Ipswich Town at home. There’s no better way to spend a Saturday afternoon.
After all the dramas of the past few weeks it’s time for a straightforward, stress-free ninety minutes, and to help matters we’re kicking off at three o’clock. To help matters even more we’re playing Ipswich.
Playing Ipswich invariably brings back memories of 1981, and Alan Brazil’s subsequent longest sulk in history. It’s been 44 years and you’d have thought he’d have got over it by now. Almost as long is the time Ipswich have been out of the Premier League – it’s been 22 years, although Paul Lambert did manage to get them out of the Championship for a bit.
Their manager now is one of those academics who’ve been to university and got a degree in doing big sums about football from the University of Shard End. What Ron Saunders would have made of such people we can only guess. Offal, probably.
They’ve got Axel Tuanzebe, and if he’s anywhere near the pitch at any time he deserves a good reception as well as a rendition of one of our finest player songs of recent years. They might have Jaden Philogene as well, if they haven’t sold him already. Also in their squad are Kalvin Phillips, who retired from playing regular football two years ago in order to cultivate his wallet, and Liam Delap, who’s going to have to go some to make up for his father. They’ll also have the sort of annoying supporters who think the Premier League is some sort of shiny magic wand that makes them our equals.
It’s at this stage when we usually talk about our injuries, suspensions and mystery disappearances. Not so this time. Instead, we can discuss which of our new signings will be starting, and which will be coming on to get some minutes after we go five up. What a time to be alive.
