Ipswich Town: Andoni Iraoli on Kieffer Moore’s future after loan spell
Former Ipswich Town loanee Kieffer Moore is set to return to AFC Bournemouth for pre-season training, but manager Andoni Iraoli has admitted that it’ll be tough for him to get into the team.
The striker, who had a brief stint at Town in 2017/18 before rebuilding his career elsewhere, moved back to Portman Road for the second half of last season to help them secure promotion to the Premier League.
He stepped in for the injured George Hirst, registering seven goals and one assist in 18 Championship matches.
His future is still up in the air, however, and it remains to be seen whether the Blues would explore the chance to sign him on a permanent basis. Iraola will wait to see what Moore wants to do, but expects him to report for pre-season training at the start of next month.
“All the players we have on loan, they will return at the beginning of July,” he said via the Bournemouth Echo.
“Then in these situations, for me, I always say it, first we have to listen what they want to do.
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“If they say ‘I prefer to leave, because here I am not going to have the minutes I want’, then we have to discuss with the clubs, so the money works and everyone is happy.
“They might tell me ‘I want to stay here and fight for the minutes’.
“They are our players. They’ve played some minutes this season with us and I value them.”
Of course, there’s a chance that the Wales international decides to fight for his place at the Vitality Stadium, and Iraola has confirmed that he’ll be given the opportunity if that’s what he wants.
However, that’ll be complicated by the form of Dominic Solanke, who bagged 19 goals and three assists in the Premier League last season, even keeping January recruit Enes Ünal out of the starting lineup.
“I am very happy,” Iraola said about Moore. “I am sure he has showed he can score goals.
“He is a very good number nine, but it is very difficult, even for Enes.
“Enes is doing very well, and it is difficult for me to give him more minutes, because right now, we have Dom Solanke.
“Dom is playing so well that he is not giving a lot of chances to the other number nines.”
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