Ipswich Town Transfer Talk - Diop and Fatawu set for Portman Road after hectic weekend

0:08Ross Halls:Hello everybody, it's me Roscoe and welcome to an earlier than normal Kings of Anglia transfer talk episode. Because over the weekend and the last time I recorded, there's been a lot of links and rumours surrounding the Blues and that's what we're here to do to keep up to speed on it all. I'm here with good old AJ, my friend, come in. The World Cup is done, Dusters. Vamos, Spain. Well done to them for beating Argentina. Their second World Cup, of course. How are you, my friend, as we get deep into transfers? Yeah, all good. Wall chart behind me is filled in and finished. What am I going to do with my life now that I can't watch games at like two in the morning?

0:47I don't know. I know, but we still have another week and a half until pre-season. those of you who missed it, I've got a piece up this morning that documents everything about pre-season, all the games we've got coming up and a bit about all the clubs so you can go check that one out but you're here for the transfers the sexy stuff as we like to put it I mean funny enough talking of the World Cup we've got reports of two players who have been at the World Cup as well, we've featured one of them reached the quarter final stage I believe it would have been who I think we're going to touch on first but yeah an interesting list and it looks like things are starting to speed up for Ipswich Town, closing in on a number of deals that we're here to talk about today.

1:31That's why we're here nice and early because there is so much going on. We're going to bring you up to speed.

1:37Ross Halls:Yes, we couldn't miss and wait until the end of the week because we could have signings through the door next time we record. Let's get right stuck into the sexy stuff, as you said AJ and let's talk about Issa Diop who of course plays for Fulham a 29 year old defender who is a big big big boy and yeah he's been playing for Morocco at the World Cup actually scored against your boys in the Netherlands didn't he so yeah but let us know a little bit more about this this was the first thing we sort of saw this morning that the Fulham defender linked to town yeah this one came up first thing this morning Issa Diop I stayed up to watch that goal which kind of was pretty heartbreakers right at the end of the game.

2:17They sent him forward and he scored a bullet header. Anyway, yeah, this one came from Santiona who reported that Fulham and Ipswich have reached an agreement for Issa Diop with medical tests booked in for today. That's been backed up now by a number of sources, including Fabrizio Romano's put a€10 million figure on this deal for Issa Diop, who has plenty of experience at a Premier League level. He came through the ranks at Toulouse. It was his local club and spent quite a while there. He was there from 2014 through until 2018, then made the move to West Ham, was there for four years, just missed out on the conference.

2:56Yeah, exactly. How much was it exactly? 22 million. Quite a bit. 22. I knew it was around the 20. Yeah, 22 million was what it was put at, which was, I think, a transfer record for West Ham at the time, wasn't it? So, yeah, big money move to West Ham. Was there for four years, wasn't part of their Conference League winning squad. Ended up making the move to Fulham instead. He's been there since 2022. Plenty of Premier League experience. He's played almost 170 games at Premier League level. Slightly more limited minutes last season in that they've had Anderson as the kind of right-sided centre-back at Craven Cottage.

3:36and I think that's part of the reason why Fulham have been okay letting him go. He's been away at the World Cup. He's been a France international through and through. He's kind of come out before and said, it's always France for me. And then Morocco came calling. He said, well, maybe not. So off he went. Yeah, he made his senior debut for Morocco this year and has been a regular for them at the World Cup, starting all but one of their games. Of course, scoring that goal against the Netherlands. They went through and reached the quarterfinal stages and lost to France. It was 2-0.

4:06Ross Halls:3-0? Yeah. They lost to France, so 2-0. And, yeah, so he's now back and ready to start ahead of the, well, start preparing ahead of the new season, the 29-year-old, and it looks like Portman Road will be his new destination. 10 million euros roughly translates to it's just under eight and a half million pounds. I've seen a lot of Fulham fans suggesting that they feel quite hard done by this figure, that it's quite a low figure, and you'd have to say for a player of his quality. but I think Joanne Fulham initially for about£15 million from West Ham that it's a really good deal for a really experienced centre-back that Ipswich will be getting, assuming that this one is signed, sealed and delivered.

4:48Ross Halls:Yeah, I've just seen he's out of contract next summer, so maybe that's another thing with contracts. But I like this one, AJ. He's big, he's got experience, international. I like it. It does now make us think, as you've been mentioning, could Town go to a back three? Yeah, I think that's the interesting point here, is that if they've gone out and signed a left-sided centre-back, then it's different, isn't it? And you can see them going through, and we've obviously had links. We know that they've been interested in Lloyd Kelly, as Stu reported. Alexandro was the fun one that we had a few weeks ago.

5:21That one seems to have kind of faded away, but Diop is a right-sider. He's a proper right-sider. He plays right-side in the four, both for Morocco and for Fulham. and if he signs, let's be honest here, you're not going to have him or Dara O'Shea being happy to go and sit on the bench. They are both going to want to start and it wouldn't make sense to play either of those in the left-sided role. So to me, and I could be wrong, maybe I've got the wrong impression of this, but it's suggesting a switch to a back five early doors here in that you can have Diopi plays in the central role. O'Shea we know can already play right back.

5:58We've seen that. and in that right side of a three position, it kind of becomes a bit of a hybrid role where when you're into a natural five, it is that right-sided centre-back, but you can drift wider when playing when the formation shifts into more of a 4-2-3-1. Assuming that's the case, I'd still imagine that Ipswich will go and sign a left-sided centre-back to go and compete with Jacob Greaves as well. Then you'd have Greaves who'd be able to cover alongside Cedric Kipre, and I'd say Darnell Furlong could also do a bit of centre-back covering, assuming that was in a back five rather than the back four.

6:29So that's the way I'm seeing at the moment. I think it's trending more towards that way. Let's wait and see. But interesting with having Issa Diop coming in. It's great to have that kind of experience. Great to have that size and physicality is what Ipswich lacked in the last Premier League season. It feels like Ipswich and Mark Ashton spoke about lacking it last time around. And now they've just gone totally the other way. It feels like we're going to get a team, Giants, quite a few tall boys coming up we're going to talk about as well and yeah, interesting one but we'd be very keen to see Sadiop in at Portman Road

7:08Ross Halls:Yes, watch his space and let's talk about another player that's been playing in the World Cup this man has been playing for Ghana in the World Cup and a player that we know of a bit AJ because he scored from inside his own half against town in December for Leicester City and that is Abdul Fatawu who is a 22-year-old left-footed right winger, of course, Leicester City star. Although he's just suffered back-to-back relegations with the Foxes, but it's not really his fault because a lot of the problems are at Leicester. But let us know a little bit more on this one, my friend, because this sort of broke as we sort of last recorded the transfer talk.

7:41Ross Halls:So we got the curse, like, oh, damn it. It came out as we sort of uploaded it and stuff like that. Yeah, this was truly hit by the transfer talk curse. I think it came out in the kind of afternoon evening of the Thursday when we last recorded our transfer talk. Abdul Fatawu was first put out by The Telegraph, I believe, that there were talks ongoing to sort a deal with Leicester City. And I'd heard on Friday this was one that Ipswich thought would progress quite quickly, which I think a lot of fans were quite worried about this one because obviously the talks had happened. I kind of had the idea that this would go quite quickly.

8:19But then on Saturday, there were reports of Everton having agreed personal terms with Abdul Fatawu, plenty of links with Turkey as well. And then we understand that yesterday an agreement was kind of thrashed out and that Ipswich had reached an agreement with Leicester to bring in Abdul Fatawu, however you want to pronounce it. Haven't been able to totally nail down what the fee looks like at the moment, but reports saying it's going to be around£20 million. pounds, what that's going to look like with add-ons and things like that. I'm not totally sure at this stage, but yes, can confirm that there has been an agreement with Leicester for Abdul Fatahou and a fantastic player.

9:02And I know that it comes with concerns because he's been part of back-to-back relegations because that Leicester dressing room was so toxic. But you can look past that, A, I think, with the quality that he has, B, with the fact he's 22 years old and C, with how, as you said, Leicester have been. I don't think that you can necessarily put Leicester's struggles down to him. Nine goals, seven assists for the Foxes in the championship last season. Had a bit of an injury hit spell, unfortunately, in the Premier League with them the season before, having joined them from Sporting Club Portugal when they were initially in the championship.

9:38Remember that first year when Town of Vine with Leicester for promotion, just how good he was in that season. and even in a really poor side last year, was head and shoulders above most other players in his position. So you can see why he's coming to the Premier League. You can see why there's been so much interest in him. And I'd say it's a really, really good deal for Ipswich to go and get it done. And I've seen£20 million has been spoken about. It was quite high fee in the modern market, where Morgan Rodgers is being sold to Chelsea for£117 million. I'm not too sure. I think this is quite a nice deal to do.

10:13Ross Halls:And Heathie's very happy as well. doesn't he? I know on the last podcast recorded, he was very happy and was just playing everything he likes about him. So I like it. I don't mind it. Once again, he's 22. He's got room to grow. He's got the potential there. I know there's sort of talk about consistency and maybe attitude problem and stuff, but I like this as a potential. And I think the kind of the application becomes easier. I know it shouldn't necessarily be like this, but it is. It's easier to go out and apply yourself week in, week out and really feel that motivation when you are playing Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, United, even Fulham, Palace, Coventry in the Premier League, whoever, when you're playing at that level, when the eyes of the world are on you, you're going to want to have that different level of application.

11:04I'm not saying he's going to use it as a stepping sign, but Abdul Fatahou will know that if he comes to Ipswich and performs well, that all of a sudden you never know where you're coming. You could be a£50 million signing for for Man United if you go and hit double digits in the Premier League this year as a hypothetical so I think that the application thing might not be as big of a problem especially when heads will always drop when you're in a relegation battle with Leicester City be that in the Premier League be that in the in the championship so he'll know that if he can if he can show the best of himself he will thrive in the Premier League he didn't get the opportunity to do that last time due to that ACL injury he suffered.

11:42And I think he deserves a proper crack at it. That's what I'd say because, yeah, a very talented footballer, high energy, wants to take on his man. He's probably a defender's worst nightmare, to be honest. And, I mean, you look at the kind of the wide options that Ipswich have, for example, with him on the right, with Wes, with Sindra, with Casey McIntyre. Then on the left at the moment, still got Jadon Filagene, Jack Clark, Anis Mimetti. Yeah, there's a lot of energy and a lot of kind of exciting, dynamic, wide forwards in this group.

12:21Ross Halls:Yeah, it does make you think, though. And Ogbené, don't forget Ogbené, AJ. But I think, yeah, if he's done... I did remember Ogbené in this... I didn't actually, when I wrote the initial piece, I did totally care about him. I did in this case, but I do think that players coming in, and we've had a lot of links, and we're talking about these ones now, it is going to lead to players leaving the club. They still have a lot of work to do, but they've got a 25-man squad to build. They need to go and get more midfielders. They probably need another striker. They're going to need probably more attackers.

12:56If they're going to a five, they're going to need another centre-back. They might need wing-backs, stuff like that. Players are going to have to leave in order for that to happen. yeah, we'll have to wait and see. But definitely there'll need to be some movement in some way, shape or form.

13:12Ross Halls:Okay. Obviously, Philogene is one. There's a lot of people who went straight away because there's been obviously rumours about, you know, Philogene potentially leaving the club. And a lot of people go, oh, he's a replacement for him. Nope, he's a right winger. He's left-footed, but he's a right winger. Should we touch on Philogene? I mean, you mentioned him now. I mean, the Philogene situation is quite tricky, I suppose. We've seen these reports. We've seen what's been coming out from the BBC, from other outlets that Fabrizio Romano has mentioned it a few times, that Jadon Villagin is likely to leave Ipswich.

13:44He's had the agent shift going from his agency. I think he's still working with them. He's now also under the umbrella of the Team Rola organisation. And having spoken to people who know about Team Rola, the comments I had was a switch like that usually precedes a move. whether that's the case or not in this stage, or whether that will materialise, or what Ipswich's demands are going to be, etc., etc., I'm not too sure, was put out by the BBC that he is still training hard and working really hard. They've mentioned in that report, interestingly, he looked detached last season in training, or kind of had a tendency to look detached, and where he's come back, he feels very much like he's applying himself and working really hard.

14:28So I don't think it's going to go the way of an Amari situation, for example, famous last words. but apparently there's interest there. The three clubs mentioned Bologna, Roma and Benfica are the ones that we've seen. The ones I've seen mentioned the most at the moment are Benfica. I've heard of Premier League interest as well as foreign interest in Jadon Filagin. So we'll have to wait and see. Let's see whether he's involved in that friendly in Colchester against Osasuna. Let's see whether someone would want to come and pay up. But as we discussed on the podcast last week on the flagship pod, I think it would probably take around£35 million,£30 to£35 million to take Jadon Filagene, given that he costs£20 million.

15:11It's just going to depend on how he is, how the club are, and who those interested parties are. But yeah, nothing too much more to say on him at the moment. Ipswich will hold out for a good fee if he is to leave the summer, if he does want to leave. but at the same time I'd say that there's still a chance that even if he might be keen to explore other options he'd also be open to giving Ipswich a crack in the Premier League so let's wait and see

15:38Ross Halls:Yes indeed, well let's move on to some Dutch keepers AJ time to go and double Dutch two Dutch keepers links one who's playing in Belgium at the moment he's like 6 foot 8 or 6 foot 9 I think there's different reports on his height if he does sign we can get some clarity and maybe actually measure him when he first signs. Double check. But he's a big boy currently playing in Belgium and now a guy. Top of relegation from the Dutch top flight last season, but still had a pretty good season. Overall, let us know on the two Dutch players, my friend. You love your Dutch things. Yeah. Your ballpark. Yeah, let's start with the one who would be most likely to start over the one that is probably slightly further down the line.

16:21Kjell Skjørpen. I have not done that with the proper Dutch pronunciation because it would be like a proper... It says Scherpen would be how you do it. Anyway, big old boy. The Dutch are, having grown up, the Dutch are among the biggest people just in the world, full stop. And I'd say even for a Dutch person, Kiel Scherpen is up there with the tallest of the tall. Six foot nine is on his Wikipedia. We've kind of had conflicting bits. Six, eight, six, nine. He's somewhere in that region. Came through the ranks at Emen, was at Jong Ajax, went to Brighton and then had some spells out. Ostend, Vitesse and Sturm Graz before joining Union Saint-Gilwell, who are one of the other Tony Bloom micro clubs that are part of that little group under his ownership.

17:09He's been really good there. He's been really impressive. Former Netherlands Under-21 International, now 26 years old. Yeah, really impressive season that he's had. Overall, his time in Belgium has been really good. And Ipswich are apparently keen to get this one done, according to reports in the Netherlands. We've seen some conflicting bits, some that have said that they're expected to get this one done. Others have said there's a bit of a gap in the valuation between what Ipswich are willing to pay and what Union Saint-Gilois are asking. I think it's going to look like it will cost between£8 and£10 million.

17:47There's kind of an upfront fee, so we'll have to wait and see. But yeah, certainly someone, when you watch his highlight reels, the way that he moves for someone of his size is pretty astonishing. His reflexes are really sharp. Yeah, big boy. That's the main thing to say. 16 clean sheets in 32 games for Union Saint-Gilois, who finished last season second in the league. There you go. Ross has everything to handle already. He knows. But yeah, really strong season for him. And he's not the only Dutch keeper who has been linked. As we've mentioned, Van Oevelen, the other one, who we've seen, and this has been one that's brewed for a little while, Kane van Oevelin.

18:28He's been over at FC Volendam, who were in the Dutch top flight last year and had a really impressive season in what was a tough season for him. They were relegated from the top flight, but when you look at the stats, he'd been one of the strongest players in that team. He's actually got some of the best save percentages in the entire division when you look at what he's been able to do in a really, really poor team. Six foot six, he's reported to be. He's come through at AFC Volum and basically had his whole professional career there. And at 22, now looks ready for the next step. Valencia had been interested.

19:11FC Twente in the Eredivisie had also been interested in him. It looks like Portman Road is the destination. Reports that a fee have been agreed. That was over the weekend, I think Saturday, that one came through. And we'll need to see kind of what his role is going to be. The belief is that he's not going to be the starter, especially if Kel Skirpen is signed and other goalkeepers have been targeted. So talk to the possible loan out to the championship, or he could make kind of a supporting part of the goalkeeper team with some question marks over the futures of both Alex Palmer and Christian Walton.

19:44So that's where we are with that one. See what happens with kind of that first choice spot. and there's a lot of talk around Nick Pope as well, who has been an Ipswich Town target. But my understanding is that's kind of fizzled out now. It never really got up and running. It's not one I would expect to sign for Ipswich. But yeah, things can change with that for sure. He's always been on the goalkeeper targets list. But my understanding is that that has not moved in about a month and Ipswich look more likely to pursue other targets as we're seeing at the moment.

20:16Ross Halls:One thing I like about Skirpen as well, he's been playing in the Champions League. I know they've got battered and I think Nucar's beating 4-0 in one game that's also another little accolade on his career he's played in the Champions League so a Champions League goalkeeper but he's very interesting AJ though. Obviously we've got Christian Wolfe and Alex Palmer you think oh what's the future for them? Yeah. Maybe Gary O 'Neill's just gone he wants to bring his own goalkeeper in although the last time we did our experiment in the Premier League bringing a goalkeeper in, didn't work out did it with Haro Miric but this could be a bit different And it's the same.

20:48I mean, they've been working with the same group. They've been working with goalkeeper.com, isn't it? Goalkeeper.com. So, yeah, it seems to be that they're going down the data-driven route. It's not a huge surprise that the data-driven route has taken them down to a goalkeeper. He's been at Brighton and has been involved with Tony Bloom. Not a huge shock. But, yeah, it's an interesting dynamic at the moment. I know there's some speculation about Christian Walton and a possible injury. I don't want to go too deep on that because it's kind of social media speculation at the moment. It's nothing I've been able to verify.

21:23So until we hear anything about where he's at, I don't really want to go too much about that. It could easily be fine. But with that and Alex Palmer, who I'd imagine probably will head out of the club in some way, shape or form, be it a permanent or a lone move this summer. yeah it looks like there's going to be a bit of a reshift in the goalkeeper department but definitely a new number one coming in I think we can say that quite confidently and with Van Uvelen who looks set to come in as well we'll need to wait and see what his role is going to be whether that will be as a supporting goalkeeper and we do go double Dutch with the two goalkeeper options or whether he heads out on loan to the Championship or somewhere else in Europe.

22:04Ross Halls:Yes we love our Dutch players don't we of course as all matters here you are and in town throughout the history we've had some good Dutch players. So we shall see if we bring in some more Dutch players. Let's send AJ ends with a Japanese international. We're going to have our first Brazilian to represent a club. This is potentially the first Japanese player. We saw Elkenberg at leave, so we lost to Indonesian fans, but we could get maybe Japanese fans here. Let us know a little bit more on this player who's been playing in Portugal for the last few years. Yeah, Hidemasa Morita. This one came from TWTD's report, but as they've said, I understand that Ipswich have been in talks with Hidemasa Morita, the Japanese midfielder, 31 years of age, came to be playing college football at Ryutsu Keizai University and then got into the J-League with Kawasaki Frontale and then ended up making the move to Portugal.

22:59A bit of an interesting one, but I have seen quite a few Japanese players actually come through in Portugal when you look through. at previous he was with Santa Clara for a season from 21 till 22 and then spent four years with Sporting Club Portugal, scored 11 goals in 112 league games. For them, he has been a Japan international since his days in playing in the J League and has been more of a regular since he's been playing over in Portugal. Wasn't named in their World Cup squad. I think there was a bit of kind of behind the scenes criticism of tactics water under the bridge but we're not going to call you up i heard a bit of drama about it but um yeah was part of the previous world cup squad in 22 didn't make this time in 26 and he's also now a free agent having left sporting club portugal leads have been the team heavily linked with him um but doesn't look like that one's going to move forward and nipswich are also now in negotiations to try and sign him 31 years of age um a proper kind of number box-to-box style number eight can i wouldn't say he's more much of a threat in front of goal but he's played together quite nicely he sits deep um can kind of tie defense and attack together i think he'd be a nice partner for for azor matasewa and he's 5 10 so has the height um that you probably need when playing next to azor because azor's not the tallest um and can also kind of break the lines of passing he's an intense presser things like that so um yeah to sign someone who's had champions League experience, another player who's had Champions League experience, good international experience.

24:32He might not be the youngest, he might not have years at the top of the game, but definitely the kind of player that I should be targeting, and especially on a free, would not be a bad bit of business in terms of bolstering the midfield ranks.

24:47Ross Halls:It's making me having to delve into my contact book and trying to find different journalists and podcasts for insight videos coming ahead, because I've got a few that I'm going to have to really delve in deep. Luckily, he's at Fulham, so I can speak to a Fulham reporter. But if this one does get played in a Japanese player, then I'll have to delve into my Portuguese contacts, maybe even Japanese journalists as well. Some exciting names, AJ. It now feels that it's starting to the boys have travelled to La Manga in Spain for their training camp this morning. So it looks like things are speeding up now.