In part 28 of the series, Kieron Dyer catches up with Blues legend Russell Osman, who selects the best XI from his time at Town before Dyer runs the rule over his team.
Goalkeeper Paul Cooper - Paul never got the credit he deserved, he would be outstanding with his distribution in the modern game. A great goalkeeper with a very good footballing brain.
Right-back George Burley - George had pace, aggression, great delivery, understood the game well, and was brave in an era when you had to be brave!
Left-back Mick Mills - I would play Mick at left-back, he was pretty adaptable and could swap sides if needed or even slip into midfield. Mick was born to captain Ipswich Town and was a proper team and club captain!
Centre-halves Allan Hunter and Kevin Beattie - Was there ever a better, more consistent partnership during the mid-to-late 70s? They brought the best out of each other and later brought the best out of the people who were filling in while one or the other were injured.
Right midfield Frans Thijssen - Frans possessed unique qualities and could create something from nothing, and did so regularly. A pleasure to play and train with on a daily basis, a proper gentleman.
Centre defensive midfield John Wark - As the holding defensive midfielder in this team you could put money on him topping the goalscoring charts as usual, but he was never lacking in his defensive duties either, a truly remarkable player!
Left midfield Arnold Muhren - Arnold gets in this team simply because he was the best passer of a ball that I played with at Ipswich. It was not just his accuracy but also his timing and weight of pass which was just so good. Remember that the pitches were not that great back in those days!
Attacking midfield Eric Gates - Eric was a one-off, probably the best player who I ever played with in that role, the player in the hole or just behind the strikers. Eric had a great footballing brain, he could tear teams to pieces without even getting the ball just by causing positional chaos for the opposition.He was totally unselfish, brave as you like and scored wonderful goals.
Striker Alan Brazil - Alan was one of the best goalscorers that I ever played with, he was so calm in front of goal, superb in one on one situations with the goalkeeper, had a great left foot, superb pace and was a supreme athlete, and the life and soul of the party!
Striker Paul Mariner - A leader, brave as you like, hard as nails, and as tough mentally as physically. Paul was brilliant in the air and a great hold-up centre forward. If you had any doubt what to do with the ball then you just hit it towards Paul and most of the time he would make it look a good pass. Paul scored a lot of great goals for us, but it was his presence and leadership as our target man that focused everybody else. If we had to go to war on the pitch you could guarantee that PM would the one leading the way.
It is nearly 40 years since we won the UEFA Cup and that side included Terry Butcher, Steve McCall and myself. Nothing would give me more pleasure than seeing an ITFC team winning titles or cup competitions again because that would mean everything is good at the club once more.
Kieron’s View
The team Russell’s picked is no surprise. When everyone from his era has selected their team 10 players are always the same, the only one which is up for debate is one of the centre-halves and he’s gone for Allan Hunter over Terry Butcher.
It might make the fans miserable when he says he hopes we get back to having successful teams, it seems a long way away at the moment, but you never know.
When I picked my team, the reason I selected Mark Venus was because he was so good on the ball and I don’t think Terry, Kevin Beattie or Allan Hunter were as good as Russell on the ball.
Maybe defending, heading and other stuff they perhaps outdid Russell but for a ball-playing centre-half in today’s football he would be ideal. He’d be a Pep Guardiola player and I think that’s the biggest compliment I can pay to Russell. Pep Guardiola would go out of his way to sign a player like him, who is great with both feet, loves to play, has a range of passing.
Charlie Woods said George Burley was like a prototype for the modern-day full-back and similarly Russell was like a current centre-half back then.
And the same with Eric Gates playing that number 10 role, something which was an innovation then but is now commonplace.
When I was playing at Newcastle, the local radio had a three legends show covering Newcastle, Sunderland and Middlesbrough. Eric Gates used to represent Sunderland, Malcolm McDonald Newcastle and Bernie Slaven Middlesbrough.
There was a time when Eric Gates was battering me on the radio, hammering me, giving me loads of stick.
So I went into training and said to Bobby Robson "What about Gatesy with the Ipswich connection giving me stick on the radio?”. And Bobby said "Don’t worry about him, he’s just jealous!”. I said "What do you mean he’s jealous?”. "Because you’re a better player than he ever was!” Bobby responded.
Now obviously that’s not true, that was just Bobby’s man-management to make me feel better about myself. From feeling so low I'm now feeling so high, I’m thinking that this was the guy who was ripping it up in Europe and what a player he was and Bobby Robson's saying I'm a better player.
At the time I was buzzing and believing it but obviously I know it wasn’t true and it was just his man-management, just spinning it to give me a lift. And that’s a sign of a great manager.
But, Eric Gates, if you’re reading this, Bobby said I was better than you!