646: Kings of Anglia: Back from Berlin as Town close in on Strasbourg duo

22:18Stuart Watson:For me, you get your best players in your team. And if they were to get Palacios, it would be Palacios and Lukic all day long in terms of the experience. Lukic has got a bit of defensive grit about him. They would find a way to play together. That's my feeling on midfield. But I'm fascinated to see where Wattara fits in all of this and how this Palacios saga unfolds over the coming week and a bit. Where do you put Marcelino Nunez in that then, Stu? Because obviously he's had a mixed pre-season. I think there's been some good bits, some less good bits. I think we've spoken a little bit before about some worries about him maybe playing in that deeper midfield role.

22:59Does he then become purely part of the 10 structure, but we've not seen him play much of a 10 in pre-season? Where does he fit in?

23:06Stuart Watson:Way out of the picture at the moment. is the short answer to that. I didn't think he's looked quite rusty in pre-season. He was better at the weekend, but not enough, as you say. I don't see him being part of the deeper midfielders in CISO. And we've mentioned Sindra's impressive pre-season. I think probably the two 10s vying for things at the moment. Yeah, fringes. And maybe, you know, we're talking about exits. maybe there'll even be a conversation there at some stage. We'll see.

23:42Ross Halls:You've got to be ruthless, haven't you, as well, unfortunately. I know Nunez, that was an amazing sign last summer, joining from the arch rivals. How are you feeling about AJ with Nunez? Is he someone who will want to try to push to get into the team? But at the moment, with these players getting signed by big bucks, it's like, ooh. Yeah, it's very tricky, for sure, to try and find out how still this... I had a little go at piecing the team and bench together with players a bit, which is kind of breaking into a preview. If you said to me, what's the team going to be? If the game was played tomorrow, it would be Sherpen, O'Shea, Diop, Greaves, Davis, Florentino and Lukic in midfield, Fatou and Cisou, Maida and Emerson.

24:22It's basically the team I would name if Sunderland would play tomorrow. And then you'd have a bench of, say, Walton, Furlong, Wattara, Nunez, Valarageli, McAteer, Clark, Filagene, Atpom. That is ahead of more signings coming in as well. already then you're leaving out matthesira and taylor who are both injured van uvelen kit break johnson humphreys and anis memetti that's where we are right now in terms of the players who are making a squad then adding in more players we're talking about needing probably another midfielder uh depending on what we're seeing with uh with watara and his best position we're looking at another number nine coming in we're looking at maybe some extra players in defense as well and you've got to be ruthless.

25:03And that's going to be the case for players like Anis, for players like Cam Humphreys, for players like Ben Johnson, that all could end up moving on. And Marcelino is in a really weird spot and he's got these real qualities. I'm sure that his on-the-ball qualities can be excellent. The way that he can pick a pass is really impressive, but he just lacks certain elements that I would really worry about with him playing regular minutes in the Premier League. And with the quality you need to stay up, with the consistency you need to stay up, given that we spoke about someone who, towards the back end of last season, I thought was really off it in the running.

25:41He just wasn't at it at all. And that number 10 spot was a real problem for Ipswich. That would then worry me taking that into the Premier League. So it would be weird moving him on after a year with all the fanfare and everything that kind of comes with that. Maybe there's a loan auction there and you could say the same with maybe someone like an Anas Mometi. Again, bizarre, given that he's only joined six months ago. But as you say, Ross, you've got to be ruthless. You've got to make some really tough decisions. Everyone's going to want to play in the Premier League. It's Anas Mometi's dream.

26:12I'm sure it's Marcelino Nunez's dream when he came into English football. But there's only a finite number of spaces and you have to maximise what you can bring to the squad. And I'm not sure whether Nunez is quite at that level to be contributing.

26:25Ross Halls:Okay, then. sort of nicely a segue on to our next talking point which is Jalen Philogene because he made his return played his first game in pre-season for town of course there's a lot of things up in the air about his future at town what's your gut feeling Stu? He came off the bench in the second half of this one show glimpses what he of course can do but also a few frustrations as well yeah what do you reckon my friend as we go the final few weeks of the transfer window?

26:54Stuart Watson:Gut feeling educated feeling he stays I think a lot of Ipswich Town fans had resigned themselves to the fact he was off with so much noise agent driven noise let's be honest around him set to depart coming out via Fabrizio Romano earlier in the summer multiple times we've discussed it before as a player that for all his magic moments last season, goals against Norwich, fantastic goals, fan base never quite connected with from a personality point of view because he's quite a quiet player. And there was almost a sort of reaction of, well, if he doesn't want to be here, he can go. But from what I gather, there haven't been any major bites or bids for him this summer.

27:47Stuart Watson:Ipswich are in a strong position. He's well contracted. They paid£20 million for him 18 months ago. So you'd be wanting to make a profit on that. And it doesn't look like there's a queue of clubs ready to pay that sort of money for where he's at in his career. So I think there's been a little bit of a, you know, there was a period where he wasn't playing games because of a self-reported hamstring injury while all this was going on. I think there's been a bit of coming together behind the scenes, a showing of love, you know, a real honest conversation between all parties. and he's been reintegrated at the weekend, came off the bench, on the ball, some really sharp moments.

28:27Stuart Watson:You know, he is levels ahead of Maeda in terms of technicality and final third ability, shooting, crossing, skill, that sort of thing. What Maeda's miles ahead of Philogene, or consistency-wise, is off the ball work and stuff like that. So there was a snapshot of that at the weekend. Off the ball, he looked not so good. on the ball he looks sharp and as I've said right from the very start of this saga Jadon Filagene is one of Ipswich Town's X Factor players and you need those in the Premier League and I'm pleased he's set to stay it's an interesting conversation now knock on effect with the left wing Maeda in, Jack Clark top goal scorer last season can you afford to carry all three of those I don't know you mentioned Mometti he's more of a left sider slash 10 as well?

29:21Stuart Watson:Is he now one that comes into the conversation around exits? Maybe even Jack Clark. I don't know. We'll see. I think there's a good chance that, again, very fluid, very flexible systems. Jack Clark gets some good minutes in the 10. And I thought he was good there over the weekend. He started there over the weekend. And I was impressed with what he was able to do. He gets his goal. he's played even when he played off the left there's been quite a few games where he plays really centrally and the one that comes to mind was a really good performance from him actually at Coventry which would have been the end of December wasn't it?

29:59The 2-0 win there really impressed by him in that game and I just wonder whether that could be a role that suits him actually and I think that then you've got a central role where you've got options to go and Mometi's not one that I would hang my hat on being at Ipswich at the end of the transfer window, you could then go in CISO, Jack Clark, and Cinder Rallor-Agelli as your players who can play in that role. Then you've always got the option that if there was an injury to Jadon Philogene or to Dyson Mider, that Jack Clark can then go and step into that position there. I think there is a way that you can carry all three of them, and I do think that you can look into the fact that in the final game of preseason, Jack Clark is starting games in the number 10.

30:42so I think there's a good chance that he can pick up a significant chunk of minutes there in the Prem.

30:48Stuart Watson:Jack Clark in the 10 is not for me if I'm honest I know he can do it but it's not his role if you speak to him he loves paint on the boots starting wide and then being able to drift inside and open up those pictures with the goal he can do it but again we're having brutally honest conversations about the Premier League now and kind of crowbarring players into wrong positions and we can have a similar conversation about Daro Shea to a slightly lesser degree because he has played it. I'm not sure about Jack Clark. You need bodies, you need depth, you need quality. Off the bench, four injuries in the Premier League.

31:27Stuart Watson:Equally, it's just spending a lot of money at the moment. The squad's getting big. You want everyone to feel like they've got a chance. And you would imagine, financially, There's talk of kind of pushing FFP to its very limits. There comes a point where you need to make some profit on players as well just to keep this all ticking over. Jack Clark could fall into that conversation. I don't know.

31:51Ross Halls:Yes, it's going to be an interesting few weeks, boys, and it ins and outs, and we'll bring you some sexy stuff in a minute. But let's just sum up pre-season as a whole, boys. I thought the subs actually made a difference in this game. Of course, Casey McIntyre scoring a Townsworth goal with a good goal. Did a little celebration. but yeah how would you sum up sort of the pre-season as a whole boys come with you AJ bring you in now yeah we've beaten obviously as Stu mentioned earlier in the pod the league opposition beat League no League 1 French yeah you could say French stop flight opposition yeah I'm going to say that going forward so yeah it's been sort of competitive you know they've been building haven't they from you know behind closed door games then you know Spain trip then Port and Road games, also sooner of course at Colchester and then finishing off with a good win here and that's what you want as well, get some wins on the board and now that's three wins in a row in terms of the last three games of course Yeah, I think it's as expected that the first couple maybe three games you could argue were as you would expect minutes into the legs, it's rustiness it's that it was a horrible game to watch the Cartagena one, for example, played in the heat off the back of a really intense, grueling training camp in Spain, going straight into that Osasuna game at Colchester against a side who are very good and competing quite well, seeing flashes.

33:22And it just kind of built from there, which I really like. And what started off as kind of almost training exercises then became what we saw in the last few games. It kind of felt like the middle point was maybe that double header where we had the weaker team that got swept aside by Oxford, the stronger team then showing a little bit more in that Wickham game. And then I think Gary O 'Neill, that was the point where Gary O 'Neill started to say, OK, this is going to be my core group. And that's where they got the majority of minutes then in those next few games. And it was a 50-50 split, I think, in the minutes, wasn't it?

33:55At Le Havre. But then the other ones after that were seen much more as kind of preparations for the big kickoff against Sunderland. and that's what you see. And I know that Gary O 'Neill doesn't want to look too much into it, but I thought the performance from what I saw of it against Raya Vaikano was excellent and gives a lot of confidence. And then you have the performance against Union Berlin. It's good that we've been able to see areas that they need to work on, for sure, especially over the weekend. But also you need to build a bit of confidence going into this game, doing so off the back of three wins against top flight teams will do them the world of good.

34:36And yeah, just think it leaves them in a good position. I wouldn't say we're going into this thinking, Europa League beat Sunderland 5-0 over the weekend, anything like that. But I think it's just left everyone feeling pretty content and happy with where this group is at the moment.

34:52Ross Halls:Yeah, we won't admit that. That's what we were talking about in a bar in Berlin, with a few town fans saying, get used to this, going abroad. We're actually planning on getting a little camper van, the KOA camper van for our trips to Lithuania and things like that when Ipswich one day make it back into UEFA competitions. That would be fantastic. A lot of town fans enjoyed Berlin and as you saw 800 plus in that way and it was incredible. Stu, what have you liked and what haven't you liked in pre-season for Gary O 'Neill? You know, you've been able to show what he wants his team to do. You know, what have you sort of seen?

35:32Ross Halls:What's the sort of, you know, stand out for you so far?

35:35Stuart Watson:I think my biggest takeaway is that it's going to be a lot more front-footed and attacking than I think we perhaps were thinking when Gary O 'Neill was appointed and he talked about tactical flexibility and being a bit more pragmatic against the big boys. It's been 4-2-3-1 in every game so far. It's been fullbacks pushing on. Leif Davis at the weekend was sort of inverting and almost playing as a 10 at times in the game. Three goals against Valicano, four goals against Berlin. At Portman Road especially, they're going to really go for this. And you saw his quotes after the game of, I don't want anyone to be scared about this.

36:22Stuart Watson:There's a no fear attitude. They're not going to die trying is the feeling. And that's been my biggest takeaway from this preseason. I don't think tactically it's going to be a million miles away from Kieran McKenna. There will be times where it's more pragmatic. Perhaps Liverpool away, sorry, the Man United away will be the first showing of that possibly, but there's no doubt about it. Sunderland at home on Saturday. They're going to go for it.

36:55Ross Halls:Excelsior stuff. Looking forward to it. And of course, we'll be recording a big, big preview. Heath, of course, will be back in the host chair and I'll be going back into the third man punditry chair just to share my different hot takes. Let's talk about the sexy stuff, boys. By the time you listen to this, watch this. Town, of course, have likely announced two new signings from Stragsburg with a lot of money being spent. Stu, someone posted a post on socials today. It's six years ago from that day of Olly Hawkins, David Cornell and Stephen Ward were signed. The only summer signings in 2020 under Paul Lambert.

37:35Ross Halls:And Town now are potentially going to be spending over£150 million on players, which is incredible.

37:44Stuart Watson:Is that six years ago today? Yeah, today. Wow.

37:48Ross Halls:August 17th, 2020. And now, Tam, I just spunk a loads of money on these players from European clubs. Yeah, keep us up to speed a little bit more, mate, on the sexy stuff because, yeah, it's getting busier and busier.

38:00Stuart Watson:Yeah, that really provides context of how far it should have come in such a short space of time, doesn't it? Yeah, up to speed. We're recording this now, speaking just after midday on Monday. by the time people listen to this I'm hopeful confident that the double deal for Julio Nciso and Abdul Wattara from Strasbourg will be done talk you through some fees on that we've been talking about how Nciso was set to set a new club record, I don't think it's quite going to do that from what I gather in terms of a total package, a little bit hazy on the breakdown of the Nciso deal, I'm just told it's 30.5 million euros annoyingly everything is in euros these days um so that's 26 million pounds um roughly all in don't as i said i don't know what's guaranteed what's up front um what the add-ons are but 26 million pounds um is just below the total package for emerson we were pegging that at 28 plus three euros which is 26 and a half million total so just shy of what was paid to to lose for emerson for Julio and CISO.

39:13Stuart Watson:The fee for Wattara, who we don't know loads about, if we're honest so far, other than the fact he's ultra versatile, played loads of positions. Gary O 'Neill loved him at Strasbourg last season, uncapped for the Ivory Coast, 20 years of age. So he won't count towards the squad limit, which is a bonus. The fee for him is a little bit higher than when initially was kind of being alluded to. I'm told that's around 20 million euros for him up front. guaranteed. That's£17 million plus some potential further add-ons of around £4.3 million. So you do the maths as they say. Put those two together and it's just shy of£50 million potentially as a total package for the two of them if all add-ons are hit further down the line which will take Ipswich's summer spend as you say above£150 million and we'll make them well we set a new record for money spent by a newly promoted club going above what Sunderland spent last year and as you've touched upon Ross looks like there's more to come as well

40:19Ross Halls:yeah incredible I think yeah that that transfer window summer 2020 I'm sure they were just free transfers yeah yeah so just mad six years later 150 million plus been spent so far which is incredible.

40:35Stuart Watson:AJ... Just to go back to him, I remember that was the, oh, we've signed the beanpole striker that's going to score some goals. And then he signed in the first interview, he said, see myself more as a centre-back these days, actually. Oh, good day. Never did, though. Yeah.

40:52Ross Halls:Oh, what a time to be alive back then. Of course, COVID times as well. And a lot's happened since then. Backpack promotions, back in the Premier League. AJ, we're going to do a lot of, of course, written pieces and video pieces on Ulione Siso and Abdul Otara. But yeah, incredible, isn't it? Just, you know, 50 million just potentially, you know, on these two players. It's incredible stuff. Yeah, and even like just within the context of this season, I know that sometimes you look back and we've done this before. We've had a Premier League season. We've been to Old Trafford. We've been to Anfield.

41:27We've done all these things. This feels a bit different, doesn't it, to last time round. And I know we got really excited even then when we were signed All the top players in the championship, Sam Smollett, Jacob Greaves, they were all really exciting. Yeah, this is obviously different. If you got to the end of that season and you said that Premier League season, Julio and Cesar will be returning on a permanent deal, having gone to France and torn it up and it's such a back in the Premier League coming back on a permanent, you'd probably be put into a mental institution. so like I think it just shows exactly what this this club are looking at you're going to a team that was a conference league semi-finalist weren't they signing one of their top players signing one of their most talented youngsters uh negotiating with blue coat to go and get them done putting the money on the table we've seen experienced players come in they've taken two incredibly experienced players off of an established premier league side um we're seeing young talents like Emerson come in, Abdul Fatou was courted by a number of sides, exciting additions like Dyson Maida, for example.

42:40Yeah, it's all coming together. We're not there yet, but when you start to now piece this, when you look at the shape of the squad, it's exciting, and it has to be because, good God, are they going into something that's incredibly difficult when you look at Sunderland, who I think could be down there, maybe towards the bottom end this coming season. If they have a harder one, they've got an incredibly strong squad still. And Ipswich have to be able to match that. And credit to the club for putting the money on the table to try and do it.

43:11Ross Halls:Definitely. And they potentially could be signing a World Cup winner as well. But Stu, let us know a little bit more. Yeah.

43:21Stuart Watson:Yeah, there's been a few little updates around Ezequiel Palacios, as you say, was part of Argentina's squad that got to the final this summer, didn't get any minutes on the pitch in the tournament, had a few minutes off the bench when they won it in 2022. He's been part of a Bayer Leverkusen side. They were invincibles, weren't they, the year they won it in the Bundesliga, is that right? Right. Yeah, AJ's nodding uncertainly in the background, but he was certainly part of a Bundesliga title winning side with Leverkusen. And it looks like he's available this summer. I think Leverkusen have quietly made clubs aware that he's available.

44:05Stuart Watson:I guess the slight question mark is injuries against him. He missed a decent chunk of last season with an adductor injuries, He's not one that's played kind of 30-plus games regularly throughout his career. But there are levels to this game. And, you know, I've just talked about, what is it, 41 caps, 42 caps for Argentina. I can't remember off the top of my head. And he would certainly take, you know, would go up levels in terms of quality in this squad. So Ipswich kind of took a you-got-to-be-in-it-to-win-it attitude with him. chucked in a 15 million euro bid probably over a week ago two weeks ago or so now which was quite quickly knocked back Leverkusen are talking about wanting 35 to 40 million euros which have gone no not for us and now we're in that little standoff period maybe Leverkusen are waiting to see if others come in doesn't seem like anyone else has massively thrown their hat in the ring at the moment.

45:07Stuart Watson:Then we get an update from Germany to say, actually, contrary to what was previously said about him maybe setting his targets higher than Ipswich, he can see himself at Ipswich now and he's lowered his financial demands a little bit. So maybe, maybe they can meet in the middle on this one. That's a huge maybe still at this moment in time. But Ipswich to sign a World Cup winner, talking about things you never thought you'd hear yourself say out loud only a few years ago. There's a chance.

45:41Ross Halls:I don't mind that. There's a chance. I like that phrase. So, yeah, well, it's going to be a busy next few weeks for Mark Apsh and Co. Of course, the new train ground's opened. Still, of course, we've got pieces that are out on our website. So check them out. I want to mention a departure that happened over the weekend. Harry Clarke, I'll stick with you, Stu, because you sort of covered him from the League One days until, of course, now. Yeah, he signs for Preston. Looked like he was going to go to Stoke, but now he's gone to Preston. Good move for him. And yeah, he, of course, lived the boyhood dream of playing in the Premier League for town.

46:14Ross Halls:Part of that back-to-back promotion. Banned the brothers. Another player to sort of leave. And yeah, did an emotional message leaving the club. But yeah, wish them all the best. And yeah, Harry Clarke, what a character.

46:25Stuart Watson:Yeah, go well, Clarke. Can't say much more than that, really. No great surprise here. He's not been sort of a firm fixture in the first team, really, for sort of midway through the Championship promotion season, first time around when Axel Twenzelby got himself fit and got in at right back. And, yeah, he had a few more moments from there. The game at Brentford where he was sent off in the Premier League and sort of faded from it there, not helped by injuries, of course. And it's, you know, it's a failed medical, which means he doesn't go to Stoke. That was due for three and a half million pounds.

46:59Stuart Watson:I haven't quite got what the figure is with Preston. That came very much out of the blue on Friday night, wasn't it, while we were in Germany? But, yeah, I think the enduring image of Harry Clark is him in that jazzy vest and the big hat at the very front of the League One promotion celebrations. What an impact he had along with the three other lads in that January transfer window. It was Brodie, George Hurst, Massimo Luongo, of course. Yeah, came through at Ipswich, came back to Ipswich from Arsenal, a proper Ipswich boy, born and bred. There's very few people that have that emotional connection with their boyhood club and achieve the things that he did with his boyhood club.

47:44Stuart Watson:The other thing I remember is that, because you remember the goal he scored against Blackburn and he absolutely lost his mind. He just celebrated like as if you or I scored for your club. That's how you'd react. And that told you everything about what it meant to Harry Clarke to play for Ipswich Town.

47:58Ross Halls:and of course he brought back the fist pump um i think he did it justice you know luke chambers of course was the man who started it back in the story behind that is he he saw luke chambers

48:08Stuart Watson:walking across a car park in ipswich and he went over to him and um said you know almost quite bashfully which is not harry clark as you know um do you mind if i take on the the fist pump and chambers was like no i love it go for it take it on so um yeah he took he took that on and And that was a big part of the feel-good factor, wasn't it? The Harry Clark fist pump. None others have quite delivered it with the same timing and ferocity as Harry Clark, I wouldn't say. No one's quite nailed it to Harry Clark levels yet.

48:42Ross Halls:Yeah, Marcelino Nunes needs a lot of work still. So, yeah, there's a few. Yeah, I won't get into that. But AJ, just a quick mention on Harry Clark's move to Preston, because that's a good move for him. Had a good end of last year on loan at Cholton. and yeah, he's now going to join a Preston side who I don't know what they're going to be like. I know you've done your 1-24s. Where have you put them to finish? Is it going to be a bad season for them? I don't want to say. I think I might. I need to go back and have a look. Although, was this before Harry Clark? Yeah, maybe they'll be up towards the playoffs now.

49:15No, I think they will have a tough season. They've been beaten by Bolton, who I have bottom of my 1-24s in their opening game. I think they're going to be in for a scrap. I think they're going to be in for a relegation battle and I think if you have anyone that you'd like to have in that position, it's going to be someone with the fight and the desire and the determination of a Harry Clarke. So I think that's a really good one to have. He's going to a club where definitely if he went Stoke, you'd have some real competition to start with, with some of the options they've got. And even Bristol City are interested.

49:43I know they've got some good depth there. Preston, I think there's more of a natural kind of pathway for him into their team. He's just going to be a really solid championship player, isn't he? obviously at the moment the Premier League is a bridge too far he's still quite young he's 25 I think isn't he so um yeah someone who uh will come in and be a bit of a floor raiser for them uh yeah 25 still only turned 25 in March um I think he's a fantastic signing for Preston and I think it's a good move for for him just to go and be a regular now back in the championship and hopefully to show that grit and determination in what could be quite a fight for them this year.

50:26Ross Halls:Okay, then. Well, there we go then, boys. I think we'll end the podcast now. Just sort of Tales of the Tour in Germany, another pre-season trip covering Itchristown abroad. Stu, you are the big brother with your little, little bros here. You, of course, lead the way. And, yeah, your Tales of the Tour, my friend. anything you want to mention, any memories that sticks to your mind?

50:49Stuart Watson:Yeah, it was a fun trip, wasn't it? As I said at the very start, good weather, sun was out. I heard a lot about Union Berlin and their stadium over the years. I know it's one that a lot of English fans go over to on stag do's or make little pilgrimages to, football hipsters to kind of tick it off. It's set in a real sort of forest setting, isn't it, as the name suggests. and old-school concrete terracing, and you could take a beer out, and you curry-versed, and even though it was a pre-season game, their ultras weren't in full flow, but there was a flare going off after the first goal went in, and they made some good noise ahead of kick-off, and Ipswich fans played their part as well.

51:33Stuart Watson:My favourite thing, I think, was the last 10 to 15 minutes, and this was almost Barnsley levels of kind of continuous chanting, the please don't take me home, I just don't want to go to work, I want to stay here and drink all the beer. And it went on and on and on and on. And I think they might have drunk all the beer, to be quite honest. And good luck to them. So good weekend. We enjoyed ourselves, didn't we?

51:57Ross Halls:We did indeed. Big shout out to Ollie, who gave me a beer in the away end. I know I shouldn't be drinking on the work, but you're in Germany. Andrew can drink in the stands.

52:06Stuart Watson:That's why all the photos were out of focus.

52:09Ross Halls:Yeah, some of them. Then I, of course, got sobered up and was able to get some good snappy snaps. so yeah but no fantastic creating trip AJ we've been to Austria we've been to Munich actually before hasn't we but this was another good trip and it was just maybe a bit too hot but we won't complain because rather that because here it's very very cold though when Jacob big shout out to Jacob who is a town fan born in Friedrichstoke but also is the Union Berlin English social media man and he gave us a nice little tour on Friday before the game and he said yeah it's very cold here in the winter so So, yeah, lovely time, mate.

52:45Yeah, big shout-out to Jacob for showing us around, giving us a tour and some of the background and insight on Union Berlin. I won't repeat too much from that there. You can go watch the preview video, which obviously previews a game that's happened, but also gives some really wonderful kind of background into Union Berlin. So, yeah, it was great to go over there. It was very hot, very, very hot. I think it was 35 during the game, so well done to the players for managing to get through that, even with a few water breaks that were booed. Yeah, just good to be in a city like that. It's huge. It was one of those we were told, oh, yeah, it's really easy to walk.

53:21You get in there and it's fine. And then we had a look at going from one end to the other and it takes about an hour 50 or something like that, which I think kind of sums up the Germans' approach to walking a little bit. But yeah, that was good, good food. Tried Turkish food for the first time. Tried to steal shoes by accident. Yeah, I was sure that was mine. Then it turned out it wasn't. I think I didn't get the right food, but then still what I had was very nice. That was good. I was happy I had what I had. Yeah, we had the nice burger. What was the burger place called? Do you remember? Smash it.

53:51Smash it. Smash it burger. That was good. Enjoyed that. Yeah, overall, the schnitzel was good. You had the schnitzel. Yeah, so tried some different things. Enjoyed being out and about, different country. Stu, in particular, took charge for some German. I've been doing German on Duolingo for 743 days. And I thought, you know what? No. Stu took it to A-level, had a bit more confidence, handled it quite well. A couple of occasions with some wobbles, but credit where credit's due, he certainly took charge on that case. I also like Ross as well every time going into his English-German. And this has been a thing for like three years now where anytime we go to Europe, he'll tell you, he'll go, hello, hello.

54:40And he'll do, he'll, he'll first start talking like he is, uh, from Germany, but he's speaking English.

54:46Ross Halls:But we found out with a receptionist in a hotel, when I was asking her about, yeah, she was like, sorry, can you repeat that? Yeah. Your accent was a bit too, my accent was too strong for her. She could not, for love nor money, get the Suffolk twang of Roscoe. She could not understand that. Uh, yeah, that was very enjoyable. Yeah, but weirdly though, when I do go abroad with my other half, other people, I don't do that. Or maybe I don't, maybe because you point it out, maybe I do do it and then just don't mention it because they feel like, oh, I don't want to embarrass him. But yeah, I don't know.

55:18Ross Halls:Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know I'm doing it until you point it out. But yeah, I appreciate it. I have a steel course who took the front seat in Ubers because obviously the big brother has to do that. But yeah.

55:33Stuart Watson:Dad gets in the front every time, doesn't he, when the taxis arrive. Yeah. Dropped you back at your house. I tried to look after you.

55:40Ross Halls:You did. You did. And no, great time. If you haven't already, make sure to go and check out the behind the scenes from, we did three diaries. So check them out from different bits and bobs we did. We did a bit of Taurus stuff, ate some good food, drank some beers. It was a good pre-season as we get ready for the big kickoff, which is this Saturday. Sunderland are in town, Premier League football and we've got a lot of things coming your way. Stu, do you want to tease anything that you're going to be working on? And of course, press conferences with Gary O 'Neill on Friday. So yeah, it's going to be a busy week ahead.

56:14Stuart Watson:Yeah, what's on my list? The aforementioned Sasha Lukic interview will be out at some stage. There's more to come from the exclusive chat with Mark Ashton about the season ahead and what can be done. We'll probably do our collective predictions, hot takes, etc. for player of the year, where it's which will finish, etc. all while trying to keep abreast of all the transfer goings on. We're trying to profile every new signing. So a couple of those to get our teeth into. I'm going to do something on NCISO, maybe a little bit different in terms of doesn't need as much of an introduction, but what version of Julio NCISO are Ipswich getting?

56:51Stuart Watson:Where does he fit? Watara, meanwhile, is a bit of an unknown. So AJ's going to try and tell you all a little bit more about that. Loads of content to come, Ross. And we hope, if you don't already, you've subscribed to the Kings of Anglia website and app. The app is the place to get it all. I'm unashamedly going to keep plugging this because we think it's good and we think the price is fair. £2 for two months if you want to give it a try. £29 for a whole year. What does that work out? £2.50 a month, something like that. And then, you know, you're not going to get stung by a full price jump up when offers end because it's£3.99 a month at standard price, which doesn't even get you a pint these days, does it?

57:36Stuart Watson:So please, if you don't subscribe, please consider doing it. It helps what we do. And you can be part of the KOA army, the KOA crew, who we're interacting with online. We appreciate you all. Up the town.

57:51Ross Halls:Yes, up the KOA. And, of course, you get push notifications as well for breaking news stories. So straight away, you know what's happening because we're on it all the time, AJ and yeah looking forward to this week mate because this is the biggest week in our sort of time covering the club and yeah Saturday is going to be incredible atmosphere at Porton Row of course as I said we're going to do a massive podcast looking into it but yeah you ready for this week you ready to get ready to do a lot of the type of types ready ready ready yeah absolutely it's going to be a jam-packed week you will have two exclusive interviews coming up this week one with shoes with sasa lukic and mine with cindra vala egelli um we've got so much content packed in with a couple of signings coming up i'm sure uh so yeah there's there's there is going to be loads to get stuck into loads of subscriber exclusives as well uh and there is no better place to check those out than on the app it's so user-friendly uh we get a lot of complaints about especially the eadt website and how difficult that was to navigate this is so much easier it's really good and as soon as things happen and you mention that you'll get a ping on your phone and it'll be whatever piece we've done or whatever news is breaking, you will be the first to hear so yep, go get signed up now's the best time ahead of the new campaign, pre-season in the books Sunderland coming up, we've got our limited time offer at the moment, go and check that out and yeah, come join the fun.

59:17Ross Halls:Yes, big shout out to the Cowboy Army who went were in Berlin and sort of came over and said you know, appreciate your stuff you do and thank you very much for listening and watching the content and yeah of course shout out to our sponsors Moleculia UK get 10 % off at K-O-A-10 for your car car cleaning business I know Hefe's a big fan of their banana dime and his car was looking very nice and get your car cleaned ahead of the big kick-off and for the away days as well which will be all over that thanks for listening and watching we'll be back of course later in the week to build up to the big big kick-off in the Premier League and we'll see you next time.

59:56Ross Halls:Bye for now.

1:00:27Thank you.

1:00:53Thank you.

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