FM10 - From the Bottom Up

[Radii]

-- Khan and Donnelly both accept their new contracts. They got nice signing bonuses and will make more per match and per goal, but their weekly wages stay the same. Hopefully this limits any "new challenge" talk as much as possible.

April 10th, 2021

West Ham(15-9-9, 7th) @ Ipswich (15-9-9, 8th)

We're slim 6:4 favorites at home today, West Ham are 13:8. The winner today will hold what could be the final spot in Continental play with just 4 matches remaining in the season. In our first meeting at West Ham they scored in the 1st minute to take an early lead, led 2-1 at the half but an 89th minute goal by Matthew Khan salvaged a 2-2 draw. West Ham are the 4th highest scoring team in the league behind Arsenal, Ipswich and Man Utd. Their goal differential is 2 better than ours (+17 to +15). Should be a good one!


GK: Capitani
D: Hughes/Welsh/Quartey/Jackson
M: Adagsmar/Guarin/Mariga/Gordon
F: Khan/Constantino

Darren Johnson is healthy again, both he and Guarin are coming into this one a bit tired and most likely each will play a half. Guarin will start though. Mills/Kirkland are still hurt and Donnelly is still suspended.

16': Khan takes a long shot, easily saved. This is the first highlight of the match for either team.

23': They shoot long and well off target.. this is the second highlight of the match for either team.

31': Mariga shoots from long range, well wide. third highlight...

38': Mariga with a yellow.

40': I change from counter-attacking to control, it seems like they're digging their heels in and would love a 0:0 draw and we're letting that happen.

HALF: We shoot 5 times, 1 on target, they have 8 shots, 2 on target. I only saw maybe 4 of those shots in highlights, the rest weren't worth seeing at all I suppose. Being at home, being slightly behind in goal differential, having a slightly tougher remaining schedule I think we need to really play for a win here. Johnson is in for Guarin as planned earlier.

58': Yellow for defender Thomas for West Ham.

60': We have a goal kick, taken short, they tackle away but we recover, the ball ends up after a pass at the feet of Constantino, he's under heavy pressure but he gets off a shot from just about 10 yards out, it seems like he has a great look, but its wide... it wasn't considered a clear cut chance and the area was still really crowded after the corner.

81': After another 15 minutes without a highlight at all we look to attack the rest of the way.

85': Mariga settles for a shot from 25 yards out, its just over.

94': Final minute of injury time, Hughes wins a ball in defense to get us a counter... he gets it ahead to Khan, ahead to Constantino, and he's tackled 20 yards out... this is probably the last chance of the match for either team. Neil Gordon steps up and takes the free kick... off the wall and they clear it. That is indeed the last chance for either team.

Ipswich 0 : 0 West Ham

One of the most boring matches I've ever seen. They were clearly out for a draw here today and we couldn't do anything about it. Guarin, Johnson and Mariga were ok... but I can't help but think we'd have been able to generate more offense with Donnely and Mills out there. Nice job holding them to a shutout as well at least to make sure we get a point too.

Man of the Match: James Welsh (7.4)
Notables: Capitani (7.3), Jackson (7.2), Hughes (7.3), Mariga (7.0)



FA Cup Result

Tottenham beat Aston Villa 2:1 to advance to the finals of the FA Cup. Tottenham sit behind us in 9th. My understanding of the rules is that making the finals clinches a spot in the Euro Cup for Tottenham, but this is my first actual experience with it... Exeter lost in the finals last year and got in. Assuming I've got that right, that would mean that only the 5th and 6th placed teams in the EPL will qualify for continental competition next year. That's not out of reach yet but that's a rough break for us.

EDIT: Ok, I finally see clarification once we get to the FA Cup Finals and I can see the rules:

Winner Qualifies for the EURO Cup
Runner-Up will Qualify for the EURO Cup instead if the winner qualifies for the Champions Cup.


Man City beat Sheffield Utd so the FA Cup Final is Tottenham vs Man City.

If Man City win, AND if Man City finish 5th-7th in the final EPL standings, then the 7th place team in England would be able to qualify for Europe.

If Tottenham win then the cutoff would be 6th place. Also, if Man City win the FA Cup and finish in the top 4 in the EPL (thus qualifying for the Champions League), Tottenham would make the Euro Cup and the cutoff would be 6th place.

This is awesome!

[Izulde]

Was really hoping you'd win vs West Ham. Man, Euro and Champions qualifying parameters is insane, even more crazy than NFL playoff tiebreaker systems.

[Radii]

-- Mills and Kirkland both resume full training on the 16th of April. We don't play Chelsea til the 24th so we should have both of them available.

-- "Nooij big favorite for English Players' Player of the Year" ... other players thought to be in contention are Constantino, Cesc Fabregas, and Fabian Delph. Fair list.

-- Gordon Donnelly has food poisoning and is out 4-5 days. He's suspended for our next match so this doesn't impact anything. However, I'd like to request that my players be a little more careful about what they eat at least until June... that's the second guy to come down with food poisoning in the last month!


April 24th, 2021

Ipswich (15-10-9, 8th) @ Chelsea (18-10-6, 3rd)

Chelsea are 4:5 favorites at home today, making us 3:1 to get a win. We are 1-1-4 lifetime against Chelsea, picking up a stunning 2-0 win against them back in November. I remember that match well without looking back at my previous post on it, it was a huge win for us and Chelsea played extremely sloppy football the entire time. Its hard to imagine repeating that performance on the road, but with some of the wins we have this year I know we're capable of anything.

GK: Capitani
D: Kirkland/Welsh/Quartey/Jackson
M: Hughes/Mills/Mariga/Gordon
F: Khan/Constantino

Kirkland and Mills are back in the lineup today. Hughes starts at ML.

Chelsea are still busy with the Champions league so hopefully they're a bit more tired than we are. Mario Balotelli is their leading scorer and biggest threat still, and he is not available at all today.

9': I dunno... Constantino isn't supposed to be able to do this against one of the best teams in the world, is he? A pass goes to Constantino about 40 yards from goal. He begins a run forward, they have 3 men back, though Khan is coming forward nearby as well and demands some attention... they let Constantino continue his run without any pressure until he is about 20 yards away. At that point both of their DC's try to close in, one attempts a tackle... Constantino just flat out splits the defenders, going right between them, into the penalty area and he drills a shot into the right side of the net. I just shrug and laugh, Chelsea shouldn't allow this to happen. This isn't Lionel Messi, not even close, but he just ran through their defense like it wasn't even there. 1-0

20': We win a ball in defense, its passed out right to Gordon, he's a solid 20 yards behind the midfield stripe when he plays a long ball ahead for Matthew Khan and its absolutely perfect, Khan is ahead of the defense, he gets into the area, shoots to the far post, beats the keeper... and hits the left post and watches it bounce away. Damn!!!

40': We have two highlights in fairly quick succession, Hughes plays a long ball to Constantino, he's in the left side of the area, tries to lob the ball over the keeper but sends it over the goal entirely... next highlight opens with their keeper a good 25 yards out from his goal to clear a ball before we can get to it, but he just passes it instead of launching it downfield... Neil Gordon is there, he doesn't try a long shot before the keeper can get back in goal, instead he attacks and gets into the area with no defenders around, shoots.. but its saved.

HALF: They shoot 5 times, putting 2 on target, I only see a couple of these shots. We shoot 7 times, 3 on target, 2 clear cut chances. The first half highlights are filled with quick counter attacks, they really seem to be struggling big time with our speed. I never saw a serious Chelsea chance but we could have been up 3-0 with a little luck. Lets see if they get it together in the second half or not.

58': Mariga with a yellow.

67': They are getting all of the highlights this half but no serious pressure yet...

70': Welsh comes up injured. He'll stay in.

76': Johnson in for Mariga.

81': We build up on offense, a few passes in the midfield, Mills has it about 35 yards out... he plays a low pass into the left side of the penalty area, their defender Tobias Kind is there, so is Matthew Khan, Khan is able to win the ball, he shoots immediately near post and the keeper isn't positioned well... its by him and in the net!!! 2-0

84': They get one back quickly to keep it close... ST Hamel receives a pass 18 yards out, our defense is there but we don't close down fast enough, and he gets a good look from that distance and is able to put it in the net. 2-1

That'll do it!

Chelsea 1 : 2 Ipswich

I can't really explain why, but we have Chelsea's number this season. To be fair, this was different than the last time we met. Chelsea was resting a lot of their first teamers. Its April 24th... they're in the Champions League Semis, Leg 1 was the 21st, Leg 2 is the 27th. They don't have a top 4 spot locked up but they're close enough that they probably didn't care about this match at all.

Still, WE SWEPT CHELSEA!!!!!!

Man of the Match: Constantino (8.4)
Goals: Constantino, Khan (7.0)
Assists: Mills (7.7), Mariga (7.1)
Notables: Kirkland (7.0), Quartey (7.0), Gordon (7.1), Hughes (7.0)


West Ham choke hard today, only managing a draw against #17 Blackburn. They've still got Arsenal left. We just got our toughest match out of the way and got 3 points out of it. Man City get a big win today though over Tottenham and move into 3rd place, making it more likely that they'll finish in the top 4, meaning our target would be 6th to get into the Euro Cup.


With 3 matches to play:

1. Arsenal - 74 pts
2. Man Utd - 69 pts
3. Man City - 65 pts
4. Chelsea - 64 pts
5. Aston Villa - 62 pts
6. Birmingham - 59 pts
7. Ipswich - 58 pts
8. West Ham - 56 pts
9. Newcastle - 54 pts
10. Tottenham - 52 pts


This is just surreal. Two seasons ago we finished dead last in the EPL. This time up we have a legitimate chance to qualify for the Euro Cup, have mathematically locked up a top 10 finish, and hell, with 3 matches left we aren't mathematically eliminated from a top 4 spot and the Champions League.

PS:

6. Birmingham - 59 pts
7. Ipswich - 58 pts

Each team has three more to go... the final match of the year? Ipswich @ Birmingham.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Izulde

Man, Euro and Champions qualifying parameters is insane, even more crazy than NFL playoff tiebreaker systems.

I was thinking that exact thing, its wild. No wonder MIJB is so good at putting together all the NFL Playoff Scenarios going into the last two weeks of the season.

[Radii]

-- Cestor Mike requests to be placed on the transfer list. Perhaps he didn't get enough of a chance here, but I decide to go ahead and grant it.

Champions League Update

We've made it through two rounds since we last looked. In the quarterfinals, OM (french) beat Barcelona, At. Madrid beat Real Madrid. Olympique Lyonnais beat Dortmund and Chelsea beat Arsenal.

In the semifinals, Chelsea beat OM 2:0, Olympique Lyonnais beat At. Matrid 2:1.

This sets up a May 22nd final between Chelsea and Olympique Lyonnais. Olympique Lyonnais have never won the competition but they were runners up two years in a row in 2017 and 2018. Chelsea have been the dominant team in Europe over the last decade with Champions League titles in 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2017 and a runner up finish in 2016. Its been 3 years since they made it to the finals though.

May Update

-- 3 matches to go. We travel to West Brom on the 1st, host Newcastle on the 8th, and travel to Birmingham on the 16th. West Brom are in 18th, Newcastle 9th and Birmingham 6th. Birmingham host Everton on the 1st, travel to Man Utd on the 8th and play us on the 16th. Go Man U!!

-- Jack Hughes is the young player of the month in the EPL! He played 3 matches in April with ratings of 7.0, 7.3 and 7.0, he had an assist.

-- Constantino's goal vs Chelsea is the goal of the month.

-- Man City continues their hot streak and their manager is manager of the month. I come in 3rd.

-- The board is absolutely delighted with my leadership. Our EPL performance is the highlight. This month Jonathan Quartey's play is the reason for concern.

-- We lost $1.9M last month.

May 1st, 2021

Ipswich (16-10-9, 7th) @ West Brom (5-9-21, 18th)

We are only 5:4 favorites on the road here today, they are 7:4 to win. They are 5 points back of 17th with 3 matches left, so they still have a chance to avoid relegation. We beat them 3:2 on a 90th minute goal by Negredo at home in our first meeting.

GK: Capitani
D: Kirkland/Welsh/Quartey/Jackson
M: Hughes/Donnelly/Mills/Gordon
F: Khan/Constantino

We're fully healthy, Donnelly's suspension is over and we have our best possible lineup on the pitch today.

1': They kick off, a pass out wide left, a pass into the area for ST Javier and he's got an open look 22 seconds in... luckily he blasts it at Capitani and its saved.

10': Its an aggressive game early, each team has 3 shots already, Constantino almost scored on a header a couple minutes ago.

15': They get forward quickly after winning a ball in defense, we're back though, their ST Javier has it 30 yards away, he shoots from there for reasons I can't understand... its not struck with much pace, but its perfectly placed, Capitani dives for it, gets a hand on it but can't push it away from the goal,its by him and in... 0-1

21': Welsh with a yellow. They get a free kick from 20 yards out but its high.

31': Steven Mills is hurt... badly enough that he has to come out right away. Crap! Mariga is in.

34': They slowly build up their offense, a number of passes on the right side, finally they get it to ST Bartlett, he turns by Quartey at the edge of the penalty area, shoots... Capitani has no chance at it... its off the underside of the crossbar, bounces nearly straight down... and over the line for a goal. 0-2

37': That woke us up hopefully... we win a ball in their end and quickly counter, its played to Constantino at midfield, he sends it long for Khan, Khan is first to the ball, into the area, and he scores! 1-2

43': Hughes is hurt. He can stay in.

48': They should have gone up 3-1... a through ball to ST Bartlett, he's free at hte penalty spot, but his shot is right at Capitani and saved.

HALF: We simply aren't playing our best right now. They have 10 shots and 55% of the possession, 5 of their shots are on target. We've shot 4 times, 3 on target. They are winning all their tackles and we're sitting at a horrible 50% rate, if we tackle better we prevent some of these close range shots from ever happening.

49': We build up on offense, Mariga hits Khan with a ball into the area, but Khan is clearly offsides. He scores and we complain... but yeah, clearly offsides.

54': Hughes with a yellow.

61': We work our offense, Donnelly with a pass to Khan, Khan loses his man, hes got a clear cut chance... but saved by the keeper.

68': Donnelly with a yellow.

72': Time to attack, I kinda wanted 3 points here, we at least have to get one right?

73': Adagsmar in for the injured Hughes.

77': We have a throwin in their end. Taken into the area but they head it out.. Donnelly gets to it 25 yards out, he runs into the area, skips by a defender, its crowded but they aren't really doing a good job of closing down... Donnelly is all the way to the 6 yard box before he shoots... and he scores!! 2-2

84': A quick attack, we win a ball in midfield, a pass ahead to Adagsmar, he shoots from 20 yards out... the keeper has to dive to save it, it was a solid effort. They clear the corner.

91': We win a ball that West Brom was trying to clear out of our end, Kirkland with a quick pass to Donnelly, he gets it to Neil Gordon in the penalty area and he's got a clear cut chance, a really great look... but saved... he needed to finish that.

And that's it. We get the draw to salvage a point but we very clearly left 2 on the table today.

West Brom 2 : 2 Ipswich

Man of the Match: Stuart Kirkland (8.3)
Goals: Donnelly (7.9), Khan (6.9)
Assists: Kirkland, Constantino (6.7)

Quartey has a bad game, allowing one of their goals with a mistake and he has a 5.4 rating. We have a lot more 6.3-6.4 ratings than 6.8-6.9 today.

Injury Update

-- Jack Hughes has a bruised rib and is out for a week.

-- Steven Mills has a pulled hamstring and he's done for the year. 3-4 week injury when that's all that's left in the season.


Birmingham draw with Everton, Arsenal beat West Ham, so everything basically stays the same.

Two to play:

1. Arsenal - 77 pts
2. Man Utd - 70 pts
3. Chelsea - 67 pts
4. Man City - 65 pts (1 less match played)
5. Aston Villa - 65 pts
6. Birmingham - 60 pts
7. Ipswich - 59 pts
8. West Ham - 56 pts
9. Newcastle - 55 pts
10. Tottenham - 55 pts

[Radii]

New Signing

A young forward is mentioned in a coaches meeting. Our scouts tell me he has the potential to be an EPL level striker and that he's not that far off from our young ST Chris Bryan. I make a $100,000 offer to Shamrock Rovers in Ireland and that's enough. That's good b/c I only had $250,000 to play with.

Welcome 17 y/o ST Eoin Darcy to Ipswich.. as of July 1st of course.

Physical: Jumping 16, Pace 11/Accel 10, everything else 11-14.
Mental: Determination 19, Off the Ball 15, Teamwork 13, Work Rate 17, Anticipation 12, everything else 8-12.
Technical: Finishing 11, Dribbling 15, First Touch 14, Heading 10, Technique.

He just turned 17 a week or so ago. Seems like a kid who has base stats in most of the right areas. If we can build up that technique, finishing and heading he could be a good player. For so little seems an obvious signing.

-- Kirkland and Donnelly are named to the EPL team of the week.

-- I should have mentioned it when I updated the standings last post, but Arsenal have clinched 1st place in the Premier League. That's their first title since 2003/04.

May 8th, 2021

Newcastle(9th) @ Ipswich (16-11-9, 7th)

Newcastle have been doing well lately and have moved up from 11th to 9th and could in theory move up to 8th or 7th if they win out. They're huge even money favorites at Portman Road today, we're 11:5 dogs to win. They beat us 2-1 at their place earlier in the season. We're 2-0-7 lifetime against them... but we've lost the last 7 straight. Ouch.

GK: Capitani
D: Kirkland/Welsh/Henrique/Jackson
M: Hughes/Donnelly/Mariga/Gordon
F: Khan/Constantino

Birmingham are @ Man Utd today. they don't have anything left to play for with Arsenal winning the title. We're 1 point behind Birmingham with 2 to play. The only way our final match could be meaningless is if we lose and they win today.

Mariga starts for the injured Mills. Henrique starts for the struggling Quartey. Its pouring down rain today.

11': Hughes is hurt... again...

25': Man I can see it happening and Henrique doesn't cover... We lose the ball in midfield, they win a tackle to take it from Mariga, passed quickly to one of their strikers, he backs off, Welsh comes out to defend, their other ST fills the spot behind Welsh... and Henrique doesn't freaking move. It allows for an easy pass and easy goal. 0-1

32': They commit a foul in their offensive penalty area... and Donnelly comes down injured on the play.

HALF: We're getting dominated. They shoot 10 times, 4 on target and control 55% of the possession. We shoot 3 times, 2 from long range, and nothing is even close to the goal yet. Adagsmar is in for Hughes at the half, and we come out of the gates looking to attack, none of this waiting til the end to tie crap. Take it to them and if they're better then so be it.

46': they start out with the ball, but Welsh wins it as they try to get forward... we turn around and attack quickly, Donnelly ends up with a shot from 25 yards out, its saved, but its our first on target shot.

55': We attack, Donnelly puts a pass into the left side of the area for Khan, he blasts a shot... saved by the keeper but there's a rebound. gordon is there, he shoots from 15 yards out... off the crossbar! Ugh!

-- FWIW, Man U has a 2:0 lead on Birmingham. We move into 6th with a draw.

58': we have a free kick from around midfield. Its passed ahead to Donnelly, he passes it up to Khan, their defender goes in hard for a tackle and Khan avoids it, he's into the area, shoots, and its by the keeper and in!! 1-1

65': Newcastle build up on offense, lots of passing and possession before finally getting their right midfielder open in the area with a nice through ball, its not quite a clear cut chance, though its really scary, but Capitani makes the save.

67': Brilliant passing!!!!! We build up down the right side, Gordon to Mariga, he plays a great ball from way out wide right to Khan. Khan controls it perfectly, turns and passes immediately to Adagsmar, he's in the area, advances on the keeper and puts it into the net! 2-1

70': They get it back very quickly, damn. A long ball goes ahead to one of their strikers, he's behind our defense, looks like a really strong counter attack... and its an easy goal at that point. 2-2

75': We build up, they clear the ball away a couple times but we always win it back and remain set in our offense... Donnelly gets it to Constantino who is 25 yards out, he passes to Khan 20 yards out. Their defender makes a terrible attempt to win the ball... like... he goes sliding in and misses by 5 feet. Pretty sure Khan has time to turn around, laugh at the defender, walk forward and get his shot. He places it well and scores! I have no idea what the hell that was. Khan didn't appear to be making a move on his man, the guy just slid in and missed. 3-2


75': Defend, retain possession, win please.

And that's exactly what we do, no serious threats in the final 15 minutes.

Ipswich 3 : 2 Newcastle

This was all Matthew Khan. His two goals were all up to him, along with some wildly poor defending, but he took great advantage.

Man of the Match: Matthew Khan (9.2)
Goals: Khan 2, Adagsmar (7.6)
Assists: Khan, Constantino (6.8), Donnelly (6.8)
Notables: Kirkland (7.0)

Everyone else was in the 6.8-6.9 area. Khan was far and away the best player on the pitch today.

-- After the match, Capitani tells the press that it was my motivating words at the half that led the team to victory. Thx!

-- Donnelly and Hughes have no long term injuries so both will be available for our final match.

Man Utd destroys Birmingham.

One to play:

1. Arsenal - 78 pts
2. Man Utd - 73 pts
3. Man City - 71
4. Chelsea - 68 pts
5. Aston Villa - 65 pts
6. Ipswich - 62 pts
7. Birmingham - 60 pts
8. West Ham - 59 pts

If we win our last match and Aston villa loses we finish 5th. A win or a tie against Birmingham guarentees 6th and a spot in the Euro Cup. With a loss to Birmingham we would finish 7th or 8th depending on how West Ham does.

8th place pays $22.1M. That's the worst we can do. 5th place pays $27.2M.

How incredible is it to have this one last match against Birmingham for a spot in Europe? This is Birmingham's first top 10 finish in England's top division since a 9th place finish in 1959. Ipswich finished 5th in 2000/01 but relegated back down the very next year, a chance to finish this well again has been something Ipswich fans have been waiting 20 years for.


-- Heh, I'm completely exhausted. I've been playing so much today because my mom had surgery this afternoon, my sister took her to the hospital and I stayed home to take care of my dad, so I was keeping tabs on him every 45-60 minutes since about 10am and getting a game or two in to pass the time and ignore the stress of worrying about surgery and stuff. But once I got to these final 3 or 4 matches I had to finish them :P I'm playing out the Birmingham match and passing out right after I save!

[Radii]

May 16th, 2021

Ipswich (17-11-9, 6th) @ Birmingham(16-12-9, 7th)

Birmingham are 6:4 favorites at home today, we are 13:8 dogs. Fitting this would be seen as a totally even match. We have a 2 point lead on Birmingham. Win or tie and we finish 6th and qualify for the Euro Cup. Lose and we finish 7th (or maybe 8th) with no chance to qualify because Tottenham will be taking the final spot based on their FA Cup Results. Our first match against Birmingham was quite memorable. They outshot us 19-6, generally played better than us, but Neil Gordon scored on 3 free kicks to lead us to a 3-1 victory at home.

GK: Capitani
D: Kirkland/Welsh/Quartey/Jackson
M: Hughes/Donnelly/Mariga/Gordon
F: Khan/Constantino

Birmingham score their fair share of goals. Colin Meade leads them with 15 goals, Brahim Ba has 11 and Mathias Konrad has 10. However, Meade and Konrad are both injured and neither will be playing today.

Quartey is back in for Henrique at DC.

2': They have a goal kick, its taken really long, we win the header but they control possession, after a couple passes there's a through ball into the area for ST Ba, and he finishes well. 0-1

8': Hughes with a cross into the area for us, its through the 6 yard box and looks to be slowly rolling out of play harmlessly, but Constantino is trying to chase it down... its at the baseline, he couldn't do anything with it other than take it out wide, but they have a defender racing after the ball too, and he trips Constantino... its a penalty! One of the strangest penalties ever. Constantino buries it and we are even. 1-1

16': Yellow for midfielder Iacobe.

26': They send a ball ahead to Ba, he's 20 yards out, Welsh tries to run with him but Ba gets into the area and gets his shot... Capitani with the save! Huge stop, clear cut chance for them.

41': Hughes with a strong run down the left side, he crosses into the area, Gordon is there.. but they win the header and send it out. We control and set our offense up again. Donnelly has it 35 yards out, he puts a pass perfectly into the area for Neil Gordon, they have 5 men back there, there's a missed interception and Gordon gets the ball, shoots high, and its in the net!!! 2-1

43': Mariga with a yellow.

HALF: We get into the locker room with a 2:1 lead and are playing pretty well. Their striker Ba is super dangerous and I'm worried about that. But I don't see making a change to try to deal with him. Bringing in Henrique isn't an option, he's old, slow and falling apart. we just have to get another goal or win our tackles to prevent him from getting those great looks on goal. They shoot 6 times to our 3, they have 3 on target, we have 2. Each team with one clear cut chance. We're only winning 58% of our tackles(compared to their 71%) and 36% of our headers (compared to their 75%). Do better there and we're fine. I have Guarin ready to come in to switch to our 4-1-4-1 that I've used with success to cling to leads, but I'm not doing it for a whole half.

55': The first highlight of the half is ours, a counter attack with Jackson passing to Gordon, to Constantino, to Donnelly, to Khan in a very nice flowing buildup, but Khan doesn't get a good shot off, its saved.

58': Donnelly with a yellow.

61': We have a throwin in their end, a couple passes get it to Donnelly 25 yards out... he shoots from there but his shot hits the crossbar, close!

76': They win a ball in our end and try to counter, a pass ahead to Ba and he's off to the races, he makes a long run and cuts out wide right, eventually passing to a man 20 yards from goal, he strikes it well, but right to Capitani, saved.

79': They have another counter attack, a ball ahead to Ba, he's in the area... but he's offsides. The play continues and he scores but its clearly offsides. They complain, a lot, getting a yellow card in the process, but its offsides.

81': Guarin in for Khan, Johnson in for Mariga. Guarin to DMC, 4-1-4-1, defensive, retain possession, etc etc.

They don't shoot again.

Birmingham 1 : 2 Ipswich

We play strong in the second half, controlling things much better, only allowing them to take 4 shots all half.

Man of the Match: Neil Gordon (7.5)
Goals: Gordon, Constantino (6.9)
Assists: Donnelly (6.9)
Notables: Jackson (7.0), Kirkland (7.1)

-- Neil Gordon scores his 50th league goal today.

-- Huddersfield and Aston Villa play to a draw. That's enough to secure 5th for Aston Villa, but that's ok, we have accomplished something that would have seemed completely impossible at the start of the season!!!

Final Standings

1. Arsenal - 81 pts
2. Man Utd - 73 pts
3. Man City - 72
4. Chelsea - 71 pts
5. Aston Villa - 66 pts
6. Ipswich - 65 pts
7. Tottenham - 61 pts
8. Birmingham - 60 pts

-- A couple news items come in right away:

Ipswich are given $25,532,000 for their final position in the English Premier Division

Ipswich have qualified for the 2021 EURO Cup by coming 6th in the Premier Division

-- We pay out $1 Million to the squad to split amongst the players as a bonus for our strong finish. I would have expected a bit more.



-- So, I need advice going into next season. I've never come close to this level of success. How much bigger do I need to make the squad to make sure I have coverage for both league play and play in the EURO Cup? Am I looking at going out and buying a bunch of players to try to keep everyone fresh next season?

[Alf]

Hell of a finish ! Well done.

[Simbo Klice]

Wow! Grats on an excellent season, Radii!

[Barkeep49]

Congrats on the Europe finish! What a great season it turned out to be.

My advice for Euro play is not that you need to make your squad huge, there's limits on that after all, but that you need a squad where you're going to feel alright or good about playing the back-up player.

One thing I've done that might be useful for you is that I have a formation that I've been using for Away EPL games while I'm playing in Europe that utilizes some different positions than normal (for instance it has an AML and AMR which my standard formation doesn't) so that I'm playing to the strengths of some players who don't normally crack my starting lineup.

[Taz13]

Great finish to the season.

[Izulde]

Now that's a heroic conclusion! Ipswich fans must be over the moon.

[Brian Swartz]

Wow -- one heckuva season there. Well done!!!

[BYU 14]

Great season, looking forward to a run at the top 4 next year

[cschex]

Congrats on Europe! I'd agree that having a competent back-up at each position will help your squad rotation. Looking for vets on expiring/cheap values (especially those who have European experience) is a good way to go, especially if they will come for low weekly wage/high appearance fee, essentially pay as you play.

Also, depending on your transfer budget, trying to upgrade one or two positions with truly elite level players is worth a shot. It seems like you have a nice squad that is reltively young, so you should be well-positioned.

[Radii]

Thanks all! I'm still kinda in shock at how well this season went. Thanks for the tips on expanding the squad. The positions where I spent most of my time this year are likely the same ones where I'll spend much of my time next year (except for GK, I shoudl be able to afford to carry 3 GK's next year and will roll with that). But DC and ML are spots where I could look to try to acquire a world class player. I could in other areas as well but I'll be looking there first, as my attachment to everyone else on the squad is pretty high.

After I review the season awards and stuff I'll spend a bit of time looking into expiring contracts across Europe and see if there are any moves to be made. We have no transfer funds left though and are sitting right at our wage budget, so I don't expect to have much room to operate until July.

[Radii]

Goalkeepers

Name	Age	$/Wk	GM	GA	SO	MoM	Yel	Red	Avg
Michele Capitani	26	$26500	43	64	7	2	0	0	7.01
Chris Mason	19	$9000	0(1)	0	1	0	0	0	6.7
Carlos Antonio	28	$27500	0	-	-	-	-	-	-
Michael Rogers	18	$5750	0	-	-	-	-	-	-

**GA = Goals Allowed | SO = Shutouts


We allowed a lot of goals but Capitani was so, so much better than what I had in Carlos Antonio. Our ability to hang with teams like Man Utd and Arsenal this year had as much to do with Capitani's ability to stop those rockets coming in from 25 yards that were goals way too often our first EPL try.


I'm listing the youth player in Michael Rogers because he's a really great prospect and worth noting that he's in the system.


Defenders

Name	Age	$/Wk	Apps	GL	AST	MoM	Yel	Red	Tck	Pass	Avg
Stuart Kirkland	21	$34000	37	0	1	1	3	0	2.64	78%	7.09
Clive Jackson	21	$16500	36(1)	0	3	0	0	0	2.31	79%	6.86
James Welsh	25	$23500	34(4)	0	2	1	11	1	3.11	75%	6.75
Michael McKerr	31	$15250	6(5)	0	1	0	0	0	2.76	77%	6.73
Henrique	34	$37500	28(1)	1	0	1	3	0	3.33	71%	6.67
Jonathan Quartey	33	$45500	24(2)	0	1	0	1	0	3.61	75%	6.66
Andy Parsons	25	$5250	1(1)	0	0	0	0	0	2.00	75%	6.55
Cestor Mike	29	$23500	5(4)	0	0	0	1	0	2.78	75%	6.39

**GL = Goals | TCK = Tackles/game


I know Kirkland is reliable, but i'm thrilled with how well Clive Jackson played. We had 3 guys at DC this year who could put up reasonable performances, but it still feels like we're lacking a bit here. Henrique's ratings are degrading pretty fast and he won't be re-signed.

[Radii]

Midfielders

Name	Age	$/Wk	Apps	GL	AST	MoM	Yel	Red	Tck	Pass	Avg
Gordon Donnelly	25	$52000	36(3)	2	15	4	12	0	3.53	74%	7.20
Steven Mills	23	$73000	31(2)	1	7	1	5	0	4.41	80%	7.10
Jack Hughes	20	$3600	17(4)	1	7	0	0	0	2.33	72%	6.99
McDonald Mariga	34	$22000	18(16)	1	5	1	7	0	4.76	79%	6.99
Neil Gordon	25	$32500	40(1)	13	3	3	0	0	2.72	62%	6.92
Adagsmar	26	$35000	26(5)	5	2	0	1	0	2.39	70%	6.85
Fredy Guarin	34	$18000	6(10)	0	4	0	0	0	2.88	83%	6.77
Darren Johnson	26	$14250	6(23)	2	1	0	1	0	2.19	72%	6.77
Lee Burton	24	$12500	8(7)	0	1	0	1	0	1.66	66%	6.50

**GL = Goals | TCK = Tackles/game


Our midfield is amazing once again this year. Jack Hughes emerges as a legit ML despite tons of doubts on my part about his abilities. Neil Gordon is less of a playmaker than i expected but is our 3^rd leading scorer and a huge threat.




Attackers

Name	Age	$/Wk	Apps	GL	AST	MoM	Yel	Red	Drb	Pass	Avg
Constantino	26	$47500	44	35	18	8	4	0	6.69	64%	7.60
Matthew Khan	26	$47500	28(3)	23	8	3	2	0	4.26	74%	7.40
Alvaro Negredo	35	$17000	9(12)	7	2	0	0	0	2.01	70%	7.03
Simon Hamilton	2	LOAN	9(2)	1	3	0	0	0	1.95	65%	6.63

** GL = Goals | Drb = Dribbles/Game


These stats inclue cup play, these aren't league totals, but both of their league totals are ridiculous too. Its absolutely absurd how good Constantino and Matthew Khan were this year against the best competition in England. The #1 question going into next season IMO: "Can we win games without Constantino on the pitch?"

[Radii]

Ipswich 2020/21 History/Leaders

Team History

Woking

2009/10 - BS South - 1st - 24 W - 12 D - 6 L - 62 for - 39 ag - +23 GD - 84 pts
2010/11 - BS Premier - 17th - 14 W - 10 D - 22 L - 60 for - 65 ag - -5 GD - 52 pts
2011/12 - BS Premier - 4th - 26 W - 12 D - 8 L - 87 for - 51 ag - +36 GD - 90 pts
2012/13 - BS Premier - 1st - 26 W - 11 D - 9 L - 88 for - 56 ag - 89 pts
2013/14 - League 2 - 18th - 12 W - 17 D - 17 L - 50 for - 54 ag - 53 pts
2014/15 - League 2 - 9th - 20 W - 9 D - 17 L - 57 for - 58 ag - 69 pts
2015/16 - League 2 - 1st - 30 W - 8 D - 8 L - 102 for - 50 ag - 98 pts
2016/17 - League 1 - 1st - 24 W - 14 D - 7 L - 103 for - 61 ag - 89 pts

Ipswich

2017/18 - Championship - 1st - 28 W - 12 D - 6 L - 91 for - 42 ag - 96 pts
2018/19 - Premier League - 20th - 5 W - 5 D - 28 L - 30 for - 77 ag - 20 pts
2019/20 - Championship - 1st - 32 W - 7 D - 7 L - 121 for - 54 ag - 103 pts
2020/21 - Premier League - 6th - 18 W - 11 D - 9 L - 71 for - 53 ag - 65 pts

This year:

Top Goalscorer - Constantino - 35 goals
Top League Goalscorer - Constantino - 27 goals
Most Assists - Constantino - 17 assists
Highest Average Rating - Constantino - 7.60
Most Man of the Match - Constantino - 8

[Radii]

[Radii]

2020/21 English Premier Division Stats

Goals

1. Constantino - Ipswich - 27
2. Matthew Khan - Ipswich - 21
3. Leigh Griffiths - Blackburn - 18
4. Hans Nooij - Arsenal - 17
4. Lucan Vanelli - Sheffield Utd - 17
4. Jan Molnar - Tottenham - 17

Neil Gordon's 11 league goals was tied for 20th in the league.

Assists

1. Constantino - Ipswich - 17
2. Fabian Delph - Aston Villa - 14
3. Cesc Fabregas - Arsenal - 14
4. Adrien - Man City - 13
5. Arsenio Valpoort - Aston Villa - 12
5. Bugra Yidirim - Arsenal - 12

Gordon Donnelly is tied for 8th with 10 assists.


Average Rating

1. Aaron Ramsey - Arsenal - 7.71
2. Constantino - Ipswich - 7.51
3. Cesc Fabregas - Arsenal - 7.49
4. Fabian Delph - Aston Villa - 7.45
5. Peter Wynter - Man Utd - 7.38

Matthew Khan is 7th with a 7.35 rating. Gordon Donnelly 25th with a 7.16 rating. Stuart Kirkland 30th at 7.13. Steven Mills 50th at 7.07.


Looking at the standings we're just playing a different brand of football than everyone else and it lends itself to dominating these stats. We're the only team that is just playing to outscore our opponents. We had a lot of 3-2 wins, 2-2 draws, etc. We gave up a lot of goals, we just were capable of scoring even more. I didn't really intentionally build that way for the most part. Our ML and MR are definitely more offensive minded than defensive, Mills more of an attacking MC and Donnelly a better defender... and we spent probably 90% of our time in EPL matches in a defensive or counter attacking mindset. Hopefully this kind of thing is viable long term, or maybe with a world class DC we will still score a ton and allow fewer goals, who knows.

[Radii]

So now that we've seen the stats and our unbelievable play above expectations this year, its time to marvel at the next few news items that come across:

-- Constantino Wins Top Goalscorer Award. Ok, that's just counting, fair enough.

-- Arsenal's Gian Pier Gasperini is the EPL Manager of the year. First title since 03/04 for Arsenal, totally deserved. Carlo Ancelotti of Chelsea is second, Richard Dixon of Ipswich is 3rd. Its an incredible honor to be named next to those guys.

-- Constantino is named to the EPL Players Team of the Year. Matthew Khan is one of the players coming off the bench on this team.

The full team:

GK: Alphonse Areola - Man Utd - 7.08 rating
DL: Danny Wilson - Arsenal - 7.10 rating - 3 goals
DC: Seyni Thiam - Arsenal - 7.33 rating - 1 goal
DC: Acnor Ramos - Man Utd - 7.12 rating
DR: Dean O'Reilly - Chelsea - 7.33 rating
ML: Adam Hiousek - Man Utd - 7.24 rating - 9 goals
MC: Fabian Delph - Aston Villa - 7.45 rating - 6 goals
MC: Cesc Fabregas - Arsenal - 7.49 rating - 4 goals
MR: Vladimir Weiss - Newcastle - 7.23 rating - 8 goals
ST: Bugra Yildirim - Arsenal - 7.37 rating - 15 goals
ST: Constantino - Ipswich - 7.51 rating - 27 goals


-- No Ipswich players featured in the Young Player of the Year award in the EPL. Everton's ST Brian Kelly(13 goals/10 assists/7.02 rating) wins this for the second straight year. He's the 3rd different Everton player to win it in the past 6 years. Runner up is MC Robert Clarke of Newcastle (7.13 rating/3 goals/7 assists). 3rd is ML Radoslaw Szatan of West Brom (5 goals/1 assist/7.02 rating).

-- Lastly:

Constantino wins the English Footballer of the Year Award

2nd place is Aston Villa's MC Fabian Delph, 7.45 rating, 6 goals/14 assists

3rd place is Arsenal's MC Cesc Fabregas - 7.49 rating, 4 goals/14 assists

[Tellistto]

Nice! Go Ipswich and Constantino!

Tell

[BYU 14]

Nice, Constantino is turning into the soccer version of Mateen Yeaton from Izulde's great DDSPB dynasty.

I love reading this and it makes me jealous I don't have as much free time to play my FM 11 dynasty on a more regular basis

[Radii]

-- Chelsea beats Olympique Lyonnais 1:0 to win the European Champions Cup.

-- Benefica beats HSV 3:1 to win the EURO Cup.

-- Man City crushes Tottenham 4:1 to win the FA Cup

-- I do a search for players with expiring contracts and see a few promising players, but because I'm running up against my current wage budget, I'm not allowed to make reasonable offers.


Stadium Expansion

WOOHOO!! We averaged 28,902 fans this year and had numerous sellouts to fill our 30,311 seat stadium. We're rewarded for our success this year without even making the request:

-- The board has announced plans to enlarge the stadium by 6000 seats.

-- Initial estimate indicates that the planned expansion work will cost around $13.25M. This expansion will take about 3 months to complete. The stadium's capacity will be temporarily reduced as part of the north stand will be closed during the renovation. I hope this won't have a negative impact on transfer budgets and such next year (hopefully it helps as we'll bring more money in), I'm really happy to see the board re-invest like this without me having to beg for it.


June Update

-- Chris Mason is called up for the England U21's for the Euro U21 Championship that'll be going on in June.

-- Matthew Khan was second in player of the month voting in May.

-- Stuart Kirkland was second in Young Player of the month voting in May.

-- The board is absolutely delighted with my leadership. Our EPL performance is the highlight.

-- We made $10.3M last month. $25M in for prize money and $13M out for the stadium expansion.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by BYU 14

I love reading this and it makes me jealous I don't have as much free time to play my FM 11 dynasty on a more regular basis

Hah yeah I enjoy my massive amounts of free time. I think I'm getting a fairly big project from the company I consult for in the next couple months and will actually have more than an hour of work to do a day, but for now, wheeee!

[Tellistto]

I enjoy that you have the free time to make this dynasty happen. I've not been able to play FM seriously since FM05 and maybe a little bit in 07. Combination of poor field of vision and more complexity in the game conspires against my enjoyment of the game. I still love it, just get frustrated really trying to play it anymore. So I very much appreciate the living vicariously through reading this dynasty.

Thanks!

Tell

[Radii]

-- England's Senior Squad beats Tunisia 4:2 in a friendly on June 10th. Steven Mills plays the second half, scores a goal and earns a 7.3 rating. Neil Gordon comes on in the 67th minute and earns a 6.8 rating. That's the first time anyone I've coached has played for England's national team, hooray!!

-- England U21's beat Austria 1:0, Stuart Kirkland plays the full match with a 7.3 rting.


European Club Rankings

1. Olympique Lyonnais - 163.914 (+1 spot)
2. Inter - 159.041 (+1)
3. Barcelona - 153.072 (-2)
4. Chelsea - 150.427 (no change)
5. At. Madrid - 142.072 (+1)
6. Real Madrid - 139.072 (+1)
7. Man Utd - 138.427 (-2)
8. Benfica - 137.313 (-2)
9. OM - 126.914 (not in top 10)
10. Newcastle - 125.427 (not in top 10)

Liverpool were 9th last year and fell to 15th. Arsenal 14th, Man City 29th. We are 121st, tied with a bunch of other teams in England.


-- We get a notice about the Home Grown Status requirements for the Euro Cup, and thanks to those that brought it up, because, including Jack Hughes, I have exactly 4 players on my first team who trained at Ipswich. 5 if I add in Chris Mason (currently listed in the reserves).

-- England U21's beat Italy 2:1. Stuart Kirkland is the England Captain today, 6.8 rating in the match.

-- England U21's beat Holland 2:1. Kirkland earns a 7.3 rating in this one. Chris Mason came in in the 48th minute and earned a 7.2, his first action in the Euro U21 Championship.


Euro Cup Information

There are four qualifying rounds leading up to group play in the EURO Cup. Ipswich, Aston Villa and Tottenham are the 3 English teams in the Cup at this point. Aston Villa and Tottenham don't join until the 4th round. As the team with the lowest rating in Europe out of the 3, we will play in the 3rd round. The draw for this takes place july 16th, leg one on July 29th and Leg 2 August 5th.

That gets us involved in serious play weeks earlier than we ever have been before and I'm about to scramble to set up a few friendlies to try to get our guys ready before the 16th. That seems impossible as our guys don't return from vacation until July 4th. Is that something I could have controlled or is that just something that you have to deal with for these competitions?

[cschex]

It's something you deal with for that competition. However, there is a decent chance the team you draw will be from a much lower rated nation and be no better than a friendly opponent anyway

[Radii]

-- Constantino is named the Ipswich Fans' Player of the Year, to the surprise of absolutely no one.

Ipswich Best Eleven

GK: Capitani
D: Kirkland/Henrique/Welsh/Jackson
M: Hughes/Donnelly/Mills/Gordon
F: Khan/Constantino

No surprises anywhere on this list. Henrique and Quartey were fairly close to interchangable at DC, either one probably would be ok but I would have picked Henrique as well.

Ipswich All Time Best Eleven

GK: Brian Murphy (396 apps/6.79 rating)
DL: Stuart Kirkland (160 apps/7.13 rating)
DC: Alex Bruce (234 apps/4 goals/6.73 rating)
DC: Troy Brown (240 apps/2 goals/6.79 rating)
DR: David Wright (166 apps/2 goals/7.11 rating)
ML: Mario Licka (115 apps/8 goals/7.23 rating)
MC: Gordon Donnelly (276 apps/35 goals/7.00 rating)
MC: Owen Garvan (263 apps/18 goals/6.82 rating)
MR: Neil Gordon (154 apps/37 goals/6.92 rating)
ST: Constantino (172 apps/137 goals/7.63 rating)
ST: Matthew Khan (185 apps/102 goals/7.11 rating)

Neil Gordon takes the MR spot away from Sylvain Berthet on the all time best 11 squad.

-- The season schedule is announced but some of our matches will be bumped around for the Euro Cup if we make the 4th qualifying round. We do open the season at Aston Villa on the 14th. Our first home match is set for the 17th vs Tottenham but I think that might get moved

TV Contract

-- We get $48,510,00 for TV Rights.


Season Expectations

Our minimum expectation is that we finish in the top half of the Premier League. If we go with that we will get a transfer budget of $32.5M and a payroll of $800k/wk. If we were to suggest that we can qualify for Continental play again we could get $38.5M and $875k/wk. I want to play it safe, bringing on extra staff, dealing with the Euro Cup, and wondering if we really are good enough to all of a sudden be a top 7 team every year... I don't want to push that expectation on people just quite yet.


-- ST Chris Bryan and ST Rob Kershaw both promote out of the U18 squad to the Reserves. Bryan may be good enough right now to be our #3 or #4 Striker. Kershaw still needs a ton of development and doesn't seem to have as high a ceiling as any of our current goal scorers. I'll probably try to loan him out.


Youth Intake

Time to check our new youth pulls. We've got 8 guys coming in.

AM LC Daniel King - 13 pace/15 accel. 12 determination/15 aggression/9 teamwork/9 work rate. 13 crossing/12 dribbling/10 technique. There's some seriously promising stuff here for a 15 year old kid. He's a natural AML and ML. Adagsmar will likely tutor him right away. Our scouts view his potential as better than any ML on the squad with 3 1/2 * potential.

DC Jim Morgan - "Decent Player" potential. physical ratings 9-14. Determination 16. Heading 12, Marking 8, Tackling 9. Interesting that he's from Washington, DC and ended up in our youth system here in England. We don't have many defenders in our youth system so he'll get a lot of attention and we'll see what we can do.

D RLC Michael Hollis - Also "Decent Player" potential. Strength only 6 but everything else 9-14. 7 mental attributes 10+. 14 bravery/13 composure/13 aggression/11 concentration. 11 heading/10 marking/7 tackling/8 technique. Similar to Morgan in that we'll train him up as best we can and we don't have a lot of defense in our youth system so he'll get everything we have. His ability to play the entire back line would be really awesome to have.

DM/AMC Craig Smith - Smith has anywhere from 3* to 4* potential depending on which coach you ask. Chris Mason is the most exciting player to come up as a youth pull for me, and Smith is on that level of super exciting prospect. STR 6 but everything else 10-14, with a lot more 12s and 13s than 10 or 11. 14 pace/12 accel already. His worst mental attribute is an 8 in Influence. 16 flair/15 bravery/12 creativity/15 work rate/12 off the ball/11 determination... he's got some serious strengths here. Technically he's even better. 16 dribbling/16 technique/13 marking/13 passing/13 heading/12 finishing/11 first touch... that's at age 16! Craig Smith has superstar written all over him. By the time he's 18 he may be flat out better than Darren Johnson if things go well.

By far our most exciting offseason ever for youth talent. We have two players with serious potential here and two more at least worth keeping an eye on!


EPL Title Odds

Man City are the favorites this year at 2:1.

Chelsea 6:1, Arsenal 6:1, Man Utd 8:1, Aston Villa 25:1, Tottenham 33:1.

We're given 200:1 to win the title this year. That's 10 times better than our 2000:1 odds last season. Its 9th in the EPL, that sounds pretty ok to me!


-- Spain U21's beat England 1:0 to win the U21 European Championship for the second year in a row. Kirkland plays 90 minutes and puts up a 7.5 rating, best on the English side. Chris Mason comes in at the half and earns a 6.7 rating.


-- With our new transfer budget and wage budget in hand I can finally do something and we pause here to review the work my scouts have done over the last number of months.

[Radii]

July Update

-- The board is pleased with my leadership. Our increase in Stature is the reason.

-- We made $6.3M last month.

-- I said it in my post about the euro cup and immediately got mixed up. The draw for the 3rd qualifying round is July 16th but the matches don't actually start til July 29th. So we have ample time to get our players ready.


-- Henrique and Alvaro Negredo leave the club. I didn't re-up Henrique's contract because he was showing so much age and losing ratings, and Negredo chose to go to the US and end his career in New York.

Transfer In

19 y/o DRL Anthony Heywood comes to us from West Brom. We pay them $3.7M for his services, and will pay him $23,000/wk. He's better on the right side. Depending on which scout you ask he's rated 3* or 3 1/2* at DR with 3 1/2* or 4* potential (we do not have a single 4* player on the roster as judged by my assistant, Capitani/Gordon/Mills are 3 1/2 *). On the left side he's currently 2 1/2* or 3* with 3* or 3 1/2* potential.

Physical: 16 pace/16 accel/17 agi/15 sta
Mental: 14 determination/14 anticipation/13 concentration/12 decisions/11 position
Technical: 12 marking/11 heading/16 tackling/13 technique/9 passing/11 crossing.

Many of my scouts feel this kid will be better than Clive Jackson when they're both done developing. As a guy I can rotate with Jackson and Kirkland both he feels like a solid pickup.


-- We're one of many teams going after a DC from Wolverhampton who would be a decent splash for us in the $8M range and one of our bigger contracts... more on that if we are able to win his services. He's got some strong offers from a couple Serie A and German First division clubs but we're the only EPL side going after him, hopefully he wants to stay in England.


New Signing

29 y/o MC Conor Clifford - $0 Transfer Fee - $31,500/wk for 2 years - Clifford came to us for free, he was negotiating with Shaktar, a Ukranian side that is occasionally in the European competitions, but chose to come here instead. He came up as a youth in Chelsea but wasn't deemed quite good enough, spent some time in Ireland and Greece, moving once for $7M and always playing extremely well in those leagues. Now he gets his chance in a rotation at MC back in the EPL.

Physical: Pace 11/Accel 14/Agi 15/Str 14/Stamina 17
Mental: Influence 20/Work Rate 17, every other rating but flair 11-15
Technical: Passing 14/Tackling 14/Technique 14/Marking 12/First Touch 13/Dribbling 10

If we ever run a DMC Clifford seems pretty ideal. All of my coaches really like him, comparing him very favorably to Steven Mills, though I have a hard time buying that he'll be that good...


Pre-Season Meeting

-- Like Last year our coaches are concerned that in nearly every ability we are below average. It didn't hurt us last year, and we're working on it!


Friendly #1

We host Rangers from Scotland. Khan hits Donnelly for a goal 30 seconds in. Khan and Constantino both get on the board before the 20 minute mark. We sub out the starters at the half, give up a goal early in the second half and that's how it ends.

Ipswich 3 : 1 Rangers



New Signing

Jackpot! Hopefully... We land what we hope will be our star defender for the next few years. My assistant is pretty picky when it comes to rating players... the best talent on our team get 3 1/2 * value. This guy is rated as a 4* defender by my assistant and 4 1/2* by many of my other coaches, including my top defensive coach Rio Ferdinand.

28 y/o DC Mark O'Brien - $9M transfer fee to Wolves - $65,000/wk contract for 3 years[/b] - O'Brien put up 6.8-6.9 ratings for the troubled Wolves in their last few years as they fought against relegation. As we have seen that's a really darn good rating when you're giving up tons of goals and losing most matches. We beat out 5 other teams for his services including FC Bayern and Sevilla, a couple other Serie A sides as well.

Physical: Str 17/Sta 16/Pace 13/Agi 14, other ratings 11-12.
Mental: Determination 16/Decisions 18/Composure 16/Anticipation 16/Concentration 15/Positioning 14/Teamwork 14/Work rate 14
Technical: Heading 17/Marking 17/Tackling 15/Technique 13/Passing 10/Dribbling 11

Mentally this guy is an absolute beast and that's so important in the last line of defense. He should give us a major presence to win headers in the back and he is just as good at man marking and tackling. This guy seems like he ought to absolutely be the real deal for us in defense.

O'Brien and Welsh as primary starters, Quartey the top backup with McKerr, Hughes and Cestor Mike(yup, still on the team) also available is where we stand right now. Hughes has found his role in the midfield and Cestor Mike isn't someone I expect to be able to count on, so I would not mind at all adding one more rotation player here, especially seeing as Quartey is 33 and not likely to be re-signed.


So we've made some moves, but we still have $16M available and $100k/wk in wage budget allowed. I've been a little hesitant to attempt to make a really, really big move, you know, one of those guys worth $8-$9M that might take $15M to actually have a shot at... in part b/c DC is so important and the options I'd looked at were never at DC.

I have 3 more offers in progress, two older free transfer guys released by top clubs that have continental experience that I think could help me, and one depth guy at DC.

If I had to go into the season right now, here's the depth chart:

GK: Capitani/Carlos Antonio/Chris Mason (Mason may be second tbh)
--We're in great shape here

DL: Kirkland/Heywood/Hughes
--We're in good shape here, we have other guys (Cestor Mike, Lee Burton) that can also play DL in a pinch

DC: O'Brien/Welsh/Quartey/McKerr/Cestor Mike/Hughes/Parsons
--Discussed already. We're better here than we've ever been but we fall off fast after the top two still

DR: Jackson/Heywood/McKerr/Parsons
--I believe we're just fine here as well, I really like that top 3

ML: Hughes/Adagsmar/Burton
--We're good here, but not great. Our depth is certainly ok, it just still remains our second weakest position behind DC, but if Hughes continues to develop into it, this would work fine.

MC: Donnelly/Mills/Clifford/Mariga/Johnson/Guarin/Smith
-- I love our top 5, and I'm including youth pull Craig Smith as an emergency injury filler, he's that good I think. Mariga and Guarin are fading and this is probably their last year

MR: Gordon/Johnson/Jackson
-- We need more depth. I have my starting DR listed as an option here. I don't want to have to do that.

ST: Constantino/Khan/Bryan/Kershaw
-- One of my free transfer offers has been for another striker. I'm perfectly comfortable listing Chris Bryan as my 3rd or 4th option, I'm not comfortable with Kershaw being listed.


DC, MR depth, ST depth appear to be my biggest remaining needs.

I'm not specifically looking to avoid spending more money this year but if I can't find exactly what I want for the first team I may well hang on to what I've got and look to spend on youth prospects to train up in my system later on in the season.

[Radii]

Note to self: Don't forget to assign all these new guys to the right training schedules before advancing tomorrow!

[Portiere]

I would spend your 15 and get someone who will start for you. I think you need more quality if you want at cup run. Anyone look good on the transfer market?

[Barkeep49]

The upgrade at DC certainly seems very promising. I've often found that you can find some good DCs fairly cheap, especially guys that are 30 but should have another 2-3 years of top notch play left in them (as DCs tend to start declining a bit later according to the in-game tips) so hopefully you can find someone else you like.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Portiere

I would spend your 15 and get someone who will start for you. I think you need more quality if you want at cup run. Anyone look good on the transfer market?

Now that I've landed O'Brien at DC and know exactly how much I have left I'm making another pass through my scout reports to see what I can find. I feel like I've pretty much exhausted the list of players who are transfer listed and/or unhappy that I might be able to get for a reasonable price. Spending that $16M now would likely be done by finding the right player valued at $6-$8M and overpaying like crazy. I've attempted to do that with a couple clear upgrades so far but found either flat out immediate rejections or learned that it would take $20M+.

[SirFozzie]

You're probably going to want to get a rotation policy in at some point, if you make the knockout stages of the Europa League (which I think is a good goal), you'll be playing ten or more games then you did last year.

Good time to maybe give your youngster 3-5 games each (say if you have a big lead after the first leg of qualifying). Kepp Constantino and the rest of the first teamers rested, as much as that's possible.

[Radii]

-- I have three outstanding offers as I start up today. Two are free transfers, an aging DC and aging ST that I think could help me for a season. The other is a fairly cheap DC that seems solid. The free transfer DC (released by Arsenal this year) moved to Serie A instead.

-- Tottenham make an $18M bid for Steven Mills. I reject it and he's unhappy about that. He likes playing here but he keeps getting annoyed I don't want him to leave. Last year that unhappiness ended a few weeks after the transfer window ended.


Friendly #2

We host Middlesbrough, a team we should easily beat. Constantino with a 5th minute goal, Khan with a 15th minute goal. Hughes scores in the 22nd minute. We make subs a the halfway point, young striker Chris Bryan and ancient midfielder McDonald Mariga score in the second half to wrap things up.

Ipswich 5 : 0 Middlesbrough


New Signing

After spending his entire career with Arsenal, 33 y/o Nicklas Bendtner was let go during this offseason. He's still got some skills, he's got continental experience and he's coming to play for Ipswich for $33,000/wk.

Physical: Str 14/Jumping 17/Balance 16/pace 11/accel 11
Mental: Off the Ball 18/Creativity 15/Flair 15 ... tons of ratings are exactly 14. positioning is low, meh.
Technical: Technique 16/Heading 13/Finishing 13/Dribbling 14/Passing 12

That gives us Constantino/Khan/Bendtner/Bryan to play in a rotation.


New Signing

31 y/o DC/DMC/MC Sakari Mattila - $525,000 fee to Roma - $27,000/wk - Matilla has spent the last 8 years or so with Roma but they've decided to let him go. He's again a guy with continental experience, not an every day starter but he will keep Hughes at ML and Cestor Mike off the field as a DC, plus adding some depth to cover injuries in the midfield.

Physical: str 16/sta 16/jumping 15, all others 12-13
Mental: Concentration 14. Other ratings are split evenly between 11, 12, and 13. Nothing else lower or higher.
Technical: Marking 12/Tackling 13/Heading 10/Technique 10/Passing 13

He seems fairly solid and that's just the impressive my scouts and coaches have, putting him around that 2 1/2* "fairly good" mark.


I've been going hard after a defender named Lloyd Bent from Birmingham who wants out, but Birmingham doesn't want to let him go. After talking him up in the media, the guy's Personal page says that he is specifically trying to impress me in his next match. He's valued at $8M, Ive been escalating my offers and have reached my limit, offering $16M + 50% of his next sale. If that doesn't work I'll have to find a new target.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

You're probably going to want to get a rotation policy in at some point, if you make the knockout stages of the Europa League (which I think is a good goal), you'll be playing ten or more games then you did last year.

Good time to maybe give your youngster 3-5 games each (say if you have a big lead after the first leg of qualifying). Kepp Constantino and the rest of the first teamers rested, as much as that's possible.

Thanks for the tips. I tend to get stuck on my favorite players and play them every match to the point of their direct backups needing reserve team time to keep match fit, so if I do make even the group stage this will be another big first and learning experience for me to keep eveyrone at their best.

[Radii]

-- Birmingham tell me they want $28,000,000 for DC Lloyd Bent. Can't do it. We move on.

-- A Celtic DC Miles Addison would be an upgrade for us, he's valued at $2M but it appears it'd take $10M+ to land him.. and he's 32. Could I really consider spending $10 Million on someone who's got such little time left?

-- Two other DC's that compare to O'Brien have had my attention for awhile. I make serious offers for both, Feyenoord wants $31M for their star DC and Villareal want $20M for theirs.

-- I have, for now at least, exhausted my resources as far as finding a DC that would be obtainable for $15M or less and who would be clearly worth that money.


Friendly #3

We host Northern Ireland side Downpatrick. Didn't realize quite how poor this league is... we're 1:33 favorites today. Steven mills is forced off the pitch with an injury. We end up with 4 goals from Khan, 1 from Constantino, 1 for Bendner, and 1 for Mariga. We also have 2 goals disallowed.

Ipswich 7 : 0 Downpatrick

-- Mills is only out 4-5 days.



-- As we hit mid-July I'm running out of options for that one last big signing. I have a new scout in Italy and have a scout dedicated to the Championship to maybe help me find guys to snap up to the big time.


Euro Cup 3rd Qualifying Round Draw

We will be playing the winner of 2nd qualifying round matchup between Polish side Gornik Zabrze and Icelandic side KR (full name Knattspyrnufelag Reykjavikur!)

KR is super tiny and beat cork city from Ireland in the 1st round. Gornik Zabrze opened up in Round 2. They lost a friendly 5:0 to Burnley as a warmup before Euro Cup matches started.


-- I've got one more DC offer out there thanks to my Eastern European scout, who hasn't done much for me so far.

-- Something else I had forgotten to do... I get mentoring set up for all of my U18 talent.

-- My coaches recommend a strong MR held currently by AC Milan and I do need depth there, that is starting to look pretty promising.

-- Sheffield Utd offer me $15.5M for Stuart Kirkland. No.


Transfer Out

DLC Cestor Mike is going to spain, he'll finish out his career with Sevilla. He's still unhappy, still transfer listed and not part of any sort of rotation that doesn't involve 2 or more players being hurt at DL or DC, so I get rid of him. i make $2M on the sale. I owe his former team $600,000 of that.


-- The Euro U19 Championship has been ongoing. Our ST Chris Bryan has played in the last 3 matches for england, 6.9 rating vs Italy, 9.3 rating and 2 goals vs Czech Republic, 7.0 rating and 1 goal vs Serbia.

-- Iceland's KR wins their euro cup series and we're going to be playing them. Its the 22nd now, first match is on July 27th!


Friendly #4

We host Brighton, this was auto scheduled since we are their parent club jsut 3 days before our Euro Cup Match. I start all of my U18 players and reserves and guys who won't be seeing any action in our first Euro Cup match.

Youngster Darcy gets a goal for us, we allow one and no one gets hurt.

Brighton 1 : 1 Ipswich


-- We've sold 18,300 season tickets so far, expecting to get up to 21,000 or so, similar to last year.

[Radii]

-- Carlos Antoino and Lee Burton have both expressed concern over lack of harmony among the squad. So many new players...

-- The MR from AC Milan that I had gone after also had offers from Man Utd and Newcastle. Not much I can do to prevent him from choosing Manchester United over Ipswich.

-- DC Andre Hall, the last fairly big DC target I was looking at (it would have been a $9.5M transfer) chose to go to Celtic... that's disappointing.


July 27th, 2021

Euro Cup 3rd Qualifying Round First Leg

KR @ Ipswich

This is a tiny team. 4200 seat stadium, their franchise is valued at $6.5M (we're worth $72M by comparison). We're 2:5 favorites making them 13:2. Its a two leg round so we play at their house in a week or so. We want to do as much damage as possible today to make it easy.

I go with a familiar lineup to start us off.

GK: Capitani
D: Kirkland/O'Brien/Welsh/Jackson
M: Hughes/Donnelly/Mills/Gordon
ST: Khan/Constantino

Bendtner, Mattila, Clifford and Heywood are all new guys that are available to come in as subs today.

1': We get an early clear cut chance as Donnelly hits Constantino who has snuck behind his man, he can't finish though, saved.

3': Jackson to Khan, Khan goes right by his defender, into the area and its like the keeper isn't even there. 1-0

5': Yeah this should work fine. Gordon to Constantino, he makes a long run into the area, they can't catch him or tackle him or anything, and he finishes well this time. 2-0

19': Donnelly to Khan, solid pass, easy finish. 3-0

27': Donnelly to Mills for another easy one. 4-0

Just commentary now, this is easier than a friendly.

HALF: We have 20 shots and could have way more goals, but 4 is ok. New MC Clifford in for Mills at the half.

70': Khan goes down injured and he's forced to leave the match immediately. Bendtner is in. Heywood is in for Neil Gordon as well. Heywood DR, Jackson up to MR.

74': They get a goal back with a shot from 18 yards out, kinda poor defending to let that happen at all and then Capitani can't stop it. 4-1

87': Constantino gets it back for us with an easy finish from 6 yards out. 5-1

89': Nicklas Bendtner gets into the action with a nice run down the left and through the penalty area, into the 6 yard box and beating the keeper. 6-1


Ipswich 6 : 1 KR

We shoot 31 times to their 4.


Man of the Match: Constantino (9.3)
Goals: Constantino 2, Khan 2 (9.0), Bendtner (8.0), Mills (7.8)
Assists: Donnelly 2 (9.0), Khan, Jackson (8.5), Gordon (7.7)
Notables: Capitani (7.0), Kirkland (7.9), O'Brien (7.6), Hughes (7.8)

Welsh is the only starter not above a 7, he's at 6.7.

Injury Update

Matthew Khan is out for 2 weeks with a twisted knee.


Easy enough! Next match in a little over a week. We have another friendly scheduled with a feeder club in a few days and the youngsters and reserves will play there as much as possible.

[Crapshoot]

Amazing stuff Radii. Read the entire thing over 3 days. What you've done is damn impressive - I usually start a new career after 3-4 years max.

[Radii]

-- Aston Villa asks me how much it would take to buy Capitani, I reject that idea outright, he is annoyed at me for it. He'll get it over it.

Friendly #5

-- Mandatory match at Shrewsbury as part of our feeder club deal. We get first half goals from Bendtner and Burton, an own goal from backup Defender Andy Parsons keeps it close. ML Lee Burton gets his second goal late and we win easily.

Shrewsbury 1 : 3 Ipswich


August Update

-- We play on the 5th, 14th, 17th, 21st and 28th. The League Cup 2nd round is scheduled for the 22nd, and the Euro Cup 4th qualifying rounds would be on the 19th and 26th. We'll see how many of our matches get postponed with all that activity.

-- The board is pleased with my leadership. Our increase in stature is the #1 positive, the lack of squad harmony the negative.

-- We lost $4.5M last month.


-- Southampton bid $13M for Stuart Kirkland. I reject the offer. Kirkland is unhappy, he "wants to play for Southampton and believes he should be allowed to leave." That's a little more decisive than the usual "hey let me make up my own mind" stuff... Sheffield Utd bid $15.5M for Kirkland a few days later. Ugh. Rejected, lets see if we can get through August with him.

August 5th, 2021

Euro Cup 3rd Qualifying Round Second Leg

Ipswich (6) @ KR (1)

We're 4:6 favorites to win today. As long as we don't lose 5-0 or by 6 goals we're through to the next round.

GK: Capitani
D: Kirkland/Quartey/Mattila/McKerr
DMC: Guarin
M: Adagsmar/Clifford/Mills/Gordon
ST: Bryan

I give Mattila and Clifford and Bryan their first starts. I play the unhappy guys (kirkland/capitani/mills), and run a 4-1-4-1 today with Guarin at DMC, the best way to rest Constantino and get the midfield players rotated in more easily. Just commentary today expecting an easy win.

6': Mills to Gordon for a very easy goal. 1-0

12': Gordon is hurt.

25': Bryan is hurt.

HALF: We're up 1-0 (7-1 aggregate). Darren Johnson in for the injured Neil Gordon, Bendtner in for the injured Chris Bryan.

52': Kirkland with a cross, Bendtner with a header and we go up 2-0

79': Mills with his second assists, Bendtner with his second goal. 3-0

KR 0 (1) : (9) 3 Ipswich

That's a 3:0 win today and a 9:1 aggregate win. We advance to the 4th qualifying round, needing to win one more series to get into group play.

Man of the Match: Nicklas Bendtner (8.7)
Goals: Bendtner 2, Gordon (7.4)
Assists: Mills 2 (7.9), Kirkland (8.3)
Notables: McKerr (7.4), Mattila (7.2), Quartey (7.8)


-- We receive $244,000 for participating in this round of the Euro Cup and another $130,000 for winning.


Injury Update

This match took its toll:

-- Chris Bryan turns an ankle and is out 3-4 weeks.

-- Steven Mills hurts his elbow in a fall and is out 10-12 days.

-- Neil Gordon pulls a hamstring and is out 3 weeks.


Euro Cup 4th Qualifying Round Draw

-- We'll get a much, much tougher opponent in this one, worst case a Serie A or La Liga opponent.

-- Yup, we get one of the toughest 7 or 8 teams that we could in this draw. We're going to be playing Livorno from Italy's Serie A. They've been in Seire A most of this dynasty but have had a weird run lately... 2017/18 they finished 5th, 18/19 they relegated down, finishing 18th. 19/20 they destroyed Serie B to get back up, and 20/21 they finished 4th to qualify for this competition.

-- Livorno have a keeper valued at $25M, Javier... a guy with 28 caps for Spain at age 27.

-- We have two league matches postponed and our schedule now shows matches on the 14th, 17th, 21st, 26th, 29th and then on 9/1. The League Cup draw hasn't happened yet so that's gonna be in the mix as well.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Crapshoot

Amazing stuff Radii. Read the entire thing over 3 days. What you've done is damn impressive - I usually start a new career after 3-4 years max.

Thanks! This is by leaps and bounds the longest I've played a career in any text sim, at least one where I don't essentially fast sim seasons like in FBCB single player.

[Taz13]

Well please don't stop as I have enjoyed reading as well. :-)

[Radii]

-- It would really suck to lose to Livorno and not make the group stage after bringing on a lot of extra bodies, but before we worry about that we open the EPL season against a team that finished 5th last year in Aston Villa. That must be nice for them to get back into Continental play as well, they'd finished 8th the previous 4 years in a row, ouch!

August 14th, 2021

Ipswich @ Aston Villa

Aston Villa are 4:5 favorites at home today. We're 1-2-5 lifetime against Aston Villa and lost both times we played last year.

GK: Capitani
D: Kirkland/O'Brien/Matilla/McKerr
M: Adagsmar/Clifford/Mariga/Johnson
ST: Bendtner/Khan

We're resting Hughes, Donnelly, Jackson and Constantino today, holding them out for our Euro Cup match.

Aston Villa start Arsenio Valpoort at ST, he was 3rd in the league with 16 goals last year, and Sam Vokes, a guy who spent most of his career with Wolverhampton but Aston Villa spent $9M on him this offseason. Aston Villa also feature midfielder Fabian Delph who was 2nd or 3rd behind Constantino for English Player of the Year last year.

8': Yellow for midfielder Sandro.

14': We counter after winning a ball in their end, Adagsmar ahead to Khan, he's in the area by himself... but strikes it right at the keeper. We should have scored.

17': McKerr is injured, but can stay in.

21': Yellow for Clifford about 25 yards out... they shoot on the free kick, but off the wall and out for a throwin.

25': Khan with a yellow.

25': They have 9 shots already, just 2 on target and 5 from long range.

29': They get their best shot yet, a rocket from 18 yard out that Capitani lays out for and barely gets to.

36': Mariga is hurt. We drop back to defensive for the rest of the half from our normal counter attacking strategy.

HALF: They control 56% of the possession, they have 16 shots with 7 on target... we've shot one time. 9 of theirs are from long range. We have mostly average to below average ratings so far but Capitani is over 8 at the half with all this activity. I've instructed the team to try to hang on to possession more to see if we can take some pressure off the defense. I'm afraid to come out and get more aggressive since we're still scoreless.

55': We build up on offense, dodging tackles all the way, its not pretty at all, but a pass goes ahead to Bendtner and he does a nice job to create a shot, its not got a lot of power on it but the keeper has to dive and barely gets to it. We get a corner but they clear it out.

66': Guarin in for a tired Mariga.

80': Reserve striker Kershaw in for Khan.

We get out of here with a tie and give how this one played out that's a fine result.

Aston Villa 0 : 0 Ipswich

They shot 29 times today but only put 9 on target. They didn't threaten at all this half, they shot TONS but only put 2 on target in the half. We shot 3 times all game. We were just under attack non stop, but forced them into a lot of bad shots and defended well enough.

Man of the Match: Michele Capitani (8.2)
Notables: Kirkland (7.2), McKerr (7.1)

Everyone else was between 6.7-6.9.

Injury Update

-- Michael McKerr is out 10-12 days.

[Radii]

-- "The ticket office has confirmed that the club has sold all 21,582 season tickets available for this season". Woohoo!

-- We're going to sell out the stadium for our Euro Cup match, but unfortunately that's 28,190 seats, since capacity is down due to construction. Our expansion isn't complete until September 25th.

August 17th, 2021

Euro Cup 4th Qualifying Round First Leg

Livorno @ Ipswich

Neil Gordon and Steven Mills are hurt and won't be in the lineup today. Mills actually resumed full training but just yesterday, he's not ready. We are 6:4 favorites at home today making them very slight 13:8 underdogs. There were so many easier matchups available for this round, I'm more nervous for this match than I ever have been in this career. Failing to make the group stage would put us in a really big bind to keep the team cohesive and functional with all of the players we've added, so I feel a huge amount of pressure to win today.

GK: Capitani
D: Kirkland/O'Brien/Welsh/Heywood
M: Hughes/Donnelly/Clifford/Jackson
ST: Khan/Constantino

Heywood starts at DR so that Jackson can start at MR with Neil Gordon hurt. Our midfield is much stronger today with Donnelly and Jackson starting instead of Mariga and Darren Johnson, and of course we go with the powerful Khan/Constantino combo up front.

Livorno have a striker Akwasi Asante playing his first match for them after coming over from Dortmund in the offseason. He doesn't really look all that great. Their other ST Stanley Okoro scored 15 goals in Serie A last year and looks much stronger. My biggest worry is that we're going up against a goalkeeper, Javier, who is currently the starter for the Spanish National Team and one of the best keepers in the world.


2': They earn a corner kick, taken to the near post and defender Mendez heads it in, Capitani was out of position for that. Well that's not the start we wanted. 0-1

6': yellow for midfielder Fernando.

7': We build up down the left side, a pass to Constantino 30 yards out, he beats his man and goes forward... a pass off to the left for Khan, he's got a clear cut chance, strikes it... the keeper gets his hands to it, it hits the underside of the crossbar, and comes back down into play. Soooooo close.

15': They commit a foul about 22-23 yards out, free kick taken by Clifford, but off the wall.

20': Constantino is constantly beating the defender primarily marking him, but they're doing a good job of closing down after that. He's going to make something happen yet though I feel.

22': Khan with a yellow.

31': We earn a free kick just outside the area, Khan takes it... off the wall for a corner. the corner comes in to the 6 yard line dead center... Welsh wins the header, but its high.

39': Clive Jackson with a great sliding tackle in midfield to stop them as they try to build up, we counter, Jackson ahead ot Khan, Constantino is way wide right, Khan sends it into the right side of the area, Constantino looks for a cross... but he's tackled before anything else happens... its a penalty! Defender Obradovic gets a yellow,for arguing with the ref, not for the foul. Midfielder Fernando is warned by the ref as they still complain... he's already got a yellow so he's close to being sent off. Constantino steps up to take the penalty... and its off the left post. UGGGGGH. We recover possession and Khan has a shot blocked to win us a corner. Corner is taken short to O'Brien, he dribbles out wide, passes to Donnelly coming into the area, Donnelly shoots, not a ton of pace, but its by the keeper and into the left side of the net!!! 1-1

HALF: They are dominating possession 57/43. They have 10 shots, 6 on target, the one clear cut chance that led to their goal. We've got 8 shots, 3 on target, 1 clear cut chance which wasn't a goal but Donnelly bailed us out big time soon after. We've had a number of possessions where Constantino receives a pass 25 yards out and immediately burns his defender and gets by, but he's either looked to pass right away or drawn multiple defenders and lost the ball right after. If he can keep getting by his man like that eventually he's going to score.

53': They have a corner, taken into the 6 yard box, their defender Larrosa wins it... but his header hits the crossbar and goes over. Whew.

55': they counter as we lose possession in our offensive end. A pass goes up to ST Asante, he makes Welsh look really bad as he goes by, passes to ST Okoro who is now wide open in the area, and he beats Capitani for a goal. 1-2

67': Heywood wins a ball in our end and lobs it ahead for Constantino, who gets to it and gets ahead of the defense..he makes a run into the right side of the area, shoots... but their keeper makes a diving save. I think only a world class keeper stops that, really.

78': We'll try to attack to get this goal back. Adagsmar in for Hughes, Bendtner in for Khan, Mariga in for Clifford, a mix of tired/not playing so hot.

80': Jackson makes a tackle in midfield, sends a ball to Constantino, he is able to outrun his defender just by a step or two, into the right side of the area, a shot very similar to his last one... the keeper may have tipped it, but its not enough, into the net!! 2-2

90': O'Brien with a yellow.

91': Mendez for them with a yellow.

93': we attack, twice getting the ball into the area, Adagsmar shoots but its off Bendtner who was in the way, Kirkland tries to cross it in after getting to the rebound and they clear. Its cleared deep to ST Okoro and he's got a ton of space... he charges down the right side, Capitani leaves his line to try to cut off the angle as Okoro approaches, but he stops before getting too close, finds the perfect angle and puts it by Capitani and into the net. The full time whistle goes right as we kick off. Heartbreaking. 2-3

Ipswich 2 : 3 Livorno

Not only will we need to win at their place next week, we'll likely need to win by 2 since they've got 3 away goals here. Okoro is man of the match for Livorno.

Goals: Constantino (7.9), Donnelly (7.5)
Assists: O'Brien (7.0), Jackson (6.9)

Jack Hughes had a 5.9 rating today, Capitani a 6.2. The feedback from my assistant says that Capitani is struggling to focus, distracted by other issues (he's unhappy I didn't accept the last transfer offer for him). Bendtner, O'Brien and Heywood are still working to blend in with the squad. James Welsh "seems overconfident". We gots problems.

[rlmayer32]

First year of European games like this is always a trick. Good luck this season, hopefully it just keeps getting better.

Rick

[Brian Swartz]

Originally Posted by Radii

This is a tiny team. 4200 seat stadium, their franchise is valued at $6.5M

That's not a tiny team -- that's a mammoth team! :P

One of the things that I have to do constantly is readjust my frame of reference when I read this thread. I have no comprehension of the kind of sums here, then I load up my game and remember that you pay most of your players more each week than my club is worth.

Can be a little disorienting at times :P.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by rlmayer32

First year of European games like this is always a trick. Good luck this season, hopefully it just keeps getting better.

Thanks!

Originally Posted by Brian Swartz

That's not a tiny team -- that's a mammoth team! :P

Hah yeah, my comparison was to Woking, who can cram 6000 fans into their stadium, though only 2500 get to sit down. But yeah, when you're playing for 200 people its slightly different, eh?

I have no comprehension of the kind of sums here, then I load up my game and remember that you pay most of your players more each week than my club is worth.

I felt that way when I got to the Championship with Woking, its all relative I suppose! even now, when I'm in one of the top leagues in the world, and our value is $73 Million and we pay our top player something like $72,000/wk... but Man Utd is worth $1 Billion and many teams are willing to pay a top guy $200,000/wk or more.

[Radii]

-- Young GK Michael Rogers is too old for the U18s and we have too many keepers to get everyone time on the Reserve and Senior squad. I finally make use of my feeder clubs (yes for the first time ever) and offer Rogers to Shrewsbury in League 1. They take him on and maybe Rogers can help them win League 1 because I'd *really* like to have a feeder club in the Championship.

-- Maybe this year would be different. Instead of just telling the board to give me a list of options that I invariably decline, I go through the list of Championship teams to try to find an ideal club. I'd like a team with a good head coach to make sure my players develop, a team without an EPL parent club now probably, and most importantly a team that is firmly entrenched in the championship and seems fairly unlikely to either promote up or relegate down.. I end up choosing Leeds as my hopeful feeder team in the championship. They've been there for 7 or 8 years now, they do seem slightly more likely to promote than relegate, but they aren't tied to an EPL team yet.

August 21st, 2021

Ipswich @ Sheffield Utd

Similar to our road game at Aston Villa, they're even money favorites over us today, we're 11:5. We know how much momentum and morale matters so we don't want to get a losing streak going here. We're 2-2-11 lifetime against these guys. Last year we tied them at their place but lost at home.

GK: Capitani
D: Burton/Mattila/Welsh/Heywood
DMC: Guarin
M: Adagsmar/Mariga/Clifford/Johnson
ST: Bendtner

Massive changes today. Heywood at DR and Clifford at MC are the only two that started our last match, oh and Capitani.

21': They build up down the left, a cross goes in, one of their midfielders wins a header in the 6 yard box... but his header is off the crossbar, it bounces over to the other side of the 6 yard box, Guarin is there with ST di Santo... Guarin loses the header and they put it into the net. Guarin takes the blame for that. 0-1

34': Mariga with a yellow.

38': Welsh with a yellow.

HALF: Ugh. Our defense is faring very poorly, Welsh, Burton and Guarin all under 6.0 ratings. Sheffield Utd have 14 shots, 6 on target. We have 0 shots. I only saw us try to go forward a couple times with nothing happening. This feels really bad heh.

49': They have a throwin, taken short, a cross into the area immediately, Mattila misjudges the flight of the ball and isn't there with his man when the ball arrives, di Santo heads it in and its a trivially easy goal. 0-2

57': We build up on offense, Mariga into the area for Adagsmar, he is wide open and scores... but offside. I disagree with that call.

59': They try a cross in from the left, we block it, high up into the area but they recover. Another cross goes in, Mattila is there.. but their ST Vanelli wins the header and puts it in. 0-3

71': Bendnter is attacking down the right, defender goes in for a slide tackle... wins the ball but injures Bendtner. He's forced out of the match immediately and Khan is in.

77': We push up on offense after winning a ball near midfield, a ball ahead to Khan, Khan draws a defender, Adagsmar cuts inside well, Khan spots him, Adagsmar finishes easily! 1-3

88': They get into the area after a good bit of buildup, we tackle it away from ST Vanelli, but it falls to ST di Santo, he shoots, Capitani makes a great save, but the rebound is in play and Vanelli is to it first and scores. 1-4

Sheffield Utd 4 : 1 Ipswich

Ouch!

Goal: Adagsmar (7.4)
Assist: Khan (6.9)

Heywood 5.8, Burton 5.3, Mattila 5.0, Guarin 5.1. Ugly.