Kieran McKenna won’t be too displeased with how his Tractor Boys players have done this season on the whole. It’s been pushed to one side really that the Suffolk-based club only won promotion to the level this season, punching above their weight competing with the likes of Leeds and Leicester City who are more used to the luxuries of Premier League football than fighting it out in the second tier.Still, there will be a point soon where McKenna will have to assess his promotion-chasing squad and see who he could offload in the future when considering those who aren’t pulling their weight.

Axel Tuanzebe’s name might well come up in that discussion, with the ex-Manchester United defender on a far heftier wage than his performances currently warrants in the Championship. The former Red Devil has only managed to make ten appearances in total for the Tractor Boys in the league since joining as a free agent last summer, fading into the background at Portman Road as a result, benched against Cardiff last time out. Tuanzebe had come into the side at right-back recently and underwhelmed – the Ipswich number 40 squandering possession 15 times in total at home to Bristol City at the start of the month – with question marks over whether McKenna will keep Tuanzebe in Suffolk past his short-term 12-month contract hanging over the 26-year-old now. Tuanzebe’s handsome wage will also trouble those at Ipswich currently away from his poor displays on the pitch, with the 6 foot 1 defender coming in at an extortionate £20k-per-week meaning he’s the highest-paid player at the Championship club who isn’t a loanee. That means the Ipswich number 40 earns a healthier pay packet than even Leif Davis, even as the former Leeds man continues to star for the Tractor Boys as a creative force from left-back. In the same game where Tuanzebe would look uncomfortable with the ball at his feet and passive against the Robins, Davis would come up trumps with another important moment of magic for his promotion-chasing team to score a late winner.

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