Don’t make the mistake of assuming Town veteran Sone Aluko will be joining the Portman Road coaching staff when the time comes to bring down the curtain on a career that has seen him make almost 500 senior appearances in England, Scotland and China.

The former Nigerian international, who also represented England at youth level, is set to play in tomorrow’s FA Cup fifth round home clash with Maidstone United, while he also acts as a mentor to the club’s emerging talent and is a valued, if still unofficial, member of the analysis team with plenty of advice to offer when required.

Asked about his likely pathway after he hangs up his boots, Aluko refused to commit himself beyond admitting: “It’s something that I think about but I’ve not made a decision yet.

“When that time comes, I’ll be more set to make a firm decision, but I’m still looking at different options still. I’ll keep that for another day.”

But Aluko, who was signed during Paul Cook’s time as manager, is quick to praise the part that current boss Kieran McKenna and his coaching staff have played in broadening his football knowledge since they arrived at the club in December 2021 following Cook’s dismissal.

“It’s been top,” he said. “Their work ethic is second to none, their openness to me to be able to ask them questions and learning from them. In terms of analysis, I watch most of the games – if I’m not playing – with the analysis team at the top of the stadium, so I’m picking up an incredible amount of football knowledge this late in my career. I really can’t speak highly enough of them from what they’ve shown me as well.”

Asked what his role with the analysis personnel involved, Aluko added: “It’s something that I was naturally doing before. I prefer the view up there and if I go into the dressing room at half-time, a lot of the players, especially the attacking players, are asking me how I am viewing the game – how could they perhaps change the game and what adjustments could they make.

“For me, it just makes sense to go up a bit higher and a bit further away from the game because you can see tactically a bit better. They suggested I might as well watch it with them and the manager started asking me what I thought and how I saw it. It just became a natural progression, really; it just happened organically I’d say.

“The analysis team are doing their analysis on their iPads and their laptops, and they’re coding the games, the set pieces and all that stuff, but I’m watching it as a player.

“I’ll go down to the changing room at half-time and players will ask what I think about this and that, and whether things are working out as they should. I will give them my opinion so that’s really how it is. It’s not me in an official role that they want me to do, it’s just organically happened.”

McKenna is set to field a much-changed side against tomorrow’s National League South opponents than he did in Monday’s league visit to Leicester, which, like the reverse fixture at Portman Road on Boxing Day, ended 1-1 thanks to a much-improved second-half display at the King Power Stadium when substitute and Brighton loanee Jeremy Sarmiento snatched a late equaliser that was enough to return Town to second place in the table behind the Foxes.

And Aluko promised: “We’re treating them like we treated Leicester. With every team we play we analyse how they play, look at their threats and also any weaknesses we can exploit. We’ve got to give them a lot of respect – they’ve won six games already to get here and they’ve beaten League Two and League One teams.

“This is the next step for them and we’re not taking them lightly. This is a big opportunity for us to reach the fifth round because it’s been a while since we were there.”

Aluko collected a runners-up medal when he was a second-half substitute for Hull in their 3-2 defeat – after extra time – by Arsenal in the 2014 final and he sees no problem in Town continuing their FA Cup run alongside their challenge to return to the Premier League in which they last appeared in 2003.

Asked about balancing the twin targets, he said: “I think it’s a positive. Winning cultures, you either have them or you don’t. You can’t just disregard one game because you’re focusing on another game – that’s not really the way that it works.

“The squad we’ve got, and the depth we’ve got, everyone wants to be playing games, trying to break into the league team and showing how good they are in the cup games.

“There’s not that many opportunities that you get to show that. For us, it can only be a positive. We want to win, go deep into cup runs and create a culture at the club that will last longer than many of us are here, but that starts with winning games.”

Asked about the turnaround at Leicester, he added: “First of all, I wouldn’t say the first half was that tough.

“It’s natural that if you go to a place like Leicester that they’re going to have a lot of the ball, so we knew that was coming. At half-time, like any coach, you are going to make some adjustments and the other team are also going to make some adjustments.

“You are going to see some things, like if we attack a certain way, or we’ve seen this weak point, sometimes you’re just going to have to run harder or you’re going to have to suffer for longer, the game will change. We’re a very fit team so sometimes it’s just having to see out the phase.

“At half-time it’s very different, depending on what game it is. I wouldn’t say there’s like a set formula.

“Usually, the manager will watch a few clips with his coaching staff, the lads will talk about what they’re seeing and how they can change things, then he’ll come in and sometimes it’s the build-up, for instance – ‘okay, we’ll change this, play out the left side or the spare man’s on the left side’, ‘There’s only two on the last line’.

“It could be anything, depending how the other team are playing. Usually, it’s a tactical change and then it’s a [motivational message] like, ‘come on, let’s get going, let’s get the energy up again, let’s go for it’.

“But most of the work’s done on Monday to Friday so a lot of the time the boys know what they need to do.”

Have managers changed over the course of his career? From the hairdryer, dressing room shouters to the more analytical bosses such as Kieran McKenna.

“I think when you shout and raise your voice, after you’re shouting the lads [would say], ‘okay, now what do we need to do?’,” he reflected.

“It was always been the case back then, even back in the day when there were hairdryers, you’d have to give some information after it.

“So I think his personality type is just, ‘let’s just get down to that nice and quickly’. He’s very calm and measured at all times usually. I don’t feel he feels there’s much need for that.

“And we’ve not really got a squad that needs that either, it’s quite a highly motivated squad. At no point do you feel we’re not running hard enough, we’re not trying to tackle.

“Come and watch a training session, we’ll tackle, we’ll run hard, it’s very competitive. That side he hasn’t really had to push – once or twice since he’s been here’.”

Aluko agreed that non-league Maidstone have nothing to lose and was asked if he had been in a similar position earlier in his career. He answered: “There would have been a few for sure, maybe the FA Cup final. A lot of the pressure was on Arsenal to win that game. We had nothing to lose in that game. But, yes, I’ve been in games for sure earlier in my career.

“When I was at Aberdeen, going to play games at Ibrox or Parkhead, every one was a pressure game for Rangers or Celtic because there was pressure to win. And when I went to Rangers, I realised, yes, it really is high pressure here. That’s the nature of football.”

Media interest in tomorrow’s game has been huge and it will be broadcast live on BBC One and Aluko said: “There’s a reason why it’s on BBC – people are thinking ‘oh, this might be an upset’. We’re well aware why it’s on TV. People want to see the magic of the FA Cup and maybe see a team like us that are flying high maybe slip up and take the game lightly, an early kick-off and lose the game.

“But we’ve prepared the same as if it’s Leicester in the last game. Fair play to them, they’ve done really well to get this far and they’re bringing a big following from what I’ve heard.

“It will be a good atmosphere and a good game. We’ll treat them with complete respect and the respect they deserve.”

Finally, Aluko will be trying to make sure that after tomorrow’s tie he books his seat in front of the box for tomorrow evening’s last-16 meeting in the African Cup of Nations between Nigeria, for whom he gained recognition at U20, U23 and senior international levels, and Cameroon.

He said: “It’s been hard [keeping track of the competition] because there’s a lot of work to be done here, but I’m always looking out for their games.

“You can never bet against them in the African Cup of Nations. They have a good record, so we’ll see, we’ll see.”

Photo: TWTD

Ryorry added 05:12 - Jan 27 Hope Sone stays - already showing his potential as a manager there, and who better to be a student of than KM?
1

pennblue added 09:33 - Jan 27 Clearly someone we want to keep around for the long term. Could do with getting his sister involved with the ladies team as well.
1

PortmanTerrorist added 10:49 - Jan 27 pennblue nooooo. Sone absolutely shown his experience and value to The Club in everything he does. His sister is all about the media, regularly creating or courting controversy, and want no part of that anywhere near any part of our Club!
0

muccletonjoe added 15:46 - Jan 27 We have
0

Cadiar added 16:26 - Jan 27 What are you on about Portman Terrorist, Eli Aluko was subjected to vile abuse by a misogynistic yob. Going by your stupid name on here you probably are similar. She is one of the most capped women players ever & excellent at her present occupation.
-1

Lightningboy added 16:42 - Jan 27 I would imagine that that "performance" today should have made your mind up.
1

Blogs 295 bloggers

Ipswich Town Polls