Lisbie the one Jim’s Looking for?

By: Craig | June 25th, 2008

Many Town fans could be forgiven for thinking why on earth Jim Magilton is aiming his crosshairs at Colchester’s Kevin Lisbie after losing out on Newcastle’s Shola Ameobi and West Brom’s Kevin Phillips. One fan on an Ipswich message board interestingly commented: “Why are we going for a secondhand Escort, when we were in the market for secondhand Mercs?” While there’s no doubt that Phillips and Ameobi hold veritable goalscoring prestige and could probably bag a hatful of goals in the blue of Ipswich, Lisbie could prove to be the perfect - and cheaper - alternative.

Although - like Gareth McAuley at Leicester - Lisbie was part of a relegated side, Colchester had the opposite problem to the Foxes - they could score goals, but let too many in. Last season Lisbie netted an impressive 17 times from 42 appearances, which isn’t bad for a team that finished 15 points from safety.

The problem I would have with this signing is that one decent season in a career spanning 13 years doesn’t constitute the ‘proven goalscorer’ Jim Magilton has yearned for since being handed Marcus Evans’s millions. Lisbie was on the books at Charlton for 12 of the seasons, only netting 17 times for the Addicks in a stint at the club that saw him loaned out to five different clubs (including Norwich who didn’t want him), before settling for a permanent move to Colchester.

With Marcus Evans’s millions evidently at Jim Magilton’s disposal there is no need for him to take a risk on what is evidently an unpredictable striker. Personally, I am hoping this is only ‘paper talk’ and that a Premiership quality striker will come available when the wheeling and dealing among bigger sides begins after Euro 2008, that forces the likes of Ameobi out in order to secure first team football elsewhere.