641: Kings of Anglia: From famine to feast as Town get busy in the transfer market

19:52Mark Heath:Yeah. I mean, as I've said before, he is an X-Factor player. I think you have to find ways of getting him one-on-one with players because he's going to be terrifying to people in that scenario. And he also, if you look at the stats, and I know you're all over the stats, Aja, I believe in terms of ball progression, ball carrying, he's right at the top of the level. He'll get you up the pitch very, very quickly indeed, which may obviously be useful in terms of counter-attacking scenarios, which you'd imagine the town may find themselves in. Rossi, AJ's already hinted at it. Not only is he a great entertaining footballer, and I'm too old to TikTok, but I've seen people sharing these on other social media platforms.

20:27Mark Heath:The lad likes a bit of a dance. He filmed himself dancing, I think, in the cab on the way to meet his fellow town teammates. He filmed himself dancing in his hotel room at La Manga. What do you make of all of this? Because I know there'll be people going, what's he doing all this for? He should be concentrating on football. What's he doing? Yeah.

20:47Ross Halls:Once again, he's a young lad. Straight away, that's what I'm going to say. He's 22. He's just a young lad. And that's the era they're in now. They do TikTok dances and all that. I won't say the word. I was going to say rubbish. Not for me. but he's just showing that's probably his character that's his personality I've seen a few lists of fans saying sometimes he does do this a few hours after a defeat yeah that would stick

21:11Mark Heath:in the crawl wouldn't it if he does that yeah

21:13Ross Halls:but yeah show a bit of character his dress sense is very out there very jazzy what he was wearing when he arrived at Luanga training ground it was yeah the bag and then the orange shoes really stood out but you know that's just his personality and sometimes you need personalities in the dressing room. From what I've heard from Leicester fans and the Leicester reporter I spoke to for Insight Video is just, he's fantastic for the dressing room. He's fantastic. So, I don't mind it. We had Carl Edwards, didn't we? You know, back in the day, he brought his personality and he did his dances and he was a rapper.

21:49Ross Halls:So, I don't mind it if it's time and place, but if we are, you know, just being thrashed 4-0 by a man to see what's up and I hope we don't see that on his TikTok a few hours after. I think,

22:01Mark Heath:you're right, Ross. That's when it becomes an issue, isn't it? No problem as a young lad, like you say, he's having fun. I love all that enthusiasm, kind of enjoying his life. And he should be, because he's a professional footballer and he's living many people's dreams. But as you say, if Pan go out and get thumped 4-0 off Liverpool and then an hour later he's doing another dance on TikTok, that I think is when it's going to start to get old quite quickly. But, if he has that game against Liverpool and he curls one in from 20-30 yards, i would love him to go up to the away end and hit one of those that would be fantastic that's why if he if he wants to pull out some of those as a celebrations that would be great i wasn't sure about the bag he rocked up wearing like a little shoulder bag you've seen the wrong shoulder bag whatever but it reminded me i don't know if you boys are pretty young but when i was at school everyone for a gym bag had these like probably four or five times that size they were head bags do you remember those like that essentially is what he had but in in minor form with a with the brand on it, Rossi.

22:59Mark Heath:You must have had some thoughts on that. It looked like it was crocodile skin or something as well.

23:04Ross Halls:Yeah, I showed the picture to my missus and she was like, why is he wearing a handbag? I'm sure there's a proper name for it. Maybe it's more of a man bag sort of thing. Yeah, it looks stylish. I wouldn't be able to pull it off. I think he does pull it off, to be fair, even though it's maybe a bit too jazzy.

23:22Mark Heath:I'd love to see you rock up Fortman Road next season. One of those, Ross. See how you get on. I don't know what it's called. I don't know how to even provide one. A man bag, a shoulder bag, cross-body bag. I don't know. But I bet it costs a fair bit of money. I also enjoy his seven bit of jewellery around his neck. Love it. I'd have one of those if we could get away with it.

23:39Ross Halls:Oh, question actually.

23:40Mark Heath:Yeah.

23:40Ross Halls:There's a few people saying, because that is his number. That's Wes's number. So I can imagine that. I don't think Gary O 'Neill will go down that route. I don't know how much he cares about squad numbers, but obviously Burns has been number seven for five years. Do they? They just spent 20 million on a player. Do they go, well, he wants it. That's maybe part of his deal, maybe. Get it over a line. It's Wes's number. It's Wes's number. That's end of discussion.

24:06Mark Heath:I wonder if they, I mean, I've heard a ton of this in American sports, for example, when a player is synonymous with a number, which happens probably more often in American sports than anything else, and a new player signs who wears the same number, they often buy it off said player or agree some sort of deal. So I wonder if that will maybe happen. We'll find out. Just one more question on Fatou before we move on, AJ. now have an embarrassment of riches on the right. You've got Fatou, you've got Wes Burns, you've got Casey McIntyre, you've got Chio Egbené. You've technically got Cinder Wollett-Agelli, who I think this probably indicates was going to move inside.

24:39How do you see that five shaking down?

24:42Mark Heath:How many do you think they'll want to carry?

24:47Chio's the one, obviously, that I think we would expect to move on, is the most likely to depart. in some way, shape or form what Ipswich would look at for a permanent fee, what that could look like as a potential another loan, I'm not too sure but I would imagine that the likelihood is that he'll be playing as football in the championship next year. I know he's expressed an interest in really wanting to get back into the Ipswich team and be back in the picture and there's a lot to like about him but it feels like he was signed obviously two years ago and Town have probably gone maybe a little bit further now and that's That's why he spent last year out on loan at Sheffield United.

25:24And yeah, so I'd imagine that he'll be one to move on. And from there, it gets a bit harder. I think that Sindra is more likely to play in the advanced role. I don't think you're going to see Sindra Olarageli rocking up as a wingback anytime soon. Not that I would be keen on seeing. So then you've got an interesting situation where if you're going to go down the wingback route in particular, you've got Wes and you've got Casey McAteer but then you've also got players like Ben Johnson and then you've also got the likelihood that they probably will go and sign I would say someone to start in that right wing back role so Wes obviously will stick around because he's just signed a new deal and I guess that kind of leaves Casey McAteer in an interesting spot because he finished the season really well and I'm sure he wants to crack at the Premier League again after that Leicester stint and I feel like I say these exact words on every single podcast there is only a certain number of spots in the Premier League squad for players over the age of 21, isn't it?

26:26So that's the tricky bit. I think he could be a candidate to leave on loan, and I think he could benefit if he goes out to another championship club and goes and has, you know, hopefully a season like he finished the one at Ipswich over the course of a whole campaign. That would be really positive. and it would just allow Ipswich to kind of free up that spot in the squad because Makati is probably not going to get huge minutes, let's be honest, and kind of add a few different faces in into those positions and strengthen elsewhere as well.

27:00Mark Heath:Okay. I still think Casey might have something to do. I think he's a Premier League level. Every chance. I'm not saying ship him out, he's done. I'm just thinking about how you kind of balance the squad and it is hard because they've got a lot of right-siders, but you probably wouldn't hang your hat on that many of them being the nailed on starter in those kind of positions so how many supporting players can you have how many are going to benefit from going out and having a full season what's going to be the best thing for casey mcateer playing 10 premier league games uh let's say seven of which off the bench and playing a role in the premier league or maybe is it going down to the championship going and joining uh i don't know Millwall after they sell Femi Aziz and getting eight goals and ten assists in the championship.

27:46Yeah, I don't know. But that's the headache for Gary O 'Neill.

27:50Mark Heath:And Sindra doesn't count anyway, does he, towards the squad numbers? No, Sindra doesn't count. Again, I'm sure there probably will be a discussion on what you'd want to do with a loan for Sindra because, again, is he going to benefit? Two different trains of thought. Is he going to benefit from being around a Premier League squad, getting the odd minute? He's still really young. watching Abdul Fatou, getting the odd opportunity here and there, or is it going to be better for him to go somewhere in Europe or to, again, I don't know, a Sheffield United Mill or somewhere like that, and getting a run of consistent games for a championship team, given his age?

28:28I think that at this point, he probably would benefit more from being around the Premier League squad. You know how we spoke, or Kieran McKenna spoke about Cam Humphreys, actually know what we felt was good for him to be around the group and train with the group and feel like he's part of it. I think that's probably the case for Sindra. I think he suits the back five system, playing in that kind of right side of 10. I could see both happening again, but given they don't have to register him, I wouldn't be too stressed about moving one. I'd like to see him get a shot in the Premier League because there's kind of less risk with the squad spaces.

29:01Mark Heath:Okay, Abdul Fattah in the door, 20 million plus 3 million add-ons. And then Issa Diop, Rossi, I'm going to start with you here because I watched your Insight video with a character, I think you could say, called Magic Mod, who's a Fulham fan, sitting on his balcony in Spain, giving insight on this to the op. And I liked what I was hearing. And obviously, as I say, you'll only be able to watch these videos on KOA going forward on the website and app. Because he was, he said, quite shocked that Fulham had got rid of this. He said he was one of our best players last season. Described as an absolute unit, six foot five.

29:34Mark Heath:But equally, he said he's got skill. He'll throw in the odd Cruyff turn, that kind of thing, which was music to my ears. And he said, Rossi, he guaranteed, in fact, that he will be one of Eastridge Town's best players in the coming season, which all sounds very, very good indeed.

29:48Ross Halls:Yeah, I love this signing. At the moment, this is the signing of the summer so far. I asked that, AJ, on a video we did. And I think because he ticks all those boxes, he's a Premier League experience. He played for West Ham prior, then it's for him. he's made 150 plus appearances in the top flight. I know he didn't play much for Fulham last year, but from what we've sort of heard and been told by Fulham fans, he sort of had favourites. Anderson was the sort of key one. I remember Magic Mod said to me that, yeah, he'd rather ask Cat Anderson to get the op, but we've got to see it, which is fantastic.

30:23Ross Halls:And he's been playing at a World Cup. I think Gary O 'Neill must have been watching a few World Cup games and going, oh, he did well there. He scored, of course, from Morocco against the Netherlands. Sorry, AJ. and yeah we've now signed well potentially going to be signing three players they've been playing at the World Cup recently you know with Mider of course they've been playing for Japan scored against Sweden and of course Fatih Ugana so I like this signing he's just a man mountain but it sounds like he's a nice just chill character as well he'll sort of link very well with Sidrik Kipre I'm sure you know two just man mountain ones at the back strikers are going woo the enforcers

30:59Mark Heath:yeah absolutely And we need that.

31:01Ross Halls:We need that in the Premier League. I think that's one thing we lacked, physicality and proper athletes. So no offence to the previous team, but this is just a whole different board game with these sort of big, big men.

31:12Mark Heath:Yeah, they're definitely going down the physicality athletic route, aren't they, AJ? They're really leaning into that. And Diop seems to fit perfectly within that target. But, AJ, where does he fit? Because he's a right-sided centre-back. So is the captain, Dara O'Shea. and he ain't going to be dipping out. You'd imagine he's not paid£8.5 million for Diop to come in and sit on the bench. So does this add grist to the mill with your idea of a back three? I think that this move and another seemingly incoming transfer move that we'll talk about later in the pod suggests that there is every chance that Gary O 'Neill will be looking at more of a back three than a back four and might be taking some bits from his Wolves team when they were good, of course.

32:00and the system that they had with that team. Look, Diop can play on the left. He has had the odd game there, but it's not his strongest point. And if he was going to play on the left, you would imagine that they wouldn't have gone and signed Diop. They would have gone and signed the left footer because there's plenty of options on the market to go and do that. And I still think they will go and get one. But this change signals to me that they are going to go towards a back five. I've spoken a million times about how I think it suits the team. really well, gets the best out of Leaf Davis, players like Ben Johnson, there's kind of less defensive pressure on the midfielders that play ahead of them.

32:39And then you get your three big boys, and that's what we saw at Wolves, is there was a lot of Wolves forcing their opponents out wide because they were never one of the big top teams, Wolves, never really going to be flying high in the Premier League. So they knew we're going to concede chances, the opposition are going to have a lot of time on the ball, we're going to have to soak up pressure. like Ipswich Royal next season. So what they did is they said, well, if we're going to concede chances, we want the opposition to come at us from out wide, then get those crosses into the box. But when they get the crosses into the box, well, for Ipswich next season, you'd be faced with, as things stand, Jacob Greaves, a fairly large boy.

33:15Issa Diop, a fairly large boy. Dara O'Shea, quite a large boy. So all of those things, yeah, that's how I think it would look like. I think it would be O'Shea on the right with Diop through the middle. Don't forget that that can then change into a 4-2-3-1 as well, and then you can have O'Shea kind of being that hybrid right-sided centre-back, right-back role, which he has done in the past. Get a new left-sider in. It looks like a strong unit when you then add in that you've got kind of covering support from Darnell Furlong. Jacob Greaves, then, if he becomes more of a backup, and Cedric Kipre as well, good rotation options.

33:49And I think, as we kind of alluded to, the arrival of Diop and one or two more to come suggests that it might be more of a 3-4-2-1.

33:58Mark Heath:yeah with Kipre what's stepping in as a backup for Diop in the center of it there I mean yeah good on the ball big essentially that that would be how it would look at if you so how I'd see it would be O'Shea would be a starter on the right side Diop would be a starter through the middle and I still think it could be Jacob Greaves but I still think they probably will go and get a starting kind of left-footed center back they've obviously been linked with with Alexandro, for example, to go on that left side. Then you've got Greaves who can cover on the left. You've got Kitbury can cover through the middle.

34:30And I know that it probably isn't his strongest position, but I wouldn't say that O'Shea is going to step out too much. I'd be happy with Darnell Furlong coming in as a right-sider on a back three that kind of becomes that hybrid role on that side because he's really strong defensively. So that would offer you good cover. I think Nipswich are close to kind of nailing down their defence now. And having the height and the experience there, it's looking really positive. But that's how I would see it shaping up.

34:58Mark Heath:Right, and three in the door, very exciting. And another one, hopefully, AJ, on the way today, which, again, I keep saying exciting, but it is exciting. Bazin Maeda, deal agreed with Celtic, not Chelsea. Deal agreed with Celtic, 8 million plus 2 million ad-ons? Yeah. So this one, yeah, sorry, Tom. I was going to say, tell us about him how you see him fitting because obviously he's a versatile forward, he's won everything in Scotland a bit of a Japanese superstar going to bring a whole new set of eyes to Ipswich Town when he arrives but primarily he plays on the left doesn't he? That's interesting they've got two pretty good left side attackers already Yeah I'll do a bit more with a Dyson Maida profile coming up because he's had a really interesting backstory I was talking to you about that one last night, Mark, and I think he quite liked some of that and his experiences growing up, which was quite unique, breaking into football in Japan.

35:56But what most people know is he got the move to Scotland under Ange Postokoglu, who's obviously this big kind of... He's been a pioneer of Japanese football in the past. He brought over a lot of Japanese players. A handful have obviously moved on, but Mr. Consistent over that time has been Dyson Maida, who the one thing that if you talk to any Celtic fan or anyone who watches Japan is, he does not stop running. He is relentless. He is incredibly quick. And he will just run and run and run. And you don't have to worry about him running out of steam. He will just keep going and keep going and keep going.

36:31Yeah, really exciting, lively kind of inside left forward. He can play just off the striker. He can play as a central striker. I'm not sure how that would suit the Premier League because he's about 5 '8". So maybe not what you'd look at. not the tallest of boys to go with the big boys but yeah, I'd imagine he's going to come in in that kind of inside left side role and he's someone who's scored really good goals over in Scotland and you do have to take that with the fact it's Scotland and he's playing for a team that is far superior to any other team in the division but you just look at the catalogue of goals that he's scored and think about how that would translate to Ipswich my favourite being the overhead kick against Rangers fantastic strike and you can see that Celtic are paying to lose him.

37:17It has been coming. He thought he was going to leave last year. He cleared out his locker of the trading ground, expecting to get a move to Wolfsburg. That fell through when Adam Heda left instead. He had to stay on, but finally it looks like he's going to get his move. He's spoken about how the Premier League is his dream. He's been in for a medical yesterday. I think that one might have been done in London, but yeah, we're expecting that probably to be done quite soon. I'm just waiting to hear a few more updates on that one But it looks like Dyson Maida is going to come in At Ipswich Town to be signing Number 5 Yeah, 5th signing

37:51Mark Heath:New signing, 7 overall it will be If and when he does come in AJ What do you think, can we deduce anything From that in terms of the futures for Philogene and Jack Clark, because we know There's been noise around Philogene leaving And clearly Jack Clark was A star player, both the star players in the Championship Last season Maida, we've just said, was primarily plays on the left do you think that we can look at that and think that's interesting for the future of philagine and or clark yes probably i mean we've all seen the reports that have come out on jayden philagine they come from reliable sources like the bbc and like um fabrizio romano and ultimately there's no smoke without fire as i've said before my understanding is that there is plenty of interest in in jayden philagine from clubs in the premier league and now increasingly by the looks of it, clubs outside the Premier League, Benfica, Roma and Bologna mentioned.

38:45And I think it hints more likely than not that Jadon Filagin might not be an Ipswich player. Again, I'm kind of just looking at it from the outside in. This isn't with any sort of really strong information on the situation apart from the interest in him. But why would you go and sign an inside left forward? Someone who really suits that back three system again as well because he gets to play narrow to the striker. and that then suits Leif Davis with those overlapping runs. Why would you go and sign someone like that when you have Jadon Filagene and Jack Clark? It wouldn't necessarily make sense to me unless you're going to play someone out of position, but why would you go and do that necessarily?

39:26So yeah, I would say it definitely drops a hint about Jadon Filagene, to be honest. He's obviously been out in La Manga training. We'll see what his involvement's like in the friendly game tomorrow and obviously public pre-season kicks off against Osasuna next week. But I wouldn't be too surprised if something materialises for him.

39:49Mark Heath:Rossi, are you excited about Dase Maeda? The thing that I like about him, we talked about athletes and physicality and obviously Diot, Emerson, players like that, fit that huge unit tank, physicality, athleticism. There's different types of athleticism and Maeda being, as Ajit's already said, non-stop running, constant pressing. You watch the Japanese team at the World Cup, they live to press. They press non-stop. So again, he seems to fit that mould for me.

40:18Ross Halls:Yeah, he's someone, I'm going to use the phrase, works his nuts off. I think he's going to put a lot of work into that. He's going to bring a lot of Japanese eyes. I know you've had emails, I've had messages from different Japanese journalists saying, you know, insights. there'll be a few Japanese reporters I'm sure in the press box even just fans in general I think though we've already took that marker on because of Ed Sheeran I think there's been a lot of um you know sort of Japanese fans around it which because of Ed Sheeran following but I really like this one I think there's a different type of player so we've not really looked at before so I know Scotland and some people go on he's been at Celtic and they sort of run away with it all the time but um he is an international he's been playing the world cup you know i know it's japan they've got other good players as well but i like this one um and i've spoken to a celtic reporter and he said he's a great character as well um he's very broken english at the moment um although a little fun story um to plug the insight video which will be available this weekend when of course the signing is confirmed he's um his daughter was born in japan but she of course has grown up in Scotland, so she's now got a bit of a Scottish accent, which is a bit funny.

41:32Ross Halls:So he uses a translator at the moment, so AJ may have to wait a while to maybe speak to him. But yeah, it's just another country to add to the list. We signed a Brazilian, we've got the first player from Ghana to play for town and now we've got the first Japanese, which we're attacking all the markets. We lost Alkenbaggett with Indonesian fans. We've got the Japanese market, so I like it. And I don't think that's... I know this probably isn't going to be something that fans will really want or care about necessarily, but it doesn't hurt to tap into those markets a bit as well because Asian fans, I've got family out in Japan, Asian fans are nuts about the Premier League, crazy about it, and that's across plenty of different countries, but Japan in particular, and you look at, and I know it's a different kind of level, but take Son and South Korea with the amount of, Think about how many Heung-min Son shirts have been sold to fans in South Korea.

42:27I know it's not probably going to be quite the same, but having that kind of interest when you're playing on the biggest stage in world football and you've got Japanese journalists in the press box, fans who travel to go and see him, people in Japan who will stay up to watch Dyson Maeda play for Ipswich, I think those are all good things as well. It's not why I would sign him, but it can't hurt, can it? I've just

42:50Ross Halls:I've quickly found looking on our stats on Audio Boom which is obviously the podcast platform we use and so we know we've got a few town fans who are based in Japan or have actually had 300 plus listens in the last 30 days from Japan so I know shout out to those town fans who live in Japan

43:07Mark Heath:Is this going to make us even bigger an even more global phenomenon we're going to have thousands of people in Japan listening to it now I mean they do have don't they Japanese players they have reporters and journalists who just follow them They don't follow the team. They just follow them. So if Maeda's at Portman Road next season, you're going to see a lot more. I think the numbers in the press box are going to swell. Rossi, of course, you mentioned that AJ speaking to Maeda. What I want to see is you speaking to Maeda, him trying to decipher your Suffolk accent. That'd be great. Rossi, I've said before about Jack Clark.

43:36Mark Heath:I just want to get your take on this. Jack Clark, I'm worried about him from a physicality point of view in the Premier League because the lad's built like a pipe cleaner. He's not particularly fast. He's not particularly strong. He's very skilful. But you need to be both of those first two things to excel in the Premier League. Do you share the same concerns or am I being a little unkind?

43:57Ross Halls:Somewhat. I think he's definitely improved on that. And it looked like he has been going in the gym a bit more from the sort of training images and videos. I think he would learn a lot from the last Premier League season. Maybe he won't be the first choice, but he's someone who can come off the bench and make a nuisance of a tiring defence. and if we haven't got a proper penalty taker, he's the man to do that. So I'm not too concerned. I want to give him another chance because he's got ability. We know that. So I'm not too concerned. I've got a question for you boys. As we sit here now, seven signings in, how would you rate the window out of 10 so far?

44:37Ross Halls:Until, of course, more signings come through the door. But yeah, put you on the spot here. Out of 10, how do you rate the window so far?

44:44Mark Heath:I like it. I think, as I said to you, I think when we chatted before us, I think this might be recency bias. I can't particularly remember off the top of my head the order that they came in in the last Premier League season, other than the fact that they signed 12 players. But this to me seems like better, more solid, thought out business in terms of what we know they're going to need in the Premier League. And obviously recruiting in the foreign markets as well, which they weren't really doing before. So if my area comes in, looking at the work they've done so far, I'd give it a solid 7-8 so far.

45:17I think obviously there are still gaps they need to fill

45:20Mark Heath:and players will need to go out and all that kind of stuff. But yeah, I'm feeling pretty good about things. How about you, AJ? It's kind of a difference of like if you shut the window today, how would you feel? And also like how do you feel for where we are? And I'd say for where we are, it's definitely positive with the fact that they've got the players through the door and we're probably expecting at least another two that we know of that will be Ipswich players soon, hopefully. So all things considered, I'd probably put it at a... Oh, I can't do.5s again. I'll go on the more positive side because we're all feeling a bit glum on the Friday pod worrying about the signing.

46:01So I'll go for an eight because I just think the work they've done this week has been really good and the squad feels in a healthier stage obviously loads of work still to do in midfield and uh some other areas but um right now 11.05 on the 24th of july i think it's good okay cool right so these are the ones that um are coming

46:19Mark Heath:on i have come in um let's let's talk about the other links just wrap it up aj so they're in the market for another goalkeeper this one also ticks the very big boy box uh six foot nine I'm going to say 6 '9". I know other places say 6 '8", but I would always go with the biggest possible quarterback. You wrote 6 '8". No, I'm now writing 6 '9". Okay, I'll change that as well then. 6 '9". That is what he says on his Wikipedia. Yeah, well, there we go. 6 '9 goalkeeper, Kel Sherpen. What's the latest on that one? Yeah, so this is one that Ipswich have been keen on for a while. They've obviously been looking to kind of go and get that established number one.

46:53Mentioned last time that Nick Pope, plenty to talk about him, but not one that's moved forward and not one that's expected to move forward, and especially if Ipswich go and get Kjell Scherpen, who is playing at Union Saint-Giloy, which is really enjoyable to say, less enjoyable to write. But yeah, they've been in talks over a deal to bring him in. Former Brighton goalkeeper didn't really get a chance there, so he moved to another one of Tony Bloom's clubs, formerly of Ajax as well. Had a really impressive season over in Belgium, so there were some talks that took place over the weekend. Reports, which I think are true from what I've heard, a bid rejected initially over the weekend, but came back in in the last week or the last few days or so rather.

47:37And those talks are advancing. They're heading in the right direction. It's believed that we're getting quite close to this one being done. We're not at the stage of kind of crossing the I's and dotting the T's. Yeah, it didn't quite work out. We're not quite to that point of doing that and signing a contract and getting a medical sorted and stuff like that. I don't think it's going to be too far away. I would expect him to come in as being the number one.

48:02Mark Heath:Yeah. And as you've already mentioned, you know, Christian Walton, we've had people saying they've seen him around town in a boot. The guy's injured. And she's saying it sounds like he's going to be out, may not be fit for the start of the season. Six foot nine, Rossi. Too tall for a goalkeeper? I think I'm starting to worry. I reckon six foot six might be the ceiling. If you think about the great goalkeepers of the past, Peter Schmeichel is the first one that comes to mind. I think he was about six foot four. My first hero in football, Peter Shilton, was only six foot or so. I can't think of any great goalkeepers who are much over six foot six.

48:42Mark Heath:And obviously we've had Thomas Oley at town. Six foot nine, what do you reckon? Because we start to think it's going to take him a while to get down. I mean, I know he's going to fill a lot of the goal, but is 6 '9 potentially a concern?

48:55Ross Halls:Somewhat, but once again, I know it's Highlight Reels. He does use his height to his advantage in terms of he does get down very quick and one-on-one he makes sure he uses his body because he's got a lot of it. When I think of that height, I'm just thinking like wrestlers. We've had the Big Show or the Great Carly or Andre the Giant and stuff. I think that's maybe, yeah, when he retires, he may jump into maybe professional wrestling. I know there's one, I think a German goalkeeper, Tim Wise, I think his name was. He went briefly into wrestling. But yeah, when I think of that height, I just hear like, at seven foot one, weighing 500 pounds, the big show.

49:35Ross Halls:So we'll wait and see. But yeah, six foot nine, that's just, I'd be happy if I'm six foot. I think I'm five foot seven or something like that. Just six foot would do me. Six foot nine, dearie me, big boy. But on planes, it must be a big issue with the leg room and stuff. So I don't think we should ever complain about leg room, boys, because people at that height, they have to probably get extra different beds and different cars. It's funny when you see really tall people in little cars and Fiat's and stuff. They're just like, I think I've seen a clip of Big Show, actually, in one of those small cars before.

50:10Mark Heath:I don't think professional footballers probably fly on the same sort of planes as we do. I'd imagine he's going to be in first class. He's going to be turning left when he gets onto planes. AJ, in terms of Sherpen and his height, you've obviously seen the highlights of him. He's going to be 7 foot by the time he signs, by the way. We'll just keep upping it every year. We'll just go higher and higher. Absolutely. Add an inch on and see if anyone notices. I'm being a little facetious, obviously. but you know um i think it's courtois he might be a bit taller than six foot six so courtois six seven yeah i've just i've just been having a look actually you've been talking in terms of the names in terms of like the upper end of goalkeeper heights it's where you start getting over six six they start getting quite tall you look at nick pope six six edmund van der saa was six six uh you got milinkovic savage not the midfielder the goalkeeper his brother is playing over in Italy, he's 6 '8", but when you're getting to 6 '9", very, very limited.

51:10So this is a very unique situation. I would agree with what I've seen from him, what Ross has said, in that he moves very well for his height. And it is obviously good when you've got someone who is a literal giant, but no doubt, I think it is fair probably to have concerns over someone of his size being able to get down. We'll get a clearer picture of what that's going to be like, but it's both incredibly exciting to have one of the tallest people in the world it has to be that's to be honest uh playing in goal for ipswich but also um does maybe come with with some concerns when you look at erling harlem burying one bottom corner how he can get down to that kind of uh those kind of shots so i guess we'll see but looks like switcher uh gonna close in and get their man

51:57Mark Heath:yeah not one of the tallest people in the world aj six foot nine is i'm not saying like one of the top 10 but i mean i'd say he's probably in the top what three percent you'll be in the upper percentile you want to look at the nba mate the six foot nine is about the average height of the nba player um anyway let's let's move on shall we um other links now one it looks like we're going to miss out on another japanese player adamasa marita aj uh sounds like he's going to to hull you want to bring us up speed on that and then i've also got striker briel m borrow Swiss International got some Ross level pronunciations there Bril Mbolo Mbolo sorry that's my writing Bril Mbolo striker Swiss and obviously there's been a link as well in terms of outgoing Sami Smolik's potentially going back to Derby brings up speed on those quickly yeah let's go through them Hidemasa Morita was someone that Ipswich have been in talk to these are free agents since leaving sporting club portugal he'd been there for a little while uh japan international didn't make it into the 2026 world cup squad now looking for a new club over the summer so ipswich have been in talks uh understanding has been in suffolk and um ultimately it's it's not one that ipswich have progressed with we've there's a lot of conflicting stuff about this one um does sound like my understanding is that the lips which have seen something they didn't really want to progress with in the medical stage, despite what I've seen come out from the Poland, I can vouch for that one quite strongly being the case, that that is what's happened there.

53:34So, yeah, he's going to go to Hull. Ultimately, this is what you see happen with a lot of players. And it's the reason why, for example, Jenski used to went and played for Ipswich and had a fantastic season in the Premier League and rebuilt his fitness really well and didn't go to Brentford. So, yeah, similar kind of case there. It looks like Morita is going to go to Hull. That was the expectation, so not one that Ipswich are going to progress with. Braille and Bolo haven't been able to get too much onto this one yet, but one that's been reported from various sources that Ipswich are keen on, along with Hull, like any player basically, as well as Atlante United, who are also keen on Darwin Nunez, your former FPL love, Mark.

54:14So yeah, he's a 29-year-old Swiss striker, kind of had a bit of a checkered injury record in the past, but has built up a good career playing in Germany, playing over in France. He's currently with Rennes after leaving Monaco and seems kind of keen to try the Premier League experience. So we'll see if that leads to a move. Obviously, I think Ipswich are going to be in the market for a more experienced number nine to complement George Hurst and Emerson. And then Sam Smodek. This one came out from... No, it was The Telegraph. John Persick, The Telegraph, reported that Derby are in talks to advance talks to re-sign Sam Smodek.

54:48remains to be seen if that's a permanent or a loan deal. Again, that's true, my understanding. I think Ipswich's preference is going to be a sale. Birmingham are the other club. Again, I've heard that there's been conflicting reports on that, but can quite strongly voucher that there is some interest from Birmingham there and that they do find themselves in the race to sign Sam Smoddix. But I would imagine that Derby seems to be the more likely case with those talks advancing at the moment for him to leave Portman Road either permanently or on loan. But yeah, it looks like that could be a permanent exit.

55:26Mark Heath:Okay, watch this space. That's brought you up to speed with sexy stuff then. Now then, I want to have a little bit of fun. You mentioned FPL there, AJ, which you and Ross hosted a whole podcast, a weekly podcast last time. We were in the Premier League and I think, as I recall, I won that individual Premier League battle, didn't I? I think you did quite well in that. Nunes did really well for me. Yeah, it's really good. That's how I remember it anyway. The FPL prices are out, AJ, you were telling me. So I thought we'd maybe have a little bit of fun trying to guess who's the most expensive, who's the least expensive of the Ipswich Town players.

55:57Mark Heath:How do you want to lead this? Yeah, go on then. FPL's out. I've renewed the league. So if you're in the league and you go and sign up, then you will automatically rejoin. And if you're not, I will put the code out when we do a couple of pieces about FPL. the kind of price bracket of Ipswich players isn't huge there's about 1.5 million in it from the cheapest to the most expensive but we have, let me count this 1, 2, 3 so there's 4 players who stand alone at the top as the MVPs the most valuable players in the game let's have some guesses, who do we think are the most expensive, the foremost all on the same price bracket the most expensive Ipswich Town players.

56:44Mark Heath:Oh, just Ipswich Town players. Okay. We can have a look at some other ones in a minute. But I mean, this shouldn't be too hard to go through. Jack Clark, probably. Jack Clark is one of the players. Philogene? Jane Philogene is one of the players. Emerson? Emerson is one of them. Wow, he's nailing this. You've only got one more to get. I mean, the obvious choice is Matt Asiwa, but I don't think he's going to be particularly valuable in FPL because he doesn't really score goals or get assists, does he? So what are you saying, Ross?

57:13Ross Halls:I've seen them, so I can't really play.

57:15Mark Heath:In that case, I'll say Fatterwood. You've nailed it. Five out of five. So they are all 5.5 million on the game. We'll do a full kind of breakdown, but the rough points are the goalkeepers, Walton and Valuvlan, both 4.5, the other two, four, all of the Ipswich Town defenders. And I actually think it might be the case for every single newly promoted defender in the game is 4 million. So that's the case with Leif Davis. That's going to be the case with Van Aeve, Coventry, etc., etc., despite strong attacking returns. Yeah, 5.5 million then. The top bracket, Clark, Fatawu, Villagin and Emerson as the players you can get for 5.5 million.

58:01And then there's a drop down to players like Nunez, Matasiwa, Burns, Ogbene, Mimeti, etc., etc. et cetera. Sindra Balogheli classed as a striker in this game. Let's go through, let's have a bit of fun with some FPL stuff because I don't think Mark ever wants to talk about it again after this. Name me your, who you think would be, let's say the top three most expensive strikers in the game. Harland's the obvious one. He's actually the record now, the most expensive player in the history because we have inflation in FPL. seemingly 15.5 million if you want earning harland in your team who do you think are the two beyond actually there's there's three because there's there's one who follows them and then there's

58:49Mark Heath:two who are level on eight million so there's a nine million one i mean hold on they're the most expensive strikers at eight and nine yeah so it goes wow 15.5 and then it drops down to nine so quite a big gap down to the next striker the next striker has had an injury hit spell at his new club cost a lot of money when he's out to move yeah yeah that's the one he's at from there and then the other two actually play for kind of clubs outside of the big six funnily enough uh one of them had a real breakout year last year in particular uh brentford you're at brentford yeah he's nailed it well done eagle tiago and the other one has been away with england at the world Cup, which is a fairly easy one to guess.

59:31Harry Kane? Whee! Watkins. Oli Watkins. Yeah. Midfield as well. Quite unique because we've lost all of the kind of your big ticket items. Salah's gone. Kevin De Bruyne has gone. Most expensive midfielder. Any guesses, anyone? Palmer, surely. He didn't really do anything last season, did he? Paul Palmer's joint second. The most, actually, the most expensive midfielder is£12 million and the drop down to Palmer is£9.5 million. Saka must be Saka. Saka is a level at 9.5. So they're the second most. Who do you reckon the most expensive midfielder? He plays for one of the big six clubs. He's a bit of a set-piece specialist.

1:00:17People don't tend to like him in terms of maybe some of his personality. Sam Morsi really liked him. Sam Morsi did a whole press conference talking about how much he really liked him. Been at the World Cup. despite being known as a bit of a wine, a bit of a whinger, he plays with an international teammate who probably is the biggest whinger in world football I'm actually stumped here

1:00:40Mark Heath:Fernandes is the guy who I think led the league in the season last year a million nobody got my ideas with Ronaldo there but yeah he is the most expensive followed by Saka and Parma at 9.5 and then you can get Semenyo at 8.5, Mbubo and Kunia and Gibbs White at 8. We'll stop there. Defenders, this is going to be an interesting one. Obviously, defenders seem to be quite low priced from what I've seen. There is one who really stands out at the top of the list. And then there's a drop-off. So the top is an£8 million defender, which often goes to full-backs who are bombing on and getting loads of assists, but this is actually a centre-back.

1:01:22Arsenal. It's along the right lines. Who are you going for? Yeah, top 8 million. Then there's a drop-off, Urien Timber at 6.5. Any guesses? You've got two others who are level with Urien Timber. I named him because he's a tricky one. One of them, Premier League, kind of modern-day hero, title-winning captain, has been at the World Cup, didn't have a great World Cup because his team went out in the round of 32. Any guesses? I need to get my privilege. of experience playing up in playing up in the north oh no he hasn't he hasn't got a scouse accent because he comes from he comes he's actually born in the same place i i grew up

1:02:07Mark Heath:it's the same place i love your accent you start doing accents fantastic your scouser is spot on i i don't know aj i don't really watch premier league football that much so um until now until next season Virgil van Dijk and I'll give you a tricky one maybe Ross will get this one another one who plays for Man City he's a fullback who's been away with England O 'Reilly Nico O 'Reilly at 6.5 I won't do the goalkeepers there's not too many but your top goalkeepers Raya at 6, Pickford at 5.5 Alison Becker and Donnarumma also at 5.5 so there's a taste that was an absolute nonsense game I thoroughly enjoyed doing that And it, yeah, we've renewed the league, so it's ready to go.

1:02:53I've picked my team. My team, I really hope the transfer will go through this now, is Maeda in Suffolk. It was like a little bit on Maeda in Suffolk. I like it. I've seen you've done that. Thank you very much. So, yeah, I've picked my team. Go pick yours. Go join the league. If you've been in it before, it will also renew. If not, I will put the code up at some point and you can all get involved, like Mark is going to do next year.

1:03:13Mark Heath:No, no, I think I'll retire. I just want that little mini game there, so I think I'll call it quits there. I think that's shown above anything there, Ross, is that we need to watch more Premier League football. I generally speak and only watch the league that Lipschitz Town are in. I'm watching Premier League this season. But in terms of my knowledge from last season, not great. Anyway, friends, let's move on. We're just going over the hour mark. There's one more thing I want to talk about today, AJ, and it's something happening tomorrow out in Spain, which people will be able to watch live. And indeed, you will be able to watch live because you'll be covering it.

1:03:41Mark Heath:Lipschitz Town, the first time we get to see them in action in some semblance of a game. I don't know quite how much of a game it's going to be. But they're going to show it on town TV at the very early hour of 9am. What, if anything, would you be looking for? Yeah, I'm sure Ipswich are buzzing to be showing this one. It's going to be a single cam game recording of the game against a third-tier team FC Cartagena. I knew you were going to do that as well. Yeah, you knew. I love it when you put your accents on. Cartagena. I just said Cartagena, but you always have to give it some flamboyance. You like the lad on BBC Sport, what's his name, Vickery, who does the Brazilian football?

1:04:23Mark Heath:He always goes into full-on pronunciation mode. You think, leave it out, mate. We all know. Just get over yourself. So, mate, they're playing FC Cartagena tomorrow. Anyway, yeah, playing a third-tier team who are based near the training camp that they're at. We're going to hopefully get some clarity on what that game is going to look like. but yeah what do I want to see from it I want to get an early indication of patterns and structures under Gary O 'Neill what's it going to look like formation is going to be fascinating to see is he going to be lining up in a 4-2-3-1 is it going to look like more of a a back five how many of the new guys get some minutes we've obviously seen Van Uvalen and Fatah who have been out in the camp, so what opportunities will they get?

1:05:16Fatah will obviously come back in the World Cup as well. Obviously, the expectation will be that they will probably win the friendly match, quote-unquote. We'll see how much of a match it is because they're playing third to Spanish opposition, but the biggest thing is just getting... I want to walk away from having a stronger idea of what Gary O 'Neill football Ipswich Town is going to be, and that's going to be really hard on a single-cam footage of a very early pre-season game against third-tier opposition, but hopefully we'll get some ideas of what that's going to look like ahead of the games coming up, but it should be a good taste of what's to come.

1:05:52Mark Heath:My main interest will be how brown Gary O 'Neill is, because he arrived already very tanned, which is still teeth off. Lovely, actually. So how brown is Gary O 'Neill? And also, the thing I enjoyed most about the training footage is seeing Leif Davis' plane tattoo in all its glory. We've seen that. He's got on his right arm the actual plane. We know he loves his planes. The coverage has been good. The stuff they've done on social media, the shock pen I thoroughly enjoyed. There's been a few different bits and pieces they've put out which I think have been really good mic'd up players, stuff like that.

1:06:27So, yeah, I've enjoyed that.

1:06:29Mark Heath:Ross, anything you'll be looking for? I know you won't be watching the game because you'll still be in bed, no doubt. But anything you'll be looking for? Because obviously you're old now. You're sleeping. Anything you'll be looking for from the friendly?

1:06:39Ross Halls:No, not old people. They wake up early and you go to bed early. So, no, I won't be watching the game because I'll be out and about doing things. But, yeah, it's just I'm sure there's a few players who want to just get some of the cobwebs off. And, yeah, looking forward to the Osasuna game on Wednesday at Colchester, which is always funny when we're not playing Colchester at Colchester, especially when we played Cholton at Colchester last year. but yeah I'm getting itchy feet now I was able to cover the under 18s that was the first sort of public pre-season game for an Itchwich Townside and they played Cambridge City at night that was just good to be able to get my camera out take some snappy snaps and be back at a game because I'll have missed just covering games so itchy fingers I'd imagine itchy fingers Ross is what you've got the microphone is over there collecting dust we used it of course for the kit launch and Gary O 'Neill's press conference but I'm looking forward to speaking to the Kauai army and speaking to the fans to get their thoughts because it's a new era at town but it's a new era at Kauai as well so yeah looking forward to bringing more content to the viewers and watchers.

1:07:48Mark Heath:Absolutely we've got big things planned haven't we just a reminder then friends to support our sponsors use the code Kauai10 at molecular dash uk dot com for all your car cleaning needs. Are we giving all those products a good use before we boys go to Oxford we're going to have a little KOA Jotty Boys outing a little mini pre-season tour we've turned it into because of the KOA app we're going to go to Oxford and obviously Wickham will be at both games looking forward to that and give you loads of content around that as well just to remind you if you can leave us a five star review as well on iTunes it just helps lift us visibility wise in the charts and for us across all social medias Kings of Anglia on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, X, Facebook and we are individually on Blue Sky as well.

1:08:34Mark Heath:Right, friends, that brings us to the end of today's podcast. It's been an exciting week at Ipswich Town and potentially getting even more excited today with the arrival of Bazin Maeda. It's a very exciting time as well at KOA as previously discussed. The app, the website, all that launches on Monday and we've got so much planned. So excited to bring that to you and to really level up our coverage. So all that's left for me to say is just have a great weekend. Enjoy the game tomorrow if you're watching it. Follow it along with AJ if you can't and we'll be back next week when the new era of KO is launched.

1:09:05Mark Heath:Look out for that on Monday. And as we say, if you do feel able to support us, it would be gratefully received and much appreciated. Have a great weekend and we'll speak to you next time.

1:09:34Thank you.

1:10:09Thank you.

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