629: Kings of Anglia: Ipswich Town are Premier League - again!!

31:11Stuart Watson:Here's an offer for you, but I would imagine he could probably get a longer contract and more guarantee of game time elsewhere. and at the age of 30 31 I think Wes Burns is now he will have to weigh that up very carefully I managed to speak to Wes Burns uh yesterday after the promotion parade I asked him about what's next um do I give much of this away now too much away Stu because that's an exclusive isn't it which I know you're working on today so that'll be with people tomorrow exclusive interview with Wes Burns and it's not quite the fence-sitting answer that you might expect. So I'm just going to tease that and direct you to our website.

31:56Stuart Watson:That will be out first thing tomorrow morning, exclusive with Wes Burns and what's next for him. Wes, I'm off to Cardiff. AJ, I want to ask you about a couple of other names. Clearly, at some point, we're going to sit down and do a proper state of the squad, what's happening with the lone players they've got and the loan players that are out, what they're going to do with those. But two of them have kind of come up because Fabrizio Romano has tweeted about it or X'd about it, whatever you do now. I don't know what the correct term is. So I thought it's interesting. It's certainly got people talking because Jens Kuster, according to Fabrizio Romano, didn't make enough appearances in terms of 50...

32:36There was a clause apparently, 50 % appearances, which I assume means starts. I think he made 13 starts and 31 overall appearances. so the obligation to buy clause has not been triggered but they do still have the option to buy and they have to make a decision on that by june the 10th and the fee would be 7.5 million euros and then keep prey is different because they've gone up the obligation to buy clause has again according to romano being triggered and he will cost what i would say is a bargain figure of 2.5 million euros so where do you stand on on those two because i put a poll out on cayusta on Kings of Anglia and I think it was about 65-35 people saying yes absolutely why wouldn't you he's brilliant you know he was great in the Premier League 7.5 million for a squad player fantastic value and yet the majority replies to that not the actual votes where God know he's been awful why would we do that so what do you make of Jens and also Kipro I think most people generally think would be a brilliant addition at that money yeah let's get the Kipro one out of the way because it's the easiest one it is a great addition I think that he's someone who's very well set for the Premier League because of the traits that he has, because he's a unit, because he will love the physical battles.

33:49And in a league that has gone more and more, less Guardiola, more Arteta, I think he's going to suit that really, really well. I do have some concerns with the fact that there are the odd games where his brain seems to switch off, and you need to be on it all the time in the Premier League. but I think that that can change. I think he can become a really dependable player. I don't think he's going to be playing week in, week out in the Premier League, but can definitely be a good part of the squad. And for that fee, what is it? Just under£2 million it would be? So two and a half million euros?

34:24That's really, really good business. Jens Kijusta, this is a harder one. And I think that when you do the poll and you look at the two sides, I think the answer is somewhere through the middle. Does the Premier League suit Jens Kijusta more? Yes, I definitely think it does. Has this season been good for Jens? No, he hasn't really delivered in the way that we hoped he would when he signed back in August. We thought that him and Matas Iwa would be the dream team midfield, best in the division. Hasn't really worked out that way. And that's kind of by Kim McKenna's admission that it hasn't really worked.

34:59And I think as well that Jens has felt that as well. He isn't kind of the player that I feel suits the championship that well. So on the one hand, bringing him back into the Premier League, you think, OK, can we get him back to the Jens Kjouste that we saw last season in the Premier League, where he was probably the second or third best performer in that season? On the other hand, I get that the transfer fee is quite nice. He's a player that we've seen deliver before. It's not about the transfer for me. For me, more than anything, it's about the squad numbers. how can you maximise the numbers that you can get into a 25-man Premier League squad?

35:35Are you going to sign him and then think, oh, actually, this player's become available, he'd maybe be better, but then we've got Jens there and you can't then deregister Jens. I think that you have to be quite ruthless in that way to make sure that you get the right squad together. So I'm kind of in the middle, which is a poor answer. If they sign him, I'll be really happy and we've seen what he can do in the Premier League and I'll back him to it again. If they don't, I'll understand it. And I'd hope they'd go on and deliver elsewhere. And I think off the back of the season, that would make sense.

36:08If you said to me which one's the most likely, I think the most likely is that he won't be signed based off some of the comments from Kieran McKenna, where he said that he can play for any of the top teams in and around Europe. And he thinks Ipswich is one of those as well. But I think it's almost a way of saying it might be a different club for him this summer. Okay, so AJ's sitting on the fence. I'm going to ask you not to sit on the fence with Jens. The fee I've just converted is£6.4 million quid if they wanted to sign him, which you'd say that's relatively good value for a player of his quality.

36:39Do you reckon they'll do it? Would you want them to do it?

36:46Stuart Watson:If I'm not going to sit on the fence, I'd probably go towards more the no end of the spectrum there. You can make an argument. The arguments that Alex has just said that he's more of a Premier League type player, that he would bring good depth. But I think Ipswich are probably going to sign a starter for that position to partner Azul Matasiwa. If you saw Jens Kjuster as the man to partner him, you would have used this season and the latter months of this season to try and work on that preparation for next year. There is also the major injury question mark over Jens. He seems to have got himself more robust and injury-free with that knee, but I guess that's always kind of doubt there in the background with him.

37:31Stuart Watson:So all things considered, I would imagine it's which will, and the Jens Kouste relationship may be reaching its end. Okay. Right. By way of moving this forward, and again, we will have plenty of time over the summer, friends, excitingly, to talk about all of this and various players and who they can sign and what the squad looks like and what they need and all that kind of stuff. But just by way of looking forward in a more general way, Stewie, Premier League looms large again. They're back in the Premier League. Last time, I think it's fair to say that we, and maybe even they, were staggered by the athleticism and the physicality and the huge step up from being promoted from the Championship into this kind of other world in the Premier League where the athletes are just incredible.

38:18so we've already had Ashton after the relegation say we need to consider the physical profile of players that we saw and that kind of thing so to make a success because a success is staying in the Premier League that's all they have to aim for isn't it realistically to do that what do you think they need to do

38:38Stuart Watson:we fired the starter gun on next season in general terms in general terms get their recruitment right and better than last time. And as you say, and as has been acknowledged by Mark Ashton, a big learning from the last season was being caught out by the sheer athleticism and physicality of the Premier League and targeting that as those as attributes more. Next time around, I think they'll need to get their experienced player or two bang on. Calvin Phillips was the attempt last time. Didn't work, not always through fault of his own with injury setbacks along the way. But I'm sure they'll go, Kieran McKenna always wants to have a player of that type from Richard Keogh to Shawnee Aluko to Ashley Young this time around.

39:39Stuart Watson:So they'll need to get that right. And hopefully now they're in a position where they can spread the net that bit further.

39:50Stuart Watson:yeah everything has been built along the way including sort of the the data systems and the scouting network they've now got a head of european scouting an america's scout um i wonder how the world cup's going to kind of not have a knock-on effect for the transfer market you kind of it delays the domino effect there but recruitment is king as always and it will be it will all come down to how well Ipswich do and how many, you can never get it all right in the transfer window, but they've got to try and get as much right as they possibly can. Okay. Kieran told you boys after promotion that he thinks the club is in a much stronger position than they were last time when they kind of almost, he actually said in the quotes that we went up almost too quickly.

40:34Would you agree with that, AJ? And if you look at the current squad compared maybe to the last promotion squad, how would you say this one is ready, if you like, for the Premier League? Yeah, definitely much more ready. And it kind of comes back to the water levels rising point that we've had a lot over the last couple of years, haven't we? Where in the last Premier League season, you have these back-to-back promotion heroes. Those that stayed became the depth, didn't they? Where you had maybe players like Connor Chaplin, Wes Burns, Broadhead, who became those substitutes, the ones that you turn to off the bench to try and change the games.

41:16And with the greatest of respect to them, when you then had Bournemouth, Brighton, Brentford, whoever, bringing on their£30 million substitutes to go and win them the games, you're thinking, how are we hanging at this level? And I'm not saying that you're going to have all of Town's stars or something going to drop to the bench and you're going to sign a brand new starting XI. But there will be that transition. You will have players who have played quite regularly in the Championship this season and done really well, who will then go on to take those roles of more, not rotated, but will have maybe more games to come off the bench.

41:49And I think that then you will see Ipswich hopefully a little bit more in line with some of the teams that they've come up with that they want to be competing against, not necessarily your Arsenal's, your Chelsea's, whatever, but those kind of very solid mid-table, year-in, year-out Premier League sides. And they will still need to overperform. overperforming the week, you know, there's still a chance that we're at the end of the summer transfer window saying, yeah, maybe the squads aren't quite as strong. But I think that they'll be more in line with that, with the other teams in the division, just because over time they've been able to raise the standard, raise the floor of this team and the squad.

42:25So that would be really helpful. The other thing I think is just really important is they need to be really clever with their tactical approach. And I do think that maybe in the last season, I don't want to sound like one of those fans who's in the stand trying, boot it long, don't play out from the back. But there is an element of, I think you need to have, pardon my language, but a team of bastards to an extent. You need that physicality, of course, but you need to be a bit attritional as well. So those are the two things, one that I think we will see and one that I hope we'll see. AJ's project back three or back five.

43:03Yeah, I'll be talking about that a lot between now and probably the start of pre-season. There'll be a lot of back five chat from me. Yeah. Stu, just in terms of, again, looking to the future, a chat that I'd imagine at some point is going to come up, and I have already seen it, pundits saying it would be a good move. Town are going to need, you would argue, certainly going to need a starting striker, aren't they, this summer? They're going to have to go out and buy strikers. We saw George Harris did well off the bench in the Premier League, but I don't know if people would now be happy with him being the starting striker in the Premier League.

43:35They had a pretty good one in the Premier League called Liam De Lape, who's not really done it at Chelsea and there's inevitably now people saying, well, the obvious thing to do is time to go back and get Liam De Lape in. He knows the club, he knows the team, he knows McKenna. What do you reckon?

43:48Stuart Watson:Yeah, I'd be all for that because going back to my point earlier, the challenge with keep changing leagues every time is, we're talking about the water levels rising it's rapid all the time and the teams Kim McKenna always uses the phrase everybody's journey is different and our journey is different because he often gets Brighton and Brentford and Bournemouth thrown at him of examples of how you can become established in the Premier League and his counter argument is that they built sort of slowly over time in the championship and those water levels maybe rose at a steady rate and once every summer you sold a couple of real big name players for big money and a bit like Ipswich going back to the Burlies you'd make one big sale and then you'd reinvest in three players with that sort of money and so that when you got there you was more prepared whereas with Ipswich it's this drastic turnover year on year at the moment and there's a chance it's going to be that again.

44:54Stuart Watson:You know, the first question people say is, how many of this team can you see being starters once the Premier League season is fully underway and the window's shut next year? And it's a horrible conversation to have now, days removed from the joyous celebration of them doing it, but that is the nature of the business and you go through it and hand on heart, you go, if you really wanted me to nail my colours to the mast, you'd say Daro Shea. I think Azor Matasiwa has got a chance of being that sort of Premier League type player in terms of his physical attributes. Jadon Filagene has clearly got top level qualities, technical qualities.

45:36Stuart Watson:There's not loads of us that I'd be going massively into bat for in terms of like I could see them being nailed on starters. Leaf, I think, absolutely deserves another shot at the Premier League. a year on or two years on from his experiences of that last time. But I think we probably will be looking at another double digits

46:02Stuart Watson:signings this summer. And that's tough. And to go back to your first question about Stryker, I think they're probably looking at two. And the reason that De Lapp would work is because he's been at the club. He knows the club. And so you've got a bit of a shortcut to him coming in with a connection to the fans. a connection to the manager, knowing how the team wants to play. So, yeah, I'd be all for Liam Dillap coming back if they could strike some sort of a return loan deal and it doesn't look beyond the realms, does it? Absolutely not. Can we get Kieran Slicker involved as well? We've got that factor, haven't we, as well at the club.

46:39AJ, I mean, Stu has come on to that question, which I really wanted to have, is how many of these players can you see starting in the Premier League? Stu said, what, three or four there? disagree agree any more you want to throw into the pot yeah we're kind of into a similar but we had this discussion a couple of weeks ago didn't we mark kind of looking through it and thinking about who who would be delivering like top top premier league performances and being able to handle that level week in week out um the only other one i'd probably throw into the mix and And again, it would come hand in hand with my tactical back five switch.

47:19I think Jacob Greaves deserves more of a shot. He was really good, don't forget, in that Premier League season at the start, before he had his injury. When he came back, he was massive. So, so good. And he got the injury and he just wasn't the same coming back. And when he did get back up to speed, I thought, again, he looked really sharp. And then, unfortunately for him, by the end of the season, and he was chucked out a left-back to cover for Leif Davis being suspended. So I think that he deserves another shot. I'd hope, again, I still feel that this team in a lot of areas would be really well suited to back five.

47:56I think that would also work well for him and with O'Shea and bringing in another player in there. But for sure, we had a conversation going into the last Prem season where you asked me how many players, and I think I said, you could make an argument for signing a new player in every single position in the team. The only player, the only area I don't think they'd need is probably left wing. I'd be quite comfortable going into next season with Villagin and Clark. Other than that I think there's definitely a case for at least signing a starter or cover in every single position on the pitch and to answer your question the ones I could see playing week in week out O'Shea, Greaves with a tactical change, Davis Matasiwa Bilajin Five I think Azor's going to be great in the Premier League You know the N 'Golo Kante comparisons we had when he signed I heard a great quote about Kante the other day Water covers three quarters of the earth The other quarter is covered by N 'Golo Kante Which feels like what you say about Matasiwa hopefully in the not too distant future I think he's one that could really do with the rest because he's been running on him towards the end of the season There's a handful of players who I think could do with a bit of a breather going into next season because they've just drained the tank totally.

49:12But he's one where obviously had that dead leg against Birmingham. I do wonder if there was more to it than that because the fact that it dragged on for a while. He hasn't looked fully fit towards the end of the season. He hasn't played a season like this in his career. You look back through and he's had other injuries and he's played in leagues where you've only got 18 teams. You're not playing Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday. and the way that he's dragged himself through it, even while not being at 100%, still being able to try and do everything he can to help this team, deserves real credit.

49:40But I hope that with now a month and a half, two months, how long until pre-season, to really rest and recover and get back to his best. Then with a full pre-season at Ipswich again, going into the Premier League, I'm excited about what he could bring. Right then. The last 10 minutes of this podcast or so, I want to get your reflections really on the season that was. And I want to start, Stu, in terms of experiences, and I want this to be kind of a behind the scenes look. You were on the bloody bus yesterday, mate. You shared video from it. What was that like? And can you sort of give people an idea of that experience for you?

50:16Yeah, purely accidental.

50:19Stuart Watson:I turned up, I was told to get myself to the stadium about an hour before the bus was due to leave at 12. and we might be able to sort you out with one or two player interviews before they leave. And it was like herding cats. It's like when you get a bunch of footballers and a coach involved, it's like they go back to their school days and they've got people trying to get them in the right position. People were going off. There was a safety briefing going on. And before you knew it, it was 12 o 'clock. Everyone was on the coach. I hadn't got a lot sorted. and then I was told at the very last minute by the media team just jump on just jump on we'll sort you out at the park so that's it I jumped on and it was it was it was great it was surreal I did have flashbacks to all the stuff we we talked about at the start of the Evans era and the dark times and and there I was poking my little head above the top I respectfully stayed down in the blacked out lower section for most of it but I did pop my head up a couple of times just to to get some footage and to see the streets lined and the happy faces and and just to be on it was uh yeah was was amazing it was great uh okay so I want I want your your kind of memories of this season boys um what you look back at in in you know years to come and I'm not talking about necessarily on the pitch stuff but that kind of behind the scenes stuff the moments you've had maybe on the road or covering games or you know whatever really um are there any any kind of things that you go back to aj yeah 100 um blackburn mark one and mark two have to come to mind here as a reminder of uh god i hate the championship sometimes um the first one of course going up there having the full game almost and then it being rained off we knew it was going to get It rained off from the hour mark, and they played almost 80 minutes.

52:19It was an absolute farce. All of the drama around the pitch as well. Remember how that went on for ages? I kind of blanked that from my memory, this whole debate about what should happen next and the outrage from across the footballing world where it was decided that it would be replayed in full. That was kind of the first turn, I think, of Ipswich's supervillain status, where obviously followed up by the penalties and the fact that the squad's worth X amount of million in transfer fees. But yeah, that was good fun. And then when we went back, which was bleak as a game, and then Stu getting locked in the car park, me just hot-footing on a taxi out there, going back to the hotel, being offered a beer by a town fan, then recording the pod the next day.

53:06I think there was ownership news as well that came up the next morning as well. that felt like a kind of a microcosm of what this job can be where it's just like the sublime to the ridiculous off the back of an absolutely horrible game um kind of summed it all up that's probably going to be one of my strongest memories from this season in terms of like a whole trip and a whole occasion there's various different bits you can have from from behind the scenes nonsense that i've done stew almost got hit by car once uh ross just in general yeah what's in general yeah we are we're a fun group aren't we yeah how about you see anything that will live long in your memory from this we shouldn't i mean without we've talked about this maybe being underrated but you look at the season on on the pitch they've obviously been promoted they've beaten norwich twice which they haven't done all right they haven't done for 30 years and they also they beat the runaway champions twice as well um what about memories for you

54:06Stuart Watson:yeah a season of postponements never experienced anything quite like it don't expect it in the championship but Blackburn obviously but two at Portsmouth as well we got halfway there for the first one second was an early call off for all the talk about well Ipswich got an extra point from that Blackburn game I think they would have almost certainly beaten Portsmouth if they'd have played it the first time around and went on to to lose it later in the season so swings and roundabouts there a season of penalties that's been a massive narrative 10 for Ipswich um yes there's some pretty soft ones in there but equally there was that period where um Ipswich were getting uh apologies from the pg mol handed out like sweets at one stage as well so again I'm a big believer in that that evening itself out but that's been a big narrative of this season um other moments that kind of stick in my mind.

55:05Stuart Watson:Yeah, look, both the Norwich games, ultimately. Again, we've gone through, we've lived through this 16 years and especially Carrow Road, talking about flashbacks to going there from Chambers scoring and thinking that they were going to finally do it. And then they got the late equaliser to Paul Lambert's frankly ridiculous fake fight to Mick McCarthy's.

55:32Stuart Watson:telling the away fans to F off in that game, play off pain, all the rest of it, to finally go there and win. And with all the Nunez pantomime stuff thrown in as well, that was a fun day. I think my big memory of the season, when I look back at it, will probably be the Nunez signing, just because it was so, like, kind of earth-shattering. I remember when it first started getting muted and I had a call from someone at Norwich end going, it's happening it is actually happening and it's like what that's you know unbelievable that they would do that and then the the character that he is as well the way he bought into it and embraced that panto villain um persona if you like obviously the the wink and the tapping the badge in the unveiling video and all that you spoke to marcino yesterday as well didn't you stu i did yeah um in some ways i don't know what his legacy like his legacy will probably ultimately be this season I don't know he may he may go on to do some even bigger things on the football pitch but we talked about the transfer window rolling on till quite late and it taking a lot of time for people to connect with certain players Nunez had that shortcut because of the the way he the nature of the move and the way he kind of fully led into it as well and the charm that goes with him and everything that he's done really kind of helped kind of i think at times when there was a bit of a fragile connection kind of keep keep the sort of um fans and team together at times because of the nature of it and uh fitting that yesterday was i mean the memories of the the bus parade last time around was probably luke wolf and then having digs at don goodman and harry clark with his funky vest top on and enjoying himself with the big hat.

57:22Stuart Watson:This time around, it was Nunez who, it's the first time I've spoken to him. He had a yellow and green snake. I don't know whose idea that was to put it on the bus and give it to him. Told Norwich fans to F off on the microphone in front of a Pat Christchurch park. They let us speak to him just before that. his English is pretty broken but he had a cheeky smile and a cheeky wink about him whenever he was talking about the season and Norwich and I said to him any message for Norwich? He said maybe unlucky so I don't know if I was not an Ipswich fan I would probably take a pretty dim view on it and I think most neutrals think that's pretty idiotic But then on the other hand, I think we bemoan the lack of characters in football now.

58:19Stuart Watson:And we love the sort of the pantomime nature of football. And as long as it doesn't cross a line, look, he was given it in spades at Carroll Road. There was people wishing for his demise as a human being. He's entitled to give it a bit back. It's gone both ways. We want rivalries. we want characters we've certainly got one in that show ultimately we want to be entertained is my you know sport is entertainment at the end of the day and that was very entertaining i'm all for that heel turns as they say in wrestling fantastic uh aj any other memories from the season before we put the cap on this um i mean to be fair quickly just to go back to the new years thing as well we've had it the other way from norwich for a long old time hasn't it from ipswich perspective about i mean recently onel hernandez and there'll be other characters from from before so um it's another indication that the pendulum has swung it's very funny looking at the replies saying oh well yeah it's just saying how it switch are these days isn't it well yeah we've seen it from the other's perspective when when they've had their success and it's fun to see how things have turned um in terms of individual memories from the season i mean let's There's been a lot of mileage and a lot of travel.

59:39I think the fans as well felt it's been quite hard going and trying to get yourself up sometimes. And I think, as I said, the way that this team has bounced back from moments have meant that even though sometimes going to place X after a defeat in Sheffield United or Wrexham or whatever, you've gone in thinking, oh, this is not where I want to be right now. And then they go in and put in a really improved performance and get a good result and it kind of gets you back on board. you know that meme where it's like um well i mean you posted one before actually where it's like oh it's so over oh we're so back it's felt like a season of that um in terms of individual moments not really but just to being able to go and follow the club and travel with people with stew with ross um hotel stays in the middle of nowhere going to places that you wouldn't usually that there's there's a lot of a lot of good good moments

1:00:30Stuart Watson:I actually think two of the games that stick in my mind the most, and actually maybe the most definitive of the season have been two of the defeats, was the Charlton home game in October, 3-0 down, just complete and utter collapse in the second half, and Wrexham away, you know, that crazy 5-3 game. And those matches kind of remind me of other ones along the way in the McKenna era of the 4-4 at Charlton or the last gas defeat at Cardiff in the promotion season or the 0-0 draw at Bristol Rovers. You need those bad moments in a football season to kind of find out what people are made of on and off the pitch.

1:01:15Stuart Watson:and it's a tester for us in terms of trying to find the right tone at a time where noise can get quite level, hopefully can get quite noisy. But, yeah, weirdly, those two matches are ones that really kind of stick in my mind as much as some of the big wins. The other one I remember, and I think we didn't actually get a chance to talk about it because I was awful around the pod anyway, but the Southampton game. that crazy 2-2 I mean I think that's the best the game I've enjoyed most since the whole city won at the end of the last championship season when it was just kamikaze you know Amari Hudson banging in worldies, that Southampton game was unbelievable as a game of football, it was fantastic, it's a shame we were on deadline I couldn't fully enjoy it but it was brilliant, that's definitely something I remember as well.

1:02:07Friends you're both going to be Premier League reporters again next season is there anywhere you're particularly looking at going back to of course stew of course you get gone then obviously there's a particular stadium you've been to as a fan they're going to go put back to as a as a reporter yeah i i i made the

1:02:25Stuart Watson:the pilgrimage to the new everton stadium as a supporter to rekindle my my fandom of my youth with with my dad and my sister fairly recently went to the hill dickinson went on a stadium tour I went full fandom. I didn't know. And I'll be going back there. I had a little sneaky peek when we were going around. Can I see the media room? And I was thinking, I could be back here in a few months' time working professionally. And now it's going to happen. So that's the one I'm excited for. And you're going to love it, AJ. A new one to tick off for you? Yeah, it's the only one I've got left to tick off in the pram.

1:03:03I mean, definitely that will be a good experience. It looks like you get a hell of an away end, that as well, because they get the corner, don't they? And I can just imagine that packs out. It would be good fun. I think, I mean, it's always, you always think back to like the old classic grounds, don't you? You're old Trafford, you're Anfield, going to the Emirates, Stamford Bridge, things like that. I like that there's a lot of London. It's just nice, isn't it? And it's easy. It's probably a shame from my perspective, given Sophie, my girlfriend, is a big West Ham fan, that it's looking more likely.

1:03:36it will be different leagues next year unless uh uh the footballing universe gets their act together and relegates tottenham but then uh tottenham from a media perspective as well is um one of the best yeah rather nice experience so um i think whoever goes down is going to be a bit of a lose-lose from my perspective so yeah that'll be plenty of good ones in there as i said kind of the classic ones are always where you turn your focus to and um i guess you guys won't care at all but i'm interested as well i love the playoffs and i'm very interested to see who's going to be joining um nipswich in the premier league with commentary next season oh it's great i mean now we can sit back and watch it as a neutral can't we and playoff football usually does throw up some tremendous games tremendous moments who do you want who would you pick uh well i'd like to see milwall go up i'd also like to see milwall go up yeah just because there's that story isn't it um behind milwar so that would be the one i'd pick and also bluntly they're probably going to struggle in the premier league aren't they so um we need we need teams that the town can finish above anything more from you steve we've just gone over the hour we need to stop

1:04:43Stuart Watson:imagine while you were talking about that and you're still raising the prospects of top tottenham could still go down yeah if you'd have outlined i don't know pick a moment in time probably if you said that the depths of the evans era would have been maybe around the covid time where there was the protests outside the training ground with blue flares being let off. And a time where the only three signings were Hawkins, Cornell and Stephen Ward. They were made on the same day, do you remember? Yeah. We just gave a picture of them all. And that feels like the peak of the depths of despair. Imagine if you just said then, in X year's time, well, that'd be five, in six years' time, Ipswich will be playing in a higher division than Tottenham which is a real opportunity.

1:05:36Stuart Watson:When did Spurs get to the Champions League final? That was probably around that time, wasn't it? 2018 would have been. Not far removed from a Champions League. Imagine if you'd have said that then. You'd have been locked up, wouldn't you? There's so much about the whole rebirth, the extraordinary journey the club have been on under the American owners and McKenna. just a brilliant, you know, take everything else out of it as journalists. It's just a brilliant story, isn't it? It's just an amazing story to cover, to have been part of. That's the joy of football. And that's why fans stick with their team, because you just never know.

1:06:15Stuart Watson:It's always another year. Yeah, exactly. It's always another year. And like Leicester, 10 years removed from winning the league, down in League One and things, you know, Wrexham have done, been on the journey that they've been on. whatever you think of that, that is the beauty of English football and the English football pyramid that you just, even when things are bleak, I know Stoke are now the team that are being kind of heralded as the most boring team in the land that are going through their sort of Ipswich journey of treading water in the championship. All it takes, all it takes, he says, is a good ownership takeover and getting a few things right.

1:06:53Stuart Watson:and you can get these sunshine days back again. So that's why we love it. A brilliant manager helps as well, doesn't it? Don't go back to that podcast after he was appointed where I rated him as dull. I said optimistically seven out of 10. That's not really weathered very well indeed, has it, over the years? Because he's been brilliant. Right, friends, that brings us probably to the end of this podcast. I don't know when we're going to be podding over the summer. We'll probably be going down to one a week, I would. So obviously we'll be around when things are happening. but we'll certainly be bringing you at least one podcast a week.

1:07:24Looking ahead, obviously this weekend, there is the big Fabio Wardley fight, his first defence of the world title against Daniel Dubois, which is guaranteed fireworks in Manchester this weekend. I'll be previewing that at the end of the week, telling you how I think that's going to go, so look out for that and obviously the boys will be getting their ear to the floor on all various things, transfer related God, excitingly, that's coming, isn't it? Transfer rumour rumourageddon. Can't wait, can't wait for that. probably the Kieran McKenna saga we'll have all the Wes Byrne stuff as well it'd be fantastic lots to get our teeth into just remind our friends to support our sponsors use the code KOA10 at molecular-uk.com for 10 % off all that excellent car cleaning stuff there leave us a five-star review on iTunes if you could just because it helps lift us visibility wise in the charts and follow us across all social medias kings of anger on YouTube Instagram TikTok X and Facebook if you're 85 years old apparently that's the demographic now for Facebook certainly is with my dad anything else from you boys before we take our leave?

1:08:20Nothing from you, AJ. Nothing from you, Stu.

1:08:24Stuart Watson:Back in the Premier League, baby. And that's the way we've got to finish it, friends. I hope you enjoyed this podcast. I hope you've enjoyed this season because it has been a rollercoaster ride, but ultimately it all comes down to this singular truth. Ipswich Town, our Premier League again. Have a great week and we'll speak to you next time.

1:08:55Thank you.

1:09:27Thank you.

1:09:54Thank you.

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