In the 16th part of the series, Kieron Dyer catches up with Alan Lee, who selects the best XI from his time playing for the Blues before Dyer assesses the former striker’s team.
Goalkeeper Shane Supple - Excellent shot stopper, good communicator for a young lad.
Right-back David Wright - Rock solid, good character and never let the team down.
Left-back Dan Harding - Fast and strong, offered a threat out wide.
Centre-half Jason de Vos (c) - Wonderful captain and leader, I used to hate playing against him.
Centre-half Richard Naylor - Another wonderful character who showed pride in his defending.
Midfield Tommy Miller - Gifted midfielder who read the game well and went from box to box.
Midfield Gavin Williams - Arguably one of the must talented midfielders I’ve played with, when he was on song you’d pay to watch him.
Left wing Gary Roberts - Wonderful control of the ball and delivery, knew how to affect the game.
Right wing Darren Currie - Made defenders play at his pace, you couldn’t read what he was about to do, wonderful delivery.
Forward Pablo Couñago - Clever player who was the best I’ve seen at dropping into holes to receive and turn in one movement. Great awareness.
Striker Jon Walters - Strong quick and had the character to step up at big moments. Loved playing with him.
Sub Jordan Rhodes - Gifted finisher and instincts, wonderful character, can’t believe he was sold so early.
Kieron’s View
I love Alan Lee’s team, he’s got a number of players in that we’ve not seen so far, so that gives me something else to talk about other than Taricco, Jim and Matt.
Shane Supple in goal. People will remember Shane Supple retiring at 22. It was a real shame that someone who had such a promising career retired so early but being happy is more important than having a football career or how much money you can earn.
It’s a shame that some should fall out of love with the game. With my injuries and always trying to get fit and breaking down, I know how that strains on you mentally. There were times when I wanted to give up and just call it a day.
I started to fall out of love with the game and I hated that it would take me four or five days to recover from a match. It’s an absolute grind.
When you stop loving football like that it’s time to leave the game but it’s just a shame it happened so early for him. But when he did play, he did well, a good shot-stopper and he’s in Alan Lee’s side.
I know David Wright very well, he coached at the academy with me. A good full-back, obviously he’s gone into the coaching game and his IQ of the game was evident in his play.
But I can’t have him in this team because he now works for Norwich City [where he is the U23s head coach]. Whoever else played right-back during Alan Lee’s era has to be playing. Sorry David Wright, the day you decided to work for Norwich meant I couldn’t have you in this team.
Alan went and played for Norwich too, of course, so that’s probably why he picked him to take the pressure off him a bit.
What is brilliant about Richard Naylor is that he’s the guy who scored at Wembley playing up front and now he’s in Alan’s team at centre-half.
Not many people know that when I played my first game for the youth team when I was a schoolboy we played Arsenal and Bam Bam was playing centre midfield with me. He was like my big protector.
Everyone talks about my versatility, and I’ve been in different positions in various XIs, but Bam Bam’s another one, he could play up front but he’s in Alan’s side as a centre-half.
He was a year above me in the youth team, we came up through the youths together, he was a fantastic servant for the club, I’m so happy that someone’s picked him because he deserves it.
I wouldn’t like to be a centre forward playing against Bam Bam. He was quick, he was the hardest man I’d seen in football until I played with Duncan Ferguson. You wouldn’t cross Bam Bam, he was like the protector, he was as hard as nails, a fans’ favourite and thoroughly deserves to be in one of these teams.
Jason de Vos was inducted into the Hall of Fame last year, I did a podcast with Alan and he said he was the best captain he had in his whole career and Alan had a lot of captains over the years, so that speaks volumes about the guy as a leader. The fans took to him very well, a good player.
With Dan Harding at left-back it’s a whole fresh new back four and I’ve got no complaints about that, except obviously for the guy who worked for Norwich.
Gavin Williams was a very talented player. I can relate to him a bit with injuries which probably stopped him from reaching his full potential because his potential was very, very high.
Alan Lee played with a lot of good midfielders at Ipswich so for him to put him in the team just goes to show that on his day he was a very good player. I think he and Tommy Miller would complement one another extremely well.
Not many of these teams are playing with out-and-out wingers because of the formations being used. But Alan, being a big old-fashioned centre forward, loves wingers who are tricky and can get balls in. And he’s picked two very different wingers in Gary Roberts and Darren Currie.
Roberts was more direct and then there’s Currie who when he pretended to cross it and cutback he’d even send me in the stands for an ice cream as well.
You usually associate wingers with pace. He had no pace but he had unbelievable delivery with both feet and he had that chop in the bag.
I’ve played in a few Ipswich Legends games and Currie is still one of the top performers, he’s incredible.
When he was at Barnet they called him the ‘Beckham of the lower leagues’. When you’re talking about crossing ability, you could put him up there with Becks, but obviously Becks had a far greater variety of passing and more to his overall game. Like George Burley said of Arnold Muhren’s passing, he had every club in the bag, and Becks was the same.
But for actual crossing ability, Darren Currie could cross with both feet whereas Becks was predominantly just right-footed and could put it anywhere.
If anyone said I was the David Beckham of the lower leagues, I wouldn’t be too disappointed with that. Another fan favourite and I’m glad that he’s in the team.
I’ve written about Pablo previously and Alan’s gone for Jon Walters as his number nine. Another one who is popping up in teams in different positions, I think this is the first time he’s an out-and-out striker in a front two, which is probably his best position.
He was probably Ipswich’s best player for a couple of seasons, that’s the impact he had on the team and went on to the Premier League and to good things at Stoke.
Alan has Jordan Rhodes as his sub, we didn’t get to see the best of Jordan Rhodes because he was unfortunately sold way too early. He has had a fantastic career, it’s just a shame that we never got to see it in a blue and white shirt, and that he’s another one that played for Norwich, so I’m glad Alan put him on the bench.
There seems to be a trend, Alan Lee was an Ipswich icon and then went and played for Norwich on loan and now he’s picked David Wright, who works for Norwich, and Jordan Rhodes who went on and played for Norwich. It was a good team, until I saw all the Norwich connections.