Ipswich Town striker Joe Garner completed a late Deadline Day move to Wigan Athletic and Blues fans have mixed feelings afterwards.
The Tractor Boys eventually parted ways with the 30-year-old on a busy transfer day, which saw both Ipswich Town and Wigan Athletic make additional ventures into the transfer market.
The Blues completed a deal to bring Kayden Jackson to Portman Road, although the Latics make a late raid to sway Josh Windass to the Lancashire club rather than to Paul Hurst’s Ipswich.
Garner, an experienced striker at Sky Bet Championship level, will be a shrewd acquisition for Paul Cook – who had to fight off interest from Bolton Wanderers to capture his target.
Garner began his career at Blackburn Rovers but never broke into the first-team at Ewood Park. He joined Carlisle United on loan in 2007 and was later signed by them on a permanent basis. He bagged 14 goals for them in the 2007/08 season in League One and this earned him a move to Championship side Nottingham Forest.
The 5ft 10inc striker then went onto have spells with Huddersfield Town, Scunthorpe United and Watford before joining Preston North End in 2013.
He moved to Scottish Premier League giants Rangers in August 2016 for a fee of £1.8 million and spent a single season playing for them before moving back to England to join Ipswich.
The 30-year-old joined the Tractor Boys last summer from Rangers for around £1 million but has now left them after just a season, managing 10 goals in the Championship last term.
Some Town supporters are now looking to see how their new strike-force will fare having lost both Martyn Waghorn and Garner this summer and signing players from lower leagues.
Harrison and Jackson we assume are the first choice for Hurst, so anyone else will need to be a Plan B?
First two pacey, tricky players but we now need that strong player up top as an alternative? #itfc— Elder Grizzly (@ElderGrizzly) August 9, 2018
Real real risky transfers from #itfc new players need to find their way quick or could be a long season ahead.
— Bart (@Bartram1) August 9, 2018
However, a number of Blues were pleased to see the business completed by Owner Marcus Evans in holding out for larger transfer fees.
https://twitter.com/jsweetmaan/status/1027654671488442368
Sad to see Garner leave but again a very good deal for us as we've doubled our money for a player who possibly hadn't really settled in the area. Gave us a different option & was very much a marmite player. #itfc
— James Kindred (@James_Kindred) August 9, 2018
Garner and Waghorn were both bought without a clear strategy on how and where to play.
The former in particular never looked like he was suited to what we seemed to want from him.
To sell them both a year later for a £5m+ profit is astonishingly good business #itfc— Alistair Rattray (@olimar99) August 9, 2018
£1.25m for Garner.
That’s some serious business from Town, well played. Would like to see a PL striker loaned in now. #ITFC
— IPSWICH TOWN Bible 💙💛 (@ITFC_bible) August 9, 2018
