{"id":431304,"date":"2026-02-18T00:20:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T00:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/431304\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T00:20:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T00:20:10","slug":"ipswich-town-ex-blue-jay-emmanuel-thomas-joins-whitehawk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/431304\/","title":{"rendered":"Ipswich Town: Ex-Blue Jay Emmanuel-Thomas joins Whitehawk"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n  The 35-year-old had been at the National League club since November, scoring a late free-kick on his debut for the Essex non-league outfit.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <img   width=\"100%\"\/>Jay Emmanuel-Thomas celebrates during his spell at Braintree Town. (Image: BTFC)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Emmanuel-Thomas went on to net three goals in 13 games for the fifth-tier club, before departing following the termination of his contract last week.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eadt.co.uk\/news\/25856473.its-massive-honour---ex-town-striker-lands-first-managerial-job\/?ref=ial\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">&#8216;It&#8217;s a massive honour&#8217; &#8211; Ex-Town striker lands first managerial job<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  He now links up with Shaun Saunders&#8217; side, who sit 10th in the seventh tier of English football &#8211; dropping two divisions to play for the Hawks.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The man known as &#8216;JET&#8217; made his debut as they beat Burgess Hill Town 3-1 at home in the Sussex derby.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eadt.co.uk\/news\/25856427.ex-town-loan-star-makes-shock-move-eighth-tier-club---dropping-six-divisions\/?ref=ial\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Ex-Town loan star makes shock move to eighth-tier club &#8211; dropping down SIX divisions<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Last year, he made headlines after being sentenced to four years in jail for his involvement in an attempt to smuggle 60 kilograms of cannabis into the United Kingdom.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The experienced frontman was released on parole in July 2025 and went on to sign for National League South side AFC Totton.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  In total, he scored nine goals in 75 games during his spell at Portman Road after joining the Blues for a reported \u00a31.5m from Arsenal in 2011.\n<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 35-year-old had been at the National League club since November, scoring a late free-kick on his debut&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431305,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-431304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-football","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}