Player of the Year

When it comes to the Annual Player of the Year awards, the obvious direction is to name the player who has made the biggest impact on the pitch during the course of the season. Rarely, however is that decision based on the lack of impact.

With voting now open to the public to decide who will take home the 2023/24 Rose Bowl (do they still get a Rose Bowl?), there are a few obvious candidates that the majority of Supporters will be drawn towards.

Nathan Broadhead and Conor Chaplin both lead the way in terms of goals scored and general all-round attacking output. Chaplins increased assist count and general stronger impact across the season probably edges him ahead.

Vazclav Hladcky has made an outstanding contribution to the ability of the team to play out from the back, arguably taking this to a new level since he has taken over the No. 1 shirt.

Leif Davis is probably the clubs biggest asset, on track to break Championship records for assists this season and is the player who has drawn most attention from outside of Portman Road. All of this probably makes him the most likely Ipswich Town player to find himself playing the Premier League next season, whether with Ipswich or otherwise.

But it is the Captain, Sam Morsy, who must surely be the man destined to win the award this year. Having driven his teammates on for almost three years, its maybe something of a surprise that Morsy hasnt yet won it already. However, the defining factor in Morsy’s season, and the one which carries him above all others when considering a winner, is the impact when he has not been on the pitch.

Simply, no other player in the squad can offer the same drive and energy, the same force of willpower to keep going, the relentlessness or the quality of play (and acknowledgment to Massimo Luongo, who gets close).

When Morsy is missing, the whole team is weakened. George Hirst was a loss when first injured, but the club moved quickly to solve the issue. Leif Davis was a loss when he was injured, but McKenna has gradually reduced the reliance on that left side (perhaps with one eye on where Davis might end up next season).

Take Morsy out and there is no solution. Aside from the final five minutes in the home win over Sheffield Wednesday and the last 25 minutes of the away loss at Leeds United, both games where the result was beyond dispute at that point, Morsy has missed just four league games for Ipswich Town this season and played every minute of every other game.

In the games he has missed, he has been sorely missed. Even the win over Sunderland was largely characterised as one where the result was probably better than the performance. Away to Leicester was the only performance of real credit, but that was largely indebted to the counter-attacking presence of the Ipswich substitutes, in a game against the most controlling side in the League.

Ipswich Town are indebted to his qualities, both as a footballer and as a Captain. The biggest challenge is going to be replacing him, but hopefully that is a few years off. For now, he deserves to be Player of the Year.