Ipswich Town: McKenna on Liam Delap and Omari Hutchinson growth

The Blues bought the England Under-21 duo from Manchester City and Chelsea respectively in the summer for a combined £33m and already that is looking very smart business. 

Powerful striker Delap has scored six goals in 11 Premier League appearances, while the skilful and hard-working Hutchinson is playing with increasing intelligence.

Liam Delap, left, has scored six goals in his first 11 games for Town (Image: PA) "I thought the two of them led the team really well at the top end of the pitch," enthused McKenna, speaking after Saturday's 2-1 win at Tottenham.

“As I've said before, to have two 21-year-olds doing that in the Premier League is a really good thing for the football club.

“I wouldn’t like to talk about Omari and Liam without talking about Conor Chaplin and George Hirst though.

"A big part of our season being successful was always going to be about if our more experienced players, who have been at the club for longer, could set an example for new players or younger players.

"And if you look at the last away game (at Brentford), the way Conor and George played, they really set the marker down for the demands of a number nine and number 10 in an Ipswich Town shirt. They’ve done that every single day in training.

“If you do that and you have talented young players in the building, the talented young players can learn from that. I think that has rubbed off on Liam and Omari."

Omari Hutchinson dazzled at Spurs (Image: Ross Halls) Delap and Hutchinson are both currently away on international duty with the Young Lions. Ben Futcher's side have away games against Spain (Fri) and Holland (Mon) over the coming days.

Ipswich, who moved out of the Premier League relegation zone with their first win of the season, return to action with the visit of Manchester United a week on Sunday (Nov 24).

It will be Ruben Amorim's first game in charge of a Red Devils side that have won just one of their seven games on the road so far this season.