580: Kings of Anglia: Cracker Jacks fire Blues to big Baggies win while Fab upsets the odds yet again

25:03I think the classic cliche would be not one for the neutrals. But at the end of the day, they get the win and they keep a clean sheet, which is the perfect way to kind of bounce back, I would say, from the last two games. What do you make of the defence? Because clearly there's going to be a conversation going forward. You can't keep rotating, keep playing greaves. We could, but surely you want that

25:24Mark Heath:solidity between the pairing, that they get to know each other and get to comfortable playing with each other. So what are your thoughts on that? It's possibly the hardest part of the squad in the way to nail down where my thought was going to be going into this weekend, pick Jacob Greaves. And I know he hadn't had a good game against Charlton. He wasn't terrible, but he wasn't good either. But you need to build something. Kieran McKenna didn't do that. He played Kipre. Greaves dropped out, and Kipre was one of the best players on the pitch. So it shows what I know about football. hey definitely you need to get to a point where you can consistently field the same back line and three of the four are there now aren't they we know that Furlong is in the strongest team we know that Dar O'Shea is in any team and we know that Leif Davis is in any team because there's no one to cover for Leif Davis to be fair and then you've just got this one position that does become a struggle where Kipre in his good games which have been the Norwich one which have been um against west brom has looked much more reliable much more solid but he does have that error that rick in him as we saw at borough where he sliced it into his own net whatever that own goal was and had a pretty torrid time up there jacob greaves for my money is the long-term solution on that side i think that he can go on to be a really good player i think his confidence is low i think it's low after a premier league season and it's been hard for him to build that back up but with his age with his profile i think he can get that i really do believe that so you're kind of looking at kit pray who probably is the the more reliable of the two at the moment for for top performances compared to greaves who needs minutes in games and experiences to get back to where we know he can be and that's a tough decision then to make where you go with that because you play kit break consistently over the course of the season where where does that leave Jacob Greaves I don't know but you play Jacob Greaves consistently and bench Kipre you know it's disappointing for Kipre but it's the role I think he expected was going to be a rotation role but then does that put Towne in a more perilous position if there are mistakes like we saw at Preston for example where he fouled was my etchant and they lost the game because of it and like the Birmingham game where the ball bounced over him and he was lucky to get a foul for that that that's the decision that has to be made and I'm not sure Kieran McKenna's quite landed on the answer to it and I don't know what it is either that's one of the big question marks in this team and I'm fascinated to see what happens uh in this next kind of block of games the next three with the midweek game against Watford in there are we going to see a consistent back line or is he going to make a change with that Watford game there fearless hot take he will make a change he'll rotate for that game we'll see either Greaves or Keeprey whoever doesn't play at the weekend um Rossi what's your what's your take on this because for me that there's two ways to look at it one which i think is probably what should be the way you look at it is you put out the best player the best team because you want to win now the other thing of course is as alex says you can't kind of avoid the fact that jacob greaves is a 15 million pound asset and key prey is someone who's on loan um and you want to get that 15 million pound asset back into the team and get the confidence back up and you're always going to do that is by playing and hopefully playing well um but if you if you could uh have the choice now if i said right who's going to start on Saturday, who would you pick?

28:52Ross Halls:Yeah, don't get Luke Walford involved in this conversation because I don't know what he's got to say. Yeah, Kip Ray is, I like Jacob Greaves and I think he is a player. I know he's had his moments. I know the Premier League last year I think maybe came a bit too soon for him. But he is a former team of the season defender. That's the reason I think McKenna signed him because he had a fantastic season in the Championship with Hull and then, yeah, maybe Premier League just, as I said, came a bit too soon. But Cedric Kipra at the moment, he's doing pretty well. I know we've got the memories of the Derby game against Norwich and he scored that goal and had a really good game.

29:35Ross Halls:Then he started at Borough, didn't he?

29:38Mark Heath:Yeah, scored the own goal. He scored the own goal.

29:40Ross Halls:So, yeah, it was like, we've said it was like hero to... Zero. Yeah, hero to zero, not hero to villain or villain to yeah. So But For me I think you've got to keep with Kip Cray Because he's just kept a clean sheet alongside Dara O'Shea But yeah there's a debate like rotation For me I want a settled team Definitely in the back I think that's how this team Previously under McKenna He had settled teams But I know he can't help that with suspensions And other things But for right now Start with the team defensively Got a clean sheet and then, yeah, we go and lose, I don't know, 3-0 against QPR, then you go, oh, maybe you have to change the defence.

30:21Ross Halls:But then it's just that, I don't know. It's a contradiction everywhere. But for me, going back to your previous question, Kipre and Irish A for now. I think I'd be inclined to agree with you, Rossi. I just want the best players on the pitch or the players that are in the best form. You know, obviously Kipre played brilliantly against Norwich.

30:39Mark Heath:Had a wobble like everyone did against Middlesbrough and I thought it was harsh he then got dropped. So to bring him back in, again, he played, but I can't really remember West Brom having much of a chance of anything in this game. Keeps a clean sheet. I don't personally know how you can then take him out of the side. In terms of that whole debate, AJ, I've seen people saying that Greaves and O'Shea maybe can't play together or aren't a great pairing. Do you think there's any credence in that?

31:06No. No, not really. Yeah, basically. I think I've seen enough games where I've liked them as a partnership. Yeah. I think that there's enough things that I like about those games. I mean, even in the Premier League, we saw good performances from them in difficult circumstances against some of the best players in the world, even when sometimes they were out of form and sometimes they were in really tough conditions. And maybe it hasn't quite worked in the Championship. And I think that confidence plays a part in that. And trying to build Jacob Greaves back up. I think that's part of the style as well as is interesting where it's just high line.

31:47They play a really high line. Like, I don't know if people notice this, like the borough game, it was really difficult and pretty poor because of that, where they would get killed on the transitions with two, three passes because you had O'Shea and Kipre who were playing like a halfway up the pitch. And you see how many times have we seen Jacob Greaves take the ball where he's already quite high up and he dances through four defenders and gives the ball away like i think there's maybe an argument as well that you need to start playing some of these players strengths as well and i you know maybe it's a separate point there that you need to give more teams in the championship respect that they you know this is a multi-million pound ipswich squad but you can still get picked apart with three passes by a borough side that cost a fraction of what your your squad are keep the back line back make sure they're defending um look it's really good when you have O'Shea you can ping a crossfield ball that sets up an attack but you also need to make sure that you're doing the basics right um that's what I'd like to see a little bit more of but I don't think there's a reason why that can't be O'Shea and Greaves we have seen that it's just about getting back to it okay right next point I've got written down you'll see what I've done here we have to we have to go on to the winning goal um that man Jack Jack Clark, again, five goals for the season now, four off the bench, actually created by Jens Kajusta, by his hassling and pressuring, wins the ball back, puts a zon through, a zon makes the keeper make a save, and then that guy, Jack Clark, is there again.

33:17And on my plan, such as it is for this podcast, I've written Cracker Jacks. Do you see what I've done there? I could also have put Jacks the lad. It doesn't really work. Cracker Jacks is better.

33:28Mark Heath:but AJ I'm going to come to you first because obviously we know you're a massive fan of one particular and that's Jack Taylor so he comes in I mean I was staggered when I saw him in the starting line-up, plays alongside Matasiwa in the Kiyusta slash Nunes role we've seen so far this season and by all accounts he did well Yeah interesting point on the big fan of Jack Taylor I do think part of me is a good player and I do like him, but he is also ex-Peterborough and he did also laugh at me when Peterborough beat Cambridge in the last derby. I did not enjoy it. Yeah, we were at Stamford Bridge and I was chatting to him about it and I told him I was a Cambridge fan and he laughed.

34:09Yeah, thoroughly enjoyed that. In terms of his performance, it was a surprise inclusion, as I said at the start. He's hardly had a look in, has he, at all? No, exactly. So it was a real eye-raiser? Eye-raiser? Eyebrow-raiser? when we saw this, but I wanted to see him take his chance because the midfield hadn't quite worked in the last few games had it. I spoke about Houston being in pretty poor form in the last few performances. Nunez wasn't one of the worst players against Charlton, but didn't quite click. So yeah, why not? Let's see something else. Let's see Taylor have a bit of a point to prove, and he played like he had a point to prove as well.

34:50I thought that when he's had these cameo appearances he's shown a bit of bite and a bit of intensity and sometimes aggression sometimes too much aggression off the bench the challenge is can you do that from the start yes he could i thought that he was the most energetic player on the pitch at the start probably up with jayden philagine um should have scored or at least bagged an assist uh this was my one frustration with him with this performance uh kind of a ball bobbles through to him he goes through on goal got a couple of defenders ahead of him. He's got Smoddix, I think, peeling off to his right.

35:22He sees his name up in lights and he rolls one quite comfortably past the post. Should have done better there. But other than that, I thought he knitted things together really well and put in a really strong display. I went for Jack Clark as my man of the match in this game, but I think my alternative pick would have been Jack Taylor for just what he added that Ipswich have missed in the last couple of games. So really impressed with him. and maybe gives Kieran McKenna a bit of a selection headache going into the next couple of games. What does he bring then to that role that is different

35:53Mark Heath:or kind of more suited to it than the likes of Kuyusta and Nunes? Because we've said clearly, given Kuyusta, I think you would agree he started the season well, maybe dropped off the last couple of games, and we've seen Nunes there as well. What's Jack Taylor bring to that spot? In terms of the comparison to Kuyusta, its intensity, where Kiyusta is so, I'm just going to use the same words again, slick, silky, smooth on the ball. He also sometimes plays like he's half asleep, and that's good fun. It's really entertaining to watch, where he can just kind of nonchalantly spin past someone and play a ball down the line, but he then does get criticised for letting markers run past him, for leaving spaces behind that leave the defence exposed, for not pressing in the same way.

36:47So Taylor, on the flip side, maybe doesn't have that same kind of skill set in terms of what he offers there, but he chases, he runs, he presses, he's aggressive. He looks like he's had three Red Bulls before he's come onto the pitch. It's that kind of side to him. Nunez, I think, is just a different player. They're just very different in who they are. he does have that kind of intensity to him but sometimes when you're playing against a low block as they had against Charlton for example I think he struggled to find the answers to find a way through that and sometimes it would lead to well Nunez has got the ball on the edge of the area there's no way through let's have a shot oh it's sailed over the bar oh it's rolled five yards past the post etc I think that Taylor looked a little bit more settled in the role, in the team look he's been here for longer but Nunez is still adapting.

37:39And maybe in a team and a squad that's changed so much, you need a player that's been there for quite a long time that has gone under the radar, let's be honest, for the last year and a half that can come in and actually be... He's one of the longest-serving players in this team, isn't he? Which is crazy to say. But with that, maybe that's something that suits this team. And a team for the change, have someone who's been a consistent part of this club for quite a while. The thing with QS, though, I always use the term languid. and part of the joy of watching him play is that he does often look like it's effortless.

38:14Mark Heath:But sometimes you think, actually, is he putting in the required effort? It's one of those, isn't it? You can sort of think, well, actually, is he actually trying? You know, that kind of stuff. Anyway, just going back to your point there, three red balls before a game. Wouldn't recommend that, friends. I once made the mistake of having – I was playing basketball as a teenager. there was a basketball player at the time who was famous for having high energy uh called darrell armstrong who played for the orlando magic and his his routine was he'd have three really strong coffees before a game um so i took it a step further i had two really strong coffees and two cans of breadball and i soiled myself uh anyway moving on um shall we hear from jack clark jack how big a win was that this afternoon um it was a big win to be fair based on the week we've had to be fair the boss is like big on like sort of not getting too carried away with like the the league table and stuff like that because obviously it can change so quickly in this league but we sort of knew we'd not played our best stuff in the last couple of games we didn't think we'd been bad but we'd just had like 10 15 minute blips in each game that sort of like where we let it get away from us so it was about just staying in the game giving ourselves a platform and just taking opportunity when it came it's a bit more pressure on you because of tuesday perhaps heading into it Possibly, yeah, just like that we put on ourselves.

39:28We know we can be better and we're still not perfect and we're trying to get to a point where we are playing good football that everybody wants to come watch. We know we're not there yet, but we're trying. Delighted to pop up with a winner as well and you're getting some important goals of late. Yeah, again, it's just about putting yourself in the right place at the right time sort of thing and just hoping it falls and keeping a calm head. But for us, it doesn't really matter who's scoring the goals. It's about results at the end of the day and, yeah, that one was a big one today.

39:54Ross Halls:You don't want to be labelled a super sub, do you? You want to be starting games? Yeah, I think everybody wants to be playing starting games and trying to contribute as much as they can, but it's not the worst label to have. I've had worse, so that's not a bad one. But you'd obviously love to be starting more games. Do you understand why when you're not? Yeah, we've got a talented squad, and obviously we've got a lot of good players, and the manager's going to pick a team that he thinks is best suited to winning games of football. And like I said earlier, on upstairs sometimes it is easier to be a sub the game opens up a lot more and you can sort of get your opportunities and get the better chances towards the back end of the game so sometimes it's not the worst thing in the world but yeah I think everybody wants to be playing games but like I said we've got a talented squad and everybody's got a part to play There we go then Rossi, that was super sub Jack Clark AJ picked him to be the MVP for town before the season and I guess you could argue he's in that mix but not in the way that we expected because he's largely coming off the bench.

40:55Obviously, Felagine has also been in good form. Five goals so far, four off the bench. And again, he was obviously clearly important in this game. What have you made of Jack Clark in terms of his contribution so far this season?

41:08Ross Halls:Pretty good. He's definitely embracing the super sub tag. You know, we've got the role as the finisher. You're not a sub, you're a finisher. Exactly. And he's doing that. he's been in the right positions at the right time to pounce on those rebounds because some of his goals have been like that. He was calm for the penalty against Derby to score that late equaliser but now he's joint top goalscorer with five and as you mentioned four off the bench so really impressed. He had a tough season last year, obviously a lot of the players did, a lot of the new signings but the championship is where he's bread and butter is as George Hurst would say because he's done pretty well with Sunderland previously so this is you know of the ball work I think Stu's mentioned this a few times he's just improving as well because I think that's one thing he was lacking last year but you know when we've not got the ball he's working so hard I think yeah you can score goals and be flashy but if you can do that side of the game as well you're a complete player and McKenna has already said he's a Premier League player once again maybe he got to the Premier League too soon but yeah he is at the moment the MVP because he's scoring the goals and making the impact.

42:24It's not the way you thought he'd be MVP though I reckon AJ largely coming off the bench what have you made because how dare you question my prediction well I'm not I'm just saying it's probably in terms of stylistically you know I think the facts would say at the moment you're on the road to being correct but I reckon you probably didn't think he was going to be mostly sub coming off the bench scoring goals but I mean Stu sort of as part of the group therapy chat post-Charton last week, we see it's this weird scenario where your two most informed attacking players play the same position and can't really play in the same team.

42:55Yeah, it's a dilemma. And I know that I think Stu put forward in his predicted line-up that we could see Jack Clark play on the right ahead of this game with Philogene on the left. And I totally understand that. I just don't think it's going to work. And I think that we spoke to Kieran at Preston, where we asked about the team and he said, look, we're getting all these players in, but at the moment with where we are right now and betting people in and they're not ready to start, et cetera, et cetera. I think when he said that, it was before Town went and signed three players right at the end of the window.

43:25He said, it's an imbalanced team. We haven't found that yet. We're trying to kind of square pegs, round holes situation. And you could see that. And I think that reverting to what we saw in the summer would be a backwards step players in their natural positions. And I know that's really hard, but I think it's for the best. And there is now going to be a debate, isn't there, coming into the QPR games, I'm sure we'll talk about coming on later this week, about who starts this, because people want Jack Clark to start games of football. And Jaden Villagin, probably in the last few, hasn't really done too much.

44:06But why would you change what's working? Why would you change Jack Clark? Yeah, look, he scored and he's played well from the start in games before his five goals have come as a substitute. And in the games that he started, he's done well, but he's the one who's coming on and changing the game. And yeah, I think that as much as it is a headache in a lot of ways, how can you get your two best players into the same team? What Kieran McKenna is doing right now with having Philogene start and having Clark come on and win games, it's working. and it's not always about starting your best players all the time.

44:42Sometimes it's about what's going to get you the results and that method is getting the results more often than not. Okay. Anything else you want to talk about from the game, boys? We've done 45 minutes, which is longer than I thought we've managed, to be honest. Anything else to mention, either of you? No, I don't think we should ever talk about this game ever again. Rossi, have you got anything you want to add? Any little behind-the-scenes things?

45:08Ross Halls:Yeah, probably it peaked, you know, the game before the game because, yeah, we had a nice brunch. That's a good thing about midday, 12.30 kick-offs, we get a nice sort of buffet breakfast. So, yeah, obviously I feel my boots as I always do. So, as I said, the day peaked from there and then the game was just the game. So, yeah, we had a nice... What are you getting? Is it a full English vibe? Is that what it is? Yeah, full English. Little mini hash browns, bacon, sausage, egg. People thought they were chicken nuggets when I posted it online. Yeah. And you've got other things as well. So, yeah, that sort of peaked.

45:49Ross Halls:But, yeah, Itterstown, well done you. I should say, talking about photos shared, there was a very interesting one that did the rounds because I have an account that will sometimes, if I post a photo of Portman Road, they will do like a here's the away fans at X ground. and it got picked up on that with the photo that i shared online it the fire was back for this game you could see the flames the pyros yeah yeah the pyros all that stuff um and it looks like with the photo that i took and shared there is a west brom fan on fire in the stand behind i can promise you there isn't and i'm not sure i'm going to be able to actually get my photo up here and show it with my little ring light on in the background but that's kind of where it is and if you zoom in on there.

46:31It looks like he's on fire. There's a better version if you go onto my Twitter, but yeah, there's been a lot of concern. I've seen a lot of posts on Twitter. Is the West Brom family was on fire in the Ipswich away? And okay, I think he is. The human torch was denied a bank loan. Little anchorman joke there, friends. Should we move on then to something which was fire? It was absolutely amazing. Fabio Wardley on Saturday night. So Town beat West Brom, Mark Ashton and some of the boys traveled down to the O2 Arena. Liam DeLapp was there as well. He got interviewed on DAZN. Against all the odds, again, fighting a former world champion who's ranked number two in the world.

47:13And Fab does what he does. He finds a way to win. He gets the stoppage. And now he's the number one contender for the undisputed, undisputed heavyweight titles, all four belts. there's talk that he's going to fight olexander usick at wembley next summer which would be

47:32Mark Heath:absolutely extraordinary now rossi me and you have followed fab from day one pretty much the amount of times we've been down there interviewing him right from when no one knew who he was um to now being the second best heavyweight boxer on the planet he is built from something different Ross because in this in this fight as he as in his previous fights he was getting tagged he was probably losing I mean I thought he boxed a lot better than he did against Tooney he really showed that he can compete at the highest level but he was getting caught by Parker but it just sort of bounces off him and then once he gets going once he lands his shots that people go

48:11Ross Halls:they can't take them yeah he's an absolute warrior um I think he likes to get hurt because that's where i feel like he wakes up but he goes yeah okay i'm in this boxing fight you know i've um i've known fab for a very long time we went to school with him yeah yeah he lived about a few doors down from me and he was just a skinny lad um but he was always you know into his sports and everything um we used to play um trampoline wrestling as well that was always a good fun thing um but yeah he the journey's been incredible from you know he was it 22 he was started boxing um 10 years ago i think he said so he's 20 when he started he's 30 now but i don't think he had his first professional fight till he was 22 23 yeah so yeah so it's just an incredible story for him from matt to now being the second best heavyweight in in the world because yeah he's pretty much it um but yeah watching the fight everyone was predicting he was going to lose um i always was going to back him obviously i am um i haven't got the same knowledge as you in boxing but i just think yeah he was the underdog going into this one the first round i was a bit concerned i was like oh god he got hurt at the end of the first round didn't he and i was like oh um but then he came back and won the second round and he actually hurt parker in the second round he's just the guy's heart and kind of as you say ross it's almost like he needs to get a little bit a little bit rocked to wake him up there's there was a sequence and i think it was a ninth or tenth round where parker lands some really good shots and fab is looking like he's in trouble and then he just kind of he smiles at him and sticks his tongue out now quite often when when fighters smile it's a kind of a show that they've been hurt and it's like they're trying to kind of style it out if you like but with fab it's almost like is that all you got bring it and then he goes straight back honestly it's incredible absolutely incredible AJ I know you're not an aficionado of the old fisticuffs but have you got any any uh any questions for me as the expert anything you want to ask me i i for starters i love the fact that ross did trampoline wrestling with fabio that isn't that isn't incredible that's like a would i lie to you story that yeah um i also like that i went on twitter afterwards because um i was um i didn't get back to quite late on saturday i checked i was following the live blog and i didn't necessarily know obviously i'm waiting for update i went on twitter and it showed on twitter uh joseph parker retains wbo interim heavyweight title and unanimous decision over fabio wardley which um yeah it was one of those kind of twitter automated things i think someone had pressed the wrong button oh dear i was just ready to decide yeah it wasn't great and i did screenshot it before it was deleted who was that who was that it was one of as i said it's one of those i think it was a grok thing that got done silly AI never taking our jobs but yeah questions I'd have I've got two I'll start with the first one let's talk about the stoppage then because this is a controversial one I've seen suggestions that this was an early stoppage I've seen also suggestions from Tyson Fury's old man it was fine he would have stopped it 10 seconds earlier and he would have been like a psychopath if you let it run where do you land on this is it a head v heart oh I'm really happy it got stopped but if that had gone against Fab, I would have been pretty pissed off.

51:28I think, I mean, you mentioned John Fury there,

51:32Mark Heath:Tyson Fury as well, isn't he? We'd have to fight and he said he thought the stoppage was late. He said he should have been stopped five or 10 seconds earlier. I think if you watch the actual stoppage itself, like literally the kind of five second clip before it gets stopped, people will say, that's early. You know, he's not hurt. But if you watch the full sequence, goes back about a minute, Fab lands this huge right hand over the top, which rocks Parker back. And then Parker is basically in full retreat mode, bouncing off the ropes all over the ring, trying to cover up. He's not throwing anything back.

52:00Mark Heath:And I think as the referee there, you have to take into account the fact that Fabio Wardley is, you know, historically one of the hardest punchers in the heavyweight division. And when you've got someone in front of you, like we had this conversation around Justice Hooney when he went down and there was a debate as to whether that was stopped too early. You have to take into account the safety of the fire. That's ultimately what the ref is there for, is to keep the fire safe. and in this scenario when you've got joseph parker rocking and rolling around the ring not throwing anything back and fab is winging these huge terrifying fight ending punches let's not forget that in a couple of fights before this he punched a hole in the side of someone's head an actual hole and that was an olympic medalist who was actually defending himself at the time so when you take into account that kind of terrifying power that he's got against an opponent who is doesn't really know where he is um i think for me the stoppage is fine um because i'd much rather it be stopped a little bit too early than a little bit too late i mean god forbid you know he knocks parker stone out stone cold out and he ends up getting seriously hurt and then everyone's going oh why do you why do you let it go on and boxing's barbaric it should be banned and all that kind of stuff um you see parker himself has come out and said look i thought i was fine but that's what the referee is there for um to try and you know stop things when he thinks it's getting dangerous sort of stuff so for me the stoppage is fine though if you've got any thoughts about that

53:19Ross Halls:rossi uh yeah in in real time he just fab was just he just kept punching it because he's doing his job at the end of the day he's trying to down his you know his opponent um and then when it did

53:32Mark Heath:happen i was just shocking away i was like that's just one yeah it was it was it was that yeah i mean i was jumping up and down all over the place um and i think probably watching it live i was surprised that it got stopped in that manner but i think having gone back and watched it before kind of finishing sequence and how many i think there's some stats out there it's like 26 30 unanswered punches that fab lands um before the stoppage so for me i think it's fine and ultimately the parker's team haven't come out of complained and they've said they understand and and as you say fight people aj that i've seen interviewed have said that it could have even have been stopped earlier so um that's that what's your second question let's look ahead because there is a lot of there's a lot of excitement around what could be to come next summer but there is also a feeling that Usyk is possibly a level or two higher than the two fighters on the weekend I've seen a lot of debate on social media of great fight but Usyk will beat whoever wins this with one arm behind his back.

54:37He'll go in, obviously, as a huge favourite, I'd imagine. Usyk, a much, much bigger favourite than Parker did over the weekend. But what are the arguments for Fabio winning this one, apart from he's won against the odds in the last couple of fights? Why can you convince me? Well, it's obviously a genuine question. I don't think anyone can... If you're kind of not really a boxing fan, And it's hard for me to explain to you just how good Oleksandr Rusek is. He's genuinely one of the, I think I could make an argument,

55:07Mark Heath:he's top five all time. He's been undisputed champion in the cruiserweight division, undisputed champion in the heavyweight division. He's beaten Anthony Joshua, Tyson Fury, Daniel Dubois, all of them. He's beaten them twice. He's kind of lapped the division. And now he's in a situation where he needs a new challenger. No one wants to see him fight Tyson Fury again, even though Tyson Fury wants that. He's already been beaten comprehensively twice. Fabio Wardley would start as a massive underdog. huge underdog and he should and he should do because Usyk is is not only the best of this generation he's the best potentially of any generation um in terms of heavyweights although I'd still say Muhammad Ali is the best heavyweight ever um why how Fab can win that is what for me makes it interesting the narrative because you've got the narrative of um Usyk used him as a sparring partner years ago um Fab flew out to the Ukraine twice I think it was because Usyk was so impressed with him um to use him as sparring partners when he was still fighting at cruiserweight and it is the it is the fairy tale narrative story you've got this guy from suffolk who just keeps proving everybody wrong every time he steps up a level people say well this is the one where he gets found out and i'll be honest going into saturday even though i predicted fab to win by knockout i was worried because this was a level that he's never ever been anywhere near um and not only did prove he can he can hang at that level he knocked the guy out unbelievable and i think he poses something different to usick in that fab is so unorthodox because he hasn't got the the amateur background you know the kind of technical um picture perfect how you move your feet how you throw punches all that kind of stuff he will pose a different challenge to usick he will certainly i would say you could argue that he's good he would be the the hardest puncher that usick has fought um even taken into account the likes of Dubois and Joshua and he just moves differently as well uh he throws shots from unorthodox unusual angles that are hard to predict and although Usyk is a master boxer absolutely brilliant boxer I think there's genuinely some intrigue into seeing him against someone as raw as Fabio with the heart and desire as well because Fabio won't go to pieces he won't he won't crumble under pressure against Usyk he'll keep firing back until the fight stopped you know the fight is over however um that's the other thing that he's got he's got this unbelievable heart so i think you could you could definitely market it and make it like a real kind of um must watch fight because it's a fairy tale story can this guy do the the impossible and the impossible would be already what he's done but then going and beat one of the greatest fighters of all time at wembley and win all the heavyweight title belts i mean what there is no better story i don't think in sport than fabio wardley at the moment so um yeah if it happens and we should stress that although he's the number one contender there's by no means certain it will happen because usic can decide pretty much what he wants to do he's earned that right and if he decides i don't really want to fight and there's not enough money in it or anything like that he can just bin off one of the belts and fab would then get the belt he binned off and become world champion sort of by default which is not the way you want to win a world title we'll kind of get the belt sent to you in the mail.

58:19Mark Heath:But yeah, I really hope that Usyk embraces the energy around it and we get the fight because it would be spectacular. And we'd be there, wouldn't we, Ross? Wembley?

58:34Ross Halls:Yeah, definitely. It's just incredible. Fab would have just been boxing at small venues when he first started. And the last year, he's been at Portland Road. he's been to saudi arabia of course and now wembley it's just incredible um and yeah we obviously were proud of him because he's a local lad um suffoc punch and all that so yeah and we know obviously his his team behind it as well i just love the celebration with rob when he went out in the ring of his trainer just coming because bab just fell down didn't he he just fell he just collapsed yeah and then rob came in and just sort of like jumped on him and it was just uh great scenes and yeah it's um i love i just love his sort of walk-on song i just you know obviously he's it's which town ringy i love these his new coat as well you know sparkles and everything um i think town fans have embraced him as well aren't they they really have embraced him i know there's a lot of town fans who were actually at the o2 and you can hear in the background fabio wardley getting sung and i think that probably fabio i know some boxers they sort of shut that out if they can but i'm sure he gives a bit of a tingle when he hears oh fabio wardley and yeah

59:43Mark Heath:I mean, he said at the end of the fight, that's what gives me the energy to throw punches when I don't think I can, to throw the finishing fight combinations. Yeah, it's tremendous. It is absolutely tremendous. And again, you highlight the Rob Hodgins thing, Rossi, that's the beautiful part of the story. Rob Hodgins has coached him since day one, since he first walked through the door of a boxing gym when he was working in an office and he wanted to do a bit of boxing to try and stay fit and keep the weight off. and he's taken him all the way from white collar fights which anyone can have to the brink of an undisputed world heavyweight title championship fight with one of the greatest fighters of all time that again is a is a a story that if you see if you saw that in a movie you'd go that's nonsense that would never happen and yet it is actually happening and he's from Suffolk and we should be so proud of him and his whole team is tremendous um right then friends anything else to mention before uh we take our leave I've got I've got one other thing to mention which is uh KOA live three which i have a meeting about tomorrow i can i think i can safely reveal the date for you now friends it's going to be december the 20th uh at the baths in ipswich again um as i say that i'm fairly sure i can say that we're going to confirm that hopefully tomorrow with various bits and bobs and ticket details and that kind of thing so i appreciate that's a busy time of year but the idea is that it's um a bit of a christmas uh a bit of a christmas shindig but of a christmas get-together party.

1:01:05Mark Heath:And Towne plays Sheffield Wednesday that day, so fingers crossed it'll also be historic and it'll be the first time that Towne will ever won a game on a day of a KOA Live, which hasn't happened before. They've lost twice thus far. So looking forward to that. Look out for details from that. Anything else from you, boys? God, if they lose to Sheffield Wednesday, I mean, respectfully... We might as well just cancel it, might we just go home? Yeah, I mean, I have a lot of... It should be said, actually, you know what kind of goes back to football, but I'm really glad to see them. It sounds really weird.

1:01:33I'm delighted to see them enter administration, but I think that's a nice story as well, isn't it? Being able to... Getting the club back. Yeah, get the club back. Trans series gone. Yes, it is 99 % going to result in relegation to League One, but to be able to take such a big step forward, even with a small one back, I think is really nice. And yeah, interested to see what shape they'll be in when they come to Portman Road ahead of KOA Live 3. I hope they won't be on negative points still. but delighted to see them not having to go down the route of what a lot of other clubs have suffered. So, yeah, good stuff, that.

1:02:11Mark Heath:I heard an unbelievable stat about this. I was listening to the radio yesterday. They went into the club shop at Shiffle Wednesday, and this whole kind of mood around the fans getting the club back, obviously everyone had a chance here out for so long. And apparently in the club shop they were doing like 50 quid a day, you know, recently. And then since this has happened, the stat was staggering. I think it was like they did 10 grand in a day, the day that it happened, because everyone suddenly rushes to the shops to get their gear again, because everyone's feeling enthused, even though they've lost these points.

1:02:41Mark Heath:They finally got rid of the guy that was absolutely ruining the football club. So absolutely fantastic. Rossi, I want you to talk about the young blues, please, because on Friday night, you took yourself off to Colchester to watch them. And this is a great story in itself, isn't it? Because they're doing incredibly well. The first season in PL2. i also want to hear more about this lad tudor mendel because he sounds again like a fantastic

1:03:03Ross Halls:story yeah they're the young guns really aren't they maybe that's what you know we call them the young blues but maybe we should call them the young guns because they are foreign on all cylinders at the moment they're unbeaten um i don't know if may not have won because they were obviously top of the table and may not have a plan the next day so let me just double check let's see if they won yeah they did so they're second but yeah it's an incredible story for them because this is their debut season in the top five of youth football obviously we've got category one status the club in the summer and you know a lot of these players have had to make a step up they've signed some good players as well from different academies but they've beaten the likes of Liverpool the Chelsea's like Brighton have got a decent academy and they beat them 3-1 and they sort of cruised in that first half There was some, obviously, players like Cameron Humphries and Alkenbag and Finlay Barber planned that game, but they're still young as well, so they're still eligible to plan that game.

1:04:03Ross Halls:But, yeah, it's just incredible. It's good to see John McGrew and Chris Casement doing a really good job. The under-18s are struggling at the moment. They won, actually, their first game of the season on Saturday against Birmingham, which was good to see. But, yeah, there's a lot of standouts at the moment. We won't go through them all, but, yeah, Tudor Mendel is doing so well. He's scoring the goals. He's just a massive standout. There's a lot of talk. Get him into the first team. But the problem with him is he's currently playing in a position where we're very stacked in. I think if we were struggling in those positions, you would go, come on, give this kid a chance.

1:04:42Ross Halls:But because we've got good players in the wing positions, although he's a right winger, so, you know, or he can play left as well. So he's versatile, but he's just fantastic. I think he needs potential alone. But then this is probably good development because he's playing against some of the best youth players in the country. So maybe January, they may look at it and go maybe a loan spell. But he has to be the right loan because you don't want him to go somewhere and he doesn't play. And you might as well just stick with the under-21s. But I know he does train regularly with the first team, which is good.

1:05:17I think a lot of the ones, the under-21s,

1:05:19Ross Halls:who are really doing well, like Somto Boniface and stuff like that, they're regularly playing with the first team in terms of training. So he's definitely one to watch out for. He's very smart as well. Well, this is it.

1:05:31Mark Heath:He's not just a brilliant footballer. He's also brilliant generally, isn't he? I mean, he's like a genius off the pitch.

1:05:37Ross Halls:Yeah, like he was in Eaton College. He was on a Channel 4 series called Child Genius. I think he finished second. I think he's got degrees I think he can speak like four or five different languages as well Which is incredible So yeah, hopefully one day we'll get an opportunity to speak to him Once again, we don't want to over-hype him Because he is just playing 921s football But he is standout He was at Chelsea's academy once upon a time So, you know, he's a player that I'm looking forward to see him sort of progress But yeah, the 921s are actually at Port One Road this Friday They play Newcastle So I'm an up-told opportunity to, you know, maybe fans to come down and support the team and see how they get on.

1:06:18Mark Heath:Yeah, absolutely. And Ross, one of the things you're going to be doing this week is putting together some profiles on the squad because I think it's a story worthy of note, how successful they've been thus far. AJ, anything more from you? No, also delighted to see the 21s doing well. Future's bright. Future's bright. Absolutely is. Right then, friends. Just a reminder, then support our sponsors. Use the code CRA at stardustspirits.co.uk for 20 % off all their excellent Bevereginos as I keep saying the Cascades rum and the single malt are my favourites, AJ's a big fan of the vodka liqueur Biscoff liqueur?

1:06:55Mark Heath:Biscoff Biscoff vodka multi-award winning drink in the World Drink Awards and also our new sponsor Molecular UK based out in Layston, manufacture various cleaning products for your car and other things I got involved with some of the kit they sent me this weekend because i thought we're going to go into the o2 ross so i'd clean the interior of my car um with the with some of their products and they've got this stuff that you put on the um the kind of the the plasticky bits i guess the dashboard etc uh in your car um which if you know you don't know this ross you haven't got a car um but they often they get kind of dirty and dusty and all that kind of stuff and it's really shined it up well nice uh to use a technical term uh looks great got rid of all the dust um so i'd highly recommend that that interior cleaner they sell and i'm also going to when it looks like it might stop raining um and i might get a few days of dryness i'm going to do the alloys because i sent me some alloy cleaner as well um which those are the things that i find very difficult to get clean you can do them in a car wash um but they still always retain a little bit of dirt on it so i'm looking forward to getting involved with the alloy cleaner as well uh you can use the code koa10 at molecular-uk.com he says just thinking you've got to check that yeah neckia-uk.com for 10 % off all their excellent products they have there right then friends a double win weekend for town they beat West Brom 1-0 Fabio Wardley wins again unbelievably so we can bounce into this week feeling good about ourselves I hope you have a great week we'll be back later this week to build up to the QPR game until then we'll speak to you next time

1:08:42Thank you.

1:09:13Thank you.

1:09:36Thank you.

1:10:05The World Cup Championship will be crowned this week, and you can trade the tourney through the finals on Calci, America's number one prediction market platform. Right now, Spain is trading at 58 % to beat Argentina, meaning 100 trade pays out 166 if they win. On Calci, you're trading against other people in a live market. No house, no odds makers. For a limited time, download the Calci app and use code DEFEND to get$10 when you trade$10. K-A-L-S-H-I. CalShe. Trade the beautiful game. 18 plus only. Restrictions and eligibility requirements apply. Event contract trading involves risk and may not be suitable for all investors.

1:10:44CalShe products are not available in all jurisdictions. Prices, values, and available markets may differ from those mentioned. For more information, see calshe.com forward slash regulatory. Chicago talks a lot. Hold on, let me step over here. People are talking too much. We debate about food, deep dish, tavern style, who's got the best beef, we yell across rooms, across blocks, across generations. Yes, nice earrings, Grammy. And now we're doing it on our phones, too. Video calls from the L train, group chats that never shut up. Neighbors texting you the score before your TV catches up. Come on!

1:11:20Get a load of this guy. Catch up. On a dog. Yeah, we've got thoughts. Too loud? In Chicago, you're gonna hear it. Because nothing here gets built without conversation. Nothing moves without connection. So if you think you know AT &T, it might be time to rethink that because their network has improved, like, a lot. So Chicago can keep speaking its mind with AT &T Wireless and AT &T Fiber. Chicago won't stop talking. Our improved network backs it up. AT &T, connecting changes everything. AT &T Fiber, limited availability in select areas.