Yallop: They’re Great People, We’ve Seen Already They’re Forward-Thinking Sunday, 4th Dec 2022 15:32 New Hall of Fame inductee Frank Yallop has revealed the pivotal role he played in last year's Gamechanger 20 takeover at Town. Yallop, 58, was handed an award marking his Hall of Fame induction by his former teammate and skipper Terry Butcher on the pitch at half-time during Friday evening’s game against Fleetwood. Hall of Fame members are chosen by the club’s Former Players Association with awards usually given out at the annual reunion dinner, which takes place in March. However, Yallop, who currently works as sporting director of USL Championship side Monterey Bay, will be unable to attend as it coincides with the start of the US season. “It was fantastic, from one of my heroes, if not the hero,” Yallop said in a lengthy interview on Saturday’s Life’s a Pitch on BBC Radio Suffolk (from 2hr 7mins 52secs). “It was wonderful. To get selected by your fellow players was everything, a really nice night. “Our season starts mid-March and runs through to the beginning of November, so it’s always a tough time to get over “I really appreciated the club doing it, I think it was the first time they’ve done it, so that’s pretty special, very nice.” Yallop worked with the Three Lions, Brett Johnson, Berke Bakay and Mark Detmer, who make up part of the Gamechanger 20 group which took control of the club just over 18 months ago, when head coach and president of soccer operations at Arizona United from 2016 to 2017 during which time the club changed its name to Phoenix Rising. The former Canada international says he mentioned Ipswich to the trio as an English club for them to consider. “I’d just moved back from Chicago [having been head coach and director of soccer of the Chicago Fire]," he recalled. “I’d said I was going to move the family back towards the San Jose area where I’d been for most of my time in the States. “So I decided to base myself there because the kids had grown up and I didn’t want to move around too much and just tried to get jobs from there. “I met Brett Johnson and Brett took me to Phoenix, which is still quite a way away, but closer than a lot of places in the States. I did that, really enjoyed working with Brett and Berke and Mark Detmer and all the gang over there. “They’d started a really good franchise which is called Phoenix Rising now and when I was there we’d go for dinner and stuff like that and chit-chat, and they were always exploring trying to buy a team [in England]. “I straightaway said I think there’s a sleeping giant that I know about and it’s Ipswich Town. “And they didn’t really say too much, they maybe looked into it at that point and I think we mentioned it one more time towards the end before I went back to San Jose and went to the Fresno job [general manager], which was a lot closer to home. “And then down the road, they called me up and said ‘We’re talking to them at the moment’. And I was like, ‘That’s fantastic!’ and then they didn’t say anything until they actually did the deal. “From my side I said, ‘You won’t get a friendlier, nicer club in this country to buy’. I guess I said something right! I didn’t have to put any money up, so that was good. “Did I get a finders fee? I didn’t, I keep looking in the post but nothing’s come yet! “But they’re great people and I think we’ve seen already that they’re forward-thinking, they want this club to succeed and they’re spending at the right time. “Hopefully in January they’ll kick on again and let’s get promoted this season and then see where it takes us after that.”
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