Ipswich Town have struggled to get to grips with their goalkeeper department in recent seasons, leaving more questions than answers. Alex Jones documents the key decisions since July 2024.
MURIC ARRIVES
One of the big points in this saga came in the summer of 2024. Ipswich had just been promoted to the Premier League, but lost starting shot-stopper Vaclav Hladky on a free transfer to Burnley.
The Blues opted to stick with Christian Walton as a back-up, signing Arijanet Muric from Burnley for around £10m (rising to £15m with add-ons), backed by stats from data provider Goalkeeper.com.
Muric admitted to driving without third party insurance and driving while using a mobile phone three days before Town’s Premier League opener against Liverpool. He missed that match through injury and returned to start against former club Manchester City.
EARLY ISSUES
Things didn’t go to plan at the Etihad Stadium. He was caught on the ball and punished by Kevin de Bruyne, then rushed off his line as Erling Haaland ran around him and fired into an empty net.
Aside from a stellar display in a goalless draw at Brighton, the Kosovo international’s stint never recovered. Further errors came in defeats to West Ham, Brentford and Bournemouth.
While Muric kept his place up until the 1-0 defeat at Arsenal, he dropped out of the team for Town’s 2-0 victory against Chelsea at Portman Road, where he was replaced by Walton.
"Christian deserved it,” McKenna admitted. “He's been training really, really well, he's been so professional, so supportive in the group, is a very good goalkeeper, played well when he had his opportunity at the start of the season (against Liverpool) and he's knuckled down and kept himself ready.
"Part of it was him deserving his opportunity, to be honest, to come into the team and show what he can do. He's probably deserved that opportunity for quite a while. Even last season, to be honest."
PALMER STEPS IN
Walton started a run of five Premier League games before picking up an injury at the end of January. Muric was brought back in for another game – a 2-1 defeat at home to Southampton – but he didn’t cover himself in glory.
Town turned to the transfer market, adding Alex Palmer from Championship outfit West Brom for around £2m.
McKenna explained: “With Christian out, the department was short with just Aro and Cieran Slicker, who is very talented but who hasn’t played as many senior games, so we felt it was important to add.
“Alex coming in gives us another experienced goalkeeper, strengthens the unit and gives us the option to make decisions that we think are going to be best for the team.
“All the goalkeepers were aware of the reasons why we felt we needed to strengthen the department. And we wanted to strengthen it as strongly as possible in terms of getting a goalkeeper who’s ready to come in and compete for the shirt.”
Palmer made his debut in an FA Cup win against Coventry City and never looked back, helped by a fantastic display against Aston Villa in his first Premier League game. He kept the shirt for the rest of the 2024/25 campaign.
CHAMPIONSHIP SWITCH
Ipswich were relegated from the Premier League and had to re-shuffle their goalkeeper department. Muric was loaned out to Sassuolo with an option to buy, while Slicker joined League Two side Barnsley on loan.
Palmer remained no.1, supported by Walton, with David Button coming in as third-choice. Palmer failed to keep a clean sheet in his 10 games at the start of the campaign, although he wasn’t to blame for the goals Town conceded.
He picked up a calf issue in a 3-0 home defeat to Charlton and Walton got his chance to become the starting goalkeeper.
In the end, he came close to snatching the Golden Glove from Coventry City’s Carl Rushworth, registering 16 clean sheets in 37 matches as Town secured an immediate return to the top flight.
PROMOTION HEADACHE
Muric’s excellent campaign at Sassuolo saw him join the Serie A side back in July for around £8.7m, with Ipswich having to bite the bullet and take a loss on him. Slicker went back out on loan, this time stepping up to League One with Barnsley.
That left Walton, Palmer and Button – many supporters would have been happy for Ipswich to progress with those three. Instead, they added two more goalkeepers to take the group to five.
While interest in Newcastle United’s Nick Pope never progressed, Kayne van Oevelen came in from Dutch side FC Volendam for £3.4m, with Kjell Scherpen following him in an £8.5m switch from Union SG.
Van Oevelen got a run of games in pre-season, but was loaned out to La Liga outfit Valencia after covering Walton’s injury. Scherpen was the obvious pick to be no.1, but new boss Gary O’Neil stressed that he hadn’t made a decision.
Ipswich were open to cutting the numbers down, but Palmer’s knock scuppered any chances of him getting a Championship move before the transfer window shut.
THE CURRENT SITUATION
Scherpen was inevitably picked as first choice, starting Ipswich’s first four Premier League games. However, he looked shaky against Manchester United, Liverpool and Crystal Palace, with O’Neil taking him out of the firing line and bringing Walton back in ahead of the extended international break.
“There was no big decision made around who's the better goalkeeper and who's the number one, it's just that Walts has trained well,” the boss said. “He missed a lot of pre-season with injury, is getting back to his best level now and I felt like what he would bring today would help the team more than what Kjell would bring.
"It was just based purely on form.”
Walton signed a new deal in September, running until the summer of 2027. He looked safer between the sticks, but doubts have spread in Town’s last two matches. He was beaten at his near post for Hull’s equaliser, then failed to organise his wall for the free-kick which gave them the lead.
Against Bournemouth, an awful individual error saw him robbed of the ball for Evanilson’s goal, and there are probably some question marks over his positioning when Leif Davis fired into his own net at the start of the second half. O’Neil has stressed that no ‘kneejerk’ decisions will be made off the back of those games.
Meanwhile, fans are keen to see Van Oevelen given a chance after impressing in pre-season. He hasn’t played a single minute for Valencia and a January re-call is possible.
At the moment, none of the options feel overly appealing going forward, and there are understandable concerns heading into a crucial run of fixtures.
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