Vaclav Hladky recognises the direction of the conversation and smiles. He is being taken back to Ipswich’s win over Hull this month and his contribution to an extraordinary goal. Leaving two onrushing opponents for dead with a turn and pass deep inside his own six-yard box, he opened up a new angle of attack and watched Conor Chaplin finish off a thrilling move 16 seconds later. The sequence went viral and the goalkeeper’s influence was lost on few. “It was pure instinct,” he says, choosing his words modestly. “It’s on me to pick the right option, and sometimes you have to do something a bit extra.”
Everything is coming off for Ipswich, who have won nine of 11 games in the Championship by playing some of the best football in the country. The same can be said of Hladky, who has faced down ferocious presses and, time after time, opened teams up from the back. He played only seven minutes of league football during Ipswich’s promotion from League One last season but now, a month shy of his 33rd birthday, the Premier League future that had long seemed distant does not appear so far away now.
“There were some months, some periods, where you’re thinking ‘I’m so far away’,” Hladky says. “You’ll always have ups and downs in your career, that’s natural. But if you keep working and believing, and following your dreams, anything is possible. I wouldn’t see 32 as too late for anything. It’s a great age for a keeper and I’ve still got plenty ahead.”
The prospects seem limitless at Portman Road under Kieran McKenna, who has turned two decades of failure on their head to create a vibrant Ipswich team that play to packed, bouncing houses. He recalled Hladky on the eve of the season after Christian Walton, impossible to dislodge during the team’s ascent, sustained a foot injury. It was the opportunity the Czech had craved and, on a frantic opening day at the Stadium of Light, his brilliant late save ensured they began with victory.
Hladky’s footwork, though, has stolen the show. His cold-blooded move against Hull was one of six occasions this season when his distribution has set an Ipswich goal in train. No keeper in England is having a greater influence with the ball at their feet and the curious path he took as a youngster, growing up in the Czech city Brno, perhaps offers some explanation.
Vaclav Hladky steps off the bus before Ipswich’s away match at Huddersfield in September. Photograph: Lindsey Parnaby/Shutterstock
“As soon as I could walk my older brother would put me between the trees and kick balls at me,” he says. “When I was young they would sometimes call me Petr Kouba, after our keeper from Euro 96. But then I switched position and played as a number 10. When I was 15 our national under-16 team came in and said I had to decide what I wanted to do. It was a pretty clear decision, to be a goalkeeper.
“I always liked the ball, no matter what position I played. In the last 10 years we’ve seen football change a lot: much more playing from the back, confidence, bravery. That was my favourite part of goalkeeping and I tried to get the most from it.”
Confidence, bravery and, as much as anything else, trust. McKenna has worked hard to explain Ipswich’s methods to their fans, who had initially been reflexively squeamish about their commitment to playing out from the back in white-knuckle situations. “It’s been a journey but they understand it and know what we are trying to do,” Hladky says. “It’s so much easier and more enjoyable with the confidence of the crowd. When you play through the pressure and they’re applauding, it gives you such energy.”
Vaclav Hladky tasted success with Salford by winning the 2019-20 EFL Trophy. Photograph: Bryn Lennon/Getty Images
Hladky was a spectator at the Emirates to watch David Raya, another goalkeeper feted for his feet, overcome a nervous start and the home crowd’s evident anxiety to shine in Arsenal’s win over Manchester City. “I felt a bit sorry for him because playing against City isn’t easy and you have to take a bit of time to see what they’re going to do, how they’ll press, where the spare man is. It takes a few seconds,” Hladky says. “[The crowd] went absolutely crazy the first two or three times and I was thinking like, ‘Guys, what are you doing, he needs some support, he doesn’t need to hear noise or nerves from you’. He got through it and from there was spot on. Big players have to handle the pressure.”
Expectations are rising at Ipswich, who travel to Rotherham on Friday. They have been away from the top flight since 2002 but McKenna, whose man-management skills were not lost on Hladky during that extended stretch on the sidelines, has barely missed a beat since arriving as a 35-year-old in December 2021. “He was the man we needed, you could feel it from day one and we didn’t think about his age,” Hladky says. “He looks after people properly. He’s absolutely brilliant in loads of ways: simply the best manager I’ve ever had.”
Hladky moved to Ipswich six months before McKenna’s arrival after successful stints at St Mirren and Salford City. Until 2019 he had played in the Czech top flight, finding himself in and out of the team at Zbrojovka Brno and Slovan Liberec. Home is important; he has just returned from a short visit during the international break. Tied up in that is the memory of Josef Sural, who was tragically killed in a minibus accident in 2019 while a player at Alanyaspor. The pair were close childhood friends and best men at each other’s weddings. Hladky wears Sural’s name on his left glove at every game.
“It’s one of the ways I’m thinking about him,” he says, clearly finding the subject difficult. “It’s just something I want to be part of me and I’m grateful to have him on my mind because he would be proud of me, as I was of him when he was part of the national team. We spent a lot of time together on the pitch and much more off it, so it’s important for that to always be with me.”
An hour passes quickly with Hladky, a character of some depth who says he wants to “enjoy life from a different perspective” after retirement. Unlike many of his teammates at a studious Ipswich training ground where 10 are taking their Uefa B Licence badge, he will seek fulfilment outside football. He is a self-confessed coffee obsessive, occasionally helping out as a barista for friends back home and thinking of opening his own business. Along with his wife and young son, he lives in Cambridge and finds the atmosphere suits him. The 55-mile commute to training is no problem: it is a time for podcasts and for collecting thoughts.
There is plenty more to achieve, though, before switching focus. A first call-up to the Czech squad hardly seems impossible in current form and would be rich reward for a player who last turned out at under-20 level. “There is always an opportunity when you play well, and in a good league, which is what I’m doing now,” he says. “We’ll see what happens. I always follow the list of the names who are called up, and always dream of being part of it.”
Becoming a Premier League footballer would surely guarantee that. Ipswich are, as he emphasises several times, a long way from promotion but they sit second and have every chance. “I think something special is happening here every day,” he says. “It’s a great, great place to be. The journey carries on and we all want to be part of it.”
