In the 15th part of the series, Kieron Dyer catches up with Richard Wright, who selects the best XI from his three spells playing for the Blues before Dyer assesses his old team-mate’s side.
Goalkeeper Clive Baker - Could easily have been Craig Forrest but I loved how quick and positive Ted was around the goal and he helped and taught me so much.
Centre-half Tony Mowbray (c) - Wasn’t fast but was a real defender and organiser and a leader. I learnt so much about communication and organising how to try stop things happening in front of you. It’s his fault I never came for a cross he said to me if you can’t catch it I can header it further than you can punch.
Centre-half John Wark - Goalscorer and made things look easy, defended and read the game so well. Also helped me loads on the training pitch heading and shooting with me as he never trained much at the end.
Centre-half Mark Venus - Mogga would defend and Veno would play, his left foot was great and he always wanted the ball and could play out from the back.
Right wing-back Mauricio Taricco - Could play left or right-back and how he developed from when he arrived at the club to arguably one of the club’s best full-backs.
Left wing-back Aaron Cresswell - Just pipped it to a few but going forward and with his delivery and freekicks Aaron was ahead of the other contenders and has gone on to develop even more. Aaron is only one of two from my return to our club.
Midfield Jim Magilton - Started everything and when times were tough he never stopped wanting the ball and could grab games by the scruff of the neck, such as Bolton in the play-offs.
Midfield Matt Holland - Worked so hard at everything. Defended, got all over the pitch and got forward and scored goals. Was a leader in that way.
Forward Kieron Dyer - Wasn’t a natural finisher but his natural ability on the ball to make things happen and his energy levels were unreal.
Forward Giovani Dos Santos - Another player from my return. Was only with him for a few games but you could see that he was a top class stylish player. He was a kid who nearly single-handed got us into the play-offs with Jim.
Striker Marcus Stewart - What a natural goalscorer his movement was so good and he just made the hardest thing on the pitch look easy.
Kieron’s View
Clive Baker’s first appearance in one of these XIs. I’m not going to lie, I nearly choked on my cup of tea when that was the first name I read when Richard sent me over the text. The reason I say that is because he was basically Craig Forrest’s understudy.
I think Craig Forrest got sent off in a game against Sheffield United and Clive Baker got in the side after that but I think the popular choice would be Craig Forrest.
But Richard Wright saying how much he loved the guy, probably behind the scenes Clive worked with Richard more than Craig and that’s probably something that’s endeared him to Richard, but I was very, very surprised with that choice and I think a lot of people would be. That said, Clive Baker did make nearly 50 Premier League appearances for Town over a couple of seasons.
What is very good about Richard is that I think he had three spells at the club, so he’s had almost as long at the club as John Wark.
When we’ve been talking about full-backs it’s often been two from Mauricio Taricco, Mick Stockwell and Jamie Clapham, but Richard’s put Aaron Cresswell in there, so that goes to show how far his stints with Ipswich stretched.
Cresswell was the Player of the Year here and with the way his career’s gone I’ve got no bones with that selection.
I think every player who has played with Taricco has seemed to pick him. I think Taricco and Jim Magilton who are the only two who are ever present from that era, which goes to show the class of the guy.
At centre-half he’s gone for Mogga and John Wark, the same loads-of-pace pair as Adam Tanner, and Mark Venus.
It does make me laugh that Wrighty says in his bit about Warky about how much he helped him with finishing after training with his heading and shooting.
I don’t know how Warky helped Richard because every time I used to sit and watch the shooting and heading sessions after training, all Wrighty used to do was pick the ball out of the back of the net. I am not joking! If there were 100 shots in the session, 99 of them were goals and the other one probably hit the post.
So where Wrighty’s got this thing of ‘Warky helped me on shooting and headers’ I don’t know. The way I looked at it Warky demoralised him. I don’t know, perhaps Warky was that good that everyone else’s shots and headers were easier to save, maybe that’s the way Wrighty is talking about him helping him.
Everyone who has played with Veno, I’d say 99 per cent have picked him. Again, a testament to him. I’m not sure he’s 100 per cent like Mauricio and Jim, but he’s not far off that.
Jim and Matt, I don’t need to say any more and then ahead of them on one side me and the other Giovani Dos Santos.
This is the first time I’ve been picked in a team in a different position. Usually I’m part of the midfield, whether it’s in a diamond or playing in a three. But Wrighty’s gone for me playing as one of the front three supporting Marcus Stewart with Dos Santos on the other side.
That’s quite an exciting front three. Dos Santos playing for Ipswich, we’re talking about a player who has played with Messi and Ronaldinho and people like that and has had a fantastic career.
People might say he wasn’t a success in the Premier League with Tottenham but a lot of foreigners get written off in the Premier League after one or two seasons.
If you look at the likes of Thierry Henry, he took a year to settle in, Robert Pires took a year to settle in, you could go on.
Dos Santos was a fantastic player, he was a player who got people off their seats. Again, I think the front three complement one another very well because you’ve got Marcus, who isn’t blessed with pace, but me and Dos Santos could run in behind, Marcus could be the link-up player. It is an exciting front.
If you’ve got Marcus in the team you wouldn’t really be saying it was a pacy side but I think the two of us could make up for his shortcomings.
A big, big talking point is that there’s no David Johnson, so I’m hoping for Wrighty’s sake that David Johnson isn’t reading this because Johnno will be fuming, absolutely fuming.
But it’s hard to argue with Marcus Stewart’s selection because he scored the 19 goals in the Premier League, however, if you look at David Johnson’s body of work over three or four years he was regularly scoring 20 goals a season. Marcus had a shorter period, two and half seasons, but scored those 19 goals in the Premier League,. It’s just the toss of a coin really.
It’s a good team, maybe I would change the goalkeeper but not too much else.