562: Kings of Anglia: Unbeaten, but also winless - so how full is your Ipswich Town glass?

27:20Mark Heath:I see a lot of people saying, and one of our columnists, Terry Hunter, said today that creating opportunities, early doors, obviously small sample size, two games into the season or three if you count the Bromley thing. One of the things we definitely weren't worried about before the season started was town scoring goals. Obviously, they've only got one from open play in the league in the first two games. Is that something you share? Or can you put minds at rest that this is a team that are going to create loads and score goals? Yeah, I think that that's the area that will have the biggest improvement, to be honest, because it's the least settled part of the team at the moment.

28:03Defensively, I've been really impressed with what we've seen from Ipswich so far. they handled, by and large, a real barrage of attacks from Birmingham on opening day. Against Bromley, different game. They had to deal with kind of the physical set-piece threat, and there was a disappointing moment when they conceded with that. But they also had to handle, yeah, a different kind of game. And then against Southampton, limited opportunities against, in terms of what Southampton were actually allowed to create, clear-cut chances. I really can't think of more than one or two. one of course being the goal so that's the settled part because you know that it will be Leif Davis at left back you know what the centre back partnership will be you know probably at least one of the two players that can play right back there what we're going to see the attacking areas is where there's so much more uncertainty and things up in the air so that's what will come over time.

29:01That's what will come when things settle down and Town hopefully sign a new right winger and they add to their striker depth and you see players like Jaden Filogy and get back up to full, full speed after a little spell out and Jack Clark maybe gets more games on the left. This is a slightly patched up Ipswich attack. The defence is what you're seeing is kind of what you see is what you get. The attacking side now is, this is kind of, in my mind the base and if this is the base and they're creating these chances then it's up from here

29:34Mark Heath:yeah you mentioned him there jayden filagene obviously back in the squad for this game i thought he had a he had a good game jayden um previously when i've seen him thought he's a little bit lightweight um but in this game i can't remember if you or student said it wasn't so much lightweight is wiry um wiry strong probably yeah yeah but um you know i i was impressed with jay that was encouraging yeah he was my man of the match in this game and um that's probably a left field pick and there's a couple of reasons behind it one i thought he played well but also it was unexpected a bit i've been a little bit worried about jayden philagine because of the fact that he has looked lightweight and times where he's tried to take on defenders has often kind of fallen flat and I've been frustrated about him so much and it gets to the point where probably unfairly to be honest you sometimes look at him you know is his is his heart in it that much the way that he plays I think it's just kind of his style to be honest and you talk to players or talk to Leaf yesterday and he said Jadon's so quiet sometimes you really have to like shout at him to make sure you know what he's doing it's not that he's not paying attention or focus he's just that kind of quiet personality so it can look like that and this was a different side to jayden philajeen i thought um and we saw the two sides of your game that you need to have in the championship firstly the important one uh for a player like him the attacking side i thought he was enjoying his football i liked that he was picking up the ball and he was doing little flicks and tricks but they weren't like needless ones they're ones where he would end up playing the ball into space and he was looking a level above from the the wing back and the defenders that were coming up against him and harwood bellis on on the right side really struggled with the way that he was able to take a really good first touch and carry it in space draw a foul um all the attacking things that you want to see and we know jayden philagine can do were there and then you worry as well about well can he handle it when he's coming up against big muscly defenders and that he's got to show the physical side, but not get himself injured or do anything reckless.

31:41And this game showed, yes, there were so many times where he would be up against Harwood Bellis, who was on the ball, and he'd be able to, without using his strength or anything like that, just position himself in the perfect way to take the ball off Harwood Bellis and rob defenders of possession, which is a side that I didn't think Jadon Filagene had. So being able to combine both of those things in front of Ipswich fans in my mind for the first time in his Ipswich career. Better performance I've seen from him in an Ipswich shirt. Better even, weirdly, than when he scored a brace at Old Trafford, which is a weird thing to say.

32:18Yeah, I was really impressed with him and the way that he stepped up.

32:22Mark Heath:This has to be the start of something for him. That's the most underwhelming brace that's ever been scored at Old Trafford, I think it's fair to say. The most underwhelming brace ever. Yeah. Yeah. Another thing, obviously, to mention from the second half, how good was it to see Jens Kajusta back on the pitch? I was quite surprised he was even on the bench, to be honest, given that Kieran said he's had no pre-season at all. And we know he's got this near issue to manage. It was great when he was even just read out in the squad. And it was even better when he came onto the pitch. And I thought he was going to win the game.

32:52Mark Heath:At that opportunity later on, didn't he, when the ball came back to him, I thought, this is too perfect. Go on, Jens. Didn't quite get it. I think it was blocked, wasn't it, the effort? but fantastic to see him back. And clearly, going forward, you'd expect that to be the partnership, wouldn't you, Azur and Jens in midfield? Yeah, that's the one that you'd expect. It's actually going to add to their midfield for sure. It's going to be one, at least two, I'd say, before the end of... Sorry, at least one, possibly two, before the end of the window. But this looks like the partnership. It's a partnership that's played in the top right of French football, so you'd hope that it would do quite well in the second tier of English football, even though it's a different style.

33:31So good to see Jens back. And I think that the way that McKenna has approached it, look, yeah, you have to be realistic, but I think that he's kind of tried to temper expectations a bit. I always thought that with Kajusta and the way that McKenna mentions him as being naturally very physically fit, it was always going to be a case of give him a game and then just get him on the bench and give him some minutes. And I think that McKenna's basically said, well, you need to be very careful with him because it might be quite a while before he's up to speed and talking about preseason, just to temper those expectations a little bit.

34:08Jenski Uster is not going to be starting Saturday, Tuesday, when we get after the September international break and we go to Bristol City and games like this. It's not going to be like that at that stage. But he is ready to be involved. And he showed that in this game. and he didn't have loads of opportunities or time on the ball. But when he did, I liked what I saw from him. Get him up to speed and him and Mattis Iwer as well when they both get up to full fitness, which, you know, give it a few weeks. I think you're going to see one hell of a midfield partnership for the championship.

34:40Mark Heath:Fingers crossed. Right, so anything else in the second half you want to discuss? I suppose worthy of note, we should also mention George Hurst having to play the whole game because there wasn't really a strike on the bench. And there was an update in terms of Al Hamid, wasn't there? Kieran said, suffered a not short-term calf injury, which you wonder in terms of even potentially getting him out on loan, maybe complicates that issue, doesn't it? Yeah, not short-term, but hopefully not long-term, I believe, was kind of what McKenna alluded to in this one. Assuming that it would be something that would keep him out beyond two, three weeks, that could be quite difficult.

35:22I mean, the whole striker's picture at the moment is quite tricky because it's George Hurst, Chew Brackpom didn't play this game because he had some kind of muscle tightness around training sessions and given the fact he'd not had much of a pre-season, they want to be careful with him. Then you've got the injury with Ali and some transfer deals seemingly being a little bit slower than others to get done. Yeah, that is a complex one. I think from what we've seen with Ali as well, you know how big a fan of him I was. I remember when we signed and I waxed lyrical about him. I thought everything I'd seen from him at Wimbledon was really good.

36:01I think essentially, pardon me, he has had the hardest possible journey at Ipswich, and he's done everything that he can, but it just feels like everything's stacked against him, and I'm not sure how much more you can kind of overcome when you're in that kind of situation where you look at him against Bromley and it just wasn't a game that worked out for him. I think he needs to be somewhere where he can play a full season, score goals and get his confidence back because I don't think it's there at the moment. I'd love to see it work at Ipswich, but at this point, maybe it's the best thing for his career as well to go and find the club where he can play regularly and score goals and get his confidence back.

36:47Mark Heath:So we'll see what the future holds for him. I enjoyed the Tuber-Akpom discussion around why he can't play. He's had a week in a hotel. Poor Tuber. Poor Tuber, eh? Yeah, anyway, hopefully we'll see him soon. We'll find out a little bit more. Going into Preston away this weekend, which I'm sure you're buzzing for, AJ. Oh, yes. Filing solo to Preston. Anything else from the game to mention before we get to the post-game stuff? A very interesting chat you had with Leif Davis and obviously other transfer-related business. no no more from the game I do just want to know like with with Tuba Akpom do you think that he had like you know when we had to go to the Premier Inn you get the you get your little breakfast as well is he there at like the breakfast bar at the Premier Inn queuing up yeah I suspect he's not in a Premier Inn I think he might be in a slightly more upmarket hotel really struggling that a week in a hotel poor old Tuba uh anyway uh shall we shall we talk about Leif Davies then because you had a really good chat with him post-match.

37:48Mark Heath:Clearly, there are lots of transfer stuff going on at the moment. And I think it was Brenner actually asked him, wasn't it, about his future. Because clearly he's been linked with a potential move to the Premier League as well. So let's hear from Leif and then you can tell us a bit more about what you made of him. Fully committed to it, switch town as well. There's probably going to be rumours about your future the next couple of weeks, I've got to ask Leif. Yeah, definitely. What you see is what you see. But I'm fully committed to being an Ipswich Town player. I love it here. I want to do everything I can to get the club back to the Premier League.

38:19I want to keep pushing on and improve myself every day with the manager. I guess you understand other people like Nathan, like Amari, why they want to move on. Yes, that's a choice. My choice is I want to be working here. I want to be working hard here. I know I can improve a lot more here than in other places I've ever went. Especially, I know the manager. He knows how I like to play. He knows why I need to work on because I've been with him for four years. So, yeah, I'm just going to keep my head down and keep going and doing everything I can to push your team back into the Premier League.

38:55Mark Heath:That is encouraging, AJ, to hear Leif talk passionately about being fully committed to town and the reasons why he is. It is, yeah. And it's kind of two sides of this. One of them is the fact you don't want to lose Leif Davis because there's a lot of players that have already gone out of the door, top quality players, Liam Dallapp, Mari Hutchinson, Nathan Broadhead will come on to Cameron Burgess, Sam Morsey and they're all, as well as being quality footballers, there's also a core part of this group that have been here for a long time. Burgess leaving, Morsey leaving Broadhead, these are guys who've played a pivotal part in back-to-back promotions and then in the Premier League as well and if you were to lose Davis from that group it would start to then feel like there's a kind of the heart of this team was getting ripped away.

39:45And that would be really difficult to come back from. So there's the on pitch side of things, but also the way that he spoke about this, that really stood out to me. I've spoken to quite a few players and they've been asked the question, he committed to staying here with relegation, with interest, with whatever. And quite often you'll hear, yeah, I'm, I'm committed, but we'll come into the summer and see what happens. And yeah, I'm happy here. Something like that. And the way that Leif Davis spoke about this really stood out to me. And I really liked it in that he was saying, basically, there's nowhere that I'd rather be.

40:21And there's no one other than Kieran McKenna that I would trust with my career and the way that I want it to go at the moment. So I really liked that. I liked that he was kind of asked about the departures. And he said, well, that's their choice. But we're focused on the people that we have in the building. tunnel vision is kind of a reflection of the manager. I really like that side of things, not letting the outside noise in and clearly someone that is going to stay at Ipswich. So good for Ipswich, of course, and reassuring that with all the noise going on and how easy it can be to think, well, is this a place that players want to come and play?

41:01So a top quality left back is very much determined to potentially, by the sounds of it, even turn down Premier League interest to stay here at Ipswich and get the club back to the Premier League.

41:14Mark Heath:I think I'm right in saying, in fact, when you talk about the turnover of personnel, it's only George and Leaf from the Championship promotion winning side pretty much, isn't it? In terms of regular starters, I know Jack Taylor was in there, but he wasn't a regular starter that season. So things really have changed a lot when you think about it. Yeah. It's the players that potentially as well have kind of things have shifted, haven't they? And it's a natural point where you get promoted and all of a sudden there's a player who's been signed for 10, 15 million. And you've gone from being the star to being the person who would come on and change the games.

41:56You see that with Connor Chaplin now. he's obviously one Luke Wolfenden would be another there's still I think the good thing is that off the pitch you've got that consistency with players like them even though on the pitch there are changes in who's starting week in week out but yeah you can't have too many wholesale changes like this especially in a short period of time this has been a much heavier summer for Ipswich than they would have liked and would have expected and if you even took out one or two more of that kind of core group, let's say, God forbid, Town were to lose Connor Chaplin and Leif Davis, it would just feel so significant and so damaging just because of what they are, who they're seen as by teammates and fans and what they've achieved and the kind of people that they are within a leadership group, within things like that.

42:51Yeah, vitally, vitally important that Leif in particular stays given how valuable an asset he is and how valuable he's been on and off the pitch since he signed in 2022. I think it was.

43:03Mark Heath:Yeah. I'll put you on the spot there. I can't remember. I just remember that the debut wasn't too spiffing. But obviously since then he's been tremendous. Leaf is not leaving, fingers crossed. But unfortunately, we have had some more departures since we last spoke in this forum. Omari Hutchinson, Nathan Broadhead have departed. Your thoughts on these two? I mean, clearly we're expecting both of them to happen. Broadhead, to a lesser extent, has kind of been a narrative that obviously the Omari thing has really got people going. But both gone. Both, you'd have to say, good deals in terms of money coming into the club, almost 50 million coming into the club.

43:45Mark Heath:But now it's just about hopefully having time to reinvest that before September 1st. Yeah, so the broadhead deal was an initial£7.5 million. With add-ons, that would get to around£10 million. The£10 million fee is obviously the one that people talk about because it's juicy, juicy numbers. I know that Phil Parkinson, the Wrexham boss, said, yeah, it will be£10 million if we're promoted to the Premier League and win the Champions League. I don't think it's quite that extreme, but it definitely would take quite a lot for it to take. It's turned into£10 million, but even at£7.5 million, I think that's a really good upfront deal to get for a player in Nathan Broadhead who hasn't played a lot of football in the last 12 months and has a year left on his contract.

44:30There is still some pain in the way that it ended, and you can't really be frustrated about it. I think Kieran McKenna spoke quite well about it before, where he said Nathan had been spoken to and come to the club saying he's had a good offer to go to a championship rival. It quickly became clear that was Wrexham. It's a good contract from the way that McKenna spoke about it, and it's back to his boyhood club. And, yeah, it was sad that he didn't have more of an involvement kind of in the start of the season. He was ill, of course, for the Bromley game. but at least we're happy to see him get a move that we all know means an awful lot to him and the money that comes in is good.

45:16And then Amari, yeah, this is a bit of a spicy one, I suppose, isn't it? Deal with the facts. First, Nottingham Forest came in with a bid that was rejected last week. They then came back with a stronger bid after Amari had pulled up the squad against Bromley. It was about another two, two and a half million. Ipswich kind of agreed that deal. He went and had his medical on Friday. It was announced on Saturday. Thank you very much, Nottingham Forest, for making me do that on my day off. And then he got presented to the fans at the City Ground yesterday at halftime. Oh, did he?

45:53Mark Heath:I didn't realise that. Yeah. He had this presentation on the pitch at halftime with another signing they made, his international teammate, James McAtee, who signed with him. first things first a fantastic move for Amari because he's going to be playing Europa League football next year, which is this season rather, which is kind of crazy a team that I think will do well and compete again a good deal for Ipswich because it is an awful lot of money you would imagine there'll be a sell-on clause in that there'll be all sorts of other financial benefits that could probably take it quite far over the 37.5 million pounds the sell-on clause, as we understand it, is for the profit that Chelsea will receive.

46:37So Chelsea, of course, installed a sell-on clause. That was 25%, but we understand it to be 25 % of the profit rather than the total fee. So it won't be 9 million, it will be about 4 million. So Ipswich still take a very large bulk of this deal. It's, of course, about the player that Ipswich lose, a real quality, versatile player who would have been well above championship standards. and would have been a bit of a difference maker. It's also just about the way it's happened. And we've spoken about that a lot already, the fact that he's withdrawn from a couple of squads because of transfer speculation.

47:14McKenna has stressed again that he wasn't involved at Birmingham because he had that throat infection, wasn't it? I think, yeah. It has stressed, you know, I know for a fact he had it. He had a temperature and, you know, he's gone really big on that and I'm not in a position to deny that, absolutely. yeah you're just looking at the other couple of games it's disappointing the way that he has handled those and handled the speculation but that is kind of the nature of football and Ipswich have been stung by it a little bit but you have to move on and as much as he's hurt fans I'd still like him to be perfectly honest I know everyone will disagree with this I'd still like to see him do well at the city ground and hopefully earn it a few more pennies in the pot.

48:01Mark Heath:Yeah, you do wonder though if it's something that he may end up gritting, probably a bit harsh, but he would have been one of the stars, if not the star of Ipswich Town this season, wouldn't he? In a league, as you say, where they're going to be a really good team, he's going to be above the level and he goes to Forest and now you wonder, okay, on the face of it, a good move, team playing in the high levels of English football, but how much is he going to play? Yeah, that's the big question and what the position's going to be. They've got good depth now at wide. They've lost Anthony Alanga, but they've added, there's a winger, I think, who's coming from, I think it's Andoy who's coming.

48:39He played on the right for Forrest, and now of course I'm McAtee, whose natural position's on the right. If he's going to play on the right, it's a lot of competition. If he's going to play through the middle, you're competing with Morgan Gibbs-White, who's almost had a£70 million move to Tottenham over the summer. If you're playing on the left, you've got Callum Hudson-Odoi, who's been in excellent form. So wherever he's going to play, the competition is fierce and he's coming off the back of a pretty poor Premier League season, let's be honest. But he'll back himself, he'll back himself knowing that there's going to have to be rotation in that Forest squad as well because of the fact that they're playing in the Europa League and they're going to have a lot of really big, important games.

49:21he's also going to look at the fact it's a World Cup year and he'll know that if he has a campaign where he really impresses in what looks like a strong team and can get decent minutes playing in Europe that all it would take would be maybe one or two dropouts through injury and you're finding yourself on the plane to the US playing for Thomas Tuchel in the England national team and potentially competing to win a World Cup so he's an ambitious lad and I understand that side of things and he'll back himself for it to be the positive side rather than the negatives. But it is high risk, high reward.

49:56Mark Heath:Yeah, I hope he does well, clearly. And I also hope that when Tanner back in the Premier League next season and Forrest come to Portman Road, he gets a decent welcome. Because he was still a massive part of that championship promotion season, wasn't he? He was a key part of it. Slightly annoyed that he's on the cover of a blue era, if I'm honest. um he's uh yeah he's also he's um on the the um calendar isn't it it's him and him and nathan yeah for september which is really unfortunate yeah it's one of those things yeah anyway uh do buy blue era by the way you can get two pounds off it does have amari and sam morsey on the front cover but you know they are they were key pillars of the the rebirth of the club so uh that's out there now get your name in the back as well um right then uh other sexy stuff aj um and i suppose slightly not as sexy as it could have been because we thought we're getting a Spanish striker on loan from uh from Como uh called whose nickname is the shark Ivan Azon uh but then McKenna gave us a bit of an update yesterday it was also a Norwegian winger he was asked about so do you want to bring us up to speed on on those yeah struttle through those um Ivan Azon we've spoken about him a little bit before since we last did a podcast it was reported that Ivan Azon was on his way to Ipswich Wow, that came from nowhere, considering that it kind of looked like that initial report was dead in the water, but then it was on.

51:17It was on. And then it was confirmed, actually, by Como manager Cesc Fabregas, who said he's on his way to Ipswich. And we expect that deal to get done. They wanted to keep him as well. He'd signed in February. He'd had an injury. and then at the back end of last season, he just didn't play because Como weren't in a position to integrate a new player while they were, A, in very good form and, B, still trying to avoid relegation. They've gone and signed Alvaro Morata, who's quite a good, well-established top-level striker, which leaves us on kind of questioning his future. He'd obviously gone over to Ipswich and something there seems to have kind of stalled this deal.

52:03Kieran McKenna said there's been no progress and we don't expect him to be a player that will sign for us. This transfer window, I know that people will look into the phrase and you said don't expect doesn't mean that we won't and this transfer window doesn't mean that it can't happen in the future. Why that's happened, we're not entirely sure. There's been previous reports that he's been more keen to go elsewhere. Valencia has kind of been reported as his preference but that hasn't happened. So he's kind of in a bit of limbo going into the last couple of weeks. We'll wait and see if there is any more that the Ipswich could do to convince him to sign.

52:41But as things stand, I think they'll go and look at other targets which they need because they need a bit more attacking depth. And one of the players they have been looking at is, I need to get my notes up properly for this, Sindra Vala Egelli. Nice. Probably butchered that. We'll go with it. Who does he play for? He plays for Norgeland. I don't know if I've got that right. Like, Stu put this to Kieran McKenna yesterday. And while Kieran did not directly say that he was a player of interest, just said he's another team's player and we're not going to comment. Fair enough, Kieran. We know what the game is.

53:15He did correct Stu on his pronunciation and then corrected Stu on, I can't remember if it was where the club's from or where he's from. Either way, it kind of indicates to me that the fact that he's correcting, he was correcting Stu on these bits, there's probably at least interest and at least some talks going on for this player this one came from Tipsbladet nailed it, who are a publication in Denmark he's a Norwegian youngster, he's moved over to Denmark to play for Nordjylland he's 19 years old, which means as well he won't count towards any squad limits in the championship, big positive of that and he's impressed playing over in Denmark to the extent that he looks like already after quite a short spell over there.

54:08He could be one of the biggest sales, not only in the team's history, but in the country's entire history. If you're looking at the fee that's been reported, which is up to 20 million euros, so that's just over 17 million pounds. There was interest from PSV Einthoven. I think there've been some other teams sniffing around. And he's kind of a fast, direct runner, but also one that likes to cut inside as well. Finishing looks a little bit hit and miss, but a lot of the physical attributes, a lot of the pace and things like that. Yeah, but there's kind of natural comparisons you can make with Amari Hutchinson.

54:47So it looks like if they were to do this movie, it'd be a Hutchinson replacement. It's exciting, isn't it? Because this is kind of the Brighton recruitment model that we've heard about for so long and hasn't really happened with Ipswich, they're looking abroad. We're looking at names that we don't know and we have to Google and we have to watch YouTube highlight clips of. And definitely a 19-year-old winger playing in Denmark is one of those. And for a fee like that, it raises some alarm bells, not necessarily negative ones, excited ones, cautious ones. but yeah to see Ipswich linked to players like this is new new territory for us I think absolutely

55:29Mark Heath:should also say that you're currently putting together a list which will be out at 6am tomorrow morning a potential Amari replacement to which you've been scouring the football world you're telling me before we started recording that you've got a Brazilian on there who's reportedly the fastest football player on the planet which immediately I was like yep sign him get him in Yeah, exactly. Yeah, there's a wide range on there. And I know that for you, you'll like this because you like the slightly more left field ones. And with Ipswich starting to look a bit more kind of abroad, I thought, you know what?

56:00Let's focus on that side a little bit more. So there's only three English players, four playing in England full stop, and the rest are all scattered elsewhere across Europe. We're not looking at South America just yet. So a few left field picks in there. excited to see what people think of some of the ones I'm going to mention

56:19Mark Heath:An AJ classic look out for that tomorrow morning, I know people absolutely love that and you do go into incredible detail in terms of watching players and scouting them so definitely a good bit of content coming your way. AJ, the window closes, slams shut two weeks today, Monday September the 1st 7 o 'clock, thank you very much, good for our deadlines How many players do TAM need to sign? Question marks, left back, do they need a left back? Back up Yes. They obviously need another striker, at least one, given that at the moment Alhamad is injured. Akpom's not able to play. Clearly, Omari's gone.

56:55Mark Heath:Broadhead's gone. How many players and where do you want to see them play and sign? In my mind, as things stand, and I need to piece this together with how the squad works, so we're going to push the squad side out of the way for a little bit and then just focus on the key areas I think Town need to look at. four players is where we're at which is a big ass for two weeks and that is as things stand i would like to see some cover in for conor townsend given that it's going to be the whole season um yeah so that would be position number one i don't really want to have a campaign where let's say you lost leaf davis for whatever reason and you'd have to play jake greaves there or cameron humphries i just don't think that's what you'd be looking at for um a team looking to to finish in the top two so left back cover important for me um midfielder times one at the moment would be the way that i'd look at it um you need natural natural cover for as all matters see what they don't have that they don't have that kind of deep lying destroyer um they went and got uh lewis travis when they needed cover for morsey someone of that ilk it won't be travis because he's going to derby but someone who can play like that um someone who can play on the right more than anything a versatile attacker ideally one who can play more than anything on the right wing because town are looking light in that position uh another striker would be the fourth one ideally again you're looking at a versatile option i think it's like azon because yes he's a striker but he's also played out wide on the two flanks as well so those would be the four that looking at the squad I would go for right now.

58:38Then if one of the more left-sided midfielders, i.e. Jack Taylor or Cameron Humphreys, was to move on, you'd need another one to come in there. We've seen some links already. Players like Philip Billing have been linked, Lewis Cook and Lewis Miley at Newcastle, all linked by the Daily Mail. Kind of more of that number eight role. Yeah, so four to five is kind of where I'd be looking at the moment. It's going to be a pivotal, pivotal fortnight in what Ipswich are going to do in the transfer market. It does feel like it could be a fortnight that could end up defining their campaign.

59:15Mark Heath:It's not really where we're expected to be, though, is it, AJ, at this point? It feels like, yeah, not ideal. No, it doesn't. And I think Mark Ashton's had this put to him before where it's kind of been, you know, you want to get your business done early and they're a team that backed themselves to do business early. And after what was quite a tumultuous summer in a way, last season going into the Premier League where you had numerous deals done quite late, even after the season had started and players coming in that weren't quite at the levels that you needed them to be because they hadn't had a full pre-season or something like that.

59:54And then they were trying to get business done on deadline day and you had things like the Brogure saga and Rhys Nelson doing his medical and then leaving because he had an offer to go to Fulham instead, things like that. Yeah, I hope it doesn't trend quite to some of those extremes, but you would have hoped that there maybe could have been one or two more things over the line at this point. And yeah, some of them naturally are disappointing, but there's only so much you can do. You look at being turned down by Hayden Hackney and the Azon deal not going through and other transfers for whatever reason not materialising.

1:00:31We might not know all the reasons for why those have happened, but I'm not going to be in a position to start judging and making sweeping assessments until we get to the end of the window. They could go out and they could sign eight, nine, ten players even in the next two weeks. They probably won't, but that would be fun for us, wouldn't it? Yeah, a lot can change is what I'm trying to say. And as concerning as it might be, sat here at the moment looking at the state of the squad with only a couple of weeks to go, I still have no reason to doubt that Ipswich can get the required deals over the line before the window shuts.

1:01:08Mark Heath:Speaking of judgments, AJ, before we take our leave today, what have you made of the first couple of rounds of the championship season? Because already we've only got three teams that have got a 100 % record. And I'm not sure we'd have picked them before the season. Stoke, Millsbury and West Brom, the three teams that have won both their games so far. Sheffield United all the way down rock bottom of the table, along with Sheffield Wednesday, who I think we definitely would have predicted. What have you made of it? Yeah, it's quite funny looking at it, isn't it? I think of the three teams that have 100 % records, West Brom I placed highest.

1:01:44I had them around mid-table. Then at the bottom, you've got Derby, who were my dark horses. They watched both of their games and have conceded the most goals in the league. You've got teams like QPR in 18th. They've got 1.1 defeat. That was Shue's dark horse, Ipswich's course in 17th. Millwall, big dark horse in 16th. Got done 3-0 at home by Borough over the weekend. Look, it's unpredictable. That's the nature of it. And I think that will suit Ipswich and potentially a slightly slower start as well. And that's where I start to look at what other teams have done when you look at who you're expecting to be at the top, respectfully.

1:02:23We're not necessarily going to be judging Charlton's start the season thinking, oh, well, they've started fast. That's going to be a problem. We know that there is going to be a gap between the top four or five teams, and we expect Ipswich to be in that. And when you look at the other teams in that mix, you're looking at Leicester, who lost at Preston over the weekend. You're looking at Southampton, who haven't looked at 100 % and needed a couple of late goals to beat Wrexham. You're looking at Birmingham, who went and beat Blackburn over the weekend, but again, needed a couple of late goals and were very fortunate not to lose it, never mind to win it.

1:03:01Those are the kind of teams that you think will be in and around Ipswich, and they've all got problems. So the fact that Ipswich have played two games, probably the hardest possible start they could have asked for and come out unbeaten from those and with some good positives to take from them. Yeah, quite happy with that. and the championship looks open and maybe it won't stay like that. Usually, as I say, there's a split between the really good teams and the playoff chases, but it will be an interesting league to watch and it does feel like, especially when you look down the table a bit more, there's going to be like 12 teams that can get into the top six and that's the fun of it, isn't it?

1:03:40The unpredictability, even if it's lower down.

1:03:42Mark Heath:It's much more interesting than the Premier League, isn't it? Let's be honest. As you mentioned, Preston, good result, beat Leicester at home. And then I've got, clearly, after those first two games with town, you think, oh, then you can relax and go to Preston. But no, Preston have just beaten Leicester. So it never stops, does it? Let me ask you then, before we end this, AJ, I started this with, is your glass half full or half empty? How's your glass near the Eastwich Town front? I've not had that much. Yeah, it's definitely half full for me. I think that it's been an improvement over the course of the week.

1:04:21And yeah, aside from the off-field stuff, as I kind of touched upon, that I have to, at the moment, assume will get sorted and we can assess again in a couple of weeks. I think the performances have improved. And I think if this is the base, which I think it is, and we're only going to go up from here, then that's a pretty exciting thing for me. And you're going to see players kick on. you're going to see um new signings come in and you're going to see the understanding grow so for me i can kind of push some of the worries and concerns i've had to the back of my head i'd also kind of like the fact that ipswich at the moment look more solid defensively than lightning fast going forward because i think that's easier to fix i think it's much harder if you've got a weakened wobbly defense to put that back together than it is to get an attacking kind of unit to gel.

1:05:14So the fact they've got the defensive side quite solid at the moment and the attacking bits coming forward as well, definitely glass half full. I think it's up from here.

1:05:26Mark Heath:That sounds good to me. Interesting, isn't it going to be? See how Burnley get on in the Premier League when we talk about defensive solidity potentially going up from the championship. Yeah. You're going to tell me they lost 5-0. I don't. Well, they lost 3-0 at Spurs. but the team that will be interesting for me in the Premier League is Sunderland and I've already seen some comments saying well Sunderland are showing Ipswich how to do it in the Premier League and I get that as well I also think if Ipswich had opened their season against West Ham and played like they did against Liverpool against West Ham they probably would have won that look there's no need to make comparisons but fascinated to see how they get on with a manager that definitely has been capable of setting up strong defensive sides and they've made big signings as well um yeah will anyone be able to bridge the gap i think sundland have the best bet doing it oh big count all right then friends um just a reminder before we go we've got we're now a two sponsor show um and it's it's great uh hopefully you feel able to support both of them um our new one molecular uk based out in layston family business based in suffolk very much what we're all apart um so molecular uk they manufacture cleaning products for the automotive agricultural and commercial industries they're a family-run business i've mentioned been operation for over 40 years and make products the highest possible standard they work closely with all their customers to ensure that you receive the best products and also a service that you can rely on the website is www.molecular-uk.com where you can buy products obviously i'll find out more about them and we've as you'd expect friends got a code koa 10 if you put that in at the coupon section get 10 off on all their excellent products i've been i've been uh having a look myself as i said to stew uh on the last pod that we did i'm becoming more car proud uh so i think i might need to get myself some some of these molecular products if anything that can uh make it not look like i've shaved a dog in the back seat of my car that'd be great i don't know if you've got anything special for that molecular you'll have to let me know and of course our other sponsors So stardustspirits.co.uk.

1:07:32Mark Heath:Use the code KOA for 20 % off there. Fantastic to have Gary and the team still on board with us, having given you that fake news that we'd ended our spell with him. I was surprised to be told. Actually, we hadn't. Surprised and delighted. So there we go. Code KOA at stardustspirits.co.uk. Just remind us of your favourite drink there. It's the award-winning Biscoff. And I always get this wrong. Biscoff. Is it vodka? Or gin? I can never remember that. Vodka, that's it. Biscoe Vodka, really, really good. We gave it away on KOA Live. That's right. You know what? I chose the best one. Yeah. Award-winning, as I said, my favourite.

1:08:10Pick that out from the very start. It's excellent. But we've tried a few different bits and pieces, and I've not come across anything I don't like. I think they're all excellent. So go have a look. Go pick out some of your favourites, and I can be fairly confident that you're going to like it.

1:08:25Mark Heath:Excellent stuff that Gary's doing there. and also friends reminder our best offer of the year currently is running on digital subscriptions and that ends on wednesday friends so limited window once it ends you're not going to see it again this year so a great time to jump on board six pound for six months obviously takes you uh well into into the new season into the the january transfer window and beyond uh or you get 50 off a whole year so a whole year for 29 pounds which i think works out a lesson two pound 50 um which is hopefully you'd agree quite a good price for what we do and we're going to be bringing you lots more exciting stuff this season and also i've already mentioned it blue era a blue era which is uh the kind of first time we've gathered together all our coverage of the rebirth of it which town um sitting here talking about town being looking for their third promotion in four seasons um would have been absolutely nonsense five years ago let's be honest friends uh it's been a very exciting ride under the american ownership the arrival of mark ashton the demolition man summer under paul cook and then obviously a certain unknown manager called Kieran McKenna has done all right since he's come in.

1:09:30Mark Heath:So we've gathered together for the first time all that coverage that we did or have done over that period, put it in one place. And it is really interesting to go back and look at what the key players have said and when things happened and who left and who came in and all that kind of stuff. Anyway, that's all in Blue Era. £7.99 you can get it for at the moment. That's£2 off and also get your name in the back of the book as well. Set it up next to Mission Impossible on your little Ipswich Town bookshelf and hopefully this next summer we may even have another one coming, which will be the next promotion to the Premier League, which we look forward to.

1:10:00Mark Heath:Anyway, Blue Air, get your hands on that right now. Various links all over our social media and I'll share the link again after this. AJ, anything else to mention before we take our leave? Yeah, I was going to mention this one last week and Ross didn't do any other business. Came back from a pre-season game I went to watch. It was the day after the Birmingham game. Went to have a drink with a mate and I had someone stumble over to me and say, are you Alex Jones? And I said, yes. And that was a very nice moment. I had a chat with him. He's called Jody. And I want to give Jody a shout out because he listens to the pods.

1:10:32He told me. Oh, nice. At Cambridge Station. And we had a nice little chat about Ipswich Town. So very good to meet you, Jody. Hopefully you've listened all the way to the end to hear your shout out. And thank you for listening.

1:10:44Mark Heath:Who doesn't listen all the way to the end of a podcast? That's reminding me, actually. I need to shout someone out. I was invited on to Ipswich Cardinals the American football team in Ipswich to do the coin toss before the game against the Norwich Devils I think that was the weekend you boys were in Austria and I haven't really been on a pod or indeed remembered to mention it since so thanks for inviting me down Shane who invited me down, it was really good and they absolutely thumped Norwich 24-0 in a pissing rain, I got to meet a French Mastiff who was absolutely tremendous called George he was huge, he had a very pleasing head and I was impressed with the whole experience.

1:11:22Mark Heath:They play Ipswich YM Rugby. Unfortunately, they didn't progress in the playoffs. They got into the playoffs, got lost in the first round, but a very professional, a good day out as well. I enjoyed it. Shane bought me a pint of Guinness, which warmed me up in the rain. So next season, certainly look towards the Ipswich Cardinals, American football team, because it's a really good standard of American football to go along and watch. Friends, this brings us to the end of this particular podcast. Isrich Town are still unbeaten. Yes, they've not really won a game either, but hey, swings and roundabouts.

1:11:55Mark Heath:We've got two weeks left in the transfer window, so lots of exciting, sexy stuff potentially on the horizon and even sexier, a trip to Preston this weekend, which Alex Jones can't wait to fly solo on. Stu, shockingly taking the time off at this point, not going to Preston, pathetic. But we'll be there, friends, and we'll be back later this week to build up to that, bring you all the latest news, and have a bloody good old chinwag again. Have a great start to your week and we'll speak to you next time.

1:12:49Thank you.

1:13:23Thank you.

1:14:13We'll be right back. Download the Moto Casino app today. Moto Casino is a social casino. We're prohibited. No purchase necessary. Visit Moto.us for more details. Moto Casino. America's social casino.