556: Kings of Anglia: A double signing day, Morsy and Omari rumours - and we’re off to Austria

25:46Mark Heath:So again, the guy that Rossi was speaking to, a West Brom podcaster, said he thinks he'll really fit in the way that Town liked to play football. Yeah, I watched his highlights and one of my best friends is a West Brom fan, so I spoke to him about him and he said that the bit that sticks out and everyone talks about is, you know, he's powerful, he's strong. He doesn't go to ground that often. When you watch his tackles, there is the odd sort of last-ditch tackle, But in general, it's a big standing, firm tackle. He just puts his whole body in the way and people sort of bounce off him and he comes away with the ball.

26:22And then his first thought is to play forwards. If you have a look at it, there's some nice raking balls out into the left channel for the aforementioned Connor Townsend. So I could see a bit of a link up with Leif Davis going down that side. And he's got a nice little through ball on the ground as well. So you look at some of the goals that Ipswich scored, That was something Cameron Burgess did very well. Balls into the channel, balls on the deck. So I think he's been brought in to be the kind of Cameron Burgess replacement. He played sort of left-sided centre-half in a back four for West Brom when they were doing well.

27:00I know people have gone, oh, can he play right back? Can he do the Axel role? Maybe he can because he's played right side of a back three and that's not too different to what Axel's done. But I see him more as a Burgess replacement, someone that will be backup slash rotation to Jacob Greaves. Think George Edmondson in the promotion season where the fridge kind of got parachuted in for the odd Tuesday night game. And when there was injuries, he came in as well and played a really big, big role that people forget about in that promotion season. So a solid signing in more ways than one, I would say.

27:32Mark Heath:Yeah, if Edmondson was the fridge, this guy's like the industrial freezer, isn't he? He's an absolute tank. And this picture, when I shared it on social media, Stu, It was telling that not only did I get town fans sending excited replies, I also got Cardiff and West Brom fans saying to a man, they all absolutely loved him. There was no negativity from them whatsoever about him as a person or a player. And also had some Swans jumping in the replies as well, suggesting that maybe he was a bit overrated. But then you think, well, is that just bitterness there from the Swans? Obviously the rivalry with Cardiff.

28:06Mark Heath:Interesting. There was a bit of excitement from West Brom fans, I believe earlier in the summer where somebody posted a picture of him supposedly sighted in Birmingham. And there was a bit of excitement. Oh, he's coming back. He's coming back. You know, there was a real desire. I think he built a bit of a cult reputation at West Brom. And it was from their point of view, it was a shame that he only caught fire in the last year of his contract and then walked away for nothing.

28:33I think this ended up happening because

28:39Rems were relegated. At one stage, it looked like they might not because Lyon had been relegated on financial issues, but then that got overturned and they did go down and then Ipswich got this deal done. Yeah, defender in, midfielder in. we did say it was still early days and not to panic so there's a couple of important pieces of the jigsaw in time for the pre-season camp with the boys jetting off to Austria today

29:09Mark Heath:Well that's obviously the next question I'm going to ask you to do so they've got three in the door now, don't forget about David Button yes not the most exciting signing but necessary in terms of Slicker going out on loan perhaps and you've already alluded to the fact you think Stryker is next on the list and you've actually written something which is going to be going online this afternoon about where we stand now that these three are in the door. So do you want to just let us know what you think about that? And also, obviously, the other thing to mention is another Amari Hutchinson link, this one, to Brentford, which is definitely something you said before in this podcast.

29:43Mark Heath:You can see him being of interest to Brentford with the chips falling. So, yeah, what do you reckon? Where do we stand? Obviously, three in the door. what do you reckon yeah three in i think it's eight out including the lone players expiring um yeah it's four lone players out wasn't it and then we've had the lap harness and luongo um am i missing anyone else there axel and burgess is that nine that's not my strong point as people have pointed out after the uh basic maths at that son of an accountant and all anyway there's been a few leave three in so far even so 28 senior players in that squad at the moment and you can only register a maximum of 25 there's some obvious departures that will come Kipre arriving will mean Bagot will almost certainly go out on loan again for example Buttons arrival means Slicker will go out on loan we've discussed potential exits along the way so there is some more trimming but we've talked about quality over quantity two I think without any major exits there's now two at least two for every position so it's pretty good shape to be in I would say at this stage of the summer I would say another midfielder and a striker and that could be that and then maybe a bit of a sprinkling on top and potentially with some if there is some exits some replacements being required for them but right here and now midfielder and a striker and I think I'd be pretty pretty comfortable with that if everyone else remains that is a big if and you've mentioned there Amari Hutchinson and he's the one that I'm kind of fearful of being the other kind of major exit this summer.

31:43Mark Heath:Yeah, so I think both you and Alex are kind of moving towards the, actually not so sure he's still going to be here with Amar. 35 million, we keep saying, sounds like a lot of money, but then when you look at the upside of him and what he could be as a young English player, that's maybe fairly par for the course. I think this is, we've all been on this journey, I think, of season finished, report comes out of a 35 million release clause and we all go, did he do enough last season? Two goals, three assists, played the majority of games, but he's in a side that ultimately finished well short in terms of getting relegated.

32:23Is that enough for someone to spend£35 million? An instinct says no, but I think that's because we've all been so far removed from the Premier League for so long, we've forgotten what the fees are now. And you look around what people are spending, 50s, 60s, 70s here, there and everywhere 35 million on a player who's 22 who's talked about wanting to be a world class player in the future who has just scored a goal in the final of a winning Euros under 21 England side

33:02it starts to make a bit more sense doesn't it and allied with the fact that Mark Ashton has talked about in the interview that I did with him at the very start of the summer that there doesn't need to be a fire sale of players but there will be one or two traded out to give us the headroom with PSR. It's only been the lap that's gone for money so far so logic detates there's probably going to be another one and beyond Amari I'm struggling to pick out someone that's going to make you big, big money at the moment to help with that So, yeah. And Brentford, I think, I can't remember saying it, but if you said I did, I'll take it.

33:42Mark Heath:You definitely did because you talk about Mbwemo and what happens with him. And then if he departs, you know, Amari is someone that you thought they might look at. Yeah, he doesn't want to go to probably a top end club and get a little bit lost and lose minutes. He's had a taste of playing regularly now and he'll want to continue that. So Brentford would probably be a club that's known for developing players and giving them a springboard to other things. and Buenwa would be a fantastic example of that. So, yeah, with no inside information on this one, as it stands, more and more as the weeks have gone by, I'm sort of bracing myself for an Amari exit at the moment.

34:18Mark Heath:Okay. Just in terms of the two signs you mentioned there, you already said you'd expect them to spend a bit more money on another midfielder, a different type of midfielder, to come in. What kind of striker do you reckon they might be after? What kind of signing are you expecting there? Because clearly George Hurst, as it stands, is expected to be the starter. You've written a bit about why you think he can be the main man for a side who are going to be pushing for promotion. Who do you expect them to sign profile-wise as a striker? Are you looking for someone similar to her, something a bit different, a youngster, someone a bit more experienced?

34:53Mark Heath:What do you reckon? I think younger end of the spectrum loan with the potential to buy a la Mark Gouy at Chelsea, that sort of signing because it's going to be difficult to bring someone in and promise them that you're coming in to be the number nine starter because, hang on a minute, you've just given George Hurst a new four-year contract and all the talk is about how he's ready to to take on the baton and take his game to the next level and blossom slightly later inverted commas in in his career and um so I think you know judging by the the live podcast that we did there's a lot of love for George Hurst and his goals per minutes ratio was great last season so we're all I think we're all pretty pretty happy with George Hurst being the leading man next season but his injury record isn't great, is it?

35:52And I think it would be reckless, really, for Upswich to go into the season really sort of putting all their eggs in his basket, given his injury record. You only have to look back at the last two seasons. They were left scrambling in January, midway through the promotion season, to get Kiefer Moore, because Freddie Ledapo had already been let go, and then Hurst got injured, and they had to sort of limp through a bit of a period until they could get Kiefer Moore. Thankfully, it didn't prove costly. And then last season, obviously, they tried to get Broja. That fell through at the medical stage.

36:27And then there was the late scramble for Latte Lath. And they got a bit fortunate, really, that De Lapp caught fire the way he did. But there were times where he looked a little bit tired and jaded. And it was too much on his shoulders, I would say, at times. And it was too much to expect Ali Alhamadi to suddenly step up and do it in the Premier League. not just because of his inexperience at higher levels, but also through the fact that he had a groin surgery in the summer as well, which didn't give him the best possible start. So I'd be fine with Ali Alhamadi as a third choice striker next season.

37:05Given Ipswich are going to start next season as promotion favourites or one-off, they absolutely need another striker to really be keeping Hurst on his toes and be in that striker mix.

37:17Mark Heath:okay well three in the door maybe only two more needed obviously the boys will be doing their best to keep you up to speed with all that as they head out to Austria this week so as I say Stu's about to uh to put something online around the squad and what's left and what else might happen this summer um the other thing sorry Stu no what I was going to say as well you talked about and I said maybe midfielder and a striker would be enough but if we're talking about Amari Hutchinson potentially going oh yeah yeah that leaves you that would leave me with some serious concerns about the right wing because Wes Burns isn't going to be back till autumn time at best after his cruciate knee ligament injury suffered in January and then you've got Ogbené and Philogene that are back in back in training we know they're ready for the start of pre-season but Ogbené's been out since was it October where he did his Achilles against Brentford MCL injury for Philogene towards the back end of the season we've talked about a tough on paper start for Ipswich, how they're going to be under pressure to shake off the relegation hangover and hit the ground running if Amari goes and you're left with kind of two semi-fit semi-sharp right wingers which is a really important position in this team as McKenna has talked about loads of times I think that's a gamble so at the very least dips which i think would have to go out and get maybe someone on loan as some temporary cover that which gives a bit of time for benet and philogy and burns to kind of get themselves um fully firing again i would say okay all right let's move on from from signings something else we have to mention bear in mind that town made a double signing yesterday the most red store on our website in terms of which was town yesterday wasn't anything to do with signings it was to do with a, and I wrote it so I can say this, very vague report about the first pre-season friendly, which we only knew about because Dara McAnthony put something on Instagram.

39:15Mark Heath:I say we only knew about in terms of detail. That was basically what we had to work with. So although they're now flying out to Austria and they play on Saturday, that'll be their first friendly in front of fans. They have already played, Stu. They lost 1-0 to Peterborough. We know this because Dara told us. we've got no idea who played for town other than references to strong teams two different teams across the 245 minutes it's one of these sort of shrouded in secrecy games Stewie which we don't really know a lot about but there seems to be a lot of interest in yeah can't tell you much more than that to be honest I knew they were playing Peterborough at the training ground towards the back end of last week when all the games started getting announced I was told there'll be a few sort of behind closed doors games leading up to Austria.

40:00So it might not be the only one. I'm not sure. But they're out in Austria now. So whether there's been one before Peter or I'm not sure, unlikely. But was told it was a kind of media blackout. It wanted it to be a sort of quiet behind closed doors affair. It's a shame that Ipswich haven't done the sort of local game against an Eden Felixstowe that we've seen in recent years that have been a real sort of community affair. I think everyone accepts that it's a bit of a blow the cobwears off, stop-start game where you kind of change the whole team at half-time and then there's a load more subs with 20-odd minutes to go.

40:37But I've quite liked those games, just more to do with the sort of the community aspect of it. But yeah, Kieran and his staff have obviously felt that they wanted to do it behind closed doors. I believe Peterborough are a bit further ahead with their pre-season preparations. so you can never read too much into scorelines in pre-season. I've seen a few over the years now where they absolutely tear it up in pre-season and then get off to a stinker and vice versa as well. Do you remember it was one year they lost? Was it 6-0 or 6-1 at Charlton? 6-1 at Charlton, yeah, I remember that.

41:13Mark Heath:Under Mick McCarthy. I remember you doing the post-match verdict Facebook Live walking through the streets. Your phone out and funny like this. That's right, yeah. On the way back to the car. That might have been the season that they went on to finish in the playoffs. But yeah, not a lot I can tell you about that game. I think all we can deduce is that Jack Taylor played because there was a reference. Yeah, there was a reference to ex-players. Ex-players from Darren McCantony. But yeah, that's all we know, I'm afraid. You can't read too much into it, but you know people will, Stu. That's just the nature of football fans.

41:45Mark Heath:But I wouldn't get too concerned about that. right then Stu, Austria you're flying out on Thursday with Rossi and AJ, I'm sure you're looking forward to being dad on that front again going to be good to get out there obviously good to get three new signings in the door, they were all on the plane today what are you hoping to look for in the coming week as we get to see Tan actually play Stu in their new kits we get to see the new signings hopefully I'm looking forward to seeing Linz because Linz looks very nice in northern Austria. Yeah, we've managed to, like you say, swindle a Thursday to Sunday trip because that's the only days that Stansted flies direct in and out.

42:28So normally these sort of trips are a bit in and out. When we went to Austria last time, I literally went straight to the ground, straight to a hotel opposite the ground, and then straight home the next day and didn't see any of it. And that is quite often the case with covering football. You don't often see a lot of the area. So we'll try and give you a bit of behind the scenes of where it's which are based. I think the training ground is about an hour and a half away in negotiations to see if they'll let me go over to the training base and speak to some people. Kieran might want it fully locked down and full focus at the moment.

43:05We'll have to see. But either way, we'll be there to cover the game. What do I want to see? It's the first look at the new signings. Mattisiewa in particular, whether he's straight in, how many minutes he gets, where he fits. You can't read too much into these games, Mark, but we'll try our damn best to do so.

43:25Mark Heath:Absolutely. And if you haven't taken advantage of our offer yet, £6 for six months or 50 % off a whole year,£29, less than£2.50 a month, this would seem to be a good week to do it because the boys are all going to be out there. We're going to be boots on the ground, bringing you everything we can to get you closer to the action in Austria. And also one of the perks now is you get a newsletter, exclusive newsletter since you're on Friday, written by either myself or Stu. And this week's is a first because this week's will be written by Stuart Watson in Austria, bringing you all the latest behind the scenes stuff.

43:57Mark Heath:So if you sign up now, you'll get that on Friday. Now then, Stu, you have a flight coming up with Ross and AJ, which I'm sure you can't wait for. But I thought we'd finish today by playing a little game, a little bit of a chat around something that the club put out earlier, which is a flight seats plan asking people where they'd want to sit if they were on the plane this morning with all the town players. So if you're watching, obviously, you can see that there. So you've got eight options. Option one, you're in the middle between Sam Morsey and Kieran McKenna. Option two, you're in the aisle seat with George Hurst and Connor Chaplin.

44:35Mark Heath:Three is aisle seat again, Broadhead and Wolfie. Option four is the window seat sitting next to, and this would be fun, Jacob Greaves and Jack Clark. We know Jacob Greaves is a big fan of conversations about 100 men versus one gorilla, for example. So you could probably get some banter going there. Option five in the middle of Alex Palmer and Chio. Option six, the youngsters aisle in the middle of Cameron Humphreys and Big Elks. Option seven, you've got Jack Taylor and who's that? dara o'shea in the aisle and option a is the window seat right at the back next to leaf davis and harry clark so stew have you have you got any kind of hard and fast rules when it comes to planes because i've got two a always pay for the extra legroom seats always worth doing and b i'm an aisle seat man i do not want to be in the window i definitely do not want to be in the middle i'll see every single time for me um so that obviously immediately limits my options here how about yourself yeah I don't want to be trapped in in the window um trying to get past people for the toilet I have I have a baby bladder um so that that will be an issue so I don't really want to get trapped on the inside of Jack Clark and Jacob Greaves uh likewise Davis and Harry Clark I think that might be a bit noisy that row for me as well yeah I like I like to get a bit of shut shut eye on a flight as well.

46:04I'd like to keep things pretty quiet if I can. A bit of polite chat at the start, but then everyone knows, right, now we're going to do a bit of reading, a bit of scrolling, a bit of sleeping. So on that basis, an aisle seat next to Wolfie would be all right. Nathan Broadhead on the far side. Wolfie, I think it would be all right. We'd have a little chat, and then he's pretty chilled, so I reckon we could slip into a bit of a quiet flight from there. beyond that in between Morsi and McKenna would be quite interesting quite intense I think a lot of intense football chat but I think I'm leaning towards two I'll see next to George Hurst and Connor Chaplin one along I think they're my sort of guys I think we'd enjoy ourselves Do you know what

46:52Mark Heath:Steve that's exactly where I want to go as well not for the same reasons my first thought was right I'll sit between Skipper and Kieran and we can just talk about the pursuit of excellence and nutrition and stuff the whole way um but then as i say i don't like to be in the middle i want an aisle seat and then i thought well look at if i take option two i'm sitting next to george hirst the man whose accent i absolutely adore i could listen to him read the phone book um so i could i can sit in there and chat to him you've got chappers as well who i'm sure is pretty lively and also i can just turn and kieran's right next to me across the aisle um so yeah that's true we can still have intense chats there is one issue here that i've just thought about you've got to think about the man behind you jacob greaves is behind you that's true quite long legs i can feel like there might be some knees knocking into the back of a back of my seat assuming assuming we're we're in cattle class here well of course we're well i'm sure town aren't but we will be um that's it for and then of course you've got the older you've got the old um what's the word etiquette debate haven't you do you put your seat back stew i think people who put their seats back are the worst people on earth um and if i try and put my seat back on jacob greaves i reckon it's probably going to be some some pushback literally on that is there any one of these scenarios that you you really would not like to find yourself in you say you think eight might be a bit lively no i wouldn't mind sitting next to leaf it's more the fact that i'm i'm penned in by the the window seat you know what do you know what would be great about eight actually i've just realized you're next to leaf davis yeah and you're in a window seat and you're on a plane leaf would that be good or bad that leaf's talking me through the the entirety of the flight now this is what the pilot's doing here this is how I'd do it I think that would be interesting for a little while and then after a while the novelty might wear off so probably not there number four next to Jack Clark we're really going deep here aren't we armrest is another thing you've got to think about I reckon I could dominate Jack Clark in the fight for sort of domination for the armrest so there's a little pro there and there endeth my thoughts I think I'm going two I think you're going to as well it'll be interesting to see what the boys would do how does it work when you're travelling with Ross and AJ Stewie in terms of the dynamic you're obviously dad you've got their passports yeah I've booked all of their flights I've told them how to check in and all of that there was already a panic several weeks ago about checking in and paying for a seat I said I'm not paying for a seat we don't need to book, we're not a family we can be big boys and we can just take whatever seat is assigned to us.

49:31So, yeah, and then I'm sure I'll be first one off and wondering if they've all got lost as they disembark the plane.

49:42Mark Heath:Yeah, I'd imagine Ross is like an excitable child when you're travelling with him. AJ probably just deep in the XG. My main fear is that he doesn't break or lose his very expensive camera equipment. Or new laptop, of course, which is another driver. we've just had um so yeah he's got he's got fully new kit let's hope it all makes it there and back with him because he's still got a few more trips as well this pre-season um siri that brings us to the end pretty much of uh what we're going to discuss today anything else yeah you want to mention any other any other things that are on your mind things that are on my mind uh trying to think what else has been going on with me are you over your champagne faux pas now?

50:26Mark Heath:Yeah, pretty much. It's now become a running joke. Did you see, by the way, I was watching a little bit of the Wimbledon final yesterday. I was having my lunch. I'm not saying that Wimbledon's posh and elitist and that, but they actually had to stop play because someone popped a champagne cork onto the court throwing a serve, which I thought, you're not going to get that at many other sporting events. Champagne cork stops play. I don't know. I was watching the the women's final was on in the background on saturday i went into london used my last sort of spare saturday for the foreseeable to go and catch up with some old uni mates of mine we've sat out in a beer garden while that was on that didn't last long did it i'd seen people on the train heading to wimbledon that day i was thinking about i hadn't really got value for money there all over in less than an hour and then talking about how much you paid for drinks it was just in a in a just in an outside standard outside bar picnic table benches yeah henna for uh with what was i drinking i was drinking moscow mules they were going down very nice in the sun which is ginger ale and vodka yeah like tiny the tiny little cup plastic cup about this big single shot tenner.

51:42Mark Heath:London, isn't it? Stay in Suffolk, thank you. Well, just to remind us of our sponsors, use the code KOA at stardustspirits.co.uk for 20 % off all their excellent concoctions, award-winning stuff as well, the World Drinks Awards, some really excellent stuff that Gary's doing there, so get involved with that. As I've said before, I'd recommend the cask aged rum and also the single malt, and I know Alex is a huge fan of the Biscoff vodka. is the Biscoff Vodka. Let me double check this, the award winner. Make sure I get it right. It is the Biscoff Biscuit Vodka, multiple awards, the World Drinks Awards.

52:21Mark Heath:So use the code and treat yourself to that. And also, friends, I've already mentioned it, and we're going to bore you, quite frankly, talking about this because it's important to us. The offer, the latest and best offer of the year, digital subscription-wise,£6 for six months or£29 for a whole year. It gets you everything we do. And as I've already said, it's a good week to do that because you can follow the boys all the way to Austria. You can follow Stu and Ross to Aberdeen of all places on a Friday night. And then probably the most bang for your buck is following Ross and AJ on their own to Ausair, which is going to be an experience, I think.

52:59Mark Heath:There are links all over our social medias in terms of how you sign up. and as we said before it is really important to us in terms of the future direction of travel in terms of journalism right now although online journalism is soaring the only way of really making money from that is by chucking loads of advertising on it and we know friends because it's frustrating for us as well that doesn't make it a very good user experience because you've got pop-ups and videos and all that kind of hate it when you log onto a website and immediately video starts playing there's a pop-up and that kind of stuff that's basically a necessity we can take that away but obviously then we have to find other ways of making money so in this scenario it's um you you're paying a small amount um six pound for six months uh just to support what we do um hopefully you'd agree that you know it's good value the app by the way so i don't know if you looked at the app the app has been given a facelift and now it's even better um no ads at all on the app um and pictures display a little better than used to as well so very much worth getting involved in that as well and as i've already mentioned you also now get an exclusive friday newsletter which this week will be penned by stuart watson from austria what are you most excited about going to austria stu are you excited at all i mean i see i think oh i'd love to be going to austria because i know i'm just going to be sat in my middle bedroom churning out boring stuff while you boys are overseas having a jet-setting lifestyle sounds glamorous uh the reality is i'll probably be sat in a hotel room churning out some stuff for a large majority of it so it's never as glamorous as you think but a bit of curry burst will be something that I'm looking forward to Excellent, alright well as I say the boys will be travelling on Thursday obviously at the game on Saturday, it's 5 o 'clock isn't it game on Saturday Austrian time, I don't know we should probably have done some research into that I will look so that we can tell the audience the correct time while you start to wrap up Yeah, there will obviously be a live blog from that game pictures, hopefully of the new signings, obviously the first time I'm going to see everyone in the new kits.

55:01Mark Heath:Lots of analysis as well to come from Alex. I've already mentioned he's going to do a scouting report tomorrow on Azor Matusiwa, which will be a good read. Have you got the time, Stu? 6pm local time, 5pm British standard time. Grenich mean time. Grenich mean time. The best of times. It's the best time, if you ask me. At 5pm, the boys will be bringing you live coverage, obviously before that as well we're doing as many video bits as well as you can do while you're out there stewie uh right in friends we better crack on with it then so so town have made a double signing there's three in the door as they head to austria the boys will be following them to austria don't miss anything uh that we do by signing up to that new offer and the boys i'd imagine the next time we we do one of these we'll be speaking to you from austria which would be lovely have a great start to week friends and we'll be back later on to speak all over again

56:03Thank you.

56:34Thank you.

57:01Thank you.

57:29Thank you.