Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna says Luke Woolfenden is an important player for the club on and off the pitch.
Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna believes the best is yet to come from homegrown centre-back Luke Woolfenden.
Th 26-year-old, born and raised in Ipswich, progressed through the Playford Road academy and has climbed with the club from League One to the Premier League.
He penned a new contract until 2027 recently which, if he sees out, would take him to a decade with the Blues as a professional.
“We’re pleased,” said McKenna, who has started Woolfenden in eight of the 24 Premier League games played so far this season.
“Luke’s an important player for us for the here and now. He’s performed well this year in the games that he’s played in.
“And he’s also an important member of the squad and, really, a representation of the journey the club’s been on.
“With Harry (Clarke) and Cameron (Humphreys) both being out on loan now, he’s the player who has been here the longest and has that connection with the academy.”
Seemingly on the cusp of a first team breakthrough in 2018, Woolfenden admits he was disappointed to be loaned out to League Two club Swindon by newly-appointed boss Paul Hurst and watched from afar as Ipswich finished bottom of the Championship.
Linked with a Premier League move in 2020, he subsequently found himself in and out of favour under Paul Lambert in League One and was then cast aside by Paul Cook. It was a time, he says, where he was ‘waking up most mornings and wanting to be anywhere else other than Ipswich’.
The along came McKenna and Woolfenden became a main man in back-to-back promotions. He was as emotional as anyone when the step-up to the Premier League was secured.
“Luke’s had difficult times here,” said McKenna. “He has that context and can share that context with others. He can talk about some of the challenges we face now compared to some of the challenges that the club faced a few years ago.
“He’s both an important member of the team but an important member of the club and deserves his new contract.
“I think he’s still improving, still developing. Centre-halves develop a little bit later sometimes and I think he’s still improving different aspects of his game and I’m sure he’s going to keep working to do so.”
