Ipswich Town have announced the loan signing of Ryan Tunnicliffe, the second player to join from Manchester United this season after Frederic Veseli signed a two year deal.

It appears that Mick McCarthy has used his reputation and contacts to secure these deals as both players have mentioned that they were recommended to join Ipswich by their reserve team manager Warren Joyce.

It is safe to say that if the Tractor Boys were still stuck with one their previous managers then they would not have been able to sign half the players that have joined Ipswich this summer

Tunnicliffe is a strong central midfielder who seems most comfortable in a defensive role. He is a ball winner who gets stuck in and has the footballing brain to see what others may not.

The obvious downside is that Tunnicliffe is unlikely to be much of a goal scoring threat considering he hasn’t scored a professional club goal yet. That said, you wouldn’t expect many defensive midfielders to chip in with goals and the Manchester United loanee will probably spend a lot of the time sitting just ahead of the back four.

It is thought that Tunnicliffe will be used mainly as a back up option or substitute for Luke Hyam, but some believe that he may well command a place in the starting eleven more regularly than that. He is held in high regard by the Red Devils and he could surprise a few fans with what he has to offer in the center of the park.

The other player to join from the Premier League winners is much more of an unknown quantity. Some Manchester United fans were baffled by Frederic Veseli’s release from the club as the only news they had heard was that he happy and was impressing in the youth and reserve sides.

Manchester United had gone through a lot of effort to sign Veseli from their rivals Manchester City so Sir Alex Ferguson must have seen a lot of potential in him too. Somewhere along the line something must have gone wrong, for some reason either the player must have wanted to leave or what is more likely is that he was deemed surplus to requirements at Old Trafford.

Throughout last season interviews with both Veseli and the reserve team manager suggested that everything was going smoothly. Apparently he was a player who always maintained a place in the reserve team and a player who would put in a solid shift regardless of what position he played.

The most likely explanation is that upon closer inspection Manchester United decided that whilst Veseli was a solid performer, he was also a utility player that would never be good enough in one position to come close to their first team.

One thing to expect with the Swiss youngster is that you may see him at right back one game then see him in midfield the next. In the Manchester United reserves side he played mostly as a defensive midfielder but it appears that McCarthy will mostly use him at right back.

The good news is that despite Veseli’s failure to master one position it has been said he has the potential to develop into “the ultimate utility man”. Every team needs a versatile player in their squad that his highly reliable and Veseli could be that man for Ipswich.

Overall it looks unlikely that either of these players will set the Championship alight but they are great additions to complement a squad that is already looking strong.

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