Former Blue Kieron Dyer has decided to end his playing career and has spent the summer taking his first steps into coaching back at Playford Road. The ex-academy player, current sponsor and parent outlined why he is delighted that Town are stepping up to Category One.
The 34-year-old confirmed, as revealed by TWTD earlier this month, that he is hanging up his boots: "I’m done now, I’m content and that’s it. I don’t want to move away any more, I just want to spend quality time with my kids.
"Since I went up to Newcastle, I’ve been all over the country and I haven’t really had too much quality time with my kids and now I feel that it’s the perfect time.”
He says his well-publicised injury problems weren’t the reason for his decision: "No, because I probably made the most appearances I have for a while for QPR and Middlesbrough last year. I had the odd hamstring here and there, but I played regularly.
"I just think it’s the time. I don’t want to move to America, I don’t want to move to Dubai, they were some of the offers I’ve been getting.
"I want to stay in Ipswich and spend quality time with my kids. It’s got nothing to do with injuries, nothing to do with money, it’s just I’m content with life.”
His mentor Bryan Klug said yesterday that Dyer wanted to be a manager in the style of Pep Guardiola.
"That’s true! I want to have a cool suit on exactly like him and just look cool like him on the touchline,” he laughed.
"Bryan’s been brilliant, I’ve been down here all summer and I’ve trained with different age groups, the U16s, the U14s, the U18s. Bryan’s letting me take the odd session here as well.
"I can’t believe the old faces around here. It’s a like a who’s who of old players. It’s good that the club is getting back to that way of being a family club and we just need to get Category One and kick on again because we need a few more homegrown players in the first team.
"And if Ipswich don’t make it to the Premier League then hopefully they’ll get sold on and go on to bigger and better things and make this club a lot of money.”
As well as those familiar old faces at Playford Road, there are now the children of some of those ex-players in the youth system, Dyer's included: "I’ve got two boys in the academy. Kaden is in the U8s and Kie’s here as well.
"I trained with Andre Dozzell and wow! It’s very hard usually to say a kid’s going to make it because they change physically, but he has got a great chance.
"I don’t want to put too much pressure on him but you can see he’s got a lot of his dad in him - clever one-touch passes, he certainly sees a pass.
"I was really impressed when I trained with him. With some of the other players I’ve seen here, this club over the next four or five years is going to have a conveyor belt of talent, if the big boys don’t poach them.
"And that can be the danger if we don’t get to Category One because these clubs can poach these players for next to nothing or a few thousand pounds when, once they become professionals, they can be worth £8 million or £9 million.
"I do think this is essential and again that’s why I try to help as much as I can. I’m in the early stages of doing my autobiography and I’m going to put some of the proceeds from the book into the academy as well, to help them get to the level they need to.
"It’s in the early stages of sitting down with the writer and it won’t be out until 2014. It’ll be a great read, that’s for sure. I could do about three or four books, but I’ll have to cram it all into one, I reckon!”
Regarding his immediate future, the ex-England international plans a reunion with another Town old boy: "I haven’t got any coaching badges yet, so at the moment I come in here, I join in sessions, then take a backseat and just see different sessions being put on.
"Bryan was saying that Jim Magilton is doing a fast-tracking course where I can get my UEFA B Licence in Belfast.
"I will do the fast-track in Belfast, get my B Licence and then hopefully an opportunity where I can take one of the academy teams will become available and that’s something I would be interested in.”
Having played at a few clubs after leaving the Blues for Newcastle for a fee which eventually rose to £6.5 million in the summer of 1999, Dyer says not many have the family atmosphere of Town: "To be fair to Middlesbrough, they are Category One and they’ve got that same feel, obviously they’ve got Mogga, Veno and Jamie Clapham there.
"With people like Stewart Downing, they’ve got a conveyor belt and they’re as close to Ipswich with that family feel. You don’t get that at the majority of clubs, that’s a sad reality of football at the moment.
"And it’s good since Mick McCarthy’s come in because I know from experience that when certain managers were here you were scared to show your face at the training ground.
"Now if I come to the training ground Mick will ask if I want to join in with the first team, ask whether I want some lunch.
"You see Warky up here, Titus is training here at the moment, it’s brilliant. It should stay that way.
"I was just gutted that Mick wasn’t given more of a budget for this season because of the season he had last year - wow! He knows this division better than anyone.”
Despite his surprise that McCarthy wasn’t given more funds, Dyer has every confidence that Town will make the top six in 2013/14: "I trained with the team last season and I thought that with the ending to the season he had he would be given a bit bigger budget, but no one can wheel and deal like he can in the Championship. He’s got a lot of free transfers in.
"If any other manager was manager I would have said it would be hard to get to the play-offs but with Mick I definitely think he will.
"It’s going to very hard to get automatic promotion because of the budgets of QPR, Wigan and the other recently relegated teams, and the start is crucial.
"I’ve just seen the fixtures at the start of the season and I can’t believe the games. That’s one of the most difficult starts to the Championship. But if we can get a few wins and a few points it’ll set us up for a great season.”