Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna believes club-record signing Omari Hutchinson is quickly maturing into a Premier League player.
The talented attacker had his first taste of senior football last season when on loan at Ipswich from Chelsea. His development over the Championship promotion-winning campaign was so vast that the Blues shelled out £18m for his signature.
The England Under-21 international has continued to improve at a rapid rate in the top-flight and, following a Man of the Match display in the 2-1 win at Tottenham, he scored a stunning equaliser in Sunday's 1-1 home draw against Manchester United.
“He’s doing well,” said McKenna. “People were probably saying that after the Villa game, after the Southampton game, what an impact he’s having in the Premier League, after the Liverpool game even.
“He’s shown good stuff from the start of the season but he’s starting to understand it a little bit more. It’s his second season of senior football, it’s his first season of starting and it’s his first season being in a team who are going to be in the bottom third of the league, or likely to be.
“So, there are a lot of things there to understand, let alone the increased level of the challenge with the teams and the players that he’s playing against.
“He’s maturing well and he showed all the qualities we want from a number 10 today. We feel like when teams come and press us high and open up the middle of the pitch, having a dribbler like Omari in there is really, really hard to handle and I think that really unlocked the first half for us, really.
“They were trying to step on and press him from centre-half and they couldn’t quite get to grips with him and he was dribbling through the pitch time and again. He gave a good performance and, like many of the players, I think he’s improving.”
Hutchinson, who has previously insisted he wants to become a world class player, said of his goal: "I’ve been working on it in training. I just want to help the team with goals and assists and my performances."
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