642: Kings of Anglia: Blues are back - and Gary gives us some gold

29:09Mark Heath:They were fishing in a very different pond, if you like. So that is also encouraging. I want to talk now, AJ, about a situation where I don't think they're going to sign any more players. We're very surprised they did. It feels like the unit is set and the only question is exits. There are big questions, literally, which I want to have here. Someone asked Gary on the other way this last night. It was Callum, wasn't it? The goalkeeper situation. So last night we saw Alex Palmer start. We saw Cain Van Uvalen, not Dylan, Cain Van Uvalen, play again. We know Kel Sherpin is through the door, towering, six foot nine, going to be the tallest player to ever play in the Premier League.

29:47Mark Heath:Tallest man ever. Well, yeah, we'll come to that in due course, don't you worry. But certainly, if and when he plays in the Premier League, he'll be the tallest player ever in the Premier League. And obviously, you've also got Christian Moulton, a guy who was so good last season, unfortunately, has found himself injured and we know he may not be ready for the start of the season. So I want to have a good chat about this particular scenario. Let's hear from Gary O 'Neill first of all. I was going to ask about the goalkeeping department. You've signed a couple of new goalkeepers in the last week or so.

30:11Obviously, disappointing news about Christian, but there's Alex Palmer there as well. Might there be some movement in that department? There will be some movement. I don't know where or what it will be yet. Christian being out, how well Palms has done. He was good again tonight. Made some good saves. Was calm with the ball. So no real decisions have been made on who's won, who's two, who will be leaving. I've been here three weeks, So I'm trying to have a good look at as many as I can. But no, we'll make some good decisions and we'll make sure that the department's in a good spot. Reg has been excellent with him on the training ground.

30:45So no, that will become clearer over the next few weeks, hopefully. You did go on to say about Sherpin that we've not signed him just because he's tall. You know, we think he's a good addition. He's good with the ball at his feet and obviously a very good shot stopper. And clearly at that size, when you look at the importance of set pieces, particularly corners now in the Premier League, he's going to be quite a formidable force, you'd kind of hope anyway, in that scenario.

31:11Mark Heath:Now, I think the common perception was, AJ, or at least what we talked about, was that he would come in as the number one, six foot nine, played in the Champions League last season. Absolute monster in goal to kind of add to Diop and Greaves and these massive defenders as well. Walton may be the number two when he's back from injury and potentially departures for Parma and Van Oevelen. I know they've just signed, but we've talked about him kind of going out on loan to get experience. Having seen Parma and Van Oevelen play, obviously we get to see Sherpa, and we don't want to see Christian this pre-season.

31:47Have you changed your mind on that? Is that still the direction you think that Town are going to end up going in? Yeah, I haven't changed my mind. I should say that I've been really impressed with the goalkeepers that we've seen, and I'll include David Button in that. I thought that he was solid enough when stepping in and being asked to do what he needed to do. And I would expect him to kind of make up the unit that does stay, even if he's not registered. I think that he's got an important part in working with the other goalkeepers and being a bit of a sport. Alex Palmer, really impressed with him last night.

32:20He'd made some really sharp saves against top quality opponents. probably, oh, I'd need to see this one again. And this might be the angle that doesn't help. He might be a bit disappointed with the goal that he concedes because he makes a good initial save. He just patted straight back out to the Osasuna attacker who fires in. But other than that, if it wasn't for him, Ipswich would have been probably 3-0 down at the break, made some really important saves. So impressive what we've seen from him. And Kane van Uvalen hasn't been tested as much, to be honest. I mean, there's nothing he could have done about the goal he conceded.

32:56I don't know if you've seen that. Yeah, there was no chance. Yeah, fantastic. Stunner. Fantastic goal. Honestly, this might sound dramatic, but probably one of the best goals I've seen live, the way he hits it. I mean, it's just the bend on it. Yeah, it's a great goal. Yeah, and we were also positioned just behind it. We really saw the swerve on it. So that was really cool. There's nothing he could have done about that. The main thing I've liked from Kane van Oevelen is how confident he looks with the ball at his feet. For such a young player, obviously had good experience over in the Eredivisie, but yeah, really liked that side of him.

33:32I don't think it's going to do that much to change the picture of the goalkeeping scenario where you've got Christian Walton, who was the number one last year, who has Premier League experience. And I just think that he's going to be the supporting role when he comes back. I don't think that's going to change. And I can't see a world in which Kiel Scherpen, the£11 million in total with the add-ons. Signing is not going to be your number one when he comes in with his height and with the fact he's played in the Champions League last season. So, yeah, I still see it being the same. I expect that Sherpin will be number one.

34:10I think Walton will be the backup when he returns from injury. In the meantime, Van Uvalen will offer support. Then when we have Walton back, Van Uvalen can go out on loan, get some good experience in the championship with a 46 game, won't be that many at that point, but a 40 plus game season. And then we'll see Alex Palmer depart in one way or another, be it a loan or a permanent move, and Button making up the three goalkeeper unit. OK, all of that then brings us, after half an hour, to the actual game they played last night. Obviously a friendly result doesn't matter, but there are some interesting things to talk about.

34:46I thought we'd hear from Gary Neal first of all, because again, he was quite fulsome in his assessment of the game. And also, interestingly, in players that he highlighted for Parade, four of them. So let's hear that first of all, AJ, and then we can exchange notes from the game. Gary, a good run out here then against La Liga opposition. What would you make of that one? Yeah, I thought we were good, really. I thought we were the better side. Obviously, a bit of a mistake for the goal, the first goal. But apart from that 60 minutes, not much our end at all. controlled most of it created some good chances so lots that we need to work on still some stuff that we need to improve but pretty pleased it's still a fitness exercise really to be honest of course it looked a bit like a team for 60 minutes and then it got up really disjointed towards the end but even the first 60 it was more about trying to get the lads into a good spot we got two games at the weekend that they need to be ready for so no I was pleased I thought it went well I thought the opposition were good as well, which is what you want now.

35:44We've had some games against people that are teams that are below us level-wise. This was one where Osasuna were a good side in the league and we got to test ourselves. And I thought we came out OK. Obviously, we lose the game, but by the by at the moment, we need to be ready for the Sunderland game is the bigger picture. And you're starting to see some kind of patterns and passages that you want to from a traditional Gary O 'Neill team, I suppose. Yeah, I think so. I think it looked as close as we can probably ask it to look at this stage. There's some bits that we missed and some bits we didn't do quite right, but I'm sure I'll be staying that the whole time I'm here.

36:17It's never going to be perfect. But, you know, there was some good stuff. I thought the new lads showed some quality as well. Abdul on the side, exciting. Emerson showed that he's going to be a real physical presence, running behind. Tuba, again, has been very, very good in pre-season, to be honest, in and around the goal. Looks a threat. So Jacob Greaves was good again tonight. So loads of positives. and another positive is that we're still going to be really busy between now and hopefully between now and Sunderland but definitely between now and the end of the window to make sure we still strengthen.

36:49New signings have impressed you then as the ones that come in. We've obviously got to see a couple of them tonight, three in total we've seen tonight and three more who fans will hopefully get to meet quite soon. Yeah, I think I don't really want to separate new signings to the players that were already here because they're all new to me. I've only known them three weeks so I'm treating them all the same. I was impressed with loads of them. Loads of them did well. So we know the level that we go into. We know we're going to have to ask a lot of everybody for us to be successful this year. And I thought it was a good, probably our first step really towards where we are.

37:24And yeah, we put on a decent display. Obviously, we probably didn't deserve to lose the game, but yeah, we played pretty well, created some chances and gives us something to work from. Okay, AJ, the game itself. No surprise where I want to start. Can you guess? is it your favorite is he your favorite of such sound i think he is now my favorite i mean it used to be jens i've got obviously a soft spot for cedric but i think having coveted abdul fatah from afar through uh cedric he tell you what we we got to see him so we did this pitch side this interview last night yeah and he was working this might come across the wrong way he was working topless um doing his stretches after the game just to do his core exercises yeah exactly genuinely he looks like he's he's like ready built to go and fight in mma jack just chiseled yeah yeah humongous human being um yeah sorry yes abdul fatu your your favorite person in the

38:23Mark Heath:world at the moment i think well he might i mean he made his debut last night he only played 45 minutes but from the highlights i've watched he looked mustard um it's super i mean we've talked about it before, but it just kind of highlights for me how explosive, how fast he is. I mean, the speed at which he gets the ball up the field, he did look very left-footed from what I've seen, which was a bit of a concern. But he looks like a, probably we've already talked about, like a cut above already on that right-hand side. And he should be, I suppose, 20 million. But I really am high on him and what he can do in the Premier League, AJ.

38:57Yeah, he wanted to make a statement last night. No doubt about that. Playing in front of fans, playing a game, at least for the first time that we've seen him, because he didn't feature in the Cartagena game. So yeah, gets his start within the first minute of the match, wins a free kick because his fullback, although I think wingback technically, also soon played with wingbacks in the first half, couldn't stop him. So dragged him down within the first few seconds of the game, which led to a free kick, which was probably Ipswich's best opportunity of the first half. but he was within that first 45 quite clearly the best outfield player was the most likely that something was going to come through from him um has a shot with his left that kind of goes over the face of goal powerful but if he just gets the angle a little bit better then that could easily go into the back of the net um very left-footed for sure that is something i'd like to see him develop a little bit more almost like similar vibes to when amari played in pre-season a few years ago, three years ago when he first made his Ipswich debut and he looked very lively, has all this energy, wants to impress, but his desire is always cut in, go with his left.

40:07So I want to see that develop. Obviously, he's older than Amari was at that point, quite a bit older, so we need to see more from him in that regard and definitely don't want him to be some sort of one-trick pony. But from what I've seen of him on the ball and off the ball, because it was quite unique watching his role off the ball, really impressed from what I've seen from him that will improve over time and I'm sure that he'll get into games more and be more of a threat as well I think if they can work out ways of getting him one-on-one with defenders he's going to terrify defenders even in the Premier League I think Emerson is another guy that O 'Neill highlighted there said he did well you've seen him play a couple of times now once in the flesh, obviously last night £26 million club record signing Brazilian striker, brings a lot of pressure with it what have you made of him so far?

40:57There is no doubt that he is physically a

40:59Mark Heath:specimen. You can see the profile they've got him for. Big boy. Big powerful striker. That may be flattered to deceive so far. I mean, clearly I know it's only pre-season. He's a very kind of makeshift squads and that kind of thing. But what are your initial impressions of him? Very raw. He is very raw. We've seen it within the training videos. We've seen it within the game so far. Again, it is limited opportunities. It's been 30 minutes against Karthikana and 45 here, so he's seen 75 minutes of Emerson so far in tough conditions where the team and that's kind of the caveat I want to make this Ipswich team that we've seen so far has done nothing to support him absolutely nothing at all, the best opportunity that I've seen him have was a ball that came into the box and he challenged the goalkeeper, got himself about, but ultimately the goalkeeper got to the ball first.

41:52Beyond that, he's not had anything to work with. We've seen little flashes with him with the ball at his feet where he looks good for a player of his size. But he's had very little to work with and he's not a striker that can do something from nothing. So, yeah, still does look very raw. He's going to need plenty of time to adapt to the level, to adapt to English football and to adapt to his new teammates. And his teammates need to do far better at creating for him. I'll be much more concerned about Emerson if he starts having loads of opportunities and can't bury them into the back of the net.

42:24Yeah, so really early with him, but definitely someone who's going to need time and is going to need patience. One more name I want to discuss, and I'll throw it open to you for maybe other people you want to talk about. Tuba Akpon. Got a shout out there from Gary O 'Neill.

42:37Mark Heath:So he's been very, very good in pre-season. Obviously scored the goal, but it was a nice finish, you have to say. Beautiful ball from Bo Roche. Tuba has been, I mean, when he signed, it was kind of like, oh, that's a bit of a shame that they're about to sign him. He's probably going to go up again. And he's, again, a bit, I suppose, a bit like Alex Palmer, even more so in the goalkeeper debate. Tuba has been someone we've kind of thought about as probably not going to play a part in the Premier League. Should we start to re-evaluate, do you think? I mean, obviously, Gary Neal's come in and he's said everyone's got a chance to impress him.

43:11And by the sound of it, he has been impressed with the Tuba. Yeah. Let's not jump the gun, I think is the most important thing. Having watched Shuba Akpom for an entire season, I, and I think many other people, are suddenly going to change our views massively on what he is as a player and what he can bring based on very short kind of spells within preseason. But no doubt, I have been impressed from what I've seen. I think that the Cartagena game, he definitely, there were some moments that he had there and he kind of was involved within nice little bits of link-up play. I thought was the main bit.

43:49Didn't really get into the game as much, but kind of combining with Casey McIntyre, trying to get into good positions within the box. Yeah, flashes. This was a much better one. He could have had two in this game. Combines really nicely with Jack Clark. There's this bit where Jack Clark, just after the restart, picks up the ball and does one of his little mazey runs, which sends the defender the wrong way. Opens the space, right-footed low pass into the box. Akpom makes the run really well. and the shot is saved by the goalkeeper. And the goal, I mean, I think that O'Shea deserves to take a bow for the ball because it's fantastic.

44:26It's superb the way that he's able to do that. I hope we get to see more of it in the Premier League. Ipswich will have to go direct at times. So, yeah, hopefully we'll get to see some more of that. What I like about this goal as well is that Atkins are so well to beat the offside trap. And he finds this little pocket really nicely to take the shot, takes it really well. Goalkeeper should do much, much better, should not be letting that ball into the back of the net. Really poor from the Osasuna keeper. But don't take anything away from Tuba Akpom. So yeah, within those two flashes, and I know there are only little kind of brief moments and I'm kind of picking out, I almost feel like I'm clutching at straws a little bit.

45:03But in games where you don't see a lot, he's the one who's been making things happen a bit. So yeah, maybe that is quite exciting. I do still think that it will lead to Tuba moving on in some way, be it on loan, be it on a permanent I don't think he'll be part of the Premier League squad next year but maybe it does give Gary O 'Neill a bit more food for thought than he thought he was going to have Okay so those are the names I wanted to discuss just because O 'Neill highlighted them Anything else you want to talk about from last night anyone else who caught your eye I know I think also O 'Neill mentioned Cameron Humphreys talking about midfielders Jacob Greaves Charlie Compton I know a youngster came and played in midfield as well.

45:44But how about Chiel Bennett, actually? Because I know last night he ended up playing in midfield, but I know that you said you were impressed with him playing on the left in Spain. And here's another one we're kind of assuming he's just going to move on. Is there any kind of conversation to be had around him, do you think? Possibly. Again, there's so much competition at the moment. They need to trim the squad, so they've got to be really ruthless in how they do it. So I think that even these players who are impressing have got a humongous uphill task because, and again, people are going to shout at me because I say the exact same words on every podcast.

46:16It's a 25-man squad, and that is not a lot of people. And I think that that is ultimately going to be what costs Chio a place in it next year, and it's going to be the same for people like Chiba as well. Yeah, interesting to see him. I mean, off the left, I thought he was really good. I'm surprised almost that we've not seen more of that because obviously he's been this kind of aggressive, right-footed runner down the right, the Wes Burns mold. I really liked him cutting onto his left and getting some really dangerous crosses in with his right foot when he cuts inside off the left. So I really liked that in the Cartagena game.

46:49This one, he kind of ends up playing in midfield, but it becomes more of a 10 almost. He's having to run the inside channels. Didn't really suit him, didn't look as comfortable, but it's good to see that he's able to step in and he wants to play, clearly. He wants to have those opportunities to play. That meant that it became more of a 4-1-4-1 formation and Charlie Compton just had to do everything. He was just the one midfielder up against this team, this solid La Liga team, and he was trying to run the show. He was full of beans. He was energetic. He was scanning every pass. Every time I looked up, his head was just going – he was like an owl all the time, looking all over the place, almost felt like it was going to go full 180 and spin off his head.

47:31I really like that side of it. Really aware, really aggressive. Yeah, lots of energy, which I really enjoyed from him. so hopefully we'll get to see a bit more of him in preseason, I'm sure, over the weekend as well. Jacob Greaves, as mentioned, I thought was probably the most solid part of that back line, and tactically, I want to touch tactically as well a little bit, because it's been a 4-2-3-1 throughout preseason from these games that we've seen, which is obviously only two. I've been adamant that it will be a back five. I'm now starting to question my sanity with the Julio and CISO interest, but yeah, we'll see.

48:04And then it kind of developed into a 4-1-4-1, as I mentioned, but it's so fluid. in that it became a three. It was a three for a lot of the times that Ipswich had the ball, and then it would become a five when they were out of possession, needing to defend. And what you'd see was Harry Clark, who, again, we also expect to move on, would go from this right-sided role into the right-sided centre-back role. And you'd actually see Fatou coming and defending quite deep. So you'd end up with a proper back five that looked like that. And Fatou seemed really keen to do his off-the-ball work as well. So, yeah, we're going to see lots of different systems and tactics.

48:38Gary O 'Neill's alluded to that. but a slightly different dynamic to maybe what we've seen before.

48:52Hello? Are we back? We're back, I think. Hello? Hopefully that works okay. I'm not sure I got much of the fact where we got the dreaded screen loading of Doom then. Was it on your side or on my side? No idea whose fault that was. Fair enough. Well, I can hear you okay now. Let's call it either. Apologies for that

49:14Mark Heath:little break in audio, friends. Right, let's talk about this weekend, AJ, because we're going to see two games in one day this weekend. We're having a little jolly boys outing, aren't we? We're all with Stu still in France. It's an opportunity to play Dad this weekend for me and drive you and Rossi around. So we're going up to Oxford on tomorrow night, Friday night. We're going to do a little bit of content around the ground on Friday night. I'll make a little mini tour of it, if you like. They're going to split the squad. Gary said that last night. They're going to have time to two senior squads.

49:49Mark Heath:Oxford 12 o 'clock, Wickham 4 o 'clock. Just sitting here now, what would you like to say? I mean, the obvious questions is, are we going to see Isidia, are we going to see DASM, are we going to see Kel Sherpa? And it'd be lovely to see them, clearly. But is there anything particularly you're looking forward to from this two games in a day oh no no yeah i have a little bit of um as many fans a little bit of uh ptsd from the last the last time we did this doing the mad dash with ross in the absolute pouring rain to get to steven is just making it there on time this looks like it's gonna be a bit more relaxed there's another 30 minutes on top of what we had last time uh so the mad dash might not be quite as mad which will be good um so yeah what am i hoping to see from this one again we're still in that early stage of pre-season that and you're going to go with the cliche minutes in the legs is the most important part so what do i want to see it's the same thing that gary o 'neill wants to see and he said we want to try and get 90 minutes into as many players as possible i want to see players now starting to where we've seen little bits of nice nice performances from them over the course of 30, 45 minutes.

51:01I now want to see more sustained performances over the course of 60, 70, 80, 90 minutes now from players who've had the La Manga training camp, who've played in the game against Cartagena and played against Osasuna as well. So I want to see more from that side of things. I want to see more patterns of play. I want to see more things where I can say that feels like something that Gary O 'Neill, we could see from a Gary O 'Neill team. I want to be able to pick out some more little tactical bits, be it what we see from the wingers be it how the number 10 operates be it what we see from the striker how Leif Davis positions himself is he going to be inverted, is he going to bomb down the flank what positions are we going to see players in, are we going to see Chio off the left are we going to see Ben Johnson playing left back all of these different things so I want to have a clearer idea of what Gary O 'Neill's identity is as a manager within those players and I want to see some of these players in slightly different roles That's what preseason is all about, isn't it?

51:58It's like slightly different bits, things that give us something to talk about. Johnson off the left, as we've been talking about. Casey's played off the left a bit as well. Yeah, versatility is going to be key for a squad of limited numbers. Yeah, going to be interesting to see how they split the squad, particularly how they feel in midfield. A lot of kids. A lot of kids in midfield, yeah.

52:21Mark Heath:Looking forward to it, though. It's an opportunity for us to make lots of content for you and really pushed, obviously, this new website and app. Two live blogs, in theory, Wi-Fi permitting. Two match verdicts, plenty of video content. Have you ever covered a live game? Because you're going to be – I know you've been with games with us before, but a lot of the time you sit behind us and do the whole opera over the side. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, but that's not the case in this stage. It's been a long time. I'm not letting you get away with it. You're not going to be doing that this time. with Stu off.

52:54You're going to be working with us. So when was the last time that you didn't cover the game? I generally cannot remember.

53:01Mark Heath:I mean, obviously, I've covered a lot of live boxing, live sport in that way. But as you say, normally, with Saturday being my day off when I come to Ipswich Town Games, it's more in an ambassadorial role rather than an actual muck and bullets getting my hands dirty role. But I'm looking forward to it. It's going to be good. It should be interesting. I'm really interested to see what it's like spending time with you and Rossi for a few more hours than I'm used to. Good luck. Could go one way or the other. Anyway, yeah, look out for that. It's all going to be loads of content coming your way on the app, as we already discussed.

53:34Mark Heath:A couple of things I want to talk about before we take our leave, Adrian, you've already touched on one of them. We have to have this tallest person debate, which came about from last week's podcast when you referred to Kel Sherpin being one of the world's tallest people. And I called you up and said, he's not one of the world's tallest people. He's 6 '9". there are plenty more people at all than that it's not the average height of power in an mba you went away and you did your little research and you found out these in the top 0.001 of people on earth still there's 200 000 people that are six foot nine on on on planet earth my argument is if i said to you my friend is one of the tallest men on the planet the tallest people on the planet you go wow how tall this is you like seven foot five seven foot six and if i said to you six foot nine and you'd go, it's not that tall.

54:19Mark Heath:There's loads of 6 '9 people. You're maintaining, and the people agree with you, by the way, because you put it to the AOA poll, that being 6 '9 makes you one of the tallest people on the planet. It's nonsense, mate, but defend yourself. I mean, you've kind of outlined a lot of the argument already. I mean, yes, 250 ,000 people on the planet. Mark, the planet consists of 8.3 billion people in the world. 250 ,000 people. that'll probably be about the population of stoke in the world we're talking about here i think that it always everything comes down to context and and how things work within that context so for example if i said to you how many times you've seen like a billionaire has been um spoken about or mentioned as one of the richest people in the world yeah yeah quite a lot there's 3 000 billionaires in the world that's not like a common thing and you mentioned to me you said in terms of the height thing well you know i would have pictured top 10 but is that going to be okay that's that's why i'd say and someone mentioned this if that was the case i'd say he's one of the top 10 tallest people in the world he is by definition within a very small percentage of people over a really incredible height is it the average height in the nba no it's taller than the average height in the nba and the nba is still a collection of incredibly tall people who themselves are among the tallest people in the world.

55:43They are. They're within that percentage. The average height in the NBA, by the way, is not 6 '9", it's 6 '7". But, yeah, that's the argument that I have. I love that you've looked that up as well. I've come prepared. I think that everything has to be... You're bringing receipts, I like it. Yeah, it all has to be within the kind of concept of how you look at stuff. And you say to me, for example, the football one, would you say that a professional player, say, I don't know who we're going to take.

56:12Mark Heath:I used the example of Calvin Phillips, didn't I? Calvin Phillips. Calvin Phillips, technically, given your argument, being a professional footballer at a very high level, is one of the best players on the planet. But if I said to you, Calvin Phillips is one of the best players on the planet, you'd laugh at me. Yeah, and I suppose that in that argument, you could say, yes, he is one of the best footballers on the planet. But that would be a little bit weird saying that. But then how many people, you're then saying people in general, right? How many people wake up, train as a professional footballer, progress like a professional footballer, even play football at all?

56:44Then you're looking at a much smaller pool. It's very different to comparing it than to height. Everyone has height. Everyone in the world has height. It's a universal thing. So, yeah, that is my comparison. That's what I see it as. And that is why I stand by it. And the people agreed of the more than 500 votes that went out on Twitter i think it was 71 percent agreed with me and i know that you're not going to back down on this i'm not going to back damn it mark i stand by it that's all good mate we can agree to disagree and still be friends that's the beauty of uh of life um i wonder if it because i played basketball

57:22Mark Heath:when i was growing up and i used to play with guys who were like seven foot and you know six foot ten that kind of thing whether my my vision of height or my thoughts on height to me six foot nine yes it's tall but it's not really that tall um you know i've spent time with people who were much taller than that and played in a you know a competitive environment with them whereas i don't know if you you have been around that many that many trees um no not too many yeah i wonder but i will get the opportunity of course to meet one of these we need to get we need the photo for context i am five six ish somewhere in that i like to say ish just to make it out i probably and not like probably five, six on the dot.

58:01So quite small, probably right at the other side of the percentile, let's say, among one of the shortest people in the world, you could argue. I looked this up, unfortunately, because I was hoping to be able to use this argument. But no, you're actually incredibly normal. Okay, there you go. Nowhere near the shortest man in the world. So there we go. I am one of the most incredibly normal people in the world. And I will get to stand next to you at some point to Kjell Sherpen. I don't know if we're going to get like an actual photo op. But we will get to interview him, and Ross will be there, hopefully, to take a photo.

58:35If not, Callum has promised he will take a photo. But we will have a chance to do this and to have a photo side by side to just show off what the height difference is. There might be a photo of Andy next to him at some point, because I'm about the same height as Andy. So maybe we can get a taste for it, but I'm really excited for that. It will be great. I'm going to have to crane my neck up the whole time while doing that interview. It's going to be like a skyscraper. a classic of local sports journalism.

59:01Mark Heath:I remember years ago, Ipswich Basketball Club signed a player who I think was seven foot two. And we sent down one, well, probably the shortest male reporter in the entire office to go and interview him, who I think was probably shorter than you. I think he was only about five, four, five, five. And there was a picture of him, it still exists somewhere, of him actually standing on like a ladder to interview him. So we need something like that, if possible. There's a little step ladder we can get you on with your little there we go that'd be uh tremendous to do the other thing i want to mention before we go aj um you're looking at something what's going on nothing no i just mentioned messaged in the chat no don't ignore ross what's he saying i'm sorry i thought he saw all his photos in that's literally it i saw a message from him and looked at that was important uh yeah the other thing i want to i want to uh share with you uh aj and by definition everyone else listening to this is that I had a dream about Gary O 'Neill last night um where is this going well I was looking I was looking at it's actually out that you mentioned Ross's pictures because I was looking at Ross's pictures last night of Gary and obviously he's very tanned but he also the lad looks in good shape right I was thinking that's good he looks like fit why cool yeah in terms of kind of fit he's got kind of sunken cheeks you know it looks like he's uh he could he says he couldn't play in the premier league but he certainly looks you know physically like he's in good shape so this obviously went into my my consciousness my subconscious because when i woke up this morning i had a dream about doing a crossfit class with gary o 'neill um and we were doing balls to the wall you know throwing the balls up at the wall and exchanging nutrition uh guidance to each other i was asking what's your diet like gary and all that kind of stuff um so i don't know i just i just felt i need to get off my chest I'm already dreaming about the New Yorkshire's Tamager.

1:00:52Mark Heath:I think it means I want him to be my mate and I want to go to the gym with him. That's good because you weren't fully sold and now you're openly talking on the podcast about how you've been dreaming of Gary O 'Neill's balls and I'm really impressed. This is good character development so I'm impressed. I'm not sure that's what I said but there we go. We'll go with it. Well then friends that brings us to the end of the podcast. We've done an hour or so lots to talk about today. Really enjoy being able to get back and talk about some meaty topics around this town and actually speak to the top man and get some proper insight from him just a reminder friends as i've already said the koa app and website is now live um it's there for you to go and enjoy if you're already an angling subscriber you get it as part of that package until that subscription ends and obviously you can just subscribe to koa if you're not already an angling subscriber you just want to subscribe to the football stuff it's two pounds for two months at the moment or 29 pounds for a whole year that will become 3.99 a month um after the offer ends, which isn't until the end of August.

1:01:50Mark Heath:And I think yearly is£39. So still, again, I hope you would agree, good value for everything we're going to be giving you with that. We'd also love you to leave a five-star review on iTunes. Again, it helps lift us visibility-wise in the charts and follow us across all our social media, Kings of Anglia on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and X. Hopefully we'll be putting out some video on there over the course of this Jolly Boys outing to Oxford and Wickham. the other question aj i'm thinking about it is it dangerous for you going to oxford because obviously you're from cambridge i mean it's a bit like the bloods and the crypts isn't it yeah so i will be kind of it's going to be a little bit kind of like yeah territory to be honest um i think the people there can like they can sense it and they can smell it on you it should be said there's no actual football rivalry between cambridge united and oxford and people are very quick to jump on the fact that there is no boat race derby within football we don't care but um when it comes to other aspects of it yes i i'm i'm terrified of the prospect of having to cross university cities yeah it could get a bit spicy this weekend at oxford again tune in to find out uh and then the other thing just to mention friends clearly uh is uh what was it i want to mention before we went away um i totally forgot it was a sponsor of course um user code koa10 and molecular.co.uk for 10 off all our excellent car cleaning products etc And I'm going to be cleaning my car specially to transport you up to Oxford and to Wickham tonight, AJ.

1:03:19Mark Heath:So when you get in the car tomorrow, I'm hoping you comment on the banana dine, which is my particular favourite from the molecular range. Right then, friends, Ifritstown are back. There's loads to talk about. Things are happening. There's two games being played on Saturday. We're going to be at both of them. Just follow them with us if you're not going. If you are there, come and say hello to us. great to speak to members of the Kauai Army and we'll be back next week and Watson will be back as well to talk to you all over again have a great weekend whatever you're doing and we'll speak to you next time

1:04:08I love you.

1:04:39Thank you.

1:05:20Hello friends and welcome to your flagship show.

1:05:26Can we keep that? I'll just keep that. That was amazing. i genuinely was about to say flag shit uh i didn't anyway uh ross when ross when you do this because i'm sure you'll be listening ross yeah please up and put it into the chat yeah and also don't don't keep it put it at the end like a little a-string you ain't heard about moto casino moto has real vegas slots any game you can find on the floor in vegas you can play it on moto i like my slots hot Moto's free to play, like food stamps, in line at the grocery store, at a funeral, in traffic, keep your eyes on the road, hop on Moto Casino. Moto Casino got jackpots that are bigger than my belly.

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