Carlton Palmer has given his verdict on whether Ipswich will be able to ink Kieffer Moore to a permanent deal in the summer.
Kieffer Moore will only be available to Ipswich Town if they are promoted to the Premier League, according to EFL Pundit and former England star Carlton Palmer.
Moore left Bournemouth in January and returned to Ipswich on a season-long loan. In his 11 games as a Tractor Boy in 2017, he was unsuccessful in scoring.
Moore has averaged 0.71 goals per 90 minutes thus far in ten Championship games, with six goals and one assist.
Ipswich was in dire need of a striker to head the line as they pursued consecutive promotions. Due to a serious hamstring injury that their star forward, George Hirst, sustained in December, they were compelled to look into transfers.
Ipswich are currently third in the Championship, one point behind the top two, Leeds United and Leicester City. Leicester have a game in hand, too.
| Championship Table (As it stands March 21st) | ||||
| Team | P | GD | Pts | |
| 1 | Leeds United | 38 | 42 | 82 |
| 2 | Leicester City | 37 | 41 | 82 |
| 3 | Ipswich Town | 38 | 31 | 81 |
| 4 | Southampton | 36 | 26 | 73 |
| 5 | West Brom | 38 | 23 | 66 |
| 6 | Norwich City | 38 | 15 | 61 |
| 7 | Hull City | 37 | 7 | 58 |
| 8 | Coventry City | 37 | 16 | 57 |
Palmer warns Ipswich over permanent Kieffer Moore deal
Palmer exclusively told FLW: “Kieffer Moore, he’s having a fantastic spell at Ipswich. He’s flying, he’s scoring goals, setting up the assists. Obviously, he’s a Premier League player, we know that, he’s a Welsh international, he obviously wants to do well to be involved in the Euros, so he is doing really well.
“Ipswich are in a dog fight now. The three sides, Ipswich, Leeds, and Leicester, are fighting it out for the two automatics, and one will be in the play-offs.
Certainly, for Ipswich to sign Kieffer Moore, they have got to be in the Premier League, they won’t be able to afford his type of salary in the Championship, and he won’t want to play in the Championship, he just needed to get out and get playing, and that is what he is doing.
“I have said, and I have said all along, the top two in the division are Leeds and Leicester. I will still stick to that, and I still think Ipswich will go up via the play-offs. So if they go up by the play-offs, I’m sure if they are promoted, then they will have a good chance of signing Kieffer Moore on a permanent basis.
“But given how well he has done, maybe other Premier League clubs will be looking at Kieffer Moore and saying ‘right, it’s a player we want to sign’. This is what you do when you let a player go out on loan, you want him to have the impact he’s had, you knew he was going to have that kind of impact in the Championship.
“So he’s done the job, so if Ipswich get promoted, the owners are very ambitious and have deep pockets, so you could see him signing for Ipswich on a permanent basis.”
Plenty options Kieffer Moore in the summer
Moore has performed admirably for Ipswich thus far, as many had anticipated. When Hirst got hurt, Kieran McKenna’s team was really in a pickle, but they were able to bring in Moore, who is more than capable of filling the void.
Moore has performed so well that they might consider keeping him on a long-term basis. To match his goals and enable them to afford him, they could need to be promoted to the Premier League. Moore deserves to be in the top division since he has consistently shown himself to be capable of winning championships.
Dominic Solanke needs to play before the Euros since he was finding his game time to be limited due to his success with the Cherries. He’ll be aiming to be called up to the Wales squad.
Due to his good form, there may be other Premier League teams that may want to sign him, so Ipswich might feel promotion is needed to get their main man.