635: Kings of Anglia - Our verdict as Town close in on their new manager

28:07Ross Halls:Yeah, I'm excited because, yeah, it's a new era. I think we've, you know, just got over the Kieran McKenna departure, which is still very shocking. But now we've got to get ready for a new manager in charge. We've got to back him. And, yeah, I'm sure that press conference will be just interested to see what he's going to say. Our fans are going to be interested to know what he has to say to them and stuff like that. And there's some tasks, Stu, that he's got, and you've done a great piece on it. We're not going to tease too much of it, but what's the main sort of task that he's got to create And, you know, of course, retainers came out.

28:40Ross Halls:Wes Burns is probably one of them. Will he stay now because of that? And other tasks in terms of, yeah, you know, getting fans on board. Yeah, lots to do, isn't there? He's going to have to hit the ground running. What are we, about nine weeks out from the opener against Sunderland at Portman Road, which we now know about. First job is that great first impression. That press conference, I think, you know, It's so important that he goes into this season with some hearts and minds behind him because Ipswich Town are going to be among the relegation favourites again. They're going to be written off.

29:18And I know it's become a bit of a cliche from Mark Ashton, who says it every time, together, stronger, all the rest of it. There's no doubt that if it's a vibrant Portman Road with the crowd kind of fully behind the team and the new manager, that is worth a percentage or two and those percentages make a difference in the Premier League which are going to need all the help they can get so making that first impression saying the right things coming across in the right ways is going to be vital and then obviously there's there's a squad to build I actually think a World Cup summer might help because I think it will push it will push things back a little bit because you know certain players were at the very top end won't move till after a world cup and then that has a knock-on effect so it sounds like and we go back to the head coach debate you know Mark Ashton has said that we're a fair way down the line with some transfers and they're probably just waiting for the new manager to come in and sign off on some certain things or you know incoming player just waiting to see who it's going to be but we've talked about it haven't we in depth there's there's work to do with this squad it could well be double digits again in terms of incomings it could be a hundred million pound plus transfers that you know to make room for those players to come in you're going to have to make some decisions on on exits as well um so lots to do um for him because yeah i think players are back sort of early July, which is not far away at all.

30:54Ross Halls:No, and he will know Leif Davis because of his spell at Bournemouth. So that's one player. And I'm sure he knows a lot of the town squad anyway. When you're a manager, you've got to know every player, every level just in case. Well, yeah. Dara O'Shea tried to sign at Wolves apparently, and Ipswich beat him to the punch. So that'll be a good first chat with the skipper, who's got to be one of the first men that he'll sit down with. his key link to the rest of the dressing room. I tried to sign you, Dara. I can't wait to work with you. You're a key man, and that will make him feel great. So that will be a key first chat for him.

31:29And as you say, he knows the Premier League. He had a year out after Wolves, and he didn't want to be out. He said, I was itching to get back in. Unlike Kieran McKenna, I'm only two and a half years into my managerial career. I don't want to be out of the game. and he took himself off to Manchester City to watch some Pep Guardiola training sessions and said Pep was good enough to spend a bit of time with me afterwards in the evening to pick his brain. He went to Wigan Warriors to kind of see who have been so successful in rugby to get a feel for how they built a sense of togetherness and learned some stuff about the cultural side of the game there.

32:12And he says he watched every Premier League game on wide angle He watched like two or three games a day to sort of stay on top of the ever-changing tactical beast of the Premier League. So, yeah, I mean, that was, I guess, the knock on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is the distance between when he was at Manchester United to now, whereas Gary O 'Neill is kind of bang on top of the Premier League. So I don't think there's going to be any issues there. He'll have his targets in mind. yeah this won't have come out of the blue which is interest to him so I'm sure he's been sort of formulating some plans in his mind for a little while

32:51Ross Halls:yeah definitely and AJ I'm sure you've been rubbing your hands together really getting pieces sorted about players that he could sign as you said earlier there will be a piece he'll be teasing out but yeah looking forward to that sort of side of it transfers because yeah it's going to be a busy summer ahead with comings and goings yeah definitely and when you look through as I said that there's good players within that Bournemouth team that I don't think would be out of reach from where Ipswich are at the moment. You could say the same with Wolves, as well as kind of helped by those two clubs' trajectories and the fact that core players from those teams are still there.

33:29There's a couple who worked under O 'Neill, for example, at Bournemouth, who were really integral parts of that team. Bournemouth have now qualified for Europe and that might shift things on and those players could become available to a team like Ipswich. So there's a couple I've picked out there. We'll have that piece up later in the week. And I'm just excited to see what this kind of, hopefully, new age of foreign recruitment is going to look like. I think there is going to be a real impetus on that. I'm sure that there will still be domestic signings. I'm sure you could still see a Premier League loan.

34:04I'm sure you could still see Ipswich going into the Championship and getting players. But when you look at what other teams are doing and the pathways that they have had to survival, Sunderland and Leeds. I don't think Sunderland signed a player domestically. For example, it was all foreign recruitment pretty much. And that's going to be really important. So excited to see that. Excited to see how that kind of synergy works between O 'Neill and the recruitment team and Mick Court, who's going to be leading this and the new foreign recruitment staff. But I'm excited at this. And the links that we've seen so far, definitely the credible ones, I think tick a lot of boxes.

34:37You see players with Premier League experience, like a Nick Pope, and then you see really exciting, talented players like Eteri Young over at Levante, who's been linked, who would be a fantastic addition, I think. If that's the kind of players that the Ipswich are after with those kind of fees and that kind of experience and that kind of ceiling and pedigree, then I'm excited to see what they can do, hopefully trying to bring in. I do think it is going to be, or need to be, rather near enough to double digits this summer.

35:05Ross Halls:yeah one big thing I'm seeing a lot guys is that yeah as you mentioned Stu this will likely be the first time Tanner appointed a first team coach or you know head coach um because everyone's sort of been a manager you know Kieran McKenna was a manager although he's like a modern day manager there's a lot of people thinking could they maybe look to bring in a sporting director or something like that because football operations sort of guy um what do you reckon with that Stu Is that something they may look at? There's a lot of clubs doing it now. Mark Ashton, I'm sure he's something he could be looking into.

35:39Maybe, as we've just said, that's just at the very top echelons of the game. It's just a monster. It's a beast now in terms of the business side of it. And Ipswich have rose so quickly. and I think that was the issue last time, 22 years away. Mark Ashton always uses the analogy of kind of building a plane in flight. They were just sort of frantically trying to sort of upscale everything, the training ground, the ground, the scouting staff, the use of data. And that has all, those levels have all risen drastically in the last two years since Ipswich last stepped up to the Premier League. and they will have to continue to raise it.

36:28You know, there's various people, staff coming in at all times. Yeah, was Kieran McKenna taking on too much? Possibly. Could you make that same argument of Mark Ashton, who's wearing the hats of chairman and CEO at the same time? Possibly his role will evolve over time. I think he'd find it difficult as someone who just loves being hands-on in all areas of the football club to kind of maybe pass some of that responsibility on but yeah, maybe a conversation from further down the track

37:06Ross Halls:Yes indeed Alright boys, anything else you want to mention about Gary O 'Neill We're going to have many podcasts, many insight videos on Gary when he is appointed and yeah, it's going to be a busy week ahead still want to get your thoughts on the fixtures very shortly but AJ anything else you want to mention about Gary O 'Neill for the viewers out there listeners out there I think it's and I know that O 'Neill's critics are a little bit fed up of this but he is going to be the next Ipswich Town manager and deserves the support and the only way that he is going to be successful is with that support and there is no doubt that there has been criticism with this decision and you can look at the pros and cons of things and I can understand why people aren't happy and i obviously kind of spoke about that a little bit when we did the live pod and having looked into it more i think there's plenty of reasons to to be excited it's definitely a risk to go against the grain of what the fan base want but this is going to be mark ashton's decision it's someone that he's focused on for for a while as i think we can see and um that that's that's going to be the way of it and and it's now about getting behind it so I'm really excited to see what it's going to look like.

38:18There's a lot of pressure on him, on Mark Ashton, on what this new era is going to look like because it is a huge appointment trying to succeed Kieran McKenna. But I'm excited to what that's going to look like, what the ceiling of this group is going to be. And hopefully, hopefully it will lead towards Premier League survival.

38:43Ross Halls:Yeah, that's the big things too That is success for Gary O 'Neill in his first season, is keeping town up would you say? Yeah, no doubt about it Personally I'd snap your hand off at 17th right now maybe privately that will be the feeling at the club but I think outwardly and I've already heard Mark Ashton and there's a piece going online tomorrow address supporters when the fixtures came out at Portman Road on Friday and say that is a defeatist mindset I don't want us to go into this season just talking about survival I don't want us to have a little Ipswich Town mindset he wants people to be excited and dare to dream and think think bigger than that so whether that is you would assume that is going to be replicated in the words of Gary O 'Neill given that they've they've had several conversations about what next season is going to look like.

39:40Mark Ashton's record in terms of appointing managers at Ipswich Town is one for one. And for that, he deserves our trust, I think, at this stage. We talked about what type of manager would Ipswich go for. Would it be that kind of more risky first-time appointment or would they go for full-on experience and just keep them up? I think we all settled on it would probably be somewhere in between. And that is what Gary O 'Neill is, isn't it? He's still a young boss, fresh towards the start of his coaching career. But he has got that little bit of experience now. And I'm sure he will have learned a hell of a lot from Bournemouth and Wolves, both good and bad.

40:23And yeah, I think everyone's got to be behind him from day one because what's the alternative? Let's see. Good luck, Gary, is all I can say at this stage. Good luck.

40:40Ross Halls:Yes, indeed. And, yeah, we found out, of course, on Friday, me and AJ recorded our fixture release podcast. But, Stu, you were around, but you weren't able to, of course, join us for the pod. So I want to get your thoughts on it. I'm going to bring up the graphic. How are you feeling for sort of the opening start? And then just any other games that sort of come out of your mind? You know, the run-in, AJ's very happy about the run-in. He thinks that is going to be, you know, key for town. You know, that will be something we will look at. And hopefully we're still, you know, in for the fight and staying up.

41:08Ross Halls:But, yeah, Sunderland the start of the season and a trip to Old Trafford for the first away game, my friend. Yeah, I would agree with the run-in if you have a look at it. You know, from end of March onwards, you've got Palace, Sunderland, Manchester United, Newcastle, and then Leeds, Fulham, Man City, park that one, Forrest and Everton to finish. So I don't want to sort of categorise too flippant in terms of what winnable games in the Premier League are because they are few and far between and we've seen how difficult it was last time. And I think the biggest eye-opener last time wasn't losing 6-0 to Man City or getting blown away by Liverpool and the like.

41:50It was when Ipswich ran into a Fulham or a Bournemouth or a Crystal Palace and went, wow, look at the size of them. Look at the depth they've got to come off the bench. Look at the international caps and the Premier League experience amongst even that level of team. That is the job on Ipswich's hands here to forget about the top six, eight, whatever you want to label it now. It's bridging the gap to those sort of mid to lower teams. And the hope has got to be that nine clubs in Europe that adversely affects some, like a Sunderland, like it did with Palace and Forest last season, that one or two of those clubs could be catchable.

42:34Finishing above the two that have come up with Ipswich, Coventry and Hull, I think has probably got to be a must if Ipswich are going to stay up, you would think. Sunderland at home is a great start. We were hoping for something a bit kinder on paper than last time of Liverpool and Man City. but if you bring that graphic back up again Ross it's all very well talking about the running which have got to get themselves there and be in contention by that point the periods, it's quite a small graphic I'm trying to look but there was a period, there's a couple of periods I think we talk about sacking season and managers coming under pressure it's normally around October, November time that little run there once they get past Man United and Liverpool Palace, Everton, Fulham, Man City Forest, Hull, Bournemouth that is a really important run isn't it?

43:26In the early days of Gary O 'Neill we're talking about winning hearts and minds and just getting their feet under the table last time Ipswich I thought the performances were really encouraging weren't they? From that opening day against Liverpool through to Manchester United and others they just weren't able to get that win over the line. They need to get a win over the line in that little group of fixtures that I've talked about and then the start of the 2027 as well I think that looks like a really crucial run Coventry Bournemouth, Hull those three games there right at the start of 2027 looks like a little a key period to me as well

44:10Ross Halls:Yeah man it's going to be of course AJ did on the podcast I think that first five I want points. They've just got to pick up some points because I think that's maybe the downfall last time. I know we had a tough start, but we just couldn't get a win, could we? I think we need to get a few points on the board, get a win. Maybe, I'm trying to think out of those games, Fulham maybe could get a result there. Don't ask me my points return again. I dodged that one really nicely. Yeah, I think for me, a win in that first five, as I said, and you have to look at, You don't want to talk about free hits, but Manchester United and Liverpool are the harder games of those ones.

44:52So you're certainly looking at Sunderland at home, Palace away, Everton away. I'd want Ipswich to win one of those. You don't want to end up with a repeat of two years ago, where it took until going to Tottenham in November, to go and get your first win on the board, as we had to have there. It's funny, of course, that the Tottenham game is basically the same point again. and the weird quirks that there are a lot of key games that fall basically in the same spots as they did in that 2024-25 season. The Tottenham won Arsenal and Chelsea, for example. There's a handful that seem to link up. You can categorise it quite easily, and I think it's better like this.

45:37It's not like you're going from easy game, hard game. Not easy, but more winnable game to harder game. winnable game relatively easy game it feels very much that they get into points of here's a run of games where you want ipswich to pick up points there is very much a run in there from the end of january through till the end of february which looks like a proper murder's row of games um it looks quite daunting and just getting through that relatively unscathed and being able to pick yourself up hopefully in a good position then for the run-in if you can pick good points up either side of that.

46:12That'll be important. But I agree with Stu, as I said last week, that there's definitely kind of maybe three or four periods where you really want Ipswich to go and pick up points because it's the games against those kind of teams that are really going to be decisive in the season, not about necessarily how they compete against Man City, Arsenal, Chelsea and the like. I think fixtures in the Premier League and the order of them, especially as a newly promoted club is more important than usual when we'd be dissecting the championship fixtures, for example, because, you know, that start that Ipswich had last time didn't really give them much of a chance to retain any momentum, did it?

46:54And you can take as much encouragement from performances as you like, but the longer the wait goes for wins and points, inevitably, you know, that's going to have a bit of a psychological impact. By contrast, Sunderland last season, I'm just looking at their pictures. They started with West Ham, Burnley, Brentford, Palace, then went Villa, Forest. And they got off to a great start, didn't they? And belief grows from there. This group hopefully isn't going to be as, well, all of us aren't going to be as starry-eyed going into the Premier League. You know, naturally, before I spoke to Leif Davis about this on Friday, there's no getting it.

47:36He was honest enough to say, they're like us. They grow up playing FIFA on computer games. And they see these guys on the TV as superstars. And then you're suddenly man-marking Mo Salah. And you're seeing Erling Haaland stood in the tunnel next to you. Squad actually gets you. Yeah, and that's a big deal. But this time around, most of this squad have had a little taste of it. So just pulling up to the Etihad or Old Trafford for the first time just isn't quite as wide-eyed and daunting. And, yeah, hopefully that sort of start run of fixtures. I know there's some toughies in there as well, but hopefully they can pick up a win in that first month or so just to relieve some pressure and give themselves a chance.

48:29Ross Halls:Hot take, Town Beach, Sunderland on opening day. Bew, 3-0, something like that. Nah, I don't know. We'll all find out. But you never know. Although, Sunderland, that's going to be... It's going to be interesting to see how they sort of react this year because, you know, they're in Europe. They've got a lot of players at the World Cup. It'd be interesting in their recruitment. I think I'm 50-50 on that as the opening game. I think that's a good sort of game. It's home. And as AJ mentioned, sort of old friends sort of reuniting with their journey they've been on, just like us. but yeah i just we need to get some results in early early games but um check out me and aj's full review of the fixtures um which is probably gonna be lining up after this podcast potentially so um check that out um all right boys any other business anything else you want to mention still you're looking forward to i'm sure going back to everton i know you've already been to the ground so you've ticked that off in terms of the hill dickinson but going to the media facilities that will be a new thing i know you saw that during the tour didn't you understand him tour so you've seen it already but you can go well i'm gonna be going there gonna get in that media scrum happy days yeah talking about the fandom in in us all uh as much as we you know become sort of professionally embedded in the game we all sort of uh got into these careers because we bloody love football and there's a there's a uh yeah the the fandom in me i was sort of relit as i said with my sort of you know going to one of the last games at goodison with ips which was an incredible professional experience for me.

49:57I went up there to watch a game as a fan only a couple of months ago. So to go back there as a journalist will be, yeah, it's one I'm looking forward to. So you'll enjoy that, boys. The facilities at the Hill Dickinson look very good indeed.

50:13Ross Halls:Although where it's like based, isn't it like a bit of a ball ache for fans? I think because it's like over the river, over the docks area. It's literally built on a newly created bit of land. in the docks. So obviously sort of one way in, one way out, which I think logistically has proved difficult for Evertonians. I mean, the games are going to get moved about quite a bit, aren't they, with the number of teams in Europe? There's a good chance we'll be having some Sunday, Monday games. Although we thought that before, and there wasn't too much disruption, was there? It's one of the top of the broadcasters' list of games to pick.

50:51So we'll have to see on that front.

50:52Ross Halls:Yeah, I think, as I said already, it's just lovely that the Sunderland game it's going to be 3pm on a Saturday good start to the season and I don't think there'll be many eyes on that game because all the eyes will be on the other games because last time it was all eyes on Liverpool wasn't it because it was like the champions but it was like back in the Premier League after two decades Ed Sheeran was there obviously a lot of stuff going on at Porton Road it was very much like all eyes on it First game hopefully the weather's going to be like this bright sunny August day it always just feels that extra bit of vibrancy to opening game of the season doesn't it and if Ipswich perform like they did against Liverpool with the adrenaline of that that performance last time I think you could probably if you'd have replaced Liverpool with half of the teams in the Premier League and they'd have produced that performance they'd have won that day and they were incredible for 60 minutes of that match before Liverpool's quality took over in the latter stages.

51:53So if they perform towards those sort of levels with that sort of adrenaline and the crowd behind them against Sunderland, they'll stand a much better chance of winning. And if you win your first one, you're off and running then. So give them what's to follow. There is a little bit of pressure on that. But I'll tell you what, Sunderland, second season syndrome, their expectations suddenly skyrocket now. They're in Europe. Will they come to Ipswich with, dare I say, a little bit of expectation, arrogance, and can Ipswich prey on that? I think this is a cracking first fixture for Ipswich to start with.

52:26Yeah, bring on.

52:27Ross Halls:Looking forward to it. But, of course, pre-season first of all. And, of course, Gary Neal's appointment and press conference will, of course, be covering that in all its glory. But, AJ, any other business you want to mention, anything you want to plug? Yeah. What was the favourite song at the Gorillaz? What was the favourite one of the night for you? Favorite Gorillaz song? I mean, they balance it out really well where you have the start that's a mixture of the new stuff and the kind of slightly left-field stuff that the proper fans like. And then at the end, you get all your heavy-hitting stuff.

53:03So my mate didn't know much of the first half of it. I really like the stuff from the new album. But all of the classics from Demon Days are my favorites and things like Feel Good Inc. and Dirty Arring and stuff like that. Great songs, so love those. If you've not properly listened to Gorillaz, go do it. It's great. You have a bit of everything, so I'm sure you'll find your taste. That is my parting word of advice. Things to plug. I've done some fixture analysis last week. She mentioned about things like games getting moved. I've had a look at those, which games could get moved. Spoiler alert, it's actually fewer than you think.

53:38And just a little look at some different runs, things you might need to know, that extended international break. Don't forget about that in September, October time. Yeah, I'll be doing the transfer targets pieces all through the summer. I would imagine there's a good chance the next one will be former Gary O 'Neill players he could link up with this summer and enjoy the World Cup. I'm loving it. It's great. I thought I wouldn't like the kickoff times that much. I don't as much as four years ago when we had everything spaced in the day. But it's nice to finish the day, have something at five, have something at eight, have something at 11.

54:12those are really good so enjoying that too

54:15Ross Halls:Is George Hurst going to play? Is he going to play again? I think he will get his cameo against Brazil I don't think he's going to start hopefully it will be enough with where Brazil are at the moment three points possibly and not getting too much of a hit on the goal difference will be enough to have them as one of the best third place teams Ali Alhamadi in action tonight dealing with two of the best strikers in the world Ali Alhamadi up against Kylian Mbappe, France against Iraq, although it sounds like that game could be getting postponed due to some very bad weather. I'm still excited to see that one though, assuming it's not played at silly o 'clock.

54:57Can I provide a World Cup service for our listeners? Go ahead. I'm absolutely loving this World Cup and part of it is I found a website going into it called Spoiler Free Football and what I like is being able to wake up in the morning with my coffee and I watch the highlights not knowing what's happened it makes it so much more enjoyable if you have to click onto the website and then you see the scoreline and a synopsis of what happened it's been really fun just watching wow Messi scored oh he scored again he's got hat trick like you get that that excitement of uh watching it so spoiler free football it's literally just in beds you get a choice of whether you click on ITV, BBC or the FIFA highlights, but it will just start playing them without any synopsis or spoilers.

55:46So that's been really good. I enjoy sitting down in the morning and watching all the highlights from the game before. Yeah, the kickoff times are, it's not quite the same, is it? Being able to sit and gorge football throughout the day, but it's delivering. I mean, it's for all the talk about where it is, the stadiums look magnificent you know it looks really vibrant there the big names have delivered with goals we've had some really spicy games haven't we with it kicking off at the end after after a couple of the matches we've seen some of the minnows grinding out points um it's ticking a lot of the boxes so far and england were pretty exciting to watch as well weren't they in that second half so um we're not gonna say it we're not gonna say it all right

56:28Ross Halls:I'm not saying it, right? I'm not saying it. I'm not saying those words just yet. You know what I'm saying. Shout out to town fans, though. I know there's a few town fans actually in America, you know, watching it just games. I think even just general, just other town fans who are from different countries as well, are there at the World Cup and enjoy the game. So if you're listening, let us know. Get in contact. But I know there's a few that I know. My old driver instructor, Whitley, Tom Whitley is currently enjoying the sights of America. So go and follow England. He's a nutcase. He goes and watches.

57:02Ross Halls:Switch home and away and also England home and away. So shout out to you, Tom. I was going to say, you have to be a nutcase to teach Ross to drive. Gosh, yeah. That was years ago now. That's how we can afford this trip, the amount of lessons you must have had, I reckon. Yeah, back then. But we won't get into that. But boys, thank you very much for joining me. I'm sure we'll reconvene when Gary O 'Neill is appointed and we'll get our reflections on his first press conference and stuff like that. But just watch his face, ladies and gentlemen. We shall see when good old Gary Paul O 'Neill is appointed.

57:38Ross Halls:Stu, AJ, thanks for joining me. Thanks, everyone, for listening and watching. Make sure to check out our sponsors, Molecular. Use the code KOA10 to get 10 % off your next order or your clean car cleaning business and all that jazz. As I butchered the outro, follow us on all the socials Kings of Anglia and we'll see you next time on the Kings of Anglia podcast bye for now

58:28Thank you.

58:53Thank you.

59:22Thank you.