{"id":722101,"date":"2026-08-01T03:23:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T03:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/722101\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T03:23:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T03:23:15","slug":"ipswich-town-blues-expected-to-sign-sasa-lukic-and-julio-encio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/722101\/","title":{"rendered":"Ipswich Town &#8211; Blues expected to sign Sasa Lukic and Julio Encio"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n  The EADT and Ipswich Star understand that the Blues are keen on signing both players, and it sounds as though they could be heading to Portman Road before the start of the season.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7474895\/2026\/07\/31\/premier-league-strength-test-how-ready-is-your-club-for-the-new-season\/?source=user_shared_article&amp;unlocked_article_code=1.11A.poab.9GO-4Jq8FOsP&amp;smid=ta-android-share&amp;ref=ed_direct\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">The Athletic<\/a> have revealed that Lukic &#8216;looks destined to leave for Ipswich&#8217;. The 62-cap Serbia international is on a list of central midfielders with Premier League experience that Town are keen on.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kingsofanglia.com\/subscribe\/?utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=organic_social&amp;utm_campaign=alex-jones&amp;utm_term=Jul_26&amp;utm_content=310726&amp;ref=ed_direct\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">We&#8217;re LIVE! Subscribe to KOA for \u00a32 for two months, or \u00a329 for the whole year!<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  His club, Fulham, are working on a deal to sign Jordan James from Ligue 1 side Rennes, which could free Lukic up to make the move to Portman Road this summer. The 29-year-old, who has been at Craven Cottage since 2023, has a year left on current his deal, with the option for a further 12 months.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Meanwhile, TalkSPORT&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/alex_crook\/status\/2083297261233246424?s=20&amp;ref=ed_direct\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Alex Crook<\/a> claims that Enciso&#8217;s Portman Road return is &#8216;likely to happen&#8217;.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  The 22-year-old spent the second half of the 2024\/25 campaign on loan at Ipswich from Brighton, notching two goals and three assists as Kieran McKenna&#8217;s men were relegated from the Premier League.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  He subsequently made a permanent move to Ligue 1 side Strasbourg last summer, bagging 12 goals and nine assists in all competitions in 2025\/26.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Enciso, who recently returned from the 2026 World Cup with Paraguay, worked under Town boss Gary O&#8217;Neil at the Stade de la Meinau from January through until the end of the season, with a reunion in Suffolk seemingly on the cards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The EADT and Ipswich Star understand that the Blues are keen on signing both players, and it sounds&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":722102,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-722101","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\/722101","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=722101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/722102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=722101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=722101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=722101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}