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It's back! :D :popcorn:
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January 30th, 2027
Exeter (8-9-8, 11th) @ Ipswich (17-3-4, 2nd) We're once again slim 6:4 favorites tonight, this time at home though where I expect us to beat everyone. We've crushed them 11-2-2 in our history, never losing at home. GK: Bogdanovs D: Kirkland/Aldrovandi/Connor/Heywood M: Adagmsar/Smith/Mills/Gordon F: Di Giuseppe/Constantino Smith starts for Jean today, combo of riding the hot hand and Jean coming back from injury and he's pretty tired. 6': Some passing down the left side when Mills lobs a ball from 40 yards out into the penalty area, Gordon runs onto it perfectly, controls it well and blasts it into the far side of the net for the early goal! 1-0 32': give and go between Di Giuseppe and Adagsmar, Di Giuseppe gets it back and shoots, quick hands by the keeper earn us a corner, which we don't do much with. Not a lot of highlights here though we seem mostly in control still. 38': 3 highlights in the last 5 minutes, all leading to Smith blasting shots from 20-25 yards out, one of them was extremely dangerous, but all miss. HALF: Pretty boring half of highlights after our first goal. We have a 55/45 possession edge, 12 shots for us (5 on target), 5 shots for them (2 on target). 9 of our shots from long range though which is a problem. We'll instruct the team to work harder for closer shots. 56': Gordon with a long run down the right, cross, Di Giuseppe heads it just over. 61': Kirkland and Smith both with yellows in recent action. 64': Sergio Roberto in for Smith. 72': Mills a yellow. 78': Jean in for Constantino, back to a 4-5-1 with Sergio Roberto DMC. Mattle in for Connor, we switch to a counterattacking strategy to help safely put this away hopefully. They don't threaten at all in the final 15ish minutes. Ipswich 1 : 0 Exeter Man of the Match: Neil Gordon (8.1) Goal: Gordon Assist: Mills (6.9) Notables: Heywood (7.1), Kirkland (7.5), Aldrovandi (7.0), Adagsmar (7.2) Smith struggled a bit with a 6.1 rating. -- Aston Villa pulls off a 2:2 draw with Arsenal and we make up 2 points today on first place! Man City is upset by Everton as well. |
February Update
-- We play on the 3rd, 6th, 9th, 13th, 20th, 23rd, and 27th, its going to be a busy month. 3rd is FA Cup and 23rd is a Champions League match. If we win in the FA Cup I assume our week off between the 13th-20th disappears. @Liverpool, @Man City, vs Man Utd in a row. -- The board is very pleased with my leadership. Our 0-2 loss to Sunderland is the lowlight, and our increase in stature makes everyone happy. We lost $4.95M last month. -- The transfer deadline passes, we turned down a couple offers in the last week of the month for Ballester and Smith, no major efforts made to take Di Giuseppe away. -- Man City spends $33M on midfielder Simon van der Poel from Turkey, Arsenal spends $27M on defender Murat Aydin from Italy's Cagliari. Feb 3rd, 2027 FA Cup 4th Round Replay Ipswich (18-3-4, 2nd) @ Tottenham (13-6-7, 6th) We tied Tottenham a couple weeks ago forcing this replay. We play 2 more games in the next week. Our next match is at home against a bottom feeder but we'll still have to rest some guys. GK: Bogdanovs D: Hughes/Mattle/Ballester/Heywood DM: Sergio Roberto M: Adagmsar/Smith/Bartlett/Gordon F: Bryan I end up making more changes than I thought I would going in, we'll try a more defensive formation here on the road. 9': Ugly start, a few quick passes gets their starter Mangan free, he burns Ballester one on one and gets a shot by Bogdanovs. 0-1 19': After some slow buildup Sergio Roberto with a run down the middle, lays it off to Smith who beats his man and has a clear cut chance in the area... but he puts it right at the keeper, saved. That was a great chance for us. 37': Free kick out left for us, Gordon crosses it into the 6 yard box, Bartlett is up for it, wins the header, keeper dives, but doesn't get to it, goal for Neil Bartlett!! 1-1 HALF: We withstand the early goal and tie it back up before the half. They have 6 shots, only the 1 on target. 4 shots for us, 3 on target. We dominate possession, 58/42, they're dominating in the air (69%/47%), otherwise its all pretty close. -- Chrzanowski in for Gordon at the half, for rest mainly. 49': Throwin for us, a number of passes on the right side, Smith gets it and puts a great pass to Chris Bryan's foot, he has one man to beat, does so and shoots by the keeper and we take the lead! 2-1 70': We've seen some strong long range shots by Tottenham that Bogdanovs has had to save. 71': Bryan goes down hurt, he can stay in but his fitness is pretty low. 76': Kirkland in for Adagsmar, Hughes up to ML, Kirkland DL. Darcy in for Bryan. 80': We try to defend this out. We close out the last 10 minutes with minimal highlights and no shots by them. Tottenham 1 : 2 Ipswich Man of the Match: Craig Smith (8.1) Goals: Bartlett (8.0), Bryan (7.5) Assists: Smith, Gordon (6.9) Notables: Ballester (7.2) I'm just as happy that we ended this in 90 minutes as I am that we ended it with a win. We advance to the next round of the FA Cup. -- We receive $150,000 for this win -- We travel to Watford for the next round, they're in the Championship, but they're 2nd and have spent 3 of the last 4 years in the EPL, so its not a guaranteed win or anything, but certainly we should advance. -- Our match vs Watford causes our next game vs Man City to be pushed back into March. |
Injury Update
-- Young ML David Ross tears a hamstring and he's out 2-3 months. He doesn't play often for us but still, not good. -- MC Brett Connolly has recovered from a 2 week injury. -- International friendlies on the 9th-10th of the month. A lot of our players are called up and this causes our match against Liverpool to be moved from the 9th to the 17th. There goes our week off before Man U/Champions League. Feb 6th, 2027 Birmingham (5-3-18, 18th) @ Ipswich (18-3-4, 2nd) We're huge 1:2 favorites today, Birmingham 9:2 to win. We're 9-3-4 lifetime against Birmingham and won 5-1 earlier in the year at their place. We haven't lost to them in the last 7 meetings. GK: Bogdanovs D: Kirkland/Aldrovandi/Connor/Jackson M: Crespo/Jean/Mills/Gordon F: Di Giuseppe/Darcy Standard mindset at home today. 25': The first big threat comes on a corner from Birmingham, taken to the far post with a stong header, Bogdanovs makes a quick save there. 35': Jean with a long pass up from midfield, Di Giuseppe gets a half step on his man but the keeper rushes out well and Di giuseppe takes a tough shot, its saved. 44': Gordon with a great run down the right, cross in.. di Giuseppe heads it just over. HALF: Birmingham take 6 shots to our 4, but they only put 1 on target, we get 3 on target. Everything is really even here, they are shooting from long range. We're going to come out and attack and try to put more pressure on them. 61': They have a corner kick, crossed into the 6 yard box, Jackson looks like he's trying to head it out, its a terrible header, it hits Bogdanovs and bounces into the goal.. that's an own goal and we are in trouble. 0-1 68': Bryan in for Darcy, Smith in for Mills. 77': A throwin in their end, we control it on the left side, Jean passes it to the penalty spot, Bryan takes advantage of some poor positioning to get behind the defense and he easily pokes it into the net! Now to get the win. 1-1 85': Kieran Connor wins a header in our final third, heads it forward to Bryan near midfield, Bryan lofts a long ball forward, Di Giuseppe is well deefnded but somehow the ball finds his left foot perfectly, he loses his man and shoots and scores!!! 2-1 85': We'll drop back to defend. 91': They are trying for a desparate comeback and there's a cross into the area.. Connor goes up for the header, but he fouls their attacker and they get a last minute penalty kick to try to earn a tie. Their man steps up to take the penalty, he aims for the right side of the net... BOGDANOVS DIVES RIGHT AND SAVES IT!!!!!!!!!! We clear it away!!!!!! Ipswich 2 : 1 Birmingham A classic letdown game... against a vastly inferior team, it seems like it takes a goal for them to wake us up, we get two goals, almost give it away in extra time but a miracle save on a penalty saves the game for us. Man of the Match: Yuri Di Giuseppe (8.0) Goals: Di Giuseppe, Bryan (7.7) Assists: Bryan, Jean (6.9) Notables: Bogdanovs (7.0) -- Man City crush Arsenal 4:0, Tottenham beat Chelsea 3-1. Arsenal's letdown has really helped us out. 27 matches played unless otherwise noted: 1. Arsenal - 61 pts 2. Ipswich - 60 pts - 1 LESS played 3. Chelsea - 55 pts 4. Man city - 54 pts - 1 LESS played ------------------------------------------ 5. Tottenham - 48 pts 6. Huddersfield - 48 pts 7. Man utd - 47 pts 8. Aston Villa - 44 pts 9. Liverpool - 42 pts So we've got a match in hand over Arsenal still and only sit 1 point behind them. |
Welcome back !
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So glad to see this back and no objections at all to shorter game summaries, even once you get back in the groove :). |
Glad to have this back with my morning coffee!
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TY for the kind words everyone :D
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Feb 13th, 2027
FA Cup 5th Round Ipswich (2nd, EPL) @ Watford (2nd, CH) We're huge 4:5 favorites to advance on. We're only 9-5-12 lifetime against Watford but most of this was back in the championship over a decade ago. We've dominated Watford the years both were in the EPL. GK: Bogdanovs D: Hughes/Aldrovandi/Ballester/Jackson M: Crespo/Jean/Sergio Roberto/Gordon F: Bryan/Constantino Standard mindset on the road. 26': Nothing noteworthy but the few highlights have all been Watford attacks. We get seriously complacent. HALF: Not happy with this. We're flying up and down shooting off target. We have 9 shots, 3 on target. They have 8 shots, 1 on target. But most of the highlights have been for Watford, I dunno if this is because we have some subs in or if we're just not taking Watford seriously, but I want to yell at these guys. -- Craig Smith in for Sergio Roberto at the half. We open the second half attacking. 54': highlight opens with them attacking but Jackson wins a ball on a pass into the area. He sends it up to midfield to Chris Bryan and we're on the counterattack. Bryan with a long run down the right side, it looks like we have good positioning in the penalty area... Bryan sends the cross in, Jean with a header from near point blank range, but its saved. there's a rebound though and Crespo is there to follow up and he scores easily. 1-0 82': Corner kick for Watford, a cross into the area and a header is in... ugh, tied it up. WOW I don't want a replay. 1-1 84': Chrzanowski in for Gordon, Di giuseppe in for Bryan. Overload mentality. I do not want a replay. Nope, we can't do anything. Watford 1 : 1 Ipswich Man of the Match: Dmitrijis Bogdanovs (8.2) Goal: Crespo (7.6) Assist: Jean (6.7) Notable: Aldrovandi (7.6), Constantino (7.3) I tell most of the team that I'm really embarrassed with them. We're seriously playing down to the level of our competition here and its going to really hurt us in significantly more important competitions. |
Feb 20th, 2027
Man Utd (14-8-6, 6th) @ Ipswich (19-3-5, 2nd) So here's one we shouldn't have trouble getting hyped up for. We host powerhouse Man Utd. They're a few points out of a top 4 spot and we're 1 point out of first, this is huge for both teams. We're slim 6:4 favorites today. We're 7-10-8 lifetime against them. We've played them quite a bit lately with League Cups, FA Cups, Community Shield, etc. Our last 6 meetings we've won 1 at home, they've won 1 at their home, and the rest have been draws. GK: Bogdanovs D: Kirkland/Aldrovandi/Connor/Heywood M: Adagsmar/Jean//Mills/Gordon F: Di Giuseppe/Bryan Their star Stuart Wray leads them with 13 goals. We have 16 for Di Giuseppe, Gordon 11, Constantino 10 in league play. Their second leading scorer has 6 goals. 7': Throwin in their end, we're pushed way up, there's a pass out to Aldrovandi, he puts it into the penalty area, a little too deep perhaps, Di Giuseppe, a defender and their keeper all end up basically on top of each other... the keeper goes down for the ball but in the confusion it pops free. Di Giuseppe is there and pokes it into the net! 1-0 22': Wray gets the ball about 20 yards out and fires a rocket of a shot, Bogdanovs makes a great save on that one. 41': They earn a corner kick, its a low cross, headed by star mid Bob van Schindel and he gets a great header that's by the keeper and they tie it up on us. 1-1 HALF: Man U ramped up the pressure after our early goal. They shoot 10 times, 4 on target. We have 5 shots, just the one on target. Possession is 53/47 in their favor, all other stats pretty even. Connor must have taken the blame for their goal somehow, he's at a 5.5 rating at the half. 46': We attack, there's a cross in from the left that they clear out but we recover. Jean has it 30 yards out and puts a brilliant pass through three defenders into the area, Chris Bryan meets it and shoots near post by the keeper, we're up! 2-1 54': They counter quickly, Wray receives a pass 20 yards out, turns by Connor and scores easily. 2-2 59': Gordon with a cross in from the right, Adagsmar heads it strongly... it hits the underside of the post, comes back into play and it hits the keeper but goes away to safety. 72': Bryan gets a pass 20 yards out and goes into the area, he draws two defenders and pulls out right a bit, passes out wide to Gordon, Gordon with a quick cross to the far post, Di Giuseppe is there and heads it in!!! 3-2 72': Defensive mindset. 77': Bartlett in for Bryan, 4-1-4-1 with Bartlett at DMC. Chrzanowski in for Gordon. That's it, we kill the clock the rest of the way and we come out of this one with an exciting and critical win! Ipswich 3 : 2 Man Utd Man of the Match: Yuri Di Giuseppe (8.8) Goals: Di Giuseppe 2, Bryan (6.9) Assists: Aldrovandi (7.9), Gordon (7.2), Jean (6.9) Notables: Kirkland (7.0) Everyone else 6.8-6.9. All good. Arsenal beats Sunderland 6-1, they are really stretching the goal differential out to absurd margins. |
-- Yuri Di Giuseppe is noted for training well, he's only 20. He's been huge in the weight room, his strength has gone from 13->16 in the last 12 months. Off the Ball, Creativity, Finishing and Composure have all gone up 1 point during the season as well.
-- The scouting report for our Champions League opponent comes out. Betis has a height and flair advantage over us. We are stronger, more fit and have a ball control advantage. Feb 23rd, 2027 European Champions Cup - First Knockout Round Real Betis (1st, La Liga) @ Ipswich (2nd, EPL) We open this series at home, 5:4 favorites today. Betis leads La Liga right now but they have serious injury woes, most importantly their starting keeper is hurt. They have two backups, one is an unhappy vet.. the other is a youngster named Michael Rogers, a kid who came up initially with Man City but then spent 3 years with Ipswich developing his skills and being loaned out to lower league talent before being cut. He's seen some action with Betis, playing 9 matches this year. I'm happy for him, but we definitely have an edge here. GK: Bogdanovs D: Kirkland/Aldrovandi/Connor/Heywood M: Crepso/Smith//Mills/Gordon F: Di Giuseppe/Constantino 24 year old Turkish Forward Huseyin Bayram leads them in scoring with 17 league goals in 22 matches (19 total goals). Lasse Sorensen has 10 goals in 15 matches for them. Midfielder Sergio is valued at $55 million, far and away their highest value player, he's a scoring threat and creates his fair share of goals as well. Those are the big names we are looking out for. Smith starts for Jean today, Smith seems to have been playing better lately. Constantino up front alongside Di Giuseppe. 20': Just one shot from each team so far and just a couple highlights. 23': After a few passes Mills feeds Di Giuseppe 20 yards out, he turns by a defender and shoots... seems like he had a little room to run, it was considered a clear cut chance but was right at the keeper. 25': We're on the attack, Di Giuseppe gets it out wide left, a cross is headed away but Mills recovers, passes back up to Di Giuseppe who shoots from 8 yards out and he scores!! 1-0 32': They pass a ball back to their keeper after an interception deep in their end... Di Giuseppe rushes the keeper to challenge for the ball and their keeper panics a bit, the ball comes free, Constantino gets to it and seems like he basically has an open net... but he kicks it at the keeper and its saved. That was a clear cut chance and is a real disappointing miss. 35': Connor is hurt, but can stay in. 43': Aldrovandi is hurt, but can stay in... ugh ugh ugh. HALF: I'm really happy with our play in the first half. We shoot 8 times, they shoot 4. We have 4 on target, they have just 1. 55/45 possession edge, they are tackling way way better, we are winning in the air. We're going to change to a counterattacking strategy at least for the start of the second half. Connor/Aldrovandi aren't being subbed out right away though its likely at least one won't finish the game with injuries. 47': A long free kick from out right comes in, Di Giuseppe with a header that's off the crossbar. 54': Their star mid Sergio gets free and rushes into the area.. Aldrovandi and Connor are slow to close down and he gets a clear cut chance, but Bogdanovs makes a good stop. Their best look of the day. 65': Betis captain, DC Julian Hurtado picked up a yellow earlier, and he gets another now tackling Neil Gordon, that's a red and we're up a man! 67': Constantino receives a pass 30 yards out, makes a great run by/between two defenders before being tackled... ugggh, inches from a penalty. Gordon takes the PK from 18.00001 yards out, but his shot is saved. 70': Gordon has it out right, passes ahead to Constantino, he's got a half step on his man and that's all he needs, he gets into the area, shoots to the far post, its by the keeper and its a goal!!!!! Great finish!!! 2-0 70': Mattle, Connolly, Bryan in for Aldrovandi, Mills, and Constantino. 90': Connolly wins a ball in the midfield and sends it down the right side for Bryan, he makes a good run, plays a low cross through the 6 yard box, Crespo is on the receiving end and buries it!!! 3-0 Ipswich 3 : 0 Betis Man of the Match: Juan Pablo Crespo (8.0) Goals: Crespo, Di Giuseppe (7.9), Constantino (7.5) Assists: Gordon (7.9), Mills (6.9), Bryan (7.0) Notables: Bogdanovs (7.2), Heywood (7.2), Kirkland (7.7), Connor (7.3), Aldrovandi (7.2), Smith (7.1) Great first half getting the lead, and an even better job taking advantage of the red card to build a 3 goal advantage going into the second leg at their place. That match won't be for another month but we've really set ourselves up well here! Injury Update -- DC Kieran Connor is out 5-7 days with a slight neck injury. -- DC Carlos Aldrovandi is also out 5-7 days with the same neck injury. Alrighty then. |
-- DC Jose Antonio Ballester is suspended for two additional matches for his red card against Liverpool. This seems totally fair, a violent tackle that injured an opponent out in the midfield and earned a straight red card. The problem is that Connor and Aldrovandi both got hurt in our last match, so we are all of a sudden out 3 DC's.
-- Our march schedule gets a little lighter as Newcastle's advancement in the Euro Cup causes a March 10th match with them to be pushed back into April. Feb 27th, 2027 Ipswich (20-3-5, 2nd) @ Tottenham (14-7-7, 7th) The last time we played a good team on the road Liverpool beat us 4-0. We'll try to avoid that today as we are very slim 6:4 favorites at Tottenham. We've played Tottenham 3 times this year, crushing them 5:1 in league play at home, tying 1:1 at home in the FA Cup then winning 2:1 at their place in the replay. We're 5-5-9 lifetime against them and in fact our FA Cup win earlier in February is the only time we've ever beaten them on the road. GK: Bogdanovs D: Kirkland/Mattle/Bartlett/Heywood M: Crepso/Smith/Connolly/Chrzanowski F: Di Giuseppe/Bryan Tottenham's Clive Chapman leads them with 19 goals, Emmanuel Mangan 12. Fatigue is setting in for some more regular starters, Chrzanowski will be playing 90 minutes today if possible. Di Giuseppe goes today but will sit in our next match vs Watford. Connolly starts for Mills at MC. Mattle/Bartlett replace our injured guys at DC with youngster John Ashworth available if needed. We'll look to counter on the road. 2': Its a near immediate clear cut chance for Tottenham as we turn it over near midfield, Chapman gets a great looking shot but Bogdanovs dives for the save. 8': A second clear cut chance as Mangan loses Bartlett and gets a great look, another diving save by Bogdanovs. 14': We get our first shot, a 20 yard effort from Connolly, we get a corner out of it but they clear. 29': Chapman to Mangan leads to their 3rd clear cut chance and this time its a goal. Poor defending by Bartlett seems to have made that look easy. 0-1 36': Chapman with a shot from ~25 yards out immediately after receiving a pass and its in the left side of the net... ugh. 0-2 HALF: Not good at all. We're not generating anything on offense and our defense just isn't holding up well. All we can do is try to attack in the second half but I do'nt have very high hopes. 59': Di Giuseppe with a blast from 20 yards out... just barely wide, the keeper wasn't there if it was on target either. 70': Connolly plays it ahead to Di Giuseppe, Bryan breaks into the area but would be offsides, Chrzanowski breaks in from the right, Di Giuseppe passes to him, he shoots, off a defender and in!! We aren't quite dead yet. 1-2 79': A long pass ahead from Connolly to Crespo, he's got a clear cut chance in th area.. but puts it wide left. 79': Constantino, Jean, Gordon in for Bryan, Smith, Chrzanowski, fresh legs to try to tie this up. 87': After a throwin on the left side a pass goes into the area for Constantino, he's free at the penalty spot, our 3rd clear cut chance... but no, saved. Tottenham 2 : 1 Ipswich I'm unsure if I could have done anything different here, or if its just really bad luck to run into a good team on the road with two very very good strikers at the same time that we lose our top three DC's for a short period of time. Goal: Chrzanowski (7.4) Assist: Di Giuseppe (7.5) Notables: Bogdanovs (7.5) -- Arsenal plays Huddersfield to a draw on the road, could be worse! 29 matches in: 1. Arsenal - 65 pts 2. Ipswich - 63 pts 3. Man City - 58 pts (1 less played) 4. Chelsea - 58 pts |
March Update
-- We play on the 3rd, 10th, 16th, 20th, and 27th. If we win in the FA Cup we'll also play again on the 6th. If we win our Champions League matchup we'll also play on the 23rd. -- We get a sad training update. Constantinio's accel and pace both fall in the last month. Gettin old... -- Yuri Di Giuseppe is named the EPL Young Player of the month for February. He scored 3 goals in four league matches. -- The board is very pleased with my leadership. Increase in stature good, Liverpool crushing us 4-0 bad. We lost $700k last month. March 3rd, 2027 FA Cup 5th Round Replay Watford (2nd, CH) @ Ipswich (2nd, EPL) We are insane 1:2 favorites at home today. We'll see though, we're getting youngsters time today. GK: Bogdanovs D: Hughes/Ashworth/Bartlett/Jackson M: Adagsmar/Jean/Connolly/Chrzanowski F: Darcy/Battersby Yes, we want to advance in the FA Cup, but there's a lot going on still and a day off would be good for some people. Also, I don't trust our stars to take Watford seriously. 16': Its the first shot of the game... Jean receives a pass from Hughes, but he's a solid 10 yards wide left of the goal, about 20 yards out... he shoots anyway, a crazy bending shot towards the far post, it bends inward, and its in! Awesome shot. 1-0 22': We allow a random long shot from 25 yards to go in. Really? "That's his first goal for Watford" for midfielder Zhivko Ognyanov. Ugh. 1-1 40': Jackson feeds Darcy 20 yards from goal, Darcy turns and shoots from there and blasts it into the right side of the net. 3 goals from outside the box now. 2-1 44': Chrzanowski a yellow. HALF: We shoot 8 times, they shoot 7, 3/2 on target for the two. We'll just keep it up. 49': DARCY!!!! They're attacking, Bartlett steals it deep in our end, he fires it ahead to Darcy at midfield. Darcy begins a run, scoots by a man, scoots by a second, cuts left, draws another defender, cuts back right, by a 3rd man, into the area and he gets a clear cut chance and scores!! Beautiful effort. 3-1 92': A cross in from Chrzanowski, Battersby deflects the ball, the keeper has a shot at it but can't control it and it rolls in. Credited as an own goal. 4-1 Ipswich 4 : 1 Watford Man of the Match: Eoin Darcy (8.8) Goals: Darcy 2, Jean (8.4) Assists: Jackson (7.9), Hughes (7.3), Bartlett (8.0) Notables: Ashworth (7.1), Adagsmar (7.2), Connolly (7.1) Our other young kid out there, Frank Battersby, struggled a bit but does finish with a 6.7 rating. Not worried about him, he's shown a lot of promise in other matches for us. So we need yet another replay to get through another FA Cup Round, but its done. -- We get $297,000 for this win. -- Good News #1 - Coventry (#13 Championship) upset Nottingham Forest (19th, EPL) so we get to play Coventry in the next round of the FA Cup in 3 days. -- Good News #2 - Great News actually, Chelsea smashes Arsenal in league play 4:1. We are still just 2 points out of first and now have a match in hand again. |
Yes!
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March 6th, 2027
FA Cup 6th Round Ipswich (2nd, EPL) @ Coventry (13th, CH) We're into the quarterfinals now, 4:7 favorites on the road today. GK: Bogdanovs D: Kirkland/Ashworth/Ballester/Jackson M: Hughes/Jean/Sergio Roberto/Chrzanowski F: Darcy/Bryan We keep in a lot of kids/backups today, no reason not to really for this one. Darcy/Bryan up front since Battersby is tired, so we've got serious scoring threats. 1': Throwin on the left side, taken to Kirkland, an immediate cross beautifully placed to the far post, Chrzanowski is there, heads it and its an easy 1st minute goal! 1-0 16': Hughes wins a header off a Coventry corner and Chris Bryan is first to it... he begins a long run from his own end, all the way down the right side, to the end line, passes back out to Sergio Roberto trailing behind, he shoots from the edge of the box and beats the keeper! 2-0 30': Darcy is hurt. We'll likely get him out of there at the half. 44': Jackson is hurt too. HALF: Smooth sailing until 2 injuries dampen the mood at the half. Smith in for Darcy at the half, Sergio Roberto back to DMC, 4-1-4-1 61': We have a long clearance, their keeper comes out 25ish yards to recover it and misplays it, Bryan is there and pounces on it, coming forward and putting it into the empty net before the keeper recovers. 3-0 65': Heywood in for Chrzanowski, Jackson up to MR, Heywood DR. 78': Kirkland gives up a penalty, but its saved, Bogdanovs mini-hero again. 82': Maybe I shouldn't have been so bored by that penalty save... free kick out wide right for Coventry, crossed in and a header scores for them. 3-1 We put it away after that. Coventry 1 : 3 Ipswich Man of the Match: Dariusz Chrzanowski (8.0) Goals: Chrzanowski, Bryan (7.8), Sergio Roberto (7.3) Assists: Bryan, Kirkland (7.1) Notables: Jackson (7.4), Ballester (7.2), Hughes (7.6) Ashworth with a 6.7 in defense today. -- In other FA Cup Quarterfinals today, Arsenal can't put away L1 Rotherham at home, drawing 1:1 setting up a replay. Aston Villa and Chelsea also play to a draw. Man U hasn't played their L1 opponent yet. -- We pick up $594,000 for this win. |
FA Cup Semifinal Draw
Ipswich hosts the winner of Arsenal/Rotherham Aston Villa/Chelsea winner hosts Man Utd March 10th, 2027 Ipswich (20-3-6, 2nd) @ Man City (18-4-7, 4th) Huge, huge match today. We've had some good wins lately but big road losses to Tottenham and Liverpool loom large. We're so close to Arsenal but haven't taken advantage of a couple chances to pull back into first. Man City are 5:4 favorites in this one. GK: Bogdanovs D: Kirkland/Aldrovandi/Connor/Heywood DMC: Sergio Roberto M: Crespo/Jean/Mills/Gordon F: Di Giuseppe Andrea Silveri 17 goals to lead Man City, Jeroen Mihci has 16. Silveri is a new name for Man City, they paid Barcelona $46M for him at the start of this season, a brilliant 21 year old. Back to a full strength lineup for us, including Aldrovandi and Connor healthy again. With our recent road play I decide to go a bit safer with the 4-1-4-1 formation. We'll start out counter attacking. 16': Free kick wide left for Man City, almost a corner really, a low hard cross comes in and midfielder Centurion heads it in. 0-1 18': After a long ball from Heywood Crespo breaks free with the ball and has a breakaway, 3 defenders a tracking down on him but he's into the penalty area with a clear cut chance... and blows it completely, sending it miles wide. HALF: It gets pretty ugly after that. Lots of highlights, lots of shots, but nothing good. Man City shoots 10 times with 3 on target, we shoot 8 times with 1 on target. I bring Constantino in for Sergio Roberto. Arsenal's goal differential is ridiculous, we can afford to take chances for points in a spot like this and if we lose by 3 it won't really hurt us outside of morale I think. 58': Constantino receives a ball about 30 yards out, his man overplays and he gets into the area.. a clear cut chance, but right at the keeper. 60': Crespo is hurt, can stay in. 82': Smith and Connolly in for Mills/Jean, fresh legs to generate something maybe? Man City does a good job seriously packing it in for the win. Man City 1 : 0 Ipswich Heywood 7.0, Connor 7.0. Constantino struggled once he came in, he had chances to make things happen and failed pretty badly. -- Crespo is out 5-6 days -- A couple players, most recently Jean, have mentioned a "lack of harmony" in the club. Morale is still very good amongst the starters though. -- We have almost a week off before our return trip to Betis. |
March 16th, 2027
European Champions Cup - First Knockout Round Second Leg Ipswich (3) @ (0) Betis We'll take a break from losing road matches in the EPL to try to get into quarterfinals of the Champions Cup. All we have to do is preserve a 3:0 lead. GK: Bogdanovs D: Kirkland/Aldrovandi/Connor/Heywood DMC: Jean M: Adagsmar/Smith/Mills/Gordon F: Di Giuseppe We'll stick with a 4-1-4-1 here, play it safe. I'm really not pleased with Sergio Roberto's play, which is really bad b/c all he's good at is DMC and he should be my specialist when I run this formation. The fact that I choose to run Jean today is a pretty big statement. 11': Spectacular pass form Smith to Di Giuseppe who is running at full speed towards the goal, he picks it up 18 yards out, into the area and beats the keeper!!! that's noted as his 50th Ipswich goal!! 1-0 20': Defensive... there's no point taking a single risk here. Even if we lose this game 4:1 we win on away goals. They have to score 5 straight. HALF: They shoot 9 times but only put 2 on target and still need 5 goals. We got this! 50': They get one on a great shot from 20 yards out by ST Sorensen. 1-1 65': Mattle for Aldrovandi, Chrzanowski for Gordon. Aldrovandi picked up a little knock that lowered his fitness, and I rest Gordon every chance I get. 77': A spectacular shot by backup ST jose from 20 yards, almost exactly like their first goal. 1-2 That'll do it, we lose the match but win the series and advance to the quarterfinals!!! Betis (2) 2 : 1 (4) Ipswich Goal: Di Giuseppe (8.0) Assist: Smith (7.3) Notable: Mills (7.4) -- We receive $4.3 Million for advancing through to the next round. |
-- Allow me to laugh my ass off as I see that League 1 Rotherham beat Arsenal 3:2 in their FA Cup replay. I check the stat sheet and see that Arsenal mostly played their starters in this one. That means that we will face Rotherham in the Semifinals in April.
European Champions Cup Quarterfinal Draw At. Madrid vs Olympique Lyonnais Ipswich vs Arsenal Real Madrid vs OM Fenerbahce vs Inter We've already played Arsenal twice this year, with the road team winning each matchup 2:1. We have actually completely owned Arsenal in recent memory, going 4-1-1 in our last 6 meetings. We know we'll get everything they have to offer at this stage of the Champions League though, it'll be an exciting matchup. We have a quick road league match then we start up our series with Arsenal right away. March 20th, 2027 Ipswich (20-3-7, 2nd) @ Southampton (9-4-18, 16th) Southampton should be a more winnable match than the last few we've had on the road, but our recent run is enough to allow them to be 6:4 favorites over us today. GK: Bogdanovs D: Kirkland/Aldrovandi/Connor/Heywood M: Adagsmar/Smith/Connolly/Gordon F: Di Giuseppe/Constantino Standard mindset today, go score boys. 8': Throwin for them, two passes, shot from midfielder Van Delen from a solid 25 yards out.... it blows by Bogdanovs and into the right side of the net. Really. 0-1 14': Attack attack attack. 14': Di Giuseppe to Constantino for an open look from inside the penalty spot, our first shot, clear cut chance, and he pushes it wide left. 34': Di Giuseppe is deep out left, makes a brilliant pass ahead to Constantino, he controls it well, cuts by his man and gets his second clear cut chance, this time he finishes and we tie it up! 1-1 39': Their scorer van Delen gets a yellow, then is immediately called for another foul... but no red, just a warning. 39': Free kick, we go out wide left to Kirkland, Kirkland with a low hard cross, Di Giuseppe controls it with his first touch, shoots, and scores!! 2-1 41': van Dalen with another foul, this one a trip on Constantino, 3 fouls in about 5 minutes can't be ignored, that's a red card and we're a man up!!!! HALF: They shoot 10 times, putting 7 on target, but we didn't see many of those in highlights. We shoot 8 times, 2 on target, 3 clear cut chances (2 for Constantino, unsure what the 3rd was). We dominate possession 62/38. We'll keep pressure on. 51': Their leading scorer Colin McCoy gets open at the edge of the box, shoots from there and scores. A very nice give and go for them, Connor may have taken the blame but some real nice passing imo. 2-2 60': A drive down the right side, cross into the area, their man McCoy heads it in.. this time Connor is directly responsible. We're losing to 10 men... 2-3 71': Connor has to come out, Mattle is in. Bryan in for a tiring Constantino. 78': throwin deep in their end, thrown to Di Giuseppe near the corner of hte box, a pass to Bryan, he turns by his man and is wide open 10 yards out, an easy goal!! Wild... 3-3 81': Give and go between Connolly and Bryan, Connolly gets it back in the area, a clear cut chance (our 5th) but a diving save forces a corner, which we don't convert. 87': Hughes in for an exhausted Adagsmar That's it. Southampton 3 : 3 Ipswich Goals: Di Giuseppe (8.8), Bryan (7.2), Constantino (6.8) Assists: Di Giuseppe 2, Kirkland (7.0) Notables: Bogdanovs (7.9) Just completely unacceptable. Connolly and Connor were awful and I bitch them both out in postgame. Di GIuseppe and Bogdanovs by comparison... awesome. This is just an unacceptable loss of two points. Yeah its on the road but we're 2nd in the EPL right now, we have to win these games. Arsenal pulls out a win and its not over yet but if I were a betting man I'd bet this is the moment we lost a chance to win the EPL. 1. Arsenal - 71 pts - 32 played 2. Ipswich - 64 pts - 31 played 3. Man City - 62 pts - 32 played 4. Chelsea - 61 pts - 31 played 5. Tottneham - 58 pts - 31 played |
I think the FA Cup Semis are neutral-arena, but not 100% sure..
so chuffed to have this back :) |
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Yep, you're right. 90k instead of 40k, hooray. Quote:
thanks :) |
March 24th, 2027
European Champions Cup Quarterfinals - First Leg Arsenal (1st, EPL) @ Ipswich (2nd, EPL) Arsenal are big 4:5 favorites today even at Portman Road. Hopefully we'll play with a chip on our shoulder for this one. GK: Bogdanovs D: Kirkland/Aldrovandi/Connor/Heywood M: Crespo/Jean/Mills/Gordon F: Di Giuseppe/Bryan Arsenal starts superstar striker Hans Nooij, but their other stud scorer Bugra Yildirim is suspended for this one, Dutch striker Roy Bergsma is in for him instead, a damn good player but definitely a step down. Counterattacking mindset today. 4': Yellow for Mills 7': Yellow for their captain Thiam 11': Yellow for Di Giuseppe 17': Spectacular individual effort by Bryan to dribble through their defense and generate a clear cut chance.. though a tight angle, and its saved. 27': Gordon a yellow. 29': We attack, a cross goes in but its headed away. Mills makes a good effort to recover the ball and he heads it back into the area. Bryan picks it up and dribbles through two defenders again and generates his own shot, thi time he finishes!! 1-0 32': A very quick attack after a throwin, Di Giuseppe to Bryan, Bryan blasts it from 20 yards out and its by the keeper and a second goal!!!!! 2-0 37': Connor a yellow. 37': Lets defend, we know they're going to push hard here. 44': Jean a yellow HALF: Two big stories. Obviously, Chris freaking Bryan. 2 goals and some brilliant individual play. He's at 8.7, no one else is over 7 at the half. The other story is that there have been 7 yellow cards given, 5 to our team. We shoot 8 times, putting 5 on target, playing great. Arsenal shoots 5 times, 4 from range, not a single one on target. 47': They quickly get their first shot on target but Bogdanovs with the save. 49': defender Acre a yellow for Arsenal. 56': midfielder Gamliel a yellow for Arsenal. 58': A loose ball about 20 yards out, their ST Bergsma is first to it and a driving shot is saved by Bogdanovs. We defend the corner well and their defender Oliva picks up a yellow... 66': Connolly in for Mills 77': Sergio Roberto in for Di Giuseppe, 4-1-4-1 85': Corner for us, Gordon takes it, Aldrovandi wins a header and its in!!!! 3-0 92': Throwin in their end, a pass to Sergio roberto, he's about 35 yards out, a pass into the area, Crespo breaks by his man, is first to the ball and he shoots and scores!! Piling on!!! 4-0 Ipswich 4 : 0 Arsenal We could not possibly have played better!!! Remember this is the Champions League, a two leg series, so we get to take a 4 goal lead to Arsenal for the second leg. Man of the Match: Chris Bryan (9.2) Goals: Bryan 2, Crespo (8.2), Aldrovandi (8.9) Assists: Gordon (7.8), Mills (6.9), Di Giuseppe (6.8), Sergio Roberto (6.9) Notables: Bogdanovs (7.7), Heywood (7.5), Kirkland (7.8), Connor (7.2) The first half play by Chris Bryan was simply brilliant. As good as anything I've ever seen from Constantino or Di Giuseppe at the EPL level (have to discount Constantino running all over lower leagues of course). Bryan was AMAZING. |
Contract Updates
I had taken care of everything early season. GK Capitani expires, that's intentional, the other is Adagsmar, my bakcup ML. Crespo is making $75,000/wk, the focus of my offense often runs through the right side of the pitch with Gordon or just up the middle, Crespo has 4 goals/3 assists in 18 games total. He missed 2 months with an injury. Adagsmar only makes $35,000/wk and his ratings have been just as good as Crespo in 13 matches. The problem is that he's 32 and showing some decline. His Accel, Pace and Reflexes have all dropped this year. I can give him one more year or I can rely more on Jack Hughes as a backup ML... oh right I also ahve youngster David Ros, who may or may not make it, but yeah its time for Adagsmar to go. No contract. April Update -- We play on the 3rd (EPL), 6th (CL), 10th (FA), 21st (EPL) and 24th (EPL). If we advance to the Champions League semifinals we'll play two more matches on the 20th and 27th. FA Cup Finals wouldn't be until May. We only have 7 EPL matches left and are 7 points behind Arsenal. 5 of the 7 are at home, our schedule is pretty easy as well, but we're going to have to take care of business and get help from Arsenal. -- Di Giuseppe is 3rd in young player of the month voting. -- The board is very pleased with my leadership. Stature good, 4-0 losses to liverpool bad. We made a profit of $2.62M last month. So far this year we've lost $44.5 Million and sit with a cash balance of -$11 Million. That's ok though as we're set to make $32 Million if we hold 2nd in the EPL and will surely take in enough from the Champions League to turn a profit (IIRC TV money comes in at the very end and we'll score huge there). April 3rd, 2027 Ipswich (20-4-7, 2nd) @ Nottingham Forest (3-7-22, 19th) Can we win a road match vs a team who could clinch demotion in the next 2-3 matches? We're 5:4 favorites after a good number of consecutive road losses in league play. GK: Bogdanovs D: Kirkland/Aldrovandi/Connor/Jackson M: Crespo/Smith/Connlly/Gordon F: Darcy/Constantino Standard mindset. 9': Darcy fails on a sure goal. Constantino sends a long ball ahead and Darcy picks it up miles behind the defense, runs into the area, but just can't put it by the keeper. I don't understand how Darcy failed to score right there. 47': Connolly a yellow HALF: That's it. We saw like 2 more highlights. They shoot 6 times, we shoot 4, just nothing noteworthy at all. I bring Bryan in for Darcy and set out to attack the rest of the way. 59': We have a corner but its cleared, all the way to midfield. We recover and push it back up. Bryan to Connolly, Connolly with a pass to Gordon who got himself wide open, he shoots from 15 yards out, our 2nd clear cut chance and a goal!! 1-0 66': Ugh. They get a strong attack, a shot, saved by Bogdanovs but rebound falls right to another Nottingham Forest attacker and he scores. 1-1 67': Bryan with a strong move to get his own shot, but its off the left post. 71': Jean in for connolly. 86': Chrzanowski in for Gordon 93': Connor a yellow, setting them up for a last minute free kick, but its wide. Nottingham Forest 1 : 1 Ipswich Goal: Gordon (7.5) Assist: Connolly (6.9) Notables: Jackson (7.0), Kirkland (7.2) Can we not win a game without Di Giuseppe/Bryan up front? really bad. We now trail Arsenal by 9 points with a match in hand. We also only lead 5th place Tottenham by 4 points. Staying in a champoins league spot now seems more important than going all out for 1st. We do finish with 5 of our last 6 at home -- Confession: I wanted Constantino to score, he's like 2 goals from becoming the all time Ipswich league goalscorer. I could have afforded to go all out with Di Giuseppe and Bryan since next up is Arsenal where we're just going to sit on a 4-0 lead. I thought we'd win just fine with Darcy/Constantino. NOP! |
-- No one can win on the road. Everton beats Tottenham @Everton, a huge result for us now that we've sliipped back to where 5th isn't impossible.
April 6th, 2027 European Champions Cup - Quarterfinal - Second Leg Ipswich (4) @ (0) Arsenal We'd never really expect to come in here and win, but we damn well expect to protect a 4 goal lead in the second leg here! GK: Bogdanovs D: Kirkland/Aldrovandi/Connor/Heywood DM: Sergio Roberto M: Adagsmar/Jean/Mills/Gordon F: Di Giuseppe Defend, defend, defend. 2': Dear god, amazing shot by Di Giuseppe from waaay out wide left, bending in, but a diving save is made by their keeper. 7': They're attacking hard but we clear a ball long out of defense. Gordon picks it up and sends it into the offensive end. Di Giuseppe gets out behind the defense and a simply brilliant first touch sends it ahead, not quite far enough for the keeper to rush out but far enough that he just gets to all out sprint ahead and stay behind the defense. He gets to it and he gets into the area and finishes. 1-0 7': Arsenal now needs 6 straight goals to advance. :D 27': We almost score again, intercepting a pass as they try to build up and sending it up for Di Giuseppe. Not quite as easy a finish and its stopped. They have 7 shots, all off target. 30': Di Giuseppe is hurt. He could stay in but yeah... no. 32': Bryan in for Di Giuseppe HALF: 12 shots/3 on target for Arsenal, but no goals and Bogdanovs comes up big on a couple saves. 79': Nooij scores, just 5 more to go for Arsenal. 1-1 85': Burgra Yildirim with a great shot from 20 yards out. 1-2 That's it!!! Arsenal (2) 2 : 1 (5) Ipswich Goal: Di Giuseppe (7.1) Assist: Gordon (6.9) Notables: Bogdanovs (7.0) -- Most importantly, no long term injury for Di Giuseppe -- We receive $4.735M for this round of the Champions League -- We've advanced to the semifinals of the Champions League!!!! Our first appearance in the Champions League 2 years ago we made it to the quarterfinals and lost there, so this is the furthest we've been. |
I think we're all rooting for Constantino to get those goals! Congrats on reaching the Semifinals, really impressive showing against Arsenal in leg 1. Wonder why these road games against league doormats seem to be such a struggle?
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Quarterfinal results:
At. Madrid 2 : 1 Olympique Lyonnais Ipswich 5 : 2 Arsenal OM 5 : 3 Real Madrid Inter 4 : 3 Fenerbahce European Champions Cup Semifinal Draw OM vs Ipswich At Madrid vs Inter French side OM (Olympique de Marseille) are the defending champions of the Champions League. They've won it 3 times in this dynasty (2025/26, 2021/22, 2019/20). We've never played them before. April 10th, 2027 FA Cup Semifinals Ipswich (2nd, EPL) vs Rotherham (4th, L1) We are 1:6 favorites today to advance to the finals, Rotherham 10:1 to win. GK: Bogdanovs D: Hughes/Mattle/Ballester/Jackson M: Crespo/Smith/Connolly/Chrzanowski F: Battersby/Bryan We start lots and lots of backups but should still be more than enough to win here. We have quality backups available if needed. 28': Not looking pretty, here we stumble into getting the ball to Bryan who does a lot by himself and gets a clear cut chance, but its stopped. 37': Crespo is hurt and forced out of the match immediately. Ugh, damn guy has been hurt too much this year. Hughes moves up to ML, Kirkland is in. HALF: We have 63% of the possession but aren't putting it together at all, only shooting twice. Rotherham shoots 5 times but only 1 on target. We'll attack second half (was in a standard mindset). 49': Smith starts a break with a steal but they hold it off. We keep it on the offensive end, Smith passes to Connolly and he just fires from 25 yards away and its on target and the keeper can't stop it! 1-0 79': We build up on offense, a pass from Battersby to Smith. smith tries a cross... it hits a defender and ricochets to the other side of the goal and goes in. Own goal that seals it for us. 2-0 83': Connolly to Chrzanowski for an easy finish. 3-0 We're through to the finals! Ipswich 3 : 0 Rotherham Man of the Match: Craig Smith (8.8) Goals: Chrzanowski (8.3), Connolly (8.2) Assists: Smith 2, Connolly Notables: Jackson (7.4), Hughes (7.5), Ballester (7.1), Mattle (7.3), Bryan (7.3), Battersby (7.3), Kirkland (7.4) -- We receive $1.485M for reaching the finals of the FA Cup Injury Update Juan Pablo Crespo is out for 3 more weeks with a pulled hamstring. -- Man U beats Chelsea 1:0 with an extra time goal in the 97th minute in the other FA Cup Semifinal. We're going to play Manchester United for the FA Cup Title at the tail end of May, it'll be our last match of the season, even if we make the Champions League finals. |
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A few possibilities... 1. Complacency, we really seem to suffer badly from it. 2. Playing too much attacking football on the road. 3. There have been media rumblings here and there about some slight discord in the locker room the last couple months. A couple guys (Sergio Roberto and Neil Bartlett and Ballester) aren't playing as much as they want, a couple guys got annoyed about a lack of praise. I think that's mostly fixed but there is a very small "locker room harmony" undercurrent that could be hurting us. I've been keeping a close eye on morale, going into that Southampton match for example the entire starting 11 was "very good" or "superb" morale, so I'm assuming its not a huge issue. |
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Gotcha, I guess the complacency thing is tough to counter, it seems like you pick your spots to play younger guys pretty well and you'd think they'd be hungry to prove themselves. |
At. Madrid beats Inter 2:1 at home in the first leg of the other Champions League Semifinal.
OM has 5 key players, ST Fawaz Aseeri is a brilliant 30 year old who has 31 goals in 39 matches, but he's hurt and won't play in the first leg. FC Aymeric Renaud is a $28M 25 y/o scorer. 27 goals and 7 assists in 38 matches. Playmaker Claudiney (MC) has 12 goals/11 assists in 41 matches, a great midfielder, with a 7.74 rating maybe a player of the year candidate in france. April 21st, 2027 European Champions Cup - Semifinals - First Leg Ipswich (3rd, EPL) @ OM (1st, Ligue 1) OM are only 5:4 favorites at their place today. We're going to play this one defensively at least at the start. GK: Bogdanovs D: Kirkland/Aldrovandi/Connor/Jackson DM: Jean M: Adagsmar/Smith/Mills/Gordon F: Di Giuseppe Starting this series on the road we go with a 4-1-4-1 with Jean at DMC. 20': 3 total shots, all on free kicks, nothing close yet. HALF: We put a couple shots on target, a header by Di Giuseppe and a shot off a corner by Aldrovandi. OM got 2 free kicks and 2 shots in the first 10 minutes and didn't shoot again the rest of the half. Possession is 50/50, we are connecting on 90% of our tackles and our defense is looking good. 65': Adagsmar is hurt. 65': they get their best shot of the game with a ST getting by Connor and getting a nice shot on target inside the area, but Bogdanovs makes the save. 68': Hughes in for Adagsmar, Bryan in for Di Giuseppe 75': Mills a yellow. And that's it, we don't generate much in the way of offense but we play great defense on the road. OM 0 : 0 Ipswich Man of the Match: Dmitrijs Bogdanovs (8.3) Notables: Jackson (7.1), Kirkland (7.5), Connor (7.1), Mills (7.0) -- Adagsmar will miss 5-6 days with an injury. Hopefully Crespo will be back in time for the second leg in about a week. |
April 24th, 2027
QPR (8-7-19, 17th) @ Ipswich (20-5-7, 3rd) We're down to 3rd but have 2 matches in hand on Man City and are just 1 point behind them. As long as we win our home games we're fine for second. We're massive 4:7 favorites today and must win. GK: Bogdanovs D: Kirkland/Aldrovandi/Connor/Heywood M: Hughes/Smith/Connolly/Chrzanowski F: Bryan/Constantino I'd really like to start Darcy/Constantino b/c our next match with OM is in 3 days but that went so badly last time I tried it. Elsehwere we're looking for strong starters but keeping an eye on fitness for the OM match. We'll attack. 2': Connolly ahead to Bryan after some buildup, Bryan is 20 yards out, turns by his man and shoots from there, its not the most powerful shot but its placed well and in the back of the net! 1-0 22': Hughes with a long run down the left, a cross to the near side of the 6 yard box, Constantino is there and heads it by the keeper, a rare headed goal for Constantino!! 2-0 50': Jack Hughes is hurt and must come off... Crespo and Adagsmar are hurt too, and David Ros had been hurt for a long time and isn't anywhere close to fit so he isn't listed today. I bring Mattle and Bartlett in, Hughes and Chrzanowski out, we'll just go 5-3-2. HALF: 52 minutes... longest half ever. Aside from the injury we're looking great. we've allowed 2 shots, both off target and have a nice lead. 59': Smith takes a corner short to aldrovandi, he passes back out wide, Smith crosses to the far post, Mattle heads it, goal! 3-0 61': Darcy in for Bryan, get some rest for the champions league bud. 84': Kirkland is hurt.... can stay in, we're in huge huge trouble if he's hurt bad though. Ipswich 3 : 0 QPR Man of the Match: Otmar Mattle (8.1) Goals: Mattle, Bryan (7.7), Constantino (7.6) Assists: Hughes (7.8), Connolly (7.4), Smith (7.8) Notables: Heywood (7.3), Kirkland (7.6), Connor (7.6), Aldrovandi (7.7) -- Jack Hughes is out 7-10 days. We'll see how our health looks for OM in 3 days. Kirkland no long term injury. Man City is crushed by Liverpool and that lets us move back into second: 1. Arsenal - 80 pts - 35 played 2. Ipswich - 68 pts - 33 played 3. Tottenham - 67 pts - 35 played 4. Man City - 66 pts - 35 played 5. Chelsea - 64 pts - 33 played 6. Huddersfield - 63 pts - 35 played 7. Man Utd - 59 pts - 34 played 8. Liverpool - 55 pts - 35 played I think Man U won the league cup, so they're in Europe, so Liverpool is probably screwed no matter what they do. arsenal has the league pretty much wrapped up. We *could* have a stranglehold on second if we win our 2 games in hand, but its not done yet. Tottenham with a huge charge to sit in 3rd currently. |
Ipswich All-Time League Goalscorer
With his goal last game, Constantino scored his 205th league goal for Ipswich. He broke a record set in the 1960s by Ray Crawford. Constantino now holds five records at Ipswich, most goals in a season (52), most league goals in a season (50), highest average rating in a season (8.09), Most Man of the Match awards (22) and most league goals for the club (205 and counting). All of the single season records were set in 2019/20, our last season in the Championship. |
April 27th, 2027
European Champions Cup - Semifinals - Second Leg OM (0) @ (0) Ipswich If we win we advance to the finals of the Champions League. A loss or a tie would be bad for us. 0:0 would send it to extra time, 1:1 would advance OM on away goals. GK: Bogdanovs D: Kirkland/Aldrovandi/Connor/Jackson M: Ros/Smith/Mills/Gordon F: Di Giuseppe/Bryan So Hughes and Crespo are still outright hurt and can't play. David Ros isn't match fit, Adagsmar is only at 80% back from his injury. But we just aren't comfortable with any formations without the ML really. So we're going to start Ros, probably sub in Adagsmar between 45-60 minutes, and hope for the best. Standard mindset to start. Pouring down rain. 4': yellow for defender Dannemark. He's suspended for the final if they make it. 6': Buildup down the middle, Ros to Di Giuseppe who hits Gordon cutting in from the right, not a clear cut chance but a good look... but saved. 14': mills is hurt. 20': Smith a yellow. 31': mills a yellow. HALF: We go 25 minutes with just one highlight there. We end up with 8 shots, 4 on target. They shoot 4 times, 1 on target. Its a very even match. 49': Aldrovandi is hurt and forced to leave the match immediately. Mattle is in. 51': Di Giuseppe a yellow. 60': We steal a ball after a throwin, mills up to Bryan who blasts a shot from 20 yards, the keeper barely stops it and it deflects off the crossbar to safety. 67': Corner for us, Gordon takes it to the near post, Mattle charges in, wins the header and puts it into the net!!! 1-0 76': Jean for Mills, Adagsmar for Ros, defensive mindset. 80': They play a long pass forward, a shot from 18 yards out is blocked by Connor, but it falls directly to their other striker who puts it in the net. We now must score. 1-1 80': attack attack attack. 85': Di Giuseppe with an effort from 25 yards that just misses wide right. 85': overload, do everything possible to get a goal, we are desperate. -- 4 minutes of added time. 90': Bryan gets by his man but his shot from the edge of the box is way high. 94': Connor is hurt... That's it :( Ipswich (1) 1 : 1 (1) a OM Goal: Mattle (7.1) Assist: Gordon (7.7) Notables: Jackson (7.0) Everyone else on the team shows a 6.7-6.8 rating today. We didn't play poorly, we played them evenly in two matches, but they advance since they scored at our place and we failed to score at theirs. Very disappointing result, especially after briefly taking the lead. But still, making the semifinals of the Champions League is a good accomplishment for us and we should have every shot at winning the thing next year. -- We receive $6 Million for playing in this round. -- Mills and Connor both reach the yellow card limit in this one and will miss our next European match. Wow that would have sucked for them if we had made the finals eh. Injury Update -- Kieran Connor is out 4-5 days with a bruised rib -- Carlos Aldrovandi is out 5-6 weeks |
May Update
-- League matches on the 1st, 5th, 8th, 14th and 16th. FA Cup Final on the 29th. -- The board is very pleased with my leadership. Increase in stature is the high, our 1:1 draw to Nottingham forest the low. -- We made a $10.5M profit this month, thanks to Champions League mainly. May 1st, 2027 Sheffield Wednesday (3-5-27, 20th) @ Ipswich (21-5-7, 2nd) We are ridiculous 1:6 favorites today at home. They've already "clinched" relegation and will almost certainly finish dead last. GK: Bogdanovs D: Kirkland/Ashworth/Ballester/Jackson M: Ros/Smith/Connolly/Gordon F: Battersby/Constantino Some young guys and backups today. 22': Corner for us, Gordon takes it to the far post, Ballester gets up and heads it in. 1-0 29': A strong attack for them after winning the ball on a corner, they get 5 men forward and we get 5 men back, not a good ratio for us, a pass in from the right to midfielder Bloom and he scores on us. 1-1 37': Adagsmar in for Ros, he's still tired and getting back into game shape here. 49': Free kick for them about 25 yards out, taken well and Bogdanovs makes a diving save, whew. HALF: Ashworth a 5.6 rating, I'm just going to put Mattle in, he's not playing well at all. They shoot 7 times with 5 on target, we shoot 5 times, 2 on target, despite a 57/43 possession edge on our end. Saving my last sub to bring in Bryan if I need to. 59': Smith to constantino for a nice goal... apparently he was offsides. I dunno about that one, really. 62': Bryan in for Battersby, lets get a win guys. 71': Kirkland a yellow. 78': Smith with a long pass into the area, its a little too long and their keeper comes out to scoop it up... but he doesn't hold it. Like, Constantino was rushing him but very very clearly the keeper was there by himself to bend over and pick up the ball... and it just bounced off him. constantino jumps on it and shoots and scores! 2-1 80': We steal the ball in midfield, a quick pass to Bryan, up ahead to Constantino who split the defense, he runs into the area, shoots far post under the diving keeper and scores a 2nd goal!! 3-1 Ipswich 3 : 1 Sheffield Wednesday Man of the Match: Constantino (8.8) Goals: Constantino 2, Ballester (7.8) Assists: Bryan (6.9), Smith (8.2), Gordon (7.7) Notables: Bogdanovs (8.2), Jackson (7.0), Kirkland (7.1) Man City beats Tottenham to take 4th back. 1. Arsenal - 80 pts - 35 played 2. Ipswich - 71 pts - 34 played 3. Chelsea - 70 pts - 35 played 4. Man City - 69 pts - 36 played 5. Tottenham - 67 pts - 36 played 6. Huddersfield - 66 pts - 36 played 7. Man Utd - 60 pts - 35 played We host Chelsea in our next match, we still have a match in hand over them so we could lose and still finish 2nd, but if we win, we have a pretty big lock on 2nd. |
-- Man U beats Arsenal. We're down 9 points with 2 matches in hand. Arsenal has two left to play. They are probalby still like 90%+ to win the EPL but its a reminder that if we win out there's the chance for Arsenal to screw up, however slim.
May 5th, 2027 Chelsea (21-7-7, 3rd) @ Ipswich (22-5-7, 2nd) We're 5:4 favorites at home today against rival Chelsea. We're 8-4-10 lifetime against Chelsea. We beat them 3:0 at their place in league play but lost to them in the league cup this year. GK: Bogdanovs D: Kirkland/Ballester/Connor/Heywood M: Adagsmar/Jean/Mills/Gordon F: Di Giuseppe/Bryan Chelsea youngster Leif Nylin (22 years old/$19M value) has 23 goals/8 assists in 31 league matches, one of the tops in the EPL this year. 4': A quick strike for Chelsea, a cross in from the left, a header from midfielder Aurier and we're in trouble early. 0-1 13': Wow. A pass in from the left again, easy easy goal for their ST Nylin. 0-2 25': A throwin in their half, thrown to gorodn and a quick cross goes in. Their keeper misplays it completely, coming out for it but he can't get to it... Adagsmar heads it and the net is wide open... but he heads it wide. So bad. 32': Gordon to di Giuseppe for an easy header into the net, but offsides. 40': Jean a yellow. HALF: 9 shots for us but only 1 on target... 3 shots for them, 2 on target. We have put some pressure on them attacking once they got their lead, but they're just turtling now and its going to be very tough to come back from an earl 2 goal deficit. 48': Di Giuseppe a yellow. 51': Jean with a pass into the area for Bryan, our 2nd clear cut chance, he broke on it perfectly... but hte keeper stops it. Shoulda scored there. 55': There we go, finally, Heywood with a cross in from the right as we slowly build up, Di giuseppe gets by his man and redirects it into the net, and now we have a chance! 1-2 70': Chrzanowski in for a tired Gordon. 78': Di Giuseppe receives a long ball forward out wide right, a cross to the far post, Bryan is there for our 4th clear cut chance.. but heads it off the crossbar. 84': Constantino in for Bryan, Crespo for Adagsmar. Ipswich 1 : 2 Chelsea One of the worst games I've seen from Chris Bryan. He could have won this one for us but just simply could not finish. Goal: Di Giuseppe (7.5) Assist: Heywood (6.9) 1. Arsenal - 80 pts - 36 played 2. Chelsea - 73 pts - 36 played 3. Ipswich - 71 pts - 35 played 4. Man City - 69 pts - 36 played 5. Tottenham - 67 pts - 36 played 6. Huddersfield - 66 pts - 36 played 7. Man Utd - 63 pts - 36 played We fall to 3rd. 5 points ahead of 5th with 2 to play for them. |
Tough way to get knocked out of the Champions League, but it was still a great performance by Ipswich. Tougher loss to Chelsea. That may cost you. Who is left on the schedule?
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@#8 Aston Villa, vs #9 Newcastle, vs #12 Everton. 3 points would clinch top 4 no matter what happens around me. Tottenham plays Arsenal in their next match, if Arsenal wins that we clinch top 4 as well. Of course I want 2nd, hopefully we'll get that. |
May 8th, 2027
Ipswich (22-5-8, 3rd) @ Aston Villa (16-7-13, 8th) Aston Villa are slim 6:4 favorites in this one. The road team hasn't won in this series in 7 years, 5-6-8 lifetime against them. GK: Bogdanovs D: Kirkland/Ballester/Connor/Heywood DMC: Sergio Roberto M: Crespo/Smith/Mills/Gordon F: Di Giuseppe Counterattacking today in our 4-1-4-1. 38': Gordon passes ot Di Giuseppe, he's 30 yards out, steps back, two defenders close, he splits the defense and charges into the area, one man to beat, he dribbles by him, shoots under the keeper and scores! 1-0 HALF: There was more action than this but I was eating so just watched the half. They shoot 5 times, we shoot 7, 2 on target for them, 3 for us. They had a dangerous chance in the area and a solid long shot that were both saved. We have 58% of the possession. No changes for the second half. 73': Darcy in for Di Giuseppe, Chrzanowski in for Gordon. 81': Connor is hurt and has to leave the match immediately. Mattle is in. That's it! Aston Villa 0 : 1 Ipswich Aston Villa was forced to take nearly all of their second half shots from long range and never really seriously threatened. Man of the Match: Yuri Di Giuseppe (8.6) Goal: Di Giuseppe Assist: Gordon (7.0) Notables: Bogdanovs (8.3), Heywood (7.4), Kirkland (7.5), Connor (7.1) -- Kieran Connor is out with torn knee ligaments and is out 2 months. -- Arsenal clinches the EPL with a draw today. -- Chelsea with a draw today. 1. Arsenal - 81 pts - 1 left 2. Ipswich - 74 pts - 2 left 3. Chelsea - 74 pts - 1 left 4. Man City - 72 pts - 1 left 5. Huddersfield - 69 pts - 1 left 6. Tottenham - 67 pts - 1 left 7. Man Utd - 66 pts - 1 left We've now clinched a top 4 spot and will be back in the Champions League next year. The most interesting story going into the final day(s) of the regular season now is that Man City leads Huddersfield by 3 points for the 4th spot, but Huddersfield has the goal differential advantage. Huddersfield ends the season @Man Utd, Man City @Southampton. It seems likely Man City finishes 4th but its not a done deal yet. |
May 12th, 2027
Newcastle (15-7-14, 10th) @ Ipswich (23-5-8, 2nd) We're 4:5 favorites at home today, Newcastle are 3:1 dogs. We can't win the league now that Arsenal has clinched, but we'd still like to finish second. One of the weirder series stats we've seen is that we've never played Newcastle to a draw... 12-0-10 lifetime against them. We've won the last 5 times in a row. GK: Bogdanovs D: Kirkland/Ballester/Mattle/Heywood M: Crespo/Jean/Mills/Gordon F: Di Giuseppe/Bryan Back to 4-4-2 and Bryan up front with Di Giuseppe. 5': Really good passing, Crespo to Di Giuseppe to Bryan, free behind the defense but the keeper stops our clear cut chance. 10': 2 shots, 2 clear cut chances, this time Bryan to Gordon and he has a shot saved. 21': Jean a yellow. 32': A pass in to Di Giuseppe, he tries to slide it over to Bryan but pushed away. Mills recovers it, sends it into the right side of the area to Gordon, he has our 3rd clear cut chance and he puts this one away! 1-0 HALF: We have 6 shots to their 4, but it seems like we're far more in control than that. Possession is even, we're better in the air and sending in crosses, by a lot. No change for the second half. 68': Darcy, Adagsmar, Chrzanowski in for Di Giuseppe, Crespo and Gordon. 77': Jean with a through ball to Chrzanowski, he rushes the keeper and blasts it by him! That should do it for this one. 2-0 84': Mills with a pass ahead to Bryan, Bryan turns by his man 25ish yards out, into the area, another defender closes in but Bryan avoids a tackle and shoots near post by the keeper! 3-0 90': Darcy receives a ball from Jean, runs through a crowded area, no idea how he kept control of the ball as he gets to the end line and into the 6 yard box, putting the ball by the keeper and in from the left side of the 6 yard box, we turn this into a blowout in the final minutes. 4-0 Ipswich 4 : 0 Newcastle Man of the Match: Steven Mills (8.9) Goals: Gordon (7.5), Bryan (8.8), Darcy (7.3), Chrzanowski (7.5) Assists: Mills 2, Jean 2 (8.4) Notables: Heywood (7.6), Kirkland (7.9), Mattle (7.9), Ballester (7.3) 1. Arsenal - 81 pts - 1 left 2. Ipswich - 77 pts - 1 left 3. Chelsea - 74 pts - 1 left 4. Man City - 72 pts - 1 left 5. Huddersfield - 69 pts - 1 left 6. Tottenham - 67 pts - 1 left 7. Man Utd - 66 pts - 1 left We were the only team to play today, effectively locking up 2nd place as we have a 3 point lead over Chelsea and a +12 better goal differential. |
May 16th, 2027
Everton (13-8-16, 12th) @ Ipswich (24-5-8, 2nd) We're 4:7 favorites on the last day of the EPL regular season. We're 7-5-6 lifetime against Everton. We haven't allowed them to score a goal at home in the last 4 meetings (3:0, 2:0, 2:0, 0:0). GK: Bogdanovs D: Kirkland/Ballester/Mattle/Jackson M: Ros/Smith/Connolly/Chrzanowski F: Di Giuseppe/Constantino Lots of subs today on short rest. 6': Smith to Di Giuseppe, an early clear cut chance, but a diving stop by their keeper keeps it out of the net. Corner is cleared. 19': Di Giuseppe to Constantino for a claer cut chance, but saved. Kinda a tough shot, sent to the left side of the area and Constantino was running away from the goal and tried to shoot quickly, tough to get any power on it. 24': Mattle with a foul in the area on a cross... penalty for Everton. but its just missed outright... over the last month or two, that's three straight missed penalties for Ipswich opponents I believe. 31': Smith with a nice run into the area but its tackled away. They try to clear the ball but it bounces off one of our players and the ball ends up near hte penalty spot, Constantino is first to it and scores! 1-0 36': A quick Ipswich attack, Connolly with a pass into the right side of the area, they miss an interception, Chrzanowski controls it and scores! 2-0 46': Di Giuseppe takes a pass from Connolly, he has a clear cut chance but shoots off the left post. The keeper dove for it and is down as a defender recovers the ball at the left edge of the 6 yard box. Di Giuseppe charges him, tackles the ball away and puts it into the net!!!! Great effort, 99% of the time that's cleared away to safety. 3-0 HALF: We're crushing this one, the play matches the score, no problem. 51': Constantino is hurt. 52': Some nice passing by Everton leads to an easy shot by midfielder Clark and we give one back. 3-1 56': Ballester is hurt. 62': Smith with a great pass to Constantino, he beats the only defender between him and the keeper and scores!! 4-1 64': Bartlett and Darcy in for Ballester and Constantino. 71': Uh oh. di Giuseppe is hurt and must leave the match immediately. Bryan is in. 82': Connolly with a good pass to Bryan for an easy goal. 5-1 Ipswich 5 : 1 Everton Man of the Match: Brett Connolly (9.0) Goals: Constantino 2 (8.9), Chrzanowski (8.1), Di Giuseppe (7.4), Bryan (7.2) Assists: Connolly 2, Smith (8.1) Notables: Jackson (7.4), Kirkland (7.4), Mattle (7.5), Ros (7.6) Who cares about all that... press continue lots until we see the news on Di Giuseppe Injury Update Yuri Di Giuseppe is out 3 weeks with a pulled hamstring. That's long enough that he'll miss the FA Cup final. Damn! Ipswich have been given $32,340,000 for their final position in the English Premier Division Ipswich have qualified for the 2027 Champions Cup by coming 2nd in the Premier Division -- We pay out $4.2M in bonuses for our finish. |
English Footballer of the Year
Arsenal's Bugra Yildirim wins the player of the year award. He played all 38 of Arsenal's league matches, scoring 33 goals and making 15 assists. Ipswich's Constantino is 2nd, playing 27 league matches, scoring 16 goals and making 11 assists. Hell of a year in more limited action than usual! I haven't really been following stats or ratings at all and was quite frankly shocked to see Constantino do this well. Ipswich's Yuri Di Giuseppe is 3rd, 30 matches, 22 goals, 6 assists. -- Arsenal's manager wins Manager of the Year in the EPL. I came in 3rd behind Man U's manager. -- DL Stuart Kirkland is Named to the EPL Team of the year. Constantino, Gordon, and Di Giuseppe are all named backups to this team. Arsenal's ST combo Bugra Yildirim and Hans Nooij are the two starting forwards. |
Ipswich have been given $35,870,000 from Champions Cup Television Revenue
-- The payouts for the EPL and Champions League will leave us with a huge profit this year, despite spending $50 million on player transfers. Right now we show $258M in revenue and $230M in total expenses ('expenditure' and 'net transfer spent' added together). We have aprofit of $27M. -- I request a stadium expansion and am informed that its impossible due to a lack of space. We'll have to be happy with a 40,000 seat stadium. European Champions Cup Dream Team GK Dmitrijs Bogdanovs played 12 matches this year in the Champions League with a 7.10 average rating. He's named the keeper on the Champoins League "dream team". May 29th, 2027 FA Cup Final Man Utd vs Ipswich We are 6:4 favorites for the final, Man U are 13:8, basically even odds. The lifetime series with Man U is even, 8-10-8. We've played them a ton, FA Cups, League Cups, Community Shield, but this meeting goes back to the Euro Cup Final from the 23/24 season. Two goals from Chris Bryan gave us a 2:1 win in that match about 3 years ago. We won the FA Cup 2 years ago. Man Utd has had no success at all in this competition, last winning it in 2004. GK: Bogdanovs D: Kirkland/Ballester/Mattle/Heywood M: Crespo/Smith/Mills/Gordon F: Bryan/Constantino We have 3 players out injured. Unfortunately those 3 players are starting DC Carlos Aldrovandi, starting DC Kieran Connor, and starting ST Yuri Di Giuseppe. We field the strongest team we have healthy and certainly feel we can win this. Man U runs a 4-2-3-1 with superstar ST Stuart Wray up front. We open with a counterattacking mindset. 1': Wow, Crespo to Bryan after we push forward immediately on the kickoff... Brayn is in open space and has a clear cut chance right away... but its saved, ugh! 2': After a throwin Smith to Bryan for another clear cut chance.. and he pushes it wide left. Calm down guys, its ok! 11': A briallant counterattacking play, Crespo ends up feeding the ball to Constantino about 10 yards out, he's got our 3rd clear cut chance... and pushes it wide. 32': Smith to Crespo for clear cut chance #4, keeper makes a diving save. We have seen a couple Man U highlights but we seem in control here, but holy crap 4 clear cut chances with no goals. HALF: We have 8 shots to their 5. 3 on target for us/1 for them. They control possession (57/43), but the big story here is obviously 4 clear cut chances squandered away for Ipswich. No halftime changes. 51': Two passes after an interception in midfield leads to Man Utd's first clear cut chance, a shot from 15 yards out a little right of center, but Bogdanovs makes a great save. 64': Darcy in for Constantino who has a 5.8 rating and is struggling. 74': Chrzanowski in for Gordon FULL TIME: We hit 90 minutes scoreless. I decide to use my last sub here and bring in Connolly for Mills who is exhausted and not playing great. Bryan is really really tired too but I just can't pull him. Bogdanovs and Mattle have 7.5 ratings, the highest on our team, Smith and Kirkland are up there as well. 91': We push forward again after kickoff, Bryan to Darcy to Chrzanowski and he's in the penalty box, its our 5th clear cut chance... and he pushes it wide. GUH!!!!!!!!! EXTRA TIME HALFTIME: Just one other highlight that ended with an offsides by Crespo. PENALTY SHOOTOUT: A couple highlights in the final 15 minutes show Man Utd shooting way high from long range. We are going to settle this with penalties. 1: Midfielder Drouet shoots right, scores 0-1 1: Crespo low and left, hits the left crossbar and bounces in. 1-1 2: Szatan low and left, easy goal. 1-2 2: Chrzanowski low and left, easy goal. 2-2 3: defender Hayward shoots high and left... hits the crossbar and bounds away, no goal!! 2-2 3: Bryan is the most tired player on the field, but he steps up and buries a shot into the right side of the net. 3-2 4: Broers shoots right, easy goal. 3-3 4: Connolly shoots high and left, keeper goes the other way, its in. 4-3 5: AM Martin shoots right, scores. 4-4 5: Darcy wins it for us if he scores. He shoots to the right, keeper dives that way... SAVED. ughhhhh. 4-4 6: superstar midfielder van Schjindel takes it, straight down the middle, Bogdanovs holds his ground and stop it!! 4-4 6: DR Anthony Heywood... slightly to the right of center... keeper goes for it, but its by him!!!! GOAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ipswich p 0 : 0 Man Utd -- Ipswich 5-4 on Penalties Man of the Match: Otmar Mattle (7.8) Notables: Bogdanovs (7.4), Kirkland (7.6), Ballester (7.1), Smith (7.1) -- We receive $2.97M for winning the FA Cup -- The fans and the board shower the team, and myself, with praise. Ipswich have won the English FA Cup -- We'll recap the season over the weekend, but we finished 2nd in the EPL, made the semifinals of the Champions League, and won the FA Cup. I'm disappointed we lost such a close series to OM in the Champions League semis, and I'm disappointed that we hit a very rough patch of road matches early in the second half of the season, especially as we end up finishing just a single point behind Arsenal, but really its been a hell of a year! |
Nice finish !
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Great year all-around. With such an incredible run, do you think you can make a large jump up the list of prestigious clubs? Or is that something that will take many years of slow grinds upwards to reach the highest echelons?
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Congrats. Hopefully, you can sell out your stadium for a couple years and make the board think about building a new stadium!
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Congrats on a very successful season!
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Good to see you back in the swing, Radii. And also good that your team made up for the losses with that FA Cup win.
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Thanks all :)
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The European Rankings rate the last 5 years of performance, IIRC we are flying up that list and last year will only push us even higher. Other lists with club value and the like I dunno how we'll fare there. In general as far as players wanting to play for us I don't expect to win any outright battles for players if Man U/Arsenal/Chelsea/Man City come calling still, we shall see though. Quote:
That would definitely be ideal, we can certainly get by with a 40k stadium but bigger is better :D |
Expiry is 6/30 on the year mentioned. Its currently May 2027, so anyone listed 2027 is expiring this year.
Goalkeepers
I won't be re-signing Capitani, we have a lot of salary committed at this position. There seems to be a wealth of young goalkeepers so I'll keep Lines on the reserves and as a backup and bring in a new youngster. Left Defender
Heywood can play here but we don't ever intend for that to happen. Kirkland and Hughes are still doing their jobs quite well. Central Defender
Connor played well but didn't make the immediate superstar impact i'd hoped. Still he's a clear starter. Mattle was really really good, Ballester and Bartlett are both unhappy with their playing time. There is a decent chance that I try to sell Ballester and play Bartlett enough to make him happy. There's also a decent chance both of them will be eternally unhappy. Right Defender
These two are basically interchangable. Heywood was my go to guy a little more often this year due to a seemingly random morale drop for Jackson that took some time to get over. |
Left Midfielder
Adagsmar played pretty well this year but his value and his ratings started to seriously tank, so I've made the decision to play Ros significantly more and to let Adagsmar go. Central Midfielder
We have a couple other guys that can play the position. Smith may have overtaken Jean as my #2 Central Mid, and Mills will probably start to drop off soonish. Sergio Roberto feels like a giant bust at this point. Right Midfielder
Gordon had one of his best years ever at a slightly more advanced age. Chrzanowski was so perfect in his frequent backup/occasional starter role, but he hated it, so I had to let him go, he's transferring out in the offseason. Not only do we need to find a new backup here next year, we really need to be prepared for Gordon to begin to decline and to have a replacement getting ready long term. Forwards
Constantino was spectacular this year. All of our forward's contract's expire next year. Hopefully Di Giuseppe won't have any ideas of going anywhere. |
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