640: Kings of Anglia: Fatawu, Philogene and our level of concern about Town’s lack of transfer activity

19:38Stuart Watson:Yes, I could probably see a world in which he departs. I haven't got an inside track on this one, but the noise is there. There's clearly some agitation from his camp with the change of agent. It's always a bit unsavoury, isn't it? When you feel like somebody is trying to sort of engineer a move out the door, as I said in another video I've done, we don't know Jadon's thoughts on this. We don't know if it's the people around him. But it will come down to only Gary O 'Neill and his staff will know when they sit down with Jadon Philogene and they look him in the eyes and have a conversation as to how committed he is to Ipswich Town and whether he wants to be here.

20:23Stuart Watson:I know as soon as that first story about changing of agents and could leave, a lot of Ipswich fans sort of jumped on it and sort of said, well, he's got to go then, get rid sort of thing. And I think some of that is down to maybe the fact that he's quite a quiet character, has maybe been a little bit more distance from the fan base, hasn't done a lot of media, wasn't front and centre of the celebrations at the end of the season, that maybe they just haven't quite connected with him as they have done with some of the other players, which is remarkable really considering he scored in both derby wins last season and had his own goal of the season competition going on at times.

21:06Stuart Watson:I would be disappointed if he left because I don't think there's loads jumping off the page as kind of, I'm not saying he's a slam dunk Premier League player, but he's certainly towards the top of the queue in terms of players that I think have got the attributes and the technical abilities to be a success and take his game to whole new levels. So we had last summer, didn't we, with Broadhead and Hutchinson sagas dragging on. if it is to be an exit. I hope it isn't one that drags on and on and get it sorted and able to move on quickly. But lots of ifs, buts and maybe still around this one at the moment.

21:53Stuart Watson:Yeah, you got any thoughts on this, AJ?

21:54Mark Heath:If he does go, how much would you be looking for in terms of a fee for him? I mean, definitely. I mean, the clubs that have been linked so far with the BBC report were Bologna, Roma and Benfica. I've heard that there's Premier League interest in him as well. I'd imagine there's a good chance that there's more European interest in him beyond that. So, yeah, I think that you can understand why the interest is there. I guess the balance now is going to be the fact that Ipswich are going to want a strong return, a fair return, because they've spent£20 million on him previously. So you'd be looking to turn a profit on that.

22:33So I'd say that the minimum you'd be looking at would be 30, 35. And you'd be looking to have an Amari Hutchinson-style sale that would be able to fund further signings later this summer. If he's to go, that would be kind of the figure that I'd be looking at. I guess the difference, sorry, Alex, with Amari is that, yeah,

22:54Stuart Watson:it's a similar outlay for the two players, around the£20 million mark. Mark Amari eventually went for, was it 37 and a half to Forest? But that was off the back of a season of playing regularly in the Premier League. And the difference here is Jadon's just done it in the Championship. He's still not got that proper season under his belt in the Prem, has he? So has he done enough to get to that sort of level of, you know, 35 plus million pounds? I'm not so sure. And so if offers aren't reaching that amount, Is he worth more to Ipswich in the building than he is out of it to only turn a small profit?

23:35Stuart Watson:I don't know. It'll all come down to, like I say, his desire, his want to be here because you don't want to be carrying players that have got half an eye on being elsewhere. So I'm intrigued to see how this one pans out.

23:51Mark Heath:Yeah, right. Those are certainly the kind of headline sexy stuff stories we have to talk about. I just want to skip by a couple of more because I want to get to the mail bag elkin bag has left um understand according to aj that deal um just under a million pounds if you want to get our verdict on that there's a there's a video out there for you we've also had a couple of other departures in terms of kieran slicker going out on loan to barnsley and uh young keeper henry gray has gone out um to new zealand home of his home of his birth um or indeed at least his homeland i'm not sure if he's actually born using off the top of my head um but he's gone to Wellington Phoenix.

24:24Mark Heath:So two keepers out the door and there's one more rumour just to mention quickly AJ, which you've just done before we went live. A Dutch keeper. Seems like Town are going to be in the market for a keeper this summer. They've got their two young keepers out on loan again. What can you tell us about this? Second Dutch goalkeeper link after Skirpen, the incredibly tall shot stopper. This is another one who's got a bit of height on him. Six foot six. This is Kane van Ooverlen, who's over at FC Volendam in the Netherlands. They got promoted two seasons ago and were relegated from the top flight last year.

25:00So the report, which came from Vukbo International, was that Ipswich had a bid rejected for him. The follow-up from De Telegraaf is that this was€3 million, so about£2.5 million that has been rejected. And it looks like a little bit of a two-horse race here because Valencia have also agreed personal terms with him. it's not not supposed to be an issue for it switch either if they they go down that route but uh yeah valencia the other team in haven't bid for him so it looks like there could be a little bit of a a rivalry to sign this goalkeeper at least according to the reports from the netherlands he as mentioned got relegated with volendam last year if you look at kind of the the basic numbers i think it's something like three clean sheets it's not the strongest return but uh playing for a really poor team in the Netherlands.

25:50He was up there with one of the top goalkeepers in the Netherlands with his save percentages, with the saves per 90. Yeah, really impressive. So you can see why. He's obviously different from a Nick Pope, for example, or some of the other more experienced goalkeepers that Ipswich have been linked with this summer. And interesting to see whether they would be recruiting him to start or be in a supporting role because obviously it's not a big money move going for a£2.5 million goalkeeper from the Netherlands. But really, with Christian Walton and Alex Palmer still at the club, you would imagine that it's going to be more of looking for a starter.

26:30So, yeah, interesting to see if that is going to be the case with Van Oeverleand. But Ipswich bid rejected about£2.5 million, according to reports in the Netherlands.

26:39Mark Heath:OK, hearing the sexy stuff, if you want more sexy stuff, more in-depth sexy stuff, there is a transfer talk. video and kind of mini pod out there you can go and listen to as well but i want to move on because we've got loads of mailbag questions uh and by way of transitioning like a lovely segue um into mailbag there's there's a question which i think we need to start with having just been discussing transfer business i'm going to ask you this uh stewie because you've done something about this very question this is from dr j on instagram should we start to worry about the lack of signings. Now, clearly, there's a narrative, Stu, you'd say, widely held, it feels that way on social media anyway, that Town are miles behind everyone else in terms of their business this summer, having only made one kind of new signing.

27:28Mark Heath:I know technically they've made three, but Emerson is the only new signing. So should we be worried, Stu, because you've done a bit of a deep dive into where Town sit compared to the rest of the Premier League, and also where they sit compared to previous summers?

27:44Stuart Watson:Not yet would be my first response to that. And I can go into a little bit more detail. I think this summer is, the first thing to say is this summer's different to previous summers. It's a much longer break. The season finished 76 days ago now, which that day against QPR feels like a long time ago. It is. There's still five weeks to go until the big kickoff against Sunderland. It's a World Cup summer, and I think that always might roll their eyes, but that does affect the transfer market. Yes, things have happened earlier. Anderson to Man City, etc. But, you know, sometimes you have to wait for the dominoes to forewhips, which are not at the top of the food chain.

28:28Stuart Watson:And there might be some situations where they're waiting for somebody to sell before they're or to buy before they're willing to sell. We don't know that. every manager goes into or every club every manager goes into every transfer window saying i want to do things early and the benefits of that are clear because you can get players settled and you can take them away to your early training camps which fly out to spain on sunday for for the first one of theirs but saying it and wanting it and being able to do it is two different things the nature of life is if you put a deadline people will work to that deadline you probably pay more earlier in the window I would suggest if you really want to get a deal done you can Ipswich would be in a position to do it but you know the Fatahui one's an interesting one I would imagine the longer Leicester go into a summer transfer window the more they're thinking we need to raise some funds here and the price might just sort of dwindle a little bit so So in answer to your question, where they're at compared to everyone else, not miles behind, I think in terms of Premier League spending, if you include the Kipra and Akpom deals, they're 11th out of 20 Premier League clubs, so middle of the pack.

29:47Stuart Watson:Yes, I know people are fixated on Tottenham spending loads of money. They've got six through the door, but they're kind of outliers at the moment. I'm just having a look at it. Forest haven't signed anyone yet. Sunderland, Palace, Leeds Hull, Villa Bournemouth, they're all on sort of one fresh face if we exclude kind of loans becoming permanent so that is on a par with what Ipswich have done so far with just Emerson through the door so that's not to say that if another week or so rolls by that I wouldn't start getting a little bit twitchy because as we've discussed in great depth, there's plenty of work that needs to be done but I'm not at panic stations just yet.

30:31Mark Heath:I was really interested in the bit you've done, which is going to go out tomorrow morning. The signing of Emerson is incredibly early. If you look at when the season kicks off and compared to what they've done in previous seasons, that is like super early, isn't it? So as you say, with everything being pushed back for the World Cup and the season starting later, there's kind of mitigating factors around this conversation.

30:55Stuart Watson:Yeah, Emerson just was... You can't ever do date-for-date comparisons by looking at June X or July X because it just doesn't marry up in terms of when seasons start. So you have to kind of look at so many days before the season. Emerson deal got done 45 days ahead of kick-off, which by comparison, last year it didn't sign anyone that far in advance of the season starting. I think David Button was 35 days in advance of the season. And then Matasea and Kipro were signed pretty much on the eve of that first trip away to Austria. And as we know, there was then a bit of a late scramble, which contributed to the slow start.

31:41Stuart Watson:I'm hoping circumstances are different this year in terms of exits. We're not going to have a, you know, I know we've just discussed Villagene, but hopefully there's not the same quantity of Broadhead, Hutchinson, and even the Chaplin-Wolfenden situations and all of that going down to the wire. And the great thing this year is that even though the season starts on August 22nd, the transfer window still shuts on August 31st. So there's only two league games, Sunderland and Man United, before the window shuts. So I think there was four last year where everything was all in a sort of state of flux.

32:19Stuart Watson:So less disruption, hopefully, with the window this time. For me, I'd love it if it just shut before the first game. I think that would be the sensible way to do it. But there you go.

32:30Mark Heath:Sensible in football. Doesn't often mix. But I think our answer to that question, Dr J, would be, should we be worried? No, not just yet. And hopefully, obviously, the World Cup finishing on Sunday and then players going off to training camps, this and the other. Hopefully, things will start to pick up a little bit. It certainly feels like we're starting to get more solid rumours now anyway. Right. Question for you, AJ. which is kind of linked to that World Cup. Steve Clark wants to know, what's your view on the World Cup third place playoff match? I think now it's officially called the bronze medal game.

33:02Mark Heath:Woke. It seems so pointless. It seems so pointless. Imagine having a game between the championship playoff semifinalists to see who came third or fourth. He says, I know they're calling it the bronze final now, but I'm not having that. So we've got a bronze final. We've got football played in four quarters now as well in America. So these are big steps forward for the sport, I would say. AJ fantastic bronze medal is brilliant isn't it especially if England win it wow third place yay yeah could you imagine like being part of that squad and then having to you just suffered an absolutely heartbreaking defeat concealing two late goals and then you're like well that's back in troning we've got France on Saturday to see who finishes third just just nonsense absolute nonsense.

33:48I think that there's a few things that tick at that. Definitely these being played in quarters with the water breaks. I can understand it for some games where it's 40 degrees but applying it across the board is ridiculous. I know that this is one that might be more controversial given the Ipswich links to this. I think that it's really good the way that Ipswich did the celebrating promotion thing. I'm all for that. I think they're getting a trophy for finishing second. Absolute nonsense. You're spot on there. Win the league, you get a title. Finish second, you're promoted. Celebrate that. Do an open top bus.

34:28All for that. Like they did. I know they got criticised for doing the bus. I think that's stupid. Go for it. Why not? Because you're celebrating promotion but not with a trophy. You get a trophy for winning the league. You don't get one for winning the playoffs. You finish top, that's it. So, yeah, anyway, I'm going to now spend the next 40 minutes going through all the things I hate about football. But, yeah, those are definitely three of them that annoy me.

34:52Mark Heath:Do you just want to chime in with your thoughts on the manner of defeat, Stu? Obviously, England doing an England and bottling it for a change.

35:00Stuart Watson:No, I was absolutely gutted like everyone else. I am a big England fan. I felt like we're of an age now where we've built up lots of scars with England. And I did feel like this potentially could be the time when you looked at the team and I thought, you know, Bayern Munich goal machine, Real Madrid superstar in there. You go through it, you know, loads of Man City players, Arsenal players. there's nothing I can say that hasn't already been said about that those final 20 minutes and yeah deeply disappointing and you're right I could not give less of a F about Saturday's third place game I can't bring myself to watch that

35:52Mark Heath:the game that no one wants to play just then following on from the manner of England's defeat question from matt casburn stew should tushel be fired yes or no

36:04Stuart Watson:i'm always wary of kind of jumping on populist opinion and i think i get the the argument that a big part of tushel selling himself for the job when he got appointed was i'm not going to be like southgate you know it was clear he'd been brought in with to to win a trophy and to be able to do what Southgate didn't and in these big moments be able to make the big calls and get it over the line and not be fearful in the big moments and that's kind of exactly what they did you know just thing but then I take a step back and I do see the counter argument that actually the great England retreat happened before the substitutes started if you if you actually go back and have a look at it it was becoming a sort of a back five back six almost immediately after the Gordon goal and the manager has to kind of react to that and get the correct personnel on the pitch.

36:54Stuart Watson:Maybe that sent out the wrong message. Maybe that created confusion. Maybe he needed to throw on some more attacking subs. I don't know. But ultimately, look, Argentina are very good. They are the world champions. They have the greatest player of all time in their team. So there is that. In terms of Tuchel, I just feel like there's too much damage done amongst the fan base now in terms of everything will be jumped upon going forwards. And I don't know if that's necessarily going to be a good thing for the unity going forward. So he was brought in to win a trophy. He hasn't done it. I think it's probably best that he moves on, in all honesty.

37:38Stuart Watson:And Pep's available, isn't he? Isn't that the trajectory? Have you not heard the bit from this morning? is The Athletic that said that there was actually a verbal agreement that Pep would take over England when he was going to lead Manchester City and then he changed his mind and said he wanted to stay at Man City. So it sounds like that one might not be a runner. And I'll put this to you guys. Do you think that club managers can manage international football in the same way going and getting elite managers? It doesn't seem to transition that well for me. You look at the final again this year and it's two managers who kind of – I think one was a promoted assistant and the other one's kind of come through the ranks of managing.

38:19I mean, Spain with De La Fuente, I think, managed internationally at youth level. I'm not sure that you can go and kind of get this elite manager and it will kind of transition in the same way. Like, have we seen enough to suggest that it would? Or are England in a position where actually, you know what, go get Lee Carsley?

38:40Mark Heath:Well, it's very different, isn't it? Because you've got so much downtime. I think I remember listening to, I can't remember who it was now, but saying just how quiet it seems being an international manager. It might have been Southgate, actually. And obviously in terms of actually having the players with you, not very often, all the kind of diplomacy that has to go on with clubs, releasing them and then playing them in friendlies and risk of injury and all that kind of stuff. And also you'd say that, particularly with the England job, it's probably not paid that well compared to other big, big jobs in football.

39:10Mark Heath:So how appealing is it to the true cream?

39:13Stuart Watson:You know what the answer is, don't you? What's that? Well, what's worked for England in the past? Going and getting an Ipswich Town Manager. Oh, I see.

39:22Mark Heath:Okay, so what is that where Kieran's going?

39:24Stuart Watson:No, I'm not advocating Gary O 'Neill. I'm advocating Kieran McKenna. He wants a little bit of a rest. He's given to, you know, the club management and the day-to-day has drained him. Go and get him. He's of that sort of empathetic Southgate. Southgate personality. Yeah.

39:46Stuart Watson:I'm not genuinely advocating that, but I could see him in international management eventually one day. I think at the moment, you know, when he comes back, it will be in club management, but yeah.

39:59Mark Heath:Anyway, right, let's move on. Gareth Beeney wants to know, it's a good question, Gareth, bear in mind town have Liverpool and Manchester United second and third, followed by two away games. Is the first game, Sunderland, August 22nd, almost a must-win already in terms of fans getting on the side of Gary O 'Neill? I mean, we talk about pressure. We talk about every game being bigger than the last game. We're talking about the first game of the season, potentially.

40:24Stuart Watson:Every game's a cup final and we're starting literally with the first match.

40:29Mark Heath:But I can see the argument in terms of the pictures afterwards. It's similar. I mean, I know it's probably not quite as brutal as their last start in the Premier League. But Man United and Liverpool as games two and three after a home game against Sunderland, who obviously had a tremendous season. There's going to be pressure there, isn't there, AJ? Because on paper, you'd say that's an opportunity. But then we know that the step up to the Premier League is massive. Yeah, I think it feels a bit more like a must-not-lose game. I think if they go and lose that first game, it'll be a mood killer.

40:58And that's the last thing you want ahead of taking yourselves up to Old Trafford and then the Friday night against Liverpool under the lights. I said this when we did the initial analysis I think Ipswich need to win one of their first five they need to get it off the back at least one of the first five I think that United and Liverpool end up as free hits and so you're looking at one of the other ones but I wouldn't necessarily say that I'm not looking at the games against Everton and Palace as incredibly daunting matches they're definitely ones I could see Ipswich going to win how many times in the last Premier League season, did they go and get a good result?

41:37They'd go and they'd draw against Villa or against Fulham. And you're like, wow, that's a good result for Ipswich. They've done really well there. Gone to Villa Park and got a draw. And then you kind of look at it and think, well, you know what? It just doesn't do that much for them, does it? It doesn't actually. You need to go and win the game. So, yeah, I think that they need to win one of those first five. I think that they need to get the mental block out of the way. I think that was the hardest thing within the last season and the narrative building, and I'm sure us coming into every McKenna press conference saying, how hard is it for you that you haven't won a game?

42:12You're in October, you're in November now. It took until Spurs. Didn't win the home game until that Chelsea game. That's the only home game they've won. So for me, they need to overcome that mental barrier and that kind of block early, and they need to win one of those first five. I wouldn't necessarily say it has to be the Sondland game.

42:31Mark Heath:just thought of a headline for the very first sub of the season Stu, just must win straight on the front. That's my first question

42:37Stuart Watson:to Gary when I see him in pre-season No pressure but is your first game must win Gary? Will you walk if you don't win it? Pressure

42:48Mark Heath:mounts on O 'Neill after 0-0

42:50Stuart Watson:But you know the logic behind that question is sound, I'm not mocking the question because genuinely you have to, I think you're right, psychologically Logically, you have to get off to a good start. Sunderland got off to a fly last season and, you know, look what that did for them. So, yeah, here we go again. Absolutely.

43:12Mark Heath:All right, let's do a bit of nonsense before we return to football. Stevie Adams wants to know, if you had to be reincarnated as a bird, Stuart Watson, which type of bird would you pick and why? Eagle or similar type not allowed?

43:22Stuart Watson:I don't know why that is. Be creative. Ruling out birds of prey. Eagles and that because they're majestic. He doesn't want any of that.

43:30Mark Heath:that's what i would want to be i would want to be an apex predator if i was a bird so i'd want to be an eagle if i couldn't be an eagle i mean what's the biggest bird ostrich they can run pretty fast as well can't they if it couldn't be an eagle i'd be an ostrich you got any any thoughts um

43:53Stuart Watson:birds

43:57Stuart Watson:I'm at a stage in life now I think this was a social media trend for a while that if my wife comes in and says oh I saw this bird outside the other day she describes it to me I have to google it I have to look it up we've got a little visitor in our garden at the moment a little black and white thing that bobs its tail up and down and is very inquisitive I googled it the other day I can't remember what it was called now

44:25Stuart Watson:something wagtail I'll be one of those he looks quite a short guy a pied wagtail pied wagtail yeah

44:33Mark Heath:with a constant motion of the tail hence the name yeah my ill-gotten childhood in the RSPB just coming to play there ornithology well one of many things mate AJ you got any thoughts on birds so I'm under the age of 60 so I don't really have a strong interest in birds. And to be honest, if you ask me what anything is outside of a pigeon, I'd probably struggle. If I was to be a bird, I'd like to be one of them that migrate somewhere hot and fly off there. So, yeah, that would be my thing. But I'm going to be honest, my bird knowledge and understanding and probably interest is quite low. Okay. I know you said no eagles, but I'd want to be a sea eagle.

45:19Mark Heath:I don't know if you've ever seen any of them. I saw them in Scotland. a couple of years ago, they are massive. Huge claws, apex predators. That's what I'd want to be. Anyway, moving on. Where are we? Another question, and I've completely changed the chat, so I'm lost. I was trying to find the name of a bird that Liz saw in Mexico, but I can't find it because it had a brilliant name. Anyway, let's find the questions. Here we are. This one is from Ben Diath, AJ. It's a hot summer, correct, Ben? Apart from water, you only get one other drink to drink ever again. what do you choose tea coffee beer squash etc

46:00um i've already shouted woke once on this podcast i'm about to say tea so yeah i'm properly british and uh that would be my answer to be honest and i know it's

46:11Mark Heath:is this just like full stop like full stop you can have water and another drink it feels like a nice balance to me when it's hot and you've got your hot summers you've got a nice cold glass of water when it's cold you need something to warm you up you have a nice cup of tea i say that as well i do survive off coffee as i said regularly and i do worry that my caffeine levels might like drop through the floor if i lose it um oh no i'll stick with it there's caffeine and tea it's all right yeah tea is what i'm going to go with i mean i am also similarly addicted to coffee especially um espressos flat whites that's my uh my particular drink but if i could only have one other drink other than water i think it would have to be something alcoholic i could not have a beer again for the rest of my life there's nothing better on a hot day than a cold crisp beer in a beer garden or your own back garden nothing hits the spot quite like that so i'd have to go with that because that not being in my life would make Mark miserable.

47:14Mark Heath:So you got any thoughts?

47:20Stuart Watson:Tea. Okay, tea. Tea. Excellent.

47:25Mark Heath:Peachy wants to know, I'll stick with you, who was your first footballing cult hero? Got to be an Everton player, was it? Was it Big Dunk? Yeah, Big Dunk. Yeah. Big Dunk on Ferguson. I would go Paolo Warnshop used to play for Derby who was a tremendously flamboyant Costa Rican player who once scored one of the best goals you'd ever see at Old Trafford against Man United very long legs AJ was this sorry was this hero or cult hero cult hero oh that's a hard one are we going to get into semantics about cult hero and hero well yeah because like my one of my favourite players growing up to be honest was Ronaldinho but I can't have him as a cult hero because he certainly isn't cult.

48:06He's just a legend of the game. To be perfectly honest, a lot of mine would end up going into Cambridge United folklore of players that were just iconic but also absolutely terrible. Adi Aziz at Cambridge United 2018 when I was a season ticket holder, which was my one season as a season ticket holder. Absolutely. I hope he's not listening to this. I'm sure he isn't. Dreadful footballer. Had a brilliant chance. A brilliant chance, sorry. Signed from Partick Thistle. Just iconic, but also a total donkey. Can't believe that he got to play as many games as he did. But yeah, he weirdly had a place close to my heart.

48:45Almost because he was bad. It was just great. So yeah, Adi Aziz from Cambridge United.

48:49Stuart Watson:In the spirit of cult heroes, in the way that AJ's just described them, do you remember the name Ibrahima Bakayoko? Yes. He signed for Everton and I was beyond excited because he was incredible on champ manager 97-98. He's the first player that everybody signed, I think from Marseille. I can't quite remember. It was quite a big fee for him. I immediately went out and got his name and number on the back of a shirt. He was absolute pony.

49:22Mark Heath:We'll be talking heroes. My first football hero full stop was Peter Shilton. and my enthusiasm for said former England goalkeeper has waned significantly down the years with his behaviour since. Right, let's move on to, there's a good question in here. Ed Hartston, this is for you, Stu. Behind the curtain question, during the summer window, at what stage do you know a transfer is happening and start writing? How much time do you usually have before it goes live and roughly how many stories get binned because the deal falls through? No names needed. So Ed wants a peep. behind the curtain stew how much of a peak can we give him um let's start with how many deals

50:03Stuart Watson:fall through um there will be lots that probably have never made the public domain and that i don't know about there's some i mean one i can talk about i think because it's it was fairly well known was amando broya remember the last time it was promoted to to the premier league um That was a story I broke. And I was quite pleased about that because we got in there ahead of, you know, some of the Nationals and Fabrizio Romano, etc. And then it fell through a medical stage. But I think that had got to the stage where, you know, he got his shirt pictures and everything all done. So it happens probably more than we all realize.

50:48Stuart Watson:How much advance notice do we have? every deal differs um sometimes we literally know when the social media post comes out and things can take us completely by surprise um sometimes like with the emerson one i think for for for several days that was kind of fairly well known um so we can have a bit more of a conversation and just you know let us know time wise and we might you know it's going to get announced at this time so It just gives us a bit of a chance to prep stuff. And then there has been, it doesn't happen that often, but there's the odd conversation over the years. Going back a little bit further, someone like Bursant Salina that I was kind of aware, Ips, which were fairly advanced in signing.

51:37Stuart Watson:His name wasn't out there at all. And then that becomes a bit of a conversation with the club to say, we really want this player. And we think if his name gets out there, it's going to harm our chances so um as much as it's sort of painful at times to sit on on good information and a good story um you know there's also pick your battles sometimes and you know there's a relation day-to-day relations with with the club to maintain so it doesn't happen very often i'll be honest but there is the odd conversation like that where we we might sit on something just for a for a period until um you know because we don't want to uh we don't want to do something that disrupts what the club's trying to do but um no by and large not not not that much in advance i think it's fair to say um yeah okay uh let's move on this

52:28Mark Heath:is another good question kind of linked to transfers aj i'll ask you this phil razier wants to know off instagram compared to kira mckenna does o 'neill improve or worsen how attractive town are to transfer targets

52:44cool that's a that's a very difficult are you going to be worried about being diplomatic because if you want i'll answer it um i think it's a fairly obvious answer i yeah i think that it probably does worsen to be honest yeah let's just come out and say it um i think that i hate this word within modern football, to be honest, and the way it gets thrown around. There's an aura around Kieran McKenna, isn't there? And the way that he is, the way that he talks, the way that he operates. And Gary O 'Neill is different. And I think when you look at what Kieran's done, it comes with huge success and the background of being at Manchester United, the background of being an incredible coach.

53:28And you can very clearly see the way that he's improved players over time. And we've seen that from League One into the championship, into the Premier League, where players have signed. You see it quoted from players who join. Oh, you know what? The manager was such a big part. And Gary O 'Neill is a really sharp tactician. He's also someone that I think if you're a player, you might say, well, you know, I wasn't maybe enamoured by, you got sacked at Bournemouth. I was concerned about maybe the dressing room at Wolves, things like that. And I'd say there's more maybe question marks and concerns over it if you were a player coming in.

54:06I don't think it's huge. I don't think that, you know, if you're a player, you're going to be, and Ipswich approach you, you're definitely going to say yes if it's Kieran McKenna and you're definitely going to be put off if it's Gary O 'Neill. But there's no doubt that there is something about Kieran McKenna, what he's done, his background, that makes him such an appealing manager, for sure.

54:27Mark Heath:Yeah, I'd 100 % agree with that. Not to say that there's not clear a lot of things appealing about Ipswich Town and the project and the club. But if you're just going man for man, manager for manager, there's no doubt that O 'Neill is less appealing, I would say, to potential targets. Would you disagree, Stu?

54:43Stuart Watson:I would say when you're a player considering which club to sign for, how high really does manager rank on that list of reasons to sign? It might be a factor when you're doing your own research and it's a small game and you're speaking to your mates and you're finding out what's he like to work for. and if, yeah, he's great and his training's really interesting and engaging and he's a player developer and a big selling point would have been, look what Kieran's done with Amari Hutchinson, XYZ, and he can also do that with you. But ultimately, wages is right towards the top of the list. Length of contract, whether there's any kind of relegation clauses, all those things rank way higher whether the club you feel like the club's in a in a healthy position to try and stay up and that's when everything else sold around the club in terms of the ambition of the ownership how much money is there behind it um all of that sort of thing those factors rank way higher than than manager and i know training ground will get mentioned a lot they're all that the manager they're all nice little sweeteners that might help just tip something over the edge but i don't i don't think it's going to make or break whether someone wants

56:07Mark Heath:to come to ipswich town this summer okay uh next question linked to manager toria molly on on instagram says what current player would make a good manager in future stew current ipswich players

56:24Stuart Watson:not loads jumping off the page for me if i'm honest um you know if you'd have asked me this during the the band of brothers group i think there's quite a few of those that will go on connor chaplin i think will be a i think will almost certainly be a manager and be a very good one because he's a football obsessive loves the tactical element of the game and also has the the people skills uh to go with it um i think quite a few of them were doing kind of some of the coaching courses weren't they um yeah yeah but of the current crop i really don't know actually is there any that you're thinking of aj leaf is the one that comes to mind for me and i think that again when you look at the tactical side he's very sharp on that and whenever I talk to him about that kind of side of things, his role, he goes into quite a lot of depth about it.

57:23He's very well aware of other teams and other kind of approaches and things like that. Do you remember when he was really bizarre? Last season, he just loved Stoke. He thought Stoke were the best team ever. And the two times that Town played Stoke, he was going on saying, oh, they're brilliant. What a fantastic team. and it comes from the fact that I think he does watch quite a lot of football and he stays very in tune with things. So he would probably be the one, but I agree. And I did a bit, actually, I was talking to one of the Leicester reporters and they put a piece out and I said in that bit, I would be astonished that if he didn't go on to become a manager, Connor Chaplin, one day, because, I mean, how he holds himself, his approach, obviously tactically as well.

58:09There are many times I've asked him about, you know, why did you do this? How did you do this? And he'd talk about, like, he almost had this photographic memory of certain moments within the game. Like, you could ask him now, what do you remember? I think Stu might have done this. What do you remember about your goal against Sunderland? And he can literally picture it, like, frame by frame. And I think he can do that for a lot of moments that he's kind of played through. So, yeah, he would be definitely the one of the ex-Blues. Leaf would be my pick of this current kind of crop.

58:39Mark Heath:Leaf's going to be a pilot though, isn't he? He's not going to be bothered about management when he's going to fly planes, I think. Right, let's do a couple more. One more, because this kind of links actually, because I imagine this is going to be the answer. Selfie Chef wants to know, which town player is the best chance of getting in the England squad in future? And for me, thinking about it, would be Leaf. Stu, is there any advance on that?

59:00Stuart Watson:He's got a little way to go to get himself back in the picture. You think two years ago, there was genuine talk around that. I remember speaking to Calvin Phillips good mates with Leaf and Calvin was saying to him, believe you should be in there, you can get in there. And that was off the back of the 18 assists in the championship. But his stock sort of took a bit of a knock, didn't it, in the Premier League? How much of that was down to the system and him being left maybe too exposed to world-class wingers? I guess we're going to find out second time around as to how he's used by Gary O 'Neill.

59:35Stuart Watson:But since then, we've had the emergence of a few players, haven't we, with Nico O 'Reilly and Lewis Skelly and various others. So he doesn't feel particularly close to it at the moment. But is he the closest of all the English players?

59:56Stuart Watson:We've talked about Jadon a little bit on here. He's a former England Under-21 international. He's played a fair bit at that level. is he someone that could potentially get there i mean how old is jayden now 23 feels like 24 i'm not not convinced there either to be honest with the platform attacking options go on now i know that this is a position where england do have a little bit of kind of options and there are a couple of young ones as well but i will stand by there are not that many top left-footed, physically dominant centre-backs within English football. Obviously, Levi Colwell's one, Jared Bramthwaite's one.

1:00:41But beyond that, let's say players who will still be in their prime in four, five, six, seven years' time. Jacob Greaves, can I put it out there? I know that it probably hasn't worked for him in quite the way that he would have wanted since making the move to Ipswich. and obviously he was seen as a player with a hugely high ceiling when he first joined and maybe hasn't kicked on in the same way. But he's one of those who I think could thrive in the Premier League, can handle the physical side of the game, and just being a left-footer I think is really, really important. I'm not saying that he is going to be a future England international.

1:01:19There's plenty of good young left-footed centre-backs there.

1:01:22Stuart Watson:It's not a wild shout because I think Harry Maguire is his poster boy, a former hole man himself and how old was Maguire when he got that Man United move? I think he was 25, 26 by that point so yeah, again he's got a fair bit of growth to go maybe a bit of a point to prove in the Premier League but in terms of the argument you've just outlined maybe but I don't think we're going to be really going into bat heavily for too many in the squad at this moment in time.

1:01:58Mark Heath:Yeah, we're not going to have to worry about England squad announcements for a while, are we? But going back to Jacob Greaves, I still want to just flag up my shout from when he signed, I think, early on. And I said he had a potential future Ipswich town captain. Stand by that. Right, final football question. And then we've got one question of the week to finish off with. This one is from Chung Cam. If you were given the chance to sign any football player, past or present, to help Ipswich stay up this season, who would you go for? and how much are you willing to spend? I'm going to say, I'll go first.

1:02:28Mark Heath:Obviously, stay in the Premier League and need goals. I'm signing a striker. I think the best striker I've ever seen, ever, is probably original Ronaldo. He was like a freak of nature. And in the Premier League, I think probably the best striker I've ever seen is Thierry Henry. So, I would say probably Thierry Henry, either him or Drogba, for the kind of physicality aspect of the Premier League. So, yeah, Thierry Henry. And how much are we willing to spend? God knows how much Thierry Henry would be worse in today's climate. I'm saying for a couple of hundred million at least. That would be my answer.

1:03:08Mark Heath:How about you, Stu?

1:03:10Stuart Watson:Yeah, the spend part is interesting because does it have to be kind of within budget in this kind of fictional scenario?

1:03:16Mark Heath:Well, I think we're playing a fantasy game here, aren't we? You can't limit yourself to budget if you're saying I want to sign Thierry Henry.

1:03:22Stuart Watson:Yeah, just pay all of the money because it doesn't matter. We should put the club in administration. Any player. So it doesn't have to be an ex-Ipswich player. It could be any player from any era. I think centre midfield is arguably the position that Ipswich need in that sort of left-sided six role. is probably the position that Ipswich need the most strengthening. I think that could be the key one. Who would I take for that position?

1:03:57Mark Heath:Lothar Matthias.

1:03:59Stuart Watson:My granddad.

1:04:04Stuart Watson:I'm trying to think of my era. As much as it pains me to say this as an Evertonian, probably someone like Steven Gerrard that can be that box-to-box leader, captain, big moments man, drag everyone up with him, score goals. If he's not available in his pomp, I'll probably take Zidane.

1:04:26Mark Heath:He's all right. I'd also try and sign Stanley Matthews. AJ? You're going with a striker, but if you have a striker, more often than not, you need someone to create the chances for that striker. Not necessarily with Henry. could make his own chances. Okay, fair enough. And I think that, look, I've already mentioned him once, but the vibes, the vibes of Ronaldinho rocking up at Portman Road. You know, you need someone who can create. You need someone who can score. You can do both of those, of course. But also, you know what football is? Football's fun. Football's entertainment. Football is ensuring that people want to come and watch your team.

1:05:08It's bums on seats. that's what it is at its heart. And if there's someone who's fun to watch, who's entertaining, who will get you standing up and cheering, it's someone who can do what Ronaldinho could do. So you know what? Honestly, with some of the things I've seen him do recently, I'd still back him to get him down to Portman Road. I know he's probably about 50 now, but why not? And yeah, he'd be the one I'd go for. Him and Emerson could vibe as the Samba boys, couldn't they? could you imagine the celebrations you know we're like brazilian players in particular do like the kind of the group celebration do the dances yeah could you imagine please clip that someone uh yeah that would be great i'd be so up for that it's interesting that we've been given

1:05:52Mark Heath:scope to have any player from football history and none of us have said messi or maradona or those are the boring answers i mean i tried last time someone we got this question before and i didn't realise you could pick any player ever and I was like, oh, it's current players and I was like, realistic, and I remember I was really big on Amad Diallo at that point and I was like, yeah and then you guys were like, what, any player in a football history, you choose Amad Diallo, and I was like, I think I've misunderstood the question so yeah, but you also want to do something a little bit different, not too kind of savey and boring, and if we all sit and say, oh, Ronaldo, oh, Messi blah blah blah, yeah, I like how we mixed it up there, that was good.

1:06:33Mark Heath:I'm saying original ronaldo i'm not saying no no original ronaldo was tremendous um right final question question of the week this week goes to ben brindle on blue sky which is how many 10 year olds do you think could be in a fight this is what we're here for uh ground rules you have to stay within the pitch at portman road no weapons allowed uh i mean i i hesitate to say this but i do have experience in terms of fighting 10-year-olds from my fighting days. That's the end of the Kings of Anglia podcast. It was sparring. So back in the day, everyone sparred each other. And there was a lad who was a very good young fighter who used to spar.

1:07:16Mark Heath:The rules were you couldn't hit him in the head. No head contact because he was young. I don't think he was 10, a bit older than that. Which obviously, you kind of go relatively light on a child. And he caught me with the biggest overhand right, like a missile. rock my world. His name was Joe LeMay. He's now one of the best fighters in the country. So, yeah, he gave me something to think about when fighting children. And another time during sparring, another story, I made a child vomit, which I'm not proud of, but it happened. So there we go. That's just an insight into the history of Heath and fighting children.

1:07:58Mark Heath:I reckon I could take a good number of 10-year-olds, if you're asking, depending on size, training. I mean, you've got the pile-on aspect, haven't you? So I would say at least 10, I reckon. How many 10-year-olds do you reckon you could beat in a fight, Stewie?

1:08:21Stuart Watson:Reluctant to answer this, seeing as I have a 10-year-old daughter myself. No one's suggesting you have to fight her. okay we'll exclude her if that's okay um is this just a random selection you've mentioned some sort of fighty children there there's a chance there'll be some in there but across the average if there's just going to be some average 10 year olds um your average 10 year old yeah uh on a football pitch So you've got a bit of room to sort of run away, beat the crowds.

1:08:54Mark Heath:Yeah.

1:08:57Stuart Watson:Probably see a few of them off quite quickly, wouldn't you? Yeah.

1:09:01Mark Heath:You'd hope so. You'd back yourself.

1:09:02Stuart Watson:Yeah, I think I could exceed your 10. I might push you to nearer 20. Okay.

1:09:11Mark Heath:Stu's taking out 20 10-year-olds. AJ, can you reckon you can exceed that? I am about the same height as a 10-year-old, which is the biggest problem that I think I'm going to face within this. I mean, for example, my girlfriend's sister is, how old is she, 12 now? And she's got like a good three inches on me in height. So that is an indication of where we're at here. So how many? Like two, maybe. And then I think I'd be done for. So, you know, the strength aspect I think I could handle. but I think that the hype might let me down a bit.

1:09:51Stuart Watson:I'd give them all an iPad, to be honest, and then just zombify them, and then it would be easy pickings from there, to be honest. A little insight into 10-year-olds now, for those that don't have much experience with them in this day and age. I came home. I've been desperately trying to get my daughter to show some interest in the World Cup. I thought I was getting there with a homemade wall chart that she could fill in at breakfast each day and colour in with different colour pens and stuff. She was starting to show a little bit. She then said to me, can I stay up and watch the first half of the England game?

1:10:25Stuart Watson:I thought she's in. She painted her nails with England flags and stuff. I've got her. After about five minutes, she disappeared upstairs for a while. I thought I've lost her. She came back down to tell me she'd been watching iShowSpeeds live, live, whatever he does from inside the stadium. more interested in that than the actual game I've given up Stu can I ask you a question related to the culture of this kind of age group obviously having my girlfriend's sister who's in that kind of rough band and also the fact that my girlfriend teaches year one children how many Italian brain rot characters can you name

1:11:09Stuart Watson:I am lost here I don't know many of them I've probably heard them. I know the characters. Tra-la-la-la-foola-lula and all that nonsense. I know the characters. I know the shark that has the shoes on and the weird stick man and things like that. I don't know them that well. I can't know the names. No, fair enough. You've got a lot of learning to do then still.

1:11:31Mark Heath:I would say, just for argument's sake, that Arshay Speed might be one of the most annoying people on the planet. In my learned opinion of the videos that I've seen, obviously you see more of him. which is not really where I'd expected to finish this pod today but here we are.

1:11:47Stuart Watson:No I haven't got anything more to add. Good.

1:11:51Mark Heath:Excellent. Right friends that brings us to the end of today's show unless there is any other business. Anything else to mention boys? No? Just a reminder then support our sponsor is the code KOA10 at molecular-uk.com for 10 % off all their excellent car cleaning clobber. The Banana Dine as I always say, is an excellent product. They do many, many other ones. The wheel cleaner as well is something else I'd recommend. And, yeah, if you can leave us a fast review on iTunes, that'd help us as well. We haven't had one of those in a while. It helps lift us visibility-wise in the charts, helps more people find us.

1:12:27Mark Heath:Stu, you're about to head off on holiday. This will be your last pod for a little while. Have you got any message to leave the KOA listeners with?

1:12:35Stuart Watson:I'm going to try and go off-grid as much as possible. I'm going to leave you in the capable hands of your two fine selves and Ross. And yeah, so my social media will probably go quite quiet for the next week or so. But KOA will continue to keep you up to speed. I'm hoping by the time I come back and you ask me this question about, are you worried about the transfer market? Some significant things have happened by them. You'll say, I don't know. I wasn't paying any attention. Who have they signed?

1:13:13Mark Heath:That's to be applauded, by the way, Stu, going off grid, because it's increasingly hard to do in today's society. So if you do manage it, well played. AJ, they're going to make signings aplenty, aren't they? Because it will just make our lives more difficult. Yeah, I wasn't able to go off grid at all. I had Ross message. I was sat on the beach at one point, and Ross messaged me. They're announcing Emerson in half an hour. I was like, okay, thank you, Ross. you don't want to go off grid though you are literally surgically attached to your phone i could not possibly comment on that um yeah they are anyway going back to your initial point that yes they're going to make signings i think there's things brewing i think there's stuff going to happen we know that there's fatu there's more coming out about this dutch goalkeeper they want the dutch goalkeeper by the sounds of it stuff's going to happen at some point soon and stew's going to come back it's going to be like a totally new team i'm sure yeah anyway have a great holiday, Stu, we'll hopefully not drop the ball while you're away.

1:14:08Mark Heath:Look out of course, friends, for the upcoming KOA website and app, hopefully over the next couple of weeks, we'll let you know all the details about that. I hope you enjoyed today's show, we've talked about all things from Abdul Fattah who potentially signed to how many 10-year-olds we could beat in a fight. Where else are you going to get that on a podcast? Only the Kings of Amia. Friends, have a great weekend and we'll speak to you next time.

1:14:43Thank you.

1:15:06Thank you.

1:15:37Thank you.

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