The transaction that saw Adam Webster move to Bristol City in the summer of 2018 may be looked back on with some regret by Ipswich Town.
Just one season later, he was on his way to Premier League team Brighton & Hove Albion for a substantially bigger amount, and has since gone on to become a top-flight staple.
His trajectory since leaving Portman Road may have many at the Championship side questioning whether they might have achieved more from the transaction at the time.
Webster enjoyed a strong couple of seasons with Ipswich
The defender arrived at Ipswich ahead of the 2016/17 season, while the team were still in the second division, from Portsmouth, who were then in League Two.
It was reported that the sum was around £700,000 and the deal also saw Ipswich defender Matt Clarke move the other way.
| Webster’s career prior to 2023/24, as per Transfermarkt | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Apps | Goals | Assists |
| Brighton | 120 | 7 | 2 |
| Portsmouth | 81 | 5 | 5 |
| Ipswich Town | 53 | 1 | 3 |
| Bristol City | 47 | 3 | 0 |
| Aldershot Town | 24 | 0 | 1 |
Webster went on to make 53 appearances for the Tractor Boys over the following two seasons and would usually find himself in the starting XI when available.
His performances for Ipswich impressed, and persuaded rival Championship side Bristol City to strike a £3.5million agreement for the centre-back, with clauses that could have lifted the sum to £8million.
One of the important components of the recent success earned by McKenna’s men has been the efforts of attacker Conor Chaplin
Bristol move looked like an astute transaction at the time
Selling a player for triple the price he was bought for just two years ago would generally be filed as good business without any dispute, especially when added to the fact that the initial value might itself increase if stipulations are met.
However, the agreement that was to come just 12 months later throws a tiny dampener on that argument.
Spending just one season at Ashton Gate, Webster was then moved again, this time to Brighton, for a club-record fee of £20million.
It turned out to be an incredible revenue generator for the Robins, and probably left people in the backroom at Ipswich thinking whether they’d maximised the possibilities of the deal a year prior.
Webster had far fewer injury concerns in the season before his Brighton move than he had suffered in his time with the Tractor Boys, which may go some way to explaining the disparity in the fees paid in a relatively short time, but it likely still left many at Portman Road feeling like they could have got more out of the deal.
The now 29-year-old was certainly rated highly by the Tractor Boys, with his amount of starts at a relatively young age for a defender a strong reflection of the faith the club had in him.
However, had the second-tier side actually believed that Webster was capable of making over 100 Premier League appearances, for a top rising side like Brighton, then they undoubtedly would have held out for more than the £3.5million base fee that they accepted from the Robins.
In hindsight, Webster was always destined for a time in the top tier, and likely would have got there earlier of Ipswich, but looking back, it feels like an opportunity lost when contemplating the amount of money they could have taken in from the sale.
It will be a deal that is looked upon warmly for years to come at Ashton Gate, but much less so at Portman Road.
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