Sam Szmodics had admitted he refused to play for Blackburn Rovers last summer to force through a move to Ipswich Town.
Interest was high in the forward after netting 33 goals for Rovers which kept them in the Championship during 2023/24. Blackburn wanted to retain Szmodics but the allure of the Premier League meant the attacker pushed to join Ipswich.
Once the Tractor Boys’ interest became apparent, Szmodics was not involved in pre-season matches. John Eustace put that down to an initial niggle but then admitted his star player wasn’t in the right frame of mind to play.
The transfer saga went on for a number of weeks, with Szmodics eventually returning to the squad for the season opener against Derby County. He scored and then bagged a brace against Stockport County before Ipswich paid Rovers’ valuation.
Opening up on the move in great detail for the first time, Szmodics admitted he refused to play and trained away from the group to ensure the move went through.
“It was quite an awkward preseason because I didn’t play,” Szmodics told StillJack’s podcast.
“I refused to play. I don’t mind saying that now. I tried to be the best I could be at Blackburn but I wanted to move to Ipswich because it’s The Premier League. Like I said, it’s my dream.
“It’s back home for me, Ipswich as a club is amazing. The club Blackburn is amazing. When I was refusing to play I went to see John Eustace who was absolutely unbelievable with me.
“I went to see him and said listen, I don’t want to disrespect the staff, the players, but I don’t want to take any part in the preseason games and he said that’s absolutely fine, I’ll protect you and I’ll help you with whatever you want.
“Which, for me, he could have easily said like who do you think you are? Which is not me. It’s not my character. Then it got to obviously the beginning of the season and the Ipswich move hadn’t come off yet.
“He said the season’s starting so I remember sitting with my agent thinking I’ve got to play mate I can’t just refuse to play.
“I remember being on the bench against Derby first game of the season, I was like I’m on the bench and I’ve finished top scorer in the Championship last season.
“I’ve put myself on the bench by my actions. I came on, scored and then he said you’re playing on Tuesday night. He said you’re not refusing to play against Stockport in the cup. I started, scored two and Ipswich came back in and it all happened.”
Szmodics insisted the decision to refuse to play was not an easy one for him. He removed himself from training to avoid any negative impact on the rest of the squad.
Once the move to Ipswich looked like it had stalled, he was happy to begin training again.
“I want to dive into that, the decision to not play because that’s not an easy decision,” he continued.
“A lot of people didn’t know and a lot of people just thought I was injured. It’s not my mannerisms to be rude but I just said listen, I don’t want to play.
Then it got quite bad where it was like I was training on my own. I was going into Blackburn and training with the fitness coach and the Director of Football said ‘No, no, you need to train with the team now;
“I said ‘I’m not training with the team’ and that wasn’t to disrespect Blackburn, I don’t want the fans to get that wrong.
“I made it so clear that I didn’t want to disrespect the players. I said ‘I don’t want to train with the team because I’m not in the right headspace to train’.
“As soon as it looked like it wasn’t, I was straight back in training and then when it looked like it could happen again, I was ‘I’m not playing games’.
“I think you’ve got to be pushing on this. I’m 29, I moved to the premier league when I was 28.
“This was probably my last and only opportunity I get to play in the Premier League I had to do all I can to do that.”
Despite the honest admission, Szmodics remains very grateful to Rovers for the opportunity to play in the Championship.
“I still love the club. I still watch the results. I still know all the boys,” Szmodics insisted.
“It was a tough moment because don’t want to I didn’t want to disrupt. It was the manager’s first pre-season with Blackburn. I didn’t want to disrupt him.
“It’s credit to Blackburn because they didn’t have to sell me and they didn’t have to buy me.
“I’m, so grateful for those two football clubs. Also, you’ve got to be grateful for yourself because scoring goals got you there of course, but I’m so lucky.
“I had to pinch myself where I was leaving Blackburn Rovers for a massive club going to a massive club. I thought, ‘How lucky am I? This is amazing?”
