budget on one player. It would be interesting to see Baldock given a consistent starting role in a team like Ipswich because he could well be capable of scoring 20 goals in The Championship.
Davies is a year older than Baldock and has played a lot more games at Championship level so Jewell will know a lot more about what Davies is capable of. Baldock would be more of a gamble in ways as he hasn’t played many Championship games but Davies isn’t exactly a safe option as he seems to be very injury prone.
I believe that both signings would be great for Ipswich as they are still fairly young and would be able to compete with Chopra for a starting role. If Ipswich signed Davies they would have the option of throwing on a big striker which is something that may well be very useful next season. Being able to play on the left winger is something that would be very useful for when JET isn’t available.
Admittedly, I do not know a great deal about Baldock’s playing style but from what I can see he wouldn’t offer anything too different from what Chopra can offer upfront. However, competition for places is always important and they were long periods of last season where Chopra was out of form but there wasn’t a great deal of cover for him.
Baldock would be a great replacement for when Chopra isn’t playing well and he would certainly keep Chopra on his toes. It is difficult to weigh up which striker would be the best option for Ipswich. If Davies wasn’t so injury prone then he would be my preferred choice mainly because I think Ipswich could do with a big forward player like him.
Regardless, it is pleasing to see Ipswich linked with both of these players because they would both be great signings.
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