FM10 - From the Bottom Up

[Radii]

Originally Posted by bulletsponge

looks like your going thru the traditional "1st year in Europe" slump that always follows. i dont think ive ever qualified for europe the 2nd year after i get there the 1st time. and yes it usually bleeds into the cups too

I've never seen the word "overconfident" so much when looking at my coach feedback page in matches. Hopefully a year of not coasting back to Europe fixes that.

[Radii]

-- Genoa in Serie A offer me a job. They're a top 10 team there but rarely good enough to sneak into the top 3. And boy do they have money. Transfer Budget: $66M. Payroll: $2.1M/wk. I of course turn them down but damn that's a lot of resources.


March 14th, 2022

Ipswich(9-10-11, 11th) @ Arsenal(26-2-2, 1st)

Well this seems unlikely. Arsenal are on an epic run through the league. They could actually clinch the title today. They have 80 points, Tottenham in 2nd has 61. Chelsea finished the 10/11 season with 86 points. Arsenal appears ready to obliterate that. I feel like benching half my squad after our last match but would it get the point across?

GK: Capitani
D: Hughes/Mattle/O'Brien/Jackson
DM: Clifford
M: Adagsmar/Mariga/Mills/Doran
F: Constantino

4-1-4-1 today with Constatino up front. Kirkland is training again but not ready to go today.

5': Doran is hurt.

16': Capitani saves a rocket bending in from 19 yards out... they have 5 shots and 4 corners so far.

18': Hughes with a tackle 20 yards out... free kick is saved by Capitani and held.

36': They finally get one in, a through ball to Nooij, barely onside when the pass came through to him, easy finish from 10 yards out. 0-1

HALF: They shoot 13 times to our 3.

53': Clifford is injured, he's forced out immediately. I sub in Chris Bryan and go back to a 4-4-2.

63': Adagsmar to Bryan gets us our best shot of the day from 15 yards out but its blocked and saved.

87': Donnelly with a yellow

90': O'Brien is hurt.

Arsenal 1 : 0 Ipswich

Doran with a 5.6 rating today. Capitani and Jackson put up 7.1 ratings. Hughes and Mattle 7.0. We allowed 22 shots and they had possession forever. Arsenal are just on another level this year.


Injury Update

-- MC Conor Clifford is out for 3 weeks with a pulled hamstring

-- MR Aaron doran is out for 3-4 days only.


With 7 to go we have to beat someone if we want to stay in the top 10.

7. Aston Villa - 51 pts
8. Birmingham - 46 pts
9. Huddersfield - 40 pts
10. Liverpool - 39 pts
11. Southampton - 37 pts
12. Ipswich - 37 pts
13. West Ham - 36 pts
14. Blackburn - 35 pts
15. Everton - 34 pts
16. Nottingham Forest - 34 pts
17. Sheffield Utd - 31 pts
-------------------------------
18. Sunderland - 29 pts
19. QPR - 25 pts
20. Reading - 24 pts


The good news is that the next 4 opponents of ours are all teams below us in the standings. The bad news is that I'm unsure which of my players will decide to show up and try against them.

[Radii]

March 19th, 2022

Reading(7-3-21, 20th) @ Ipswich(9-10-12, 12th)

We're 4:5 favorites today making Reading 3:1 dogs to get a win.

GK: Capitani
D: Kirkland/Mattle/Quartey/Jackson
M: Hughes/Donnelly/Mills/Gordon
F: Bendtner/Constantino

O'Brien sits for Quartey today, Kirkland and gordon are back in after short injuries. Bendtner/Constantino up front in a standard 4-4-2. Reading run a very conservative 3-3-2-2 with a DMC and two wing backs and two MC's. We will attack from the outset.

HALF: So yeah. We saw 3 highlights, all shots off target from llong range. We shoot 3 times, they shoot 1. All off target. Our passing is awful (60%). tackling and heading are good. I bring Bryan in for Bendtner and set Steven Mills as our playmaker just to try to get more of his pinpoint passes going.

55': We get forward quickly as a highlight opens, a pass into the area for Bryan and he's got a clear cut chance... but saved and he was in a little deep. Corner goes nowhere.

61': We win it in defense and its sent down the left quickly, Bryan is there and makes a run towards the left corner... a cross to a wide open Constantino, he tries a header from 10 yards out... stopped by the keeper, rebound to Mills... stopped by the keeper. UGGGH!

71': We have a throwin in their end, taken short, passed back to Neil Gordon, he crosses into the 6 yard box and they've left Stuart Kirkland all alone... he heads it, into the net! 1-0

82': Doran in for a tired Gordon.

94': Final minute of added time, we win a ball in defense and take off, Doran down the right side... the defense is just very slow to get back, there's a low cross into the area, Hughes is there, he's completely unmarked... and he puts a shot wide. An unbelievable miss, gotta make that 100 out of 100 times.

Ipswich 1 : 0 Reading

The defense is solid and we do enough to win here.

Man of the Match: Stuart Kirkland (8.5)
Goal: Kirkland
Assist: Gordon (8.1)
Notables: Jackson (7.3)

Everyone else is 6.7-6.9.

We only allowed them to shoot 3 times today, all off target. A very solid defensive effort.

With 6 to go Arsenal have clinched the EPL title. They are amazing, 27-3-2, 70 goals, 23 allowed.

1. Arsenal - 84 pts
2. Chelsea - 64 pts
3. Tottenham - 62 pts
4. Man Utd - 54 pts
5. Aston Villa - 54 pts
6. Newcastle - 53 pts
7. Man City - 53 pts
8. Birmingham - 46 pts
9. Huddersfield - 44 pts
10. Liverpool - 42 pts
11. Ipswich - 40 pts
12. West Ham - 39 pts
13. Southampton - 37 pts
14. Nottingham Forest - 37 pts
15. Blackburn - 36 pts
16. Everton - 34 pts
17. Sheffield Utd - 31 pts
----------------------------
18. Sunderland - 29 pts
19. QPR - 25 pts
20. Reading - 24


So Arsenal/Chelsea/Tottenham are locks for the top 4. The teams in 4th-7th are all safe to finish in the top 7 and one of them gets to be 4th. Man Utd after being around 12th near the midway point of the season is my bet for 4th, they're on a crazy tear.

[Alf]

Wow, that 4-0 loss in FA Cup at Exeter was brutal...

[Radii]

March 26th, 2022

Blackburn(9-9-14, 15th) @ Ipswich(10-10-12, 11th)

We're 4:5 favorites against Blackburn at Portman road today. We started things of well with a win over Reading, lets get 2 in a row! Our schedule is one of the more reasonable ones left. It'd be nice to go out with a few wins and a push towards 8th. It starts today!

GK: Capitani
D: Kirkland/Mattle/O'Brien/Jackson
M: Donnelly/Mills
AM: Adagsmar/Gordon
F: Bryan/Constantino


Another aggressive formation to try to get us some goals.

With 6 to go Arsenal have clinched the EPL title. They are amazing, 27-3-2, 70 goals, 23 allowed.

13': Classic Constantino, Donnelly passes ot him about 20 yards out, he blows by one man, cuts a bit wide left, cuts back inside to beat a second man and easily finishes! 1-0

28': Constantino a yellow.

38': midfielder leach with a yellow.

41': they get a clear cut chance with a through ball to a striker who gets behind Kirkland, but Capitani makes the save. Its their first shot on target all day.

HALF: Neil Gordon is struggling a bit out wide with a 5.8 rating which is really weird, we're doing solidly everywhere else. They are outshooting us with 9 shots to our 5. I pull back to a 4-4-2 not wanting something stupid to happen with the lead. Hughes is in for Adagsmar.

48': we control it on offense, Donnelly with a ball ahead to Constantino, he turns by one man, cuts out right a bit and fires from 15 yards out... its by the keeper and his second goal! 2-0

51': A quick buildup, Bryan finds Gordon cutting in from the right and he buries a shot! 3-0

83': Donnelly ahead to Bryan, Bryan with a great first touch pass ahead to Constantino, he's got a man right there on top of him but controls it at the penalty spot and drills it, into the net! 4-0

Ipswich 4 : 0 Blackburn

We needed that.

Man of the Match: Constantino (9.5)
Goals: Constantinio 3, Gordon (8.1)
Assists: Bryan 2(8.5), Donnelly (8.4)
Notables: Capitani (7.4), Jackson (7.8), Kirkland (7.8), O'Brien (7.5), Mattle (7.8), Mills (7.9)

Constantino finally tops 10 league goals with a really nice hat trick today.

-- Donnelly did pick up a yellow today that will leave him suspended for our next match.

With 5 to go:

8. Birmingham - 49 pts
9. Huddersfield - 45 pts
10. Ipswich - 43 pts
11. West Ham - 42 pts
12. Liverpool - 42 pts
13. Nottingham Forest - 38 pts
14. Southampton - 37 pts
15. Blackburn - 36 pts
16. Everton - 35 pts
17. Sheffield Utd - 32 pts
----------------------------
18. Sunderland - 30 pts

So we're in 10th. Next 3 matches all on the road, #11 West HAm, #14 Southampton, #12 Liverpool.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Alf

Wow, that 4-0 loss in FA Cup at Exeter was brutal...

I seriously considered pulling a Dean Smith "Blue Team" deal and just starting everyone on my U18 team in the next match. If I thought there was any chance in hell that the first team would understand why that happened, I would have done it. Also considered fining everyone who was under a 6.0 that match, but decided instead to just fine O'Brien.

[Radii]

Injury Update

-- Good news! Matthew Khan has resumed full training.

-- Bad News! Michele Capitani is going to miss the next 3 weeks after turning an ankle in training.

-- Haven't checked in on Europe in awhile. Man City and Chelsea both failed to make the knockout rounds of the Champions league and fell through to the Euro cup. The two English teams left both win in the first knockout round, Man Utd crushes Juventus and Arsenal beats At. Madrid on away goals. Arsenal takes on Feyenoord, Man Utd faces Leverkusen in the quarters. Also in the quarters is another matchup between Inter and Barcelona, that seems like its becoming a bit of a rivalry.

-- In the Euro Cup the team that took us out, Livorno, lost to German side Werder Bremen and was done in the first knockout phase. Tottenahm beat Greek side Panathinalkos, Astona Villa over french side Grenoble Foot 30, Man City over Schalke, Chelsea over Bohemians. Astona Villa lost to Murcia in the second knockout round. Chelsea (over Cagliari), Tottenahm (over Werder Bremen), and Man City (over Trabzonspor from Turkey) all advanced though.


April Update

-- We play on the 2nd, 9th, and 23rd, all three on the road, but all three against teams very close to us in the standings. Its a big month as far as our final place goes. We could easily finish 8th or 15th still, though 9-13 range is the most likely.

-- only youth DC Sam Barnett is singled out for training well this month. He's a "useful player" type prospect, even if we get everything we can out of him he's probably not quite what we want.

-- Chris Bryan is named the EPL Young Player of the month for March! 2 assists, 0 goals in 3 matches. 8.5/6.8/6.8 ratings.

-- The board is pleased with my leadership. The increase in stature is the highlight and our 4-0 loss to Exeter is the understandable lowlight.

-- We lost $638,000 last month.

April 2nd, 2022

Ipswich(11-10-12, 10th) @ West Ham(10-12-11, 11th)

We're 1 point ahead of West Ham. They are 5:4 favorites today at their place, we're 7:4 to get a win. We beat them 2:1 at our place back in November, our first ever win over West Ham. We're 1-3-4 lifetime against them. I hadn't really noticed it to be honest but West Ham are secondary rivals of ours, so are Sheffield Utd. 1 win in 8 tries doesn't much help to build a rivalry though.

GK: Mason
D: Kirkland/Mattle/O'Brien/Jackson
M: Hughes/Mariga/Mills/Gordon
F: Bryan/Constantino

Donnelly suspended, Capitani hurt, Khan needs to run around a bit before really being ready. 4-4-2 Counter attacking on the road today.

13': A free kick in our end, Mason takes it and sends it long. Bryan wins a header about 25 yards away and pushes it forward, Constantino runs onto it... he's covered, and its a tough angle but its a clear cut chance for sure... but Constantino puts his shot inches wide. Dang!

22': They build up on offense, and a through ball to ST Nsue leads to a trivial finish. Not much to say. 0-1

28': Nsue has it 25 yards out... he backs up a bit, dodges a tackle by Mattle, comes forward, skips by O'Brien... into the area and scores. Embarrassing defending. 0-2

HALF: We try to attack but they do a good job of neutralizing things so far. We get to the locker room down 2:0 and not looking good at all. They shoot 6 times, only putting 2 on target, we shoot 5 times, only 2 on target. They just created two extremely easy goals and we missed our one clear cut chance. Maybe we can get one back early in the half and make it interesting.

54': They score on a free kick. 0-3 Lets just move on.

57': Quartey, Khan, Doran on, O'Brien, Gordon, Constantino off.

64': Who needs a warmup after a 4 month injury!? Khan with a good pass to Mills who finishes nicely from 18 yards out. 1-3

78': Hat trick for their man Nsue. 1-4

81': Free kick out wide and a header is by Mason, ahh. 1-5

West Ham 5 : 1 Ipswich

An awful throwaway match. I don't know if the team just feels like they have nothing left to play for or what, but West Ham was ready to rock today and we weren't. Also Capitani may have made a couple saves that Mason could not.


EDIT: erased the standings b/c I was doing that while working on something else and made like 7 mistakes. We fell to 11th with the loss today.

[Radii]

April 9th, 2022

Ipswich(11-10-13, 11th) @ Southampton(11-4-19, 15th)

We are solid even money favorites at Southampton today despite our recent play. We beat them 1:0 at our place back in December.

GK: Mason
D: Kirkland/Mattle/O'Brien/Jackson
M: Adagsmar/Clifford/Mills/Gordon
F: Bryan/Constantino

Donnelly still suspended, Khan is available as a sub again but not fully ready.

17': We win a ball in defense, Jackson plays a ball long down the right, Constantino races to it and he's behind the defense... into the area, a tough angle from the right, not a clear cut chance even though its just him and the keeper... he puts it far post and in!! 1-0

25': We win one in midfield this time, ahead to Bryan... to Constantino... he gets into the area again, but this time the keeper makes a great stop.

29': Our counter is really working well today. Jackson again, a great long ball that lands 35 yards out, Constantino is first there, pushes it ahead, into the area, and he beats the keeper! 2-0

40': Chris Bryan is hurt and has to come out immediately. I'm not putting Khan in for 50 minutes just yet, so I bring Mattila in to play DMC and go 4-1-4-1 here.

HALF: each team with 6 shots but we are in full control with the couple counter attacks we've had work so well.

73': Khan in for Constantino, lets let him run around for a bit.

75': Mark O'Brien is hurt.

Southampton 0 : 2 Ipswich

Jackson plays a really solid game in defense and with his assists earns man of hte match over Constantino, well done!

Man of the Match: Clive Jackson (9.0)
Goals: Constantino 2 (8.8)
Assists: Jackson 2
Notables: Mason (7.0), Kirkland (7.8), Mattle (7.4)

Neil Gordon again with a rough day, 5.8.


-- Chris Bryan will just miss 2-3 days.

-- Mark O'Brien is out for 2-3 weeks.


With 3 to go:

8. Birmingham - 53 pts
9. Huddersfield - 51 pts
10. Ipswich - 46 pts
10. West Ham - 45 pts
12. Liverpool - 45 pts
13. Nottingham Forest - 42 pts
14. Blackburn - 42 pts
15. Southampton - 37 pts
16. Everton - 35 pts
17. Sheffield Utd - 35 pts
----------------------------
18. Sunderland - 30 pts


-- Obviously happy to win here. I'm listening to the BS Report interview with the Bartman documentary director though so I'm pretty f'ing sports depressed and can't find much good to say!

Liverpool is next, then two top teams to finish it off.

[Radii]

Injury Update

hah here we go again.

Good News: Michele Capitani has resumed full training.

Bad News: Stuart Kirkland is out for 5-6 weeks with a torn groin muscle. That's the rest of the season.

April 23rd, 2022

Ipswich(12-10-13, 10th) @ Liverpool(12-9-14, 12th)

Liverpool are even money favorites at their place today. We're 11:5 to win. We tied them 2:2 at home earlier in the year. This was a really strong result for us, we fell behind 2:0 and came back to tie.

GK: Capitani
D: Hughes/Mattle/Welsh/Jackson
M: Adagsmar/Clifford/Mills/Gordon
F: Khan/Constantino

Donnelly serving the last of a 3 match suspension today. Hughes at DL for Kirkland, Welsh in for O'Brien, and Khan is back in the starting lineup.

2': Throwin in their offensive end... there's a cross, Welsh misses a tackle and they score very very easily. 0-1

12': Jack Hughes is hurt and has to leave the match. Heywood is in.

22': Gordon with a free kick from 25 yards out... he blasts a shot by the wall, its on target, but the keeper lays out and makes the save.

26': We're attacking, Clifford gets it to Khan, he turns by his man and shoots from 18 yards out, and its just saved and pushed aside.

38': A ball ahead from the midfield for SST Aubameyang, Mattle misses a tackle as he goes intot he penalty area, and its a trivial finish after that. 0-2

HALF: Two strikes by them are obviously the difference. They have complete control in the air, 75% on their headers, 38% on ours. We had a couple shots to get a goal that went wide, and down 2-0 now it seems like a huge mountain to climb.

46': They score instantly and we drop to commentary only. 0-3

85': Mattle is hurt and forced to leave the match immediately.

They got another late goal. God we're so inconsistent.

Liverpool 4 : 0 Ipswich

Welsh with a 4.7 today, Khan 5.8, Capitani 6.0.


Injury Update

-- Jack Hughes is out for the year (5-6 weeks). No long term injury for Mattle.

West Ham lose so we remain in 11th today. With 2 to go:

8. Birmingham - 53 pts (1 less played)
9. Huddersfield - 52 pts
10. Liverpool - 48 pts
11. Ipswich - 46 pts
12. West Ham - 45 pts
13. Nottingham Forest - 42 pts
14. Blackburn - 42 pts
15. Southampton - 40 pts
16. Everton - 36 pts
17. Sheffield Utd - 35 pts
----------------------------
18. Sunderland - 33 pts


Our final two matches are Newcastle and Man Utd. The best we can finish now is 10th. We could finish 15th but most likely will finish 11th or 12th.

[Radii]

-- Tottenham beat AZ and Chelsea beat Man City in the Euro Cup quarterfinals. Chelsea beat Tottenham in the semis, they'll be playing German side Stuttgart.

-- In the Champions League, Inter beat Barcelona, Leverkusen over Man Utd, Arsenal over Feyenoord and OM over Real Madrid in the quarterfinals. Leverkusen beat Inter in a penalty shootout in one semifinal. In the other OM beat Arsenal 4:2. Leverkusen and OM (germany/france) in the finals. OM won in 2020, 2 years ago. Leverkusen won way back in 2015.


May Update

-- We host Newcastle on the 2nd and travel to Man Utd on the 8th. That'll end our season.

-- The board is pleased still. The increase in stature is the positive and our 5:1 egg against West Ham is the negative.

-- We lost $1.68M last month. Right now we're at -$12M on the season with a cash balance of -5.3M. 13th would erase that deficit.

May 2nd, 2022

Newcastle(17-8-11, 7th) @ Ipswich(12-10-14, 11th)

This is considered to be an evenly matched game, we're 6:4 favorites, Newcastle are 13:8 dogs. Newcastle are in the FA Cup final against Chelsea and Chelsea has a lock on 2nd, so Newcastle is in the Euro Cup no matter what. Maybe they relax against us!

GK: Capitani
D: Heywood/Mattle/O'Brien/Jackson
M: Adagsmar/Clifford/Mills/Gordon
F: Khan/Constantino

Heywood at DL with Kirkland and Hughes hurt. Donnelly is back as well.

18': They have a corner, we head it away but they send it immediately back in. ST Joel is there at the 6 yard box and he heads it by capitani and in. 0-1

HALF: We get one shot but its a long range effort and not very exciting. They shoot 7 times, 3 on target. Possession is 54/46 in our favor. We'll try to attack in the second half and let loose.

50': Mills to Constantino, he turns by his man and gets a solid shot off, but its saved.

76': We get a few shots but nothing as good as that attempt in the 50th minute. Newcastle puts it away here with a great strike from 25 yards out. 0-2

90': A final counter attack for Newcastle leads to a solid finish from ST Joel. 0-3

Ipswich 0 : 2 Newcastle

Mail it in, boys!

Looks like lots others are doing the same thing, we remain in 11th.

8. Birmingham - 54 pts
9. Huddersfield - 53 pts
10. Liverpool - 51 pts
11. Ipswich - 46 pts
12. West Ham - 45 pts
13. Nottingham Forest - 45 pts
14. Blackburn - 42 pts
15. Southampton - 40 pts
16. Everton - 36 pts
17. Sheffield Utd - 36 pts
----------------------------
18. Sunderland - 34 pts


We travel to Man Utd in our last match, they are in 4th but only 3 points ahead of 7th, they have every incentive to crush us. Also, check out the bottom of the table. Sunderland, the team in 18th, travels to Chelsea.

[Radii]

May 7th, 2022

Ipswich(12-10-15, 11th) @ Man Utd(19-8-10, 4th)

We're 7:1 to win today, they are 1:3 favorites. That's probably optimistic for us given how we're finishing things out.

GK: Capitani
D: Heywood/Mattle/O'Brien/Jackson
M: Adagsmar/Donnelly/Smith/Gordon
F: Bryan/Constantino

I start our U18 star Craig Smith at MC today, and Chris Bryan up front. I make sure the team knows there's no pressure. I would have loved to compete for 10th and hey maybe the young kids go out and enjoy their time today and do something special, but its just 100% clear that the players are as ready for next season as I am.

40': Smith passes to Constantino, Constantino is 20 yards out, he turns by his defender, into the area, another DC picks him up but he makes a great move to get himself some space and fires... saved by the diving keeper. So close!

HALF: They shoot 7 times but 4 from long range and only 1 on target. We just have 2 shots, but both on target, one was the clear cut chance for Constantino. Keep it up!

66': Mills in for the tired Smith.

Man Utd 0 : 0 Ipswich

We end the season with a scoreless draw. Fitting! We can't score for shit, but hey we're against a better team so we're going to play out of our minds and get a good result anyway! If we were playing Reading we would have found a way to lose 7-3.

Defender Otmar Mattle puts up a 7.1 rating, our only really noteworthy one. Our 16 year old kid (actually 17 now) Craig Smith was fine in the midfield but did nothing of note.


Nottingham Forest beats Everton on the final day of the season, but West Ham loses. This drops us to 12th. A west ham win and we could have hit 13th. I'll post standings soon. Sunderland aren't able to avoid the drop, Sunderland, QPR, Reading all relegate. Sunderland had spent the last 15 years straight in the EPL. They even finished 4th once, though 10th-13th was their standard. Southampton was the other team to promote up last year with Reading and QPR. southmapton finished 15th and are safe.

-- Our final match against Man Utd plays a nice spoiler, Aston Villa win their final match and with that Aston Villa are 4th with 67 points. Man utd are 5th with 66. We just helped knock Man U from the Champions League to the Euro Cup, whee!


Ipswich Given $15,319,000 - That's the prize money for 12th place. Not too shabby. We pay out $875k in squad bonuses.

[BYU 14]

Still not a bad season and you had some good results on the road against tough competition, something to build on.

[Taz13]

I agree with BYU, not a bad season. Definitely some improvement needed, but still didn't have to worry about relegation.

[Barkeep49]

So you might be at the point where you want to start considering personalities when making roster moves. It feels like you might want to bring in a few guys who are professional or determined as I would think they'd be less likely to play like &!@$ against middling or inferior teams. I hadn't payed a whole bunch of attention to that myself until after reading some of those threads posted by the guy who died, but have found it to have made a positive difference.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Barkeep49

So you might be at the point where you want to start considering personalities when making roster moves. It feels like you might want to bring in a few guys who are professional or determined as I would think they'd be less likely to play like &!@$ against middling or inferior teams. I hadn't payed a whole bunch of attention to that myself until after reading some of those threads posted by the guy who died, but have found it to have made a positive difference.

Agree completely. I started factoring in Determination a lot more after reading the same threads you're talking about, and mentioning it whenever I bring on a new player. For youth players, when a guy is on the fence on whether I'll keep him or cut him, if his determination is high, I'm a lot more likely to let him hang around and see what happens with him. Some of the guys that were constantly reported to be overconfident (James Welsh was the biggest offender) have good determination and a "fairly determined" personality. I may look for "Professional" more as we have a lack of that with Kirkland our main guy there.

We've got some "resolute" guys and I'm not sure exactly how that works out either. Looks like this is the next little piece of the game I dive into a little more.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by BYU 14

Still not a bad season and you had some good results on the road against tough competition, something to build on.

Originally Posted by Taz13

I agree with BYU, not a bad season. Definitely some improvement needed, but still didn't have to worry about relegation.

Yup! We made some improvements this year and I expect to have money available to get better next year, not a bad season at all. All our key pieces should be back and we'll look for another big signing in the offseason to push us further along.

[Radii]

Goalkeepers

Name	Age	$/Wk	GM	GA	SO	MoM	Yel	Red	Avg
Michele Capitani	27	$26500	43	52	13	3	0	0	6.92
Chris Mason	20	$10500	4	6	2	0	0	0	6.7
Michael Rogers	19	$7250	0	-	-	-	-	-	-

**GA = Goals Allowed | SO = Shutouts


Capitani played the same number of matches as last year, allowed 12 less goals and had 6 more shutouts, but his rating was slightly down. Still, I don't blame a single bit of our inconsistency on him. Michael Rogers was great for Shrewsbury in L1. There's a good chance I'll send him to Shrewsbury again next year to try to help them stay up in the Championship. Eventually we have to figure out if Mason and Rogers are good enough to be our backups/rotation behind Capitani at this level.


Defenders

Name	Age	$/Wk	Apps	GL	AST	MoM	Yel	Red	Tck	Pass	Avg
Stuart Kirkland	22	$39500	41	1	3	3	2	0	3.42	77%	7.23
Michael McKerr	32	$12500	12(2)	0	0	1	0	0	3.38	80%	7.07
Otmar Mattle	25	$53000	35	0	1	0	3	0	2.95	72%	6.91
Jonathan Quartey	34	$45500	5(3)	0	0	0	0	0	2.51	82%	6.88
Clive Jackson	22	$19000	30(1)	0	4	1	2	0	3.32	73%	6.85
Anthony Heywood	20	$23000	12(5)	0	0	0	0	0	3.53	75%	6.56
Mark O'Brien	29	$65000	38	0	1	0	6	0	3.26	77%	6.51
James Welsh	26	$27500	12(2)	0	0	0	3	0	3.25	70%	6.38

**GL = Goals | TCK = Tackles/game


Mattle coming in and playing a solid DC is huge. Mark O'Brien was such a mystery. He was the most inconsistent player on the team, and when I signed him I expected him to be my most consistent defender. Very frustrating guy.

[Radii]

Midfielders

Name	Age	$/Wk	Apps	GL	AST	MoM	Yel	Red	Tck	Pass	Avg
Neil Gordon	26	$47500	33(4)	10	4	3	4	0	2.49	55%	7.04
Gordon Donnelly	27	$52000	31	1	7	0	13	0	4.41	72%	6.97
Steven Mills	24	$84000	29(5)	2	5	0	3	0	3.95	78%	6.92
Jack Hughes	21	$18000	25(4)	2	1	1	4	0	2.57	64%	6.82
McDonald Mariga	35	$15250	17(9)	0	0	0	4	0	3.76	78%	6.82
Conor Clifford	30	$31500	29(4)	0	5	0	2	0	3.55	82%	6.78
Adagsmar	27	$35000	23(6)	3	1	1	2	0	2.20	58%	6.68
Sakari Mattila	32	$27000	5(9)	0	0	0	1	0	2.62	84%	6.62
Fredy Guarin	35	$18000	2(4)	0	0	0	0	0	0.27	89%	6.55
Aaron Doran	30	$24500	6(8)	0	0	0	0	0	2.23	45%	6.37

**GL = Goals | TCK = Tackles/game


Last year we had much much higher ratings across the midfield. Clifford came in and played well, Doran did not, I hoped for more from him backing up Neil Gordon.




Attackers

Name	Age	$/Wk	Apps	GL	AST	MoM	Yel	Red	Drb	Pass	Avg
Constantino	27	$47500	38(3)	17	5	5	3	0	6.65	68%	7.10
Matthew Khan	27	$47500	17(4)	7	5	1	4	0	5.26	71%	6.99
Nicklas Bendtner	34	$33000	6(6)	3	0	1	0	0	3.44	61%	6.91
Chris Bryan	19	$7000	19(11)	7	6	2	0	0	4.46	59%	6.87

** GL = Goals | Drb = Dribbles/Game


The emergence of Chris Bryan as a threat at such a young age was exciting this year, but we have to wonder if the season ends up differently if we don't lose one of our most popular players in Matthew Khan for 4 months.

[Radii]

Ipswich 2021/22 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
2021/22 - Premier League - 12th - 12 W - 11 D - 15 L - 36 for - 48 ag - 47 pts

This year:

Top Goalscorer - Constantino - 17 goals
Top League Goalscorer - Constantino - 14 goals
Most Assists - Gordon Donnelly - 17 assists
Highest Average Rating - Stuart Kirkland - 7.23
Most Man of the Match - Constantino - 5

[Radii]

[Radii]

2021-22 Premier Division Stats

Goals

1. Bugra Yildirim - Arsenal - 25
2. Romelu Lukaku - Man City - 21
3. Brahim Ba - Newcastle - 20
4. Andy Singh - West Ham - 19
5. Hans Nooij - Arsenal - 18
...
11. Constantino - Ipsiwch - 14

Neil Gordon's 7 league goals was 40th, Chris Bryan's 6 goals was 45th.


Assists

1. Aaron Ramsey - Arsenal - 14
2. Fabian Delph - Aston Villa - 12
3. Joel - Newcastle - 11
4. Toni Kroos - Man City - 11
5. 5 tied - 10
...
26. Chris Bryan - 6

Donnelly led the team with 7 total but only 4 were in league play.


Average Rating

1. Aaron Ramsey - Arsenal - 7.60
2. Fabian Delph - Aston Villa - 7.57
3. Bugra Yildirim - Arsenal - 7.50
4. Romelu Lukaku - Man City - 7.48
5. Davide Santon - Chelsea - 7.42
...
22. Stuart Kirkland - 7.17
...
52. Constantino - 7.04
...
73. Neil Gordon - 6.99

[Radii]

-- Chelsea beat Stuttgart to win the Euro Cup.

-- Newcastle beat Chelsea to win the FA Cup.

June Update

-- The world cup is about to start! I never did document the draw, oh well, we'll just cover it as it goes on.

-- The board is satisfied with my coaching. They are aware that the fans are disappointed with Neil Gordon... he ended the season poorly but overall was my top rated midfielder. I'm not worried about this. The "saving grace" is the increase in stature of the club since I took over. I don't much like the wording of that!

-- We made $11.99M last month.

Last year we made $123.9M in revenue, had $96.7M in expenses, and spent $16.5M buying players. This year to date we've brought in $122.1M in revenue, spent $99M in expenses and spent $23.1M buying players. Similar numbers, we just spent more in the transfer market this season.

Right now we have a positive bank balance of $6.7M. We are running at a loss of $6,675 on the season. Yup, 6 thousand.


Retirement

-- MC Fredy Guarin will be retiring when his contract expires later this month. Guarin played 4 years for Ipswich after coming over from Man Utd for $1.6M. He played 82 matches for me with 6 goals and 7 assists and a rating around 6.85. He spent half of his career at Cagliari in Serie A, a bit in Ligue 1 in france and the rest in the EPL. For his career he played in 340 league matches scoring 26 goals with 33 assists.

World Cup Callups

The following Ipswich players have been called up to their respective international squads.

Ghana: DC Jonathan Quartey
England: DL Stuart Kirkland

I'm super excited to see Kirkland get called up for England here. No idea if he'll play but that's a huge step for him! Quartey's contract is expiring and we won't see him again, but we'll root for Ghana nonetheless.

[Radii]

European Club Rankings

1. Inter - 168.373 (+1)
2. Barcelona - 153.673 (+1)
3. Olympique Lyonnais - 151.289 (-2 spot)
4. Chelsea - 149.412 (no change)
5. Man Utd - 147.412 (+2)
6. Real Madrid - 145.673 (no change)
7. Arsenal - 139.412 (was unranked)
8. At. Madrid - 138.573 (-3)
9. Benfica - 129.197 (-1)
10. Roma - 127.374 (unranked)

OM and Newcastle fall out of the top 10. OM to 11th, Newcastle to 21st.

We move up to 105th in the world, up 19 places from last season. Because of our brief foray into the Euro Cup this is actually not just a blanket move with the rest of the English clubs. We're up ahead of many of them now and are actually the 13th highest rated team in England.


Fans Player of the Year

-- DL Stuart Kirkland has been named the Fans player of the year. Who says they don't like defense! Oh, you mean they just looked at his rating? Boo.

Ipswich Best Eleven

GK: Capitani
D: Kirkland/O'Brien/Mattle/McKerr
M: Hughes/Donnelly/Mills/Gordon
F: Constantino/Khan

McKerr and Khan are the only two picks that could be questioned. Jackson over Mckerr IMO. Khan I'm fine with, Bryan was about the same, give it to the vet.

Ipswich All Time Best Eleven

GK: Brian Murphy (396 apps/6.79 rating)
DL: Stuart Kirkland (201 apps/7.15 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 (307 apps/36 goals/7.00 rating)
MC: Owen Garvan (263 apps/18 goals/6.82 rating)
MR: Neil Gordon (190 apps/47 goals/6.94 rating)
ST: Constantino (213 apps/154 goals/7.52 rating)
ST: Matthew Khan (205 apps/109 goals/7.10 rating)

With 86 matches and a 6.97 average rating GK Michele Capitani is named a backup to the all time team. He's got a good ways to go to pass Brian Murphy I would have to assume. Kirkland, Gordon, Donnelly, Constantino, Khan, and now Capitani are the current players named here.


EPL Schedule Announced

West Brom, Exeter, and Watford promoted up from the Championship last season. Our opening match this year is going to be against Exeter. Revenge for an FA Cup loss I hope.

TV Rights

We are set to receive $48,510,000 for television rights this upcoming season.


Season Expectations

We're allowed to set our expectations to "achieve a safe position" in the EPL this year. A mid-standing finish would grant us a $900,000k/wk payroll budget and $29.5M in transfer funds. If we bumped up to last year's expectations we could get $950,000/wk and $35M in transfer funds.

I'm damn tempted to bump up to a top half finish, but I did notice that my job standing went from "untouchable" to "secure" at some point... lets take the safe route which still allows for a large amount of spending to improve the squad. A mid-standing finish it is.


-- Youth DC Sam Barnett and ST Eoin Darcy are promoted to the reserve squad, too old for the U18's. Barnett is a 2* to 2 1/2* potential type guy with little skill right now. Darcy however has seen his stock go way up and is considered a 3 1/2* prospect by most everyone, including my assistant coach who is very tough in terms of rating players. More on Darcy later but that's pretty darn exciting.

New Youth Intake

-- ST John Deacon shows 1 1/2* potential. We're not overloaded with U18 strikers so he'll get to train with us and see if that bumps up any. He has some speed and not much else.

-- DL Liam Ormerod has 2* potential, good speed, determination 14, teamwork 17 give him something decent to start from. Tackling 11 out of the gate is nice too for a 16 y/o.

-- GK Jamie Schulz 2 1/2* potential, determination 13, bravery 17, reflexes 13 and lots of 7-9 skills in goalkeeping. Decent... except:

-- GK Rob Lines has 3 1/2* potential ("quality player), a couple coaches drop him down to 3*, and a couple give him 4* potential. Aerial Ability 17, Command of Area 14, Communication 12, Handling 15, Reflexes 11. Determination 12. He's got a lot of skills to start building from. We'll want him playing as much as possible and may just loan out our other keeper right away to a lower level squad.

-- ST Kyle McGlashan has "decent player" potential, strong finishing (15), flair and teamwork.

-- MC Liam Oakes also has decent potential. The only one of the bunch with determination under 10. Ok athlete, ok passer.


Not quite the splash we saw last year but good players at different positions. We weren't really working on a youth GK so that's good to see. It does require me to go find a youth GK coach. Mine is like 2 1/2* right now.


-- We broke an attendance record with 29,461 average attendance last season, topping our 28,902 from the year before. A full season with our new expanded stadium should allow that to rise a bit more this year.


EPL Title Odds

Man City, Arsenal, and Chelsea are all 5:1 to win this year. tottenham and Man Utd are 16:1. Aston Villa 20:1.

Last year we started the year 200:1 to win... this year we are downgraded heavily to 1000:1. The media is picking us to finish 14th this year.


Favored Personnel

The franchise info screen shows lists of legendary players in Ipswich's history, Icons, and Favored Personnel. Constantino jumped to "legendary" status a couple years ago. Matthew Khan has been a favored player for the past few years, and neither of those things change, but DL Stuart Kirkland has been added as favored personnel, hooray for new fan favorites!


The world cup group stage is over and I'll recap that soon. Unfortunately, Jonathan Quartey only played one match and was not very good with a 5.4 rating. Stuart Kirkland was not called to action. England have advanced to the round of 16, Ghana did not.

[Radii]

We're up to June 27th and are about to start our dive into the transfer market, but I'm much too tired to focus on that tonight, so we'll recap the group stages of the World Cup and be done for now.

Group A

1. Holland 3-0-0, 9 points
2. USA 1-1-1, 4 points
3. Russia 0-2-1, 2 points
4. Tunisia 0-1-2, 1 point

Holland and the US advance. Jozy Altidore is still starting up front for the USA. Their other starting forward is Sergio Curtin. He's a 27 y/o playing for Lazio in Serie A, generated in 2013.


Group B

1. Argentina 2-1-0, 7 points
2. South Africa 2-0-1, 6 points
3. South Korea 0-2-1, 2 points
4. Switzerland 0-1-2, 1 point

Argentina and South Africa advance.


Group C

Portugal 3-0-0, 9 points
Iran 1-1-1, 4 points
Croatia 1-1-1, 4 points
chile 0-0-3, 0 points

Croatia beat Chile 1-0. Its the only goal they scored in group play. Iran also only scored against Chile but they won that match 4-1 and took a goal differential edge to the next round.


Group D

England - 2-1-0, 7 points
Peru - 1-2-0, 5 points
Ghana - 1-1-1, 4 points
Albania - 0-0-3, 0 points

England and Peru

Group E

Brazil 3-0-0, 9 points
Serbia - 1-1-1, 4 points
Guatemala 1-1-1, 4 points
Mali 0-0-3, 0 points

Serbia 6:5 goal differential, Guatemala 3:3, Serbia advances along with Brazil.

Group F

France 3-0-0, 9 points
Australia 1-1-1, 4 points
Estonia 0-2-1, 2 points
New Zeland 0-1-2, 1 point

France and Australia

Group G

Spain 3-0-0, 9 points
Mexico - 1-1-1, 4 points
Ukraine - 1-1-1, 4 points
Congo - 0-0-3, 0 points

Mexico 3:2 goal differential, Ukraine 4:4.

Group H

Italy 2-1-0, 7 points
Turkey 1-2-0, 5 points
Saudi Arabia 0-2-1, 2 points
Uruguay 0-1-2, 1 point

Italy and Turkey

Round of 16

Holland vs South Africa
Iran vs England

France vs Serbia
Spain vs Turkey

Argentina vs USA
Portugal vs Peru

Brazil vs Australia
Mexico vs Italy

[Radii]

So before I turn the game off for the evening, here's the last piece of news I see.

Trouble at Ipswich

SKy Sports News is reporting that there is growing friction between Ipswich Town central midfielder Steven Mills and teammate McDonald Mariga.

Speculation is rife that unless head coach richard Dixon resolves the conflict soon, the pair's performances for Ipswich Town could suffer.


WTF! They've played together for 3 years.

Not only that, Mariga's personal page says he "thinks Mills is a good player" and has no mention of unhappiness anywhere.

Steven Mills however: "Dislikes McDonald Mariga and Craig Smith".

Man I would release Mariga on the spot to fix problems if I need to. But Craig Smith is the most exciting prospect I've ever had in my youth program and the best chance I have to get another trained at Ipswich Home Grown on the senior squad (Chris Bryan I bought too late for that, he's not HG). I'm going to be pissed if I have a problem between Smith and Mills long term.

[Izulde]

If it was DDSPB, I'd trade Mills.

[Taz13]

Quick question, I noticed in comment from above that someone suggested bringing in players who are considered professional or have a higher degree of determination. My question is, does this game take into consideration chemisty of a club during the season for results? I hope that this makes sense.

Thanks,

[law90026]

Apparently it does. If you revamp your squad completely, I find the first few weeks or months seem rougher. The SI tips also indicate as much

[SirFozzie]

BTW: Looks like ManYoo will have a major grudge, you kept them out of the Champions League. That's 25 million or so right there.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

BTW: Looks like ManYoo will have a major grudge, you kept them out of the Champions League. That's 25 million or so right there.

That doesn't actually happen does it? God that'd be glorious. I wish my players would want to beat Exeter 8-0 as badly as I do for the embarrassing exit from the FA Cup we had at their hands.

[Radii]

WoIfsongs teamtalk guide.

I've been reading this guide while watching Everton/Liverpool on ESPN2. I've been mostly relying on recommended talks, after my experiences last season that will be changing immediately.

[Radii]

-- So my staff is basically set. All of my first team and youth coaches are 4* or 4 1/2* with the exception of youth attacking which is 3 1/2*. I'll do a search to see if I can find a clear upgrade there. I had a coach mis-assigned that had my youth GK coaching low, now that I actually have a youth GK its fixed :P.

-- The Mills/Craig Smith hate comes from tutoring, they didn't get along while tutoring. Its the first time I've ever seen it happen but it happens. I'm unsure why that carried over to Mariga and Mills, but as long as I don't play the two together that shouldn't be a problem.

-- We have a few contracts coming off the books. For the first time ever I believe we have EPL level talent at every single position and while I do need to try to set aside some cash for a backup or two I believe this year its not unreasonable to be willing to spend most if not all of our $29M transfer money on a true impact player. As much as I love Constantino and like the idea of Constantino/Khan/Bryan as my primary scorers if the biggest impact player I can get is a striker that outshines Constantino so be it.

The max we're allowed to offer a key player currently is $99,000/wk. A lot of the true world class players even if we could lure one for $25M would want like $150,000/wk, so we'll see what's reasonable for us to do here.

[Radii]

-- Randomly clicking around I end up at the contract "clauses" screen that stores all of the contract/sale clauses that are currently in play. I sold Carlos Antonio to Juventus for $1.3M awhile back. I'm set to receive 25% of the profit of any future sales. However, the board negotiated a buyout on this clause. I guess Juventus thinks they can flip him for big money, I dunno, but they're willing to buy out that clause for $1.7M. He's 29 y/o now and still just valued at $2.5M. They would have to sell him for ~$9 Million for me to make more off the sale than the buyout. So I go ahead and accept this buyout and take in an extra $1.7M. Awesome little feature I'd never seen, I don't see how it possibly fails to work out for me.

-- I dig a bit deeper than I have in the past, looking at scout reports from the last year, shortlist, transfer listed players but I also go through every team in the EPL and the 3 that just relegated and start poking at their unhappy players. I get a bite from Man City for a MC that I would be real excited about. I also have a bite on a striker from Greece, and a DC in Scotland, though they're all expensive enough that I'm unlikely to be able to sign more than one.

-- I try to throw my whole transfer budget at a DR in Italy that would be the best player on my team, he's a little unhappy with Palermo right now but I simply don't have what it takes to land the guy.

-- Hah, touche Celtic, touche. I offer for a DC who is kiling it for them (like 7.8 ratings in Scotland killing it) that my scouts love. I offer like $10M or something, they counter with $21M. I counter with $15.5M and a % of his next sale (not profit, just flat %). They counter with $22M. I see, I see.

-- I have to wonder if you're a starting MC for Man City, and you "want a new challenge" but its not to come play for Ipswich to help a new team rise up, exactly WTF are you wanting!? Because how much better does it get than Man City? Basically Arsenal and Inter and Barcelona and Chelsea and Man Utd, so you're asking to go to one of those 5 teams? I have an offer accepted for a very unsettled MC at Man City and get pretty excited about it until I see that apparently he's just saying "Arsenal or Bust".

July Update

Yup, its just now July 1st. We got on the ball a little earlier this year than usual. It may not pay off with one of these top signings but its definitely helped us get in the mix a lot more.

-- We'll play a few friendlies, England is still alive in the World Cup and The Euro U19 Championship will be this month and I assume we've got a player or two lined up for that.

-- Jonathan Quartey and Sakari Mattila leave the club, Guarin is retired. We open the transfer window with a payroll of $766k/wk and an allowed payroll of $900k/wk.

-- The board is pleased with my leadership. The increase in stature is the highlight, the board is "slightly disappointed" that Quartey left. He's my #4 DC and wanted $45k/wk. I would have kept him for $20k/wk but he wouldn't have it.


-- One of the big guys I was going after, an M LR from Sunderland, signs with FC Bayern for $18.5M

-- As soon as the transfer window opens Liverpool bid $17M for Otmar Mattle, my most stable and reliable DC. I counter for $45M.

[Radii]

-- We lose out on ST Carlos Briseno, an Olympiakos forward scoring 20+ goals every year, to Cagliari. We'd both bid $12.5M and made offers, but they win out.

-- DC Mattle is upset with me for not letting him talk to Liverpool about a deal. I would have let you buddy, if they were willing to pay $45M!

-- I scout the players released by the top EPL sides.


New Signing

-- I had 4 offers out that would have used half or more of my transfer budget for a player that would be a clear starter for Ipswich. 1 ST, two MC's and a DC. I would have preferred either one of the MC's but neither one were willing to play for me, so we end up with a no brainier decision in the end.

26 y/o DC Carlos Aldrovandi - $20M to Celtic - $88,000/wk for 4 years. I almost wanna say he doesn't seem quite good enough ratings wise to be worth this, but his results tip the scales for me. He's spent his last 6 seasons in Continental play but coming out of Scotland and Holland (rangers->Feyenoord->Celtic with fees of $12.5M and $14M along the way). His play for these teams is spectacular. Ratings of 7.77, 7.46, 7.54, 7.37, 7.33, 7.60 his last 6 years. He made an appearance for Italy in the world cup.

Physical: All ratings 14 or 15, except for Jumping which is 17

Mental: Determination 12, Positioning 15, Teamwork 16, Bravery 16, Anticipation 15, all ratings but flair/influence are 11+

Technical: Heading 16, Marking 16, Passing 16, Tackling 14, Technique 11

Based on his attributes alone I would feel like the guy is a very good player but wonder slightly if he's worth $20M. But when I see the guy playing for Italy and roflstomping the Dutch League, I'm willing to make my move here, improving my defense yet again and trusting the midfield and attack that led me to 6th place 2 years ago to get it together and start generating more goals this year.


I'll look at my depth chart and updated finances briefly. First though, the world cup has been completed:

Round of 16

Holland 2 : 1 South Africa
Argentina 2 : 1 USA
Peru 1 : 0 Portugal
England 3 : 1 Iran
Brazil 4 : 1 Australia
France 2 : 0 Serbia
Spain 4 : 2 Turkey
Italy 1 : 0 Mexico


Quarterfinals

Holland 4 : 2 England
Argentina 2 : 0 Peru
Brazil 0 : 0 Italy (Brazil wins on PKs)
Spain 2 : 1 France

-- Stuart Kirkland was brought on in the 59th minute for England and earned a 6.7 rating winning two tackles and completing 11 of 14 passes.

-- Carlos Aldrovandi was brought on in the 16th minute for Italy in their penalty shootout loss to Brazil. He won 16 of 18 headers, 7 key headers, was 2 for 2 on tackles and made 7 interceptions. He had the second highest rating on the Italian squad (and 4th highest in the match) at 7.5.

Semifinal

Holland 1 : 0 Spain
Argentina 1 : 1 Brazil (Argentina wins on PKs)

-- Brazil win 3rd place on penalties after a 0:0 bore with Spain.

Final

Argentina 0 : 0 Holland ... Each team hits every penalty through the first 5 so they keep going, Argentina scores on the next one, Holland doesn't, and Argentina wins the world cup.

[Radii]

-- We now have a very expensive central defense after paying $15 Million for Otmar Mattle last year and $20M for Carlos Aldrovandi this year. We also paid $9M for Mark O'Brien. Mattle was a definite winner for me last year and if Aldrovandi can live up to my expectations I believe we'll once again significantly reduce our goals allowed in the EPL this year.

So first of all lets look at my current depth chart and see how the talent shakes out right now.


GK: Capitani/Mason/Rogers/Lines/Schulz

-- Going into the youth team here we are simply overloaded at GK. Capitani/Mason/Lines will stay at Ipswich, while Rogers will be sent to Shrewsbury to a) get starting Championship experience and b) try to help them stay up because I really do want a feeder club at that level.

DL: Kirkland/Heywood/Hughes/Hollis

-- Kirkland is a stud obviously, and still only 23. Heywood is only 20, was just ok last year but still he's good depth. We don't really want to see Hughes or Hollis have to play here. Hollis is a U18 guy and one of the mediocre ones.

DC: Aldrovandi/Mattle/O'Brien/Welsh/McKerr

-- 2 years ago Welsh was my #1 guy. We're really rather strong at DC now.

DR: Jackson/Heywood/McKerr

-- This is our weakest point in defense but its still quite alright, we're certainly not going to find an obvious upgrade for cheap or anything. Slight risk to depth if we have injury issues at DL and DR.

DMC: Clifford/Donnelly

-- I don't run DMC consistently but the option is there to do so

ML: Adagsmar/Hughes

-- I need to look for depth here, or possibly even an upgrade. If there's any position where I could outright upgrade a starter for $10M it'd be here. Hughes is a good player but he's a good DL. He gives me some solid performances at ML but he's just not as well suited for it. He's still only 21. Either way, we need to add a player here, whether its depth or someone to try to win the starting job.

MC: Mills/Donnelly/Clifford/Mariga/Smith

-- Craig Smith is my exciting youngster, he'll almost certainly find a few minutes with the senior team now and again (league cup, etc) Mariga is 35 and fading. And we have an issue where Mills has decided he doesn't like Mariga anymore. Two years ago these guys looked brilliant, last year not so much. Our depth is fine here but it could be hard to keep Mills from ever playing with Smith or Mariga.


MR: Gordon/Doran/Jackson

Gordon is obviously, the verdict is still out on Doran and Jackson is needed in defense and that's a last resort.


ST: Constantino/Khan/Bryan/Bendtner/Darcy/Kershaw

-- We struggled to score last year, but by taking the upgrade at DC we're making a big statement that we feel these guys can get goals for us this season. Darcy and Kershaw were both key in getting Shrewsbury to the Championship, they're 18 and 19 years old and I'll likely loan them out again this year.

Kershaw is a guy who was valued at ~$500k at the start of last year. His value has shot up to $3.9M right now but he's still a guy who doesn't seem like he'll ever play for me. I'm not selling him entirely b/c I think helping Shrewsbury stay in the Championship would be worth way way more than $4M. Darcy has huge potential and I think could be a leading scorer in the Championship this year and a semi-regular for us next year.


Well, I spent more time talking bout the U18 plans than I intended in there, but I think I have a good feel for where I stand. We could really stand to upgrade ML, but if that's not possible with the remaining funds we could at least add depth


-- Quickly looking at finances, we have $42,000/wk in payroll available (though last year we went over by $20k or so and it never hurt us), and we have a transfer budget of $10.7M remaining. We will for right now at least be looking primarily for a left midfielder.

[Radii]

Friendly #1

We travel across the English Channel and into France to play Ligue 1 side FC Metz. Constantino and Khan score in the first half and we sub out the starters at halftime. They tie it up at 2 early in the second half before we go crazy in the final 20 minutes. We get a goal from Bendtner, then Bryan, then a second from Bryan, then a second from Bendtner. 3 of those last 4 goals were the other team gifting us possession deep in their own end.

FC Metz 2 : 6 Ipswich


Friendly #2

We travel to Brighton, currently up in League 1 (our other feeder club other than Shrewsbury). We get a penalty in the first half and Constantino scores. Bendtner scores in the second half.

Brighton 0 : 2 Ipswich


Injury Update

-- Chris Bryan is hurt in the match today and will miss 3 weeks.


-- As we near the end of July we're really not having any luck with our ML search.

-- England wins the Euro U19 Championship. Our 17 y/o MC Craig Smith plays a half against Spain and the full match in the final against Holland earning 6.7 and 6.8 ratings.

-- We've sold 18,167 season tickets, we're expecting 4200ish more to get us over 22k.


Friendly #3

We host Celtic. They score early on a mistake by Clive Jackson. We are worried as Matthew Khan is forced out of the match about 25 minutes in, we'll check in on him after the match. Nicklas Bendtner comes in for him and scores a goal before halftime. We get one from Constantino in the 66th minute right before we bring in backups. After a lot of quite unlucky bounces in the area they get a goal off a rebound in the 91st minute to tie.

Ipswich 2 : 2 Celtic


Injury Update

-- Matthew Khan is going to be out 4 weeks with an ankle injury picked up today.



-- There's a young ML at Chelsea who is basically as good as Adagsmar right now with the potential to be much, much better, but they'd want $2.5M for him now and a $15M fee to buy him during the loan period. With his potential that's actually not the most unreasonable thing in the world except we don't have it, so that's out.

-- A Napoli ML, Juan Pablo Crespo, comes up in a search that would be about as good as what we have now with the potential to be better... but not by a lot, and at 22 y/o there's not as much room to finish developing. This kid has some holes too, decision making of 6, great determination and anticipation... I'm not sold on almost $7M for "maybe better" though. I try a loan offer instead.


New Loaner

22 y/o ML Juan Pablo Crespo - $1.3M fee to Napoli/$4.5M purchase option - $4100/wk wage.

Physical: pace 13/accel 16/sta 14/agi 14.

Mental: Determination 16/Teamwork 14/Work Rate 17/Anticipation 15/Creativity 14

Technical: First Touch 15/Dribbling 16/Crossing 12/Passing 11/Tackling 11/Technique 13/Finishing 11

There are some major positives in here. He's ok, though not spectacular physically. He's got some great positives mentally, but a decision making of 6 and positioning of 3 scare me. Technically again I like a lot of what I see but he's only good, not great at crossing or passing, so will he control the ball well and dribble into a good spot but then not be proficient enough to do anything with it against EPL defenses?

There's enough promise here to take a flier and pay $1.3M to try him out for a year. If I see something promising enough to think he can start for me then it's a no brainer to buy him before the loan is done.


With that we have a little more than $8M that we can spend in the transfer market but we've got the lineup we're taking into the season. I'm apprehensive as to whether we've done enough with only two new signings, though one of them ought to be a really important one for us. I'm hoping that my reading on motivation and team talks allows me to get more out of my players this year and to use my subs more wisely in addition to upgrading the defense.

[Radii]

August Update

-- We have two friendlies left, the last one we're hosting Barcelona and our beating is going to be televised. We'll have a week off before our first EPL match, playing on the 13th, 17th, 20th, 24th (league cup), and 27th.

-- Up to 21,533 season tickets sold.

-- The board is pleased with my leadership. Our increase in stature is the highlight and the departure of Jonathan Quartey is the only negative.

-- We lost $9.95M last month. Considering that we spend $21.3M in transfers that's not bad. Right now we're sitting on a $2.9M loss on the season. We'll see if its like last year where we slowly lose money and break even with our EPL prize money or if we can do better than that this year. Our wage budget is higher this year than last, so there's that.

Friendly #4

We're traveling to Reading today and with two ST's hurt we run a 4-1-4-1. We go to the locker room scoreless before making our subs. Mariga gets a great goal in the 60th minute. That's the only goal of the match.

Reading 0 : 1 Ipswich



Friendly #5

We host Barcelona. Lionel Messi says hi in the first minute. They get two more before the half. We suffer injuries to Aldrovandi and Adagsmar in the second half and give up a 4th goal.

Ipswich 0 : 4 Barcelona


Injury Update

Good news: Aldrovandi is fine.

Bad News: Adagsmar has a serious injury and will miss 2-3 months.

Happy News: I just spelled Aldrovandi correctly for the first time without looking at his name while I type it.



Gordon Donnelly, now 28 y/o, remains captain, Kirkland Vice-Captain. Cases could be made for O'Brien or Clifford but they are (barely) outside our first team so we stick with a captain our team likes.


-- Chris Bryan resumes full training.


Next up: Opening day at Exeter!

[Tellistto]

Revenge to be had! Here's to a good start to the season!

Tell

[Radii]

League Cup 2nd Round Draw

We're going to play at home against L1 side Doncaster. We've not really taken the league cup seriously in recent years and this will be a match during a run of numerous EPL matches on short rest and we'll be playing a 2nd team squad here too.

August 13th, 2022

Ipswich @ Exeter

We are only slim favorites against newly promoted Exeter today. They beat us 4:0 in the quarterfinals of the FA Cup last year in ridiculously embarrassing fashion.

GK: Capitani
D: Kirkland/Mattle/Aldrovandi/Jackson
M: Crespo/Donnelly/Mills/Gordon
F: Bendtner/Constantino

Bryan not really ready yet, he might play a little off the bench. I try out Crespo at ML instead of Hughes. Lets open the season in a standard mindset.

15': Crespo to Gordon for a solid shot but its saved, the first shot we see in a highlight.

21': Gordon to Constantino, he's 25 yards out, turns by his man and into the area... he's got our first clear cut chance of the year, but its saved, and not really taken that strongly.

22': Mills passes to Constantino at the edge of the area, he's tackled... and its a penalty! Constantino takes the PK and we're on the board. 1-0

28': Donnelly with a pass ahead to Bendtner, he skips over a slide tackle attempt and fires a shot, clear cut chance #3... its saved but the keeper can't hold it and is way off his line now. Constantino pounces on the rebound and puts it into the open net! 2-0

46': We build up on offense, Donnelly puts a ball into the area, Bendtner runs onto it in between their two DC's and he shoots near post by the keeper! 3-0

HALF: We have 5 clear cut chances and are off to a spectacular start. 10 shots, 7 on target, they have 4/2 on target. I remind the team not to let up at the half. I tell Crespo I'm pleased with him (guide says not to pressure too much first few matches) and tell Constantino and Bendtner I have faith in their abilities (top ratings/scorers).

61': Bendtner is hurt. Come on! I had someone coming in for him warming up as this happened.

63': Bryan in for Constantino, Clifford in for Bendtner and we'll pull back to a 4-1-4-1 and defend this one out.

75': O'Brien in for Mills, Clifford to MC, O'Briend DC, 5-4-1.

75': they earn a corner, taken to the near man, Donnelly is off to his side instead of between him and the goal, way to go there. Header is into the net and we give one back. 3-1

Great way to start the season!

Exeter 1 : 3 Ipswich

Man of the Match: Constantino (8.8)
Goals: Constantino 2, Bendtner (8.5)
Assists: Bendtner, Donnelly (7.9)
Notables: Jackson (7.3), Kirkland (7.1), Mills (7.1)

Crespo a 6.8 and Aldrovandi a 6.9 in their first matches.


-- I create a spreadsheet to try to master team talks to track who is playing well and who isn't (a prior match of 5.5 or worse and 7.5 or better are worthy of non-default pep talks), and how each player responds to different types of talks (who responds to pressure like "I expect a win" and who wilts under pressure). I also created a little notepad doc condensing the big guide I read into more succinct "If favorites and morale high, 'for the fans'" statements until I get this all down. I won't go into too much detail though I'll probably bring up when I learn something new about a player or when a halftime talk seems to motivate a player to greater things.

Heh for example today I reminded the team not to stop playing just b/c they had a 3-0 lead at the half. DC Mattle was angered and confused (I'm picturing a family guy style cutaway here... MATTLE SMASH) by this pep talk, while Gordon Donnelly gained extra focus. I'm more interested to see how things look in a 1-0 halftime lead/deficit than this 3-0 drubbing though.

Anyway, good start!!

[SirFozzie]

REVENGE! Good stuff

[Radii]

Contract Update

-- We've got 8 players with expiring contracts this season.

-- ST Nicklas Bendtner - turns 35 this year, hopefully Darcy is ready to step in as one of my top 4 forwards next year, no offer. If he does great and his ratings don't tank maybe i'd extend him.

-- MC McDonald Mariga - turns 36 this year. Remarkable how well his ratings have held up. 19 Natural Fitness possibly the reason. His speed has dropped a good bit though and I can't imagine another year but I've said that like 3 years in a row. No offer now though.

-- MR Aaron Doran - turns 32 at the very end of the season. Disappointing so far, will need to show me something to get another year.

-- MC Conor Clifford - turns 31 this year. He was fairly solid last year and will get lots of playing time this year. Wants a small raise ($31,500->$34,500/wk) for an extension. I give him the signing bonus he wants but try to give him a little more of an appearance bonus in exchange for not taking a raise in weekly wage. 1 year extension offered.

-- DR Michael McKerr - turns 33 this year. makes $12,500/wk now, will extend out a year for $10,000/wk, so a slight drop for the job security. This might be his last extension but he's still solid DR depth so I'm happy to keep him on.

-- DC James Welsh - turns 27 this year. He makes $31,500/wk now and wants a 3 year extension for the same amount. In the end I'd probably break down and give it to him, but for now I offer him a much bigger apperance fee ($13k instead of $7.75k per appearance) and a bit more signing bonus to see if he'll take $25,000/wk instead.

-- DR Clive Jackson - turns 23 this year. He makes $22,000/wk now and wants $26,500/wk with a yearly 15% raise for a 3 year extension. He's worth that to me given his starting role right now. There's an extremely good chance I would make a splash in upgrading this position over the next few years (I tried this year but was aiming ridiculously high), but for now, he's a starter and this isn't much to pay.

-- GK Chris Mason - turns 22 this year. Makes $12,000/wk and is willing to stay on for the same for a 2 year extension. Clearly yes. I doubt he'll ever start for me, but if he's willing to be my backup he might be around awhile. Otherwise I can make a couple million selling him at any time.


That's all this year, we'll revisit the older guys I didn't yet offer later on.

Injury Update

urrrrrrrrgh. DC Carlos Aldrovandi suffers a back strain in weight training. He's out 3-4 weeks. Shit.


August 17th, 2022

Ipswich @ Blackburn

Blackburn are 5:4 favorites today, we're 7:4 dogs. Outside of a relegation scare 2 years ago, they are a consistent 10th-15th finisher, 14th last season. We're 3-1-4 lifetime against Blackburn but are 3-0-1 in our last 4.

GK: Capitani
D: Kirkland/Mattle/O'Brien/Heywood
M: Hughes/Donnelly/Mariga/Gordon
F: Bryan/Constantino

O'Brien starts for Aldrovandi, a couple other changes just to keep guys rested. Heywood, Hughes, Mariga and Bryan in, Jackson, Crespo, Mills and Bryan out. Mattle is distracted, so says my assistant, and I tell him I expect him to play like he cares out there (Expect a Performance). Donnelly/Consatntino to build on their recent strong play.

Standard mindset today.

21': They have a free kick near midfield, taken quickly and sent ahead, a shot comes in from 25 yards out that Capitani has to save... its the first on target shot but so far they look like the better team, or at least, they're getting all the chances.

24': A give and go between their two strikers sees Mark O'Brien left in the dust, ST Lindqvist with a clear cut chance from the edge of the box and he converts. 0-1

28': We get it ahead to Chris Bryan who gets a good shot off, but its saved, we recover after a clearance attempt and build up again, a cross comes into the area from Neil Gordon, Hughes is there and heads it... off the post, and they clear.

31': A pass from midfield goes up to Constantino, he's still 25+ yards out, but turns by his man, gets into the area and beats the keeper! They cry for an offsides, but nope! 1-1

40': Blackburn earn their second clear cut chance as a ball goes ahead to ST Griffiths, Mattle fights him for the ball but misses a tackle, he's free in the area.. but Capitani makes the stop.

HALF: It looked like it was all Blackburn early but by the half its about even really. Possession is 51/49 in our favor, they shoot 6 times to our 5, they put 3 shots on target to our 2, 2 clear cut chances to our 1. We're tackling at a crazy 93% rate, the only misses lead to clear cut chances for them. My only worry right now is that our DC's will let us down. O'Brien has a really bad half and I cuss him out and sub him, Welsh is in.

67': A slow half so far, here we get a breakaway for Constantino, he gets inot the area after a long run and has a clear cut chance... but saved by the keeper, turned back for a corner. They clear but we reset our offense and try again. Mariga shoots from way out, off a defender and its another corner. this one Mattle gets a header off but its high.

70': Bendtner is in for Bryan.

72': A highlight opens with us on the attack, Mariga to Bendtner, he sends it to Constantino at the edge of the area... a shot... but its off the crossbar.

73': Donnelly a yellow.

74': Mills in for Mariga.

80': Mills ahead to Constantino, he loses his man and its our 3rd clear cut chance.. but saved. First corner is headed behind for a second. This one is headed away and they clear.

85': Yellow for Mattle.

88': We win a ball in the midfield and push right away, Donnelly spots an opening and gets it into the penalty area, Hughes is there, its our 4th clear cut chance... and its saved. Noooo.

Blackburn 1 : 1 Ipswich

Well, its a draw on the road, so there's that. But after giving up the early goal and withstanding an early attack, we really dominated the final 65 minutes of this match. It should have been 3-1 or 4-1 really. We let this slip away.

Man of the Match: Constantino (7.8)
Goal: Constantino
Assist: Mariga (7.5)
Notables: Kirkland (7.3), Donnelly (7.8)

Chris Bryan struggled with a 5.9, Welsh a 5.5.

[Radii]

-- Heh, so I still freak out when I spend $15M on a player valued at $6 Million... and rightfully so, I'm putting a ton of my resources in that player and it would really suck if they didn't work out. I see in my inbox that Arsenal is bidding on a player from Porto and the Porto board intervenes to accept the Arsenal offer b/c its just too much money to pass up. They're bidding on a 21 year old AMR who does look pretty good... valued at $6,000,000... the offer: "$35.5M + additional clauses". Jesus.

August 20th, 2022

Southampton @ Ipswich

We're even money favorites in our first home match, they're 11:5 to win today. The media picked us 14th and Southampton 11th. They finished 15th last year in their first year back up in the EPL after a 1 year drop to the championship. That's the 3rd time that's happened in the last decade. We're 3-2-4 lifetime against them but swept them last year, not allowing a goal while scoring 3 in the two matches.

GK: Capitani
D: Kirkland/Mattle/O'Brien/Jackson
M: Crespo/Clifford/Mills/Gordon
F: Bendtner/Constantino

Jackson, Mills, Crespo and Bendtner are back into the starting lineup today, Clifford also starts for Donnelly at MC. I tell the team I expect them to win today (so that's why we care about odds outside of the fact that gambling is awesome). I lay off our new guy Crespo and just tell him I have faith in him, and I tell O'Brien (who I pulled for playing like crap) that I expect more out of him.

Standard mindset again today.

7': After trying to cross it in and having them head it away, we get the ball in to Constantino, he burns his man easily but pushes ahead too far I think... the keeper rushes out and basically blocks the ball as it leaves his foot. Still it was a clear cut chance.

13': Similar to our first effort... Bendtner is on the receiving end of a pass, into the area... but he pushes too far and the keeper cuts off his angle and saves our second clear cut chance.

19': Their keeper is seriously up for this. Bendtner with a rocket from 20 yards out bending inward and on target, the keeper dives and makes a crazy stop.

20': Finally our pressure pays off, we build up again on offense, Crespo takes a pass from Clifford, he tries a cross, its blocked by a defender but continues forward and into the 6 yard box. They weren't ready for that ricochet but Constantino is there and pokes it into the net! 1-0

28': They try to clear a ball out of their end but Crespo wins a header and sends it forward to Bendtner. Bendtner is 25 yards out and plays it into the area immediately, Constantino runs onto it nicely and has a trivial finish! 2-0

33': Crespo again making things happen, avoiding a defender to make a long run down the left, he plays a low cross into the 6 yard box, two defenders converge onto Constantino and they try to clear it out, but its not cleared cleanly. The ball falls to Neil Gordon in the penalty box and he blasts a shot into the net! 3-0

39': Buildup down the right side, here Mills with a through ball into the area, Constantino is there, drives a shot near post before the defense can close down... and its by the keeper! 4-0

HALF: One of their DC's has a 3.8 rating. We shoot 12 times to their 5, 7 on target to their 1... 5 clear cut chances to their 0, and its a crushing 4-0 lead.

61': Bryan in for Constantino, Doran in for Gordon, Heywood in for Kirkland.

After dropping to commentary only...

91': Mills with a great ball between two defenders into the area for Nicklas Bendtner. He controls it well and finishes strong to close out ther rout. 5-0

Ipswich 5 : 0 Southampton

Man of the Match: Constantino (9.6)
Goals: Constantino 3, Bendtner (8.8), Gordon (8.3)
Assists: Mills 2 (9.1), Bendtner, Crespo (8.1), One unassisted
Notables: Jackson (8.1), Kirkland (7.7), Mattle (8.1), O'Brien (7.5), Clifford (8.0)

6.8 for Capitani I guess because he didn't have anything to do today (and stupid pass completion from long punts that they win the headers for)

Man, our payroll is allowed to go up to $900,000/wk, and that seems like a pretty damn good amount... but Southampton have 7 players making $100,000+/wk. 4 of those are $170,000/wk+. Is there a place to quickly see all the payroll's in the league? I didn't take the time to add it up but it looks like theirs probably runs around $1.4M/wk or so, a lot more than ours for a squad that struggles to stay in the EPL!


Its early, its temporary, but dammit its never happened before! We've played 3 matches while some of the continental teams have only played 1. Our 2-1-0 start and +7 goal differential have us sitting in first place in the English Premier Division! The highest we've ever sat before was on the very last day of the 20/21 season when we moved into 6th place.

[Young Drachma]

Wow. Keep up the good work.

[Taz13]

Let's hope you can enjoy the view from the top for a little while. Nice early start to the season.

[Radii]

-- Jackson, Mattle and Clifford are named to the EPL team of the week after that 5:0 win. None of the scorers though.

August 23rd, 2022

League Cup 2nd Round

Doncaster(L1) @ Ipswich(EPL)

We're 1:6 favorites today. Lets see if we can get through this without being completely complacent and losing out today, we are resting as many people as we can though, caring *way* more about league play.


GK: Mason
D: Kirkland/O'Brien/Welsh/Heywood
M: Crespo/Smith/Mariga/Doran
F: Bryan/Constantino

A few starters stay in mainly due to the fact that we have like 5 players hurt, we're giving a bunch of guys a reset going into our next league match in 4 days though and hopefully keep enough strength (esp. w/ Constantino) to be able to get goals here. Young MC Craig Smith gets a start today.

Team: Expect a Win
MC Smith: No Pressure
Kirkland, O'Brien, Crespo, Constantino: Pick Up Where you Left Off

Standard Mindset today.

1': We attack right away, they win it in defense but their DC holds it too long before clearing, Constantino tackles the ball away, advances on goal and scores! 37 seconds in. 1-0

20': Mariga with a great shot from 20+ yards out, keeper barely gets a hand to it to send it over for a corner, which of course they clear.

23': After a large amount oof buildup and passes and a couple passes back to Mason to reset things, we win a ball in our end and attack quickly, Mariga with a long ball to Constantino, he shrugs off a tackle and scores! 2-0

HALF: We make it to the half easily after that. We outshoot them 14/2, control 65% of the possession and dominate every stat, as we should. I drop to commentary only here.

48': Smith ahead to Bryan out left, a cross into the 6 yard box for Constantion, a header into the net for a hat trick. 3-0

51': Clifford in for Constantino, 4-1-4-1 formation. Hughes in for Kirkland.

88': Hughes with a long ball ahead for Crespo who has cut inside, Crespo lays it off immediately for Chris Bryan who gets free in the area and drills a shot by the keeper! 4-0

Ipswich 4 : 0 Doncaster

Man of the Match: Constantino (9.5)
Goals: Constantino 3, Bryan (9.0)
Assists: Bryan, Crespo (8.3), Mariga (7.4), one was unassisted
Notables: Heywood (7.6), Kirkland (7.1), Welsh (7.6), O'Brien (7.4), Doran (7.3), Smith (7.8)

Extremely happy with my youngster Craig Smith! And with just not taking the match lightly in general.

[Radii]

-- Matthew Khan resumes full training. Yay!

League Cup 3rd Round Draw

-- We get a draw against one of our secondary rivals, unfortunately its on the road against an EPL side in West Ham.

August 27th, 2022

Watford(0-0-3, 20th) @ Ipswich (2-1-0, 1st)

We're even money favorites against newly promoted Watford, they're 11:5 to beat us today. They're having a tough time so far and we hope to keep it that way. We're 5-3-11 lifetime against them mostly in the Championship.

GK: Capitani
D: Kirkland/O'Brien/Mattle/Jackson
M: Crespo/Donnelly/Mills/Gordon
F: Bendtner/Constantino

Back to the 1st team today all over. Khan isn't ready to play yet, I start Bryan to try to ride his 9.0 rating last match into more.

11': Crespo down the left side, ahead to Bryan, Bryan with a good pass into the area for Constantino who beats his defender and finishes a clear cut chance nicely! 1-0

HALF: Constantino missed one more shot, Gordon sent in a nice free kick that was headed just over but it was really quite slow after that first goal. We have 4 shots to their 3, 56/44 possession edge that was actually much bigger until the last 10 minutes of the half. I tell the team not to get complacent at the half. Mark O'Brien man... Another shitty half, 5.8 after the half. I tell him I'm disappointed. I dunno what to do with him.

46': they start with possession but Neil Gordon just takes it away in their end and we build up on offense. After some passing through the midfield there's a pass ahead to Bryan, Bryan immediately puts it ahead for Constantino who has a step on his man, controls the ball and scores! 2-0

49': They kick off again.. and lose it nearly immediately again... We pass ahead quickly, Donnelly this time puts it ahead for Constantino who loses his man again, into the area and its a hat trick! 3-0

63': Doran in for Gordon, Clifford in for Constantino, moves to DMC and its a 4-1-4-1 the rest of the way. Constantino receives a standing ovation.

Ipswich 3 : 0 Watford

We close this out very easily. Hah, team talks FTW! The commentary as the match ends: "Their manager worked wonders after the break". Why thank you.

Man of the Match: Constantino (9.5)
Goals: Constantino 3
Assists: Bryan 2 (8.8), Donnelly (8.6)
Notables: Jackson (7.5), Kirkland (7.5), Mattle (7.6), Gordon (7.0), Crespo (7.0), Mills (7.4)


We'll stay in first for a little while longer. Its important to remember its just 4 matches in and two of the 4 are against teams expected to relegate back down. September will give us some bigger challenges that will tell us where we stand a little better. I am *thrilled* though to be crushing teams we're expected to beat.

[bulletsponge]

Originally Posted by Radii

Agree completely. I started factoring in Determination a lot more after reading the same threads you're talking about, and mentioning it whenever I bring on a new player. For youth players, when a guy is on the fence on whether I'll keep him or cut him, if his determination is high, I'm a lot more likely to let him hang around and see what happens with him. Some of the guys that were constantly reported to be overconfident (James Welsh was the biggest offender) have good determination and a "fairly determined" personality. I may look for "Professional" more as we have a lack of that with Kirkland our main guy there.

We've got some "resolute" guys and I'm not sure exactly how that works out either. Looks like this is the next little piece of the game I dive into a little more.

Resolute means Determination and Professionalism are both 15+. they make great mentors. even better is "Driven" which means 17+ in Professionalism, Determination and Ambition. the 3 keys stats for developing. perfectionist, model professional and iron willed are also great personalities to have and be mentors

[Radii]

Originally Posted by bulletsponge

Resolute means Determination and Professionalism are both 15+. they make great mentors. even better is "Driven" which means 17+ in Professionalism, Determination and Ambition. the 3 keys stats for developing. perfectionist, model professional and iron willed are also great personalities to have and be mentors

Thanks for the information! On the team info page our squad type is "ambitious". The most common personality type I see though is "fairly determined" with Resolute second.

I've got one "Leader" in Conor Clifford, one "Professional" in Kirkland, 5 "Resolute" guys including Donnelly and Mills. I've been looking at this a little more when I was shopping for players. My big signing this year(DC Aldrovandi) is just "Balanced" so i guess he doesn't really stand out anywhere?

I did notice a couple times when I found a guy with a "Professional" personality that the scout comment would say that since we have an ambitious squad he will struggle to fit in, but as of yet I haven't had something like that sway a decision to go after a guy or not.

[Radii]

-- Mattle, Donnelly and Constantino are all named to the EPL team of the week this week.

September Update

-- After an international break we play on the 11th, 18th, 21st, and 24th. 21st is our League Cup match at West Ham.

-- Constantino is named the EPL Player of the Month! He's had two hat tricks and 9 goals in the first 4 matches. Last year he struggled for most of the year and ended up with "only" 14 goals. He could pass that in December if he stays hot! Gordon Donnelly has an 8.10 rating and 2 assists in 3 league matches for #2 in player of the month voting.

-- Chris Bryan played in all four of our August league matches, twice as a sub, average rating 6.82 and 2 assists, good for 2nd in Young Player of the Month voting.

-- Man Utd and Chelsea also go 3-1-0 in August. Man U beats Arsenal and Newcastle during their run though and that gives their manager manager of the month. I'm second.

-- The board is pleased with my leadership. Getting the best out of Constantino is the highlight, our friendly defeat to Barcelona is the biggest thing they can find to complain about. We lost $3.1M last month. That's quite a lot. That has us showing a loss of $6M on the year and our cash balance is negative. If things were to continue at that rate we'd need a top 5 finish to break even. We're under budget though so we'll just monitor that.


-- Reserve/loaned out ST Eoin Darcy scores a goal for Ireland U21s in a 2:1 win over Holland in the Euro U21 Championship Qualifying.

-- Stuart Kirkland is brought in off the bench for the English senior team in a friendly, putting up a 6.8 rating in a 3:0 win over Belgium. I don't usually bother with friendlies but I'm so happy to see one of my players getting time for one of the really big clubs! Unfortunately the starting DL for England, 24 y/o Paul Young, is a superstar worth $28M playing for Barcelona. Hoooooly crap. Barcelona actually paid $59 Million to Sunderland for Young a couple years ago. So yeah, gonna be hard to crack the starting lineup there.

-- Aaron Doran hurts his knee in an international friendly for Ireland against Wales. He's going to miss a month.

-- Qualifying for the Euro Championship has begun and we've got players all over the place. Mattle for Austria, Bendtner still sees action for Denmark, Welsh and Donnelly for Scotland, O'Brien and Doran for Ireland...


-- Carlos Aldrovandi has resumed full training.


Septemeber 11th, 2022

Ipswich (3-1-0, 1st) @ Man Utd(3-1-0, 3rd)

Its an epic battle for first!! Ok maybe not just 4 games into the season :P Man Utd are huge 4:5 favorites, we're 3:1 dogs, the first time this year we've really played a team like this that is supposed to dominate us. We're 1-2-6 lifetime against them, but are a respectable 1-2-1 over the last two seasons since we promoted back up.

GK: Capitani
D: Kirkland/Aldrovandi/Mattle/Jackson
M: Crespo/Donnelly/Mills/Gordon
F: Bendtner/Constantino

Bendtner starts today instead of Bryan, experience over youth being the rationale. Aldrovandi starts in the back, he probably can't play 90 just yet.

We'll counter attack against a better team today.

16': They build up on offense, pass out left, a solid 35 yards out though, a cross bends into the area and ST Nikolov is there to head it in, Aldrovandi was closest but really it was a ridiculous cross, don't think anyone took full blame there. 0-1

30': They have 5 shots to our 2 but the only one on target is the goal so far.

38': quick attack for Man Utd, a ball ahead to AM Wynter, he shoots from 20 yards out and the precision is amazing... Capitani is ready, dives for it, but its inch perfect just inside the left post and we can't stop it. 0-2

HALF: Not much we can do today I don't think. They shoot 8 times to our 2, putting 4 on target. Ours are both way off. They pass, cross, tackle and head the ball better than we do, all by pretty wide margins.

57': Welsh in for Aldrovandi, Hughes in for Crespo. Aldrovandi struggled a lot today in his first game back after injury.

60': Nothing to lose, lets attack.

63': We generate a clear cut chance as Bendnter gets it out wide to Hughes, he has a great look... but his shot is saved, he's not a strong finisher.

65': A throwin in their end, Donnelly with an amazing through ball for Constantino, clear cut chance #2 in short order... saved, the keeper came off his line well to cut off the angle.

69': Huge, huge error by their star MC Parejo, he passes back to a defender to reset their possession but Constantino is near by and attacks aggressively, intercepting the backpass, getting into the area and he scores!! 1-2

71': Donnelly a yellow.

75': Bryan in for a tired Bendtner.

79': Bryan dribbles around the defense forever before earning us a corner. Corner is cleared easily.

88': They shoot from 25 yards out but Capitani saves it. A quick throw to Kirkland and Kirkland plays a long ball down the middle... Constantino is behind the defense... he's a solid 45 yards out so he has a good long run, but he pushes the ball ahead and chases it down before the defense can catch him. Into the area, cuts a bit wide to the right, shoots... and beats the keeper!!!! COMEBACK!!! 2-2

We hold out and escape with a point!

Man Utd 2 : 2 Ipswich

It can't seriously be suggested that we just attack with this team, can it? We looked like crap and instantly when we told the team to attack things turned and we were in control. Now, would it have been that way at the outset when they weren't trying to protect a lead? Probably not, but still, wow!

Man of the Match: Constantino (8.8)
Goals: Constantino 2
Assist: Kirkland (8.2), one unassisted
Notables: Mills (7.1)

Aldrovandi has a 5.6 rating when I took him out, he missed one tackle and won 5 of 7 headers, 9 of 14 passes completed. Maybe in the end he took the blame for one of the goals after all, I didn't think he did at first.

[Radii]

Septemeber 18th, 2022

Arsenal(3-0-2, 7th) @ Ipswich (3-2-0, 2nd)

We're 6:4 favorites today (what? really?). Arsenal are 13:8, basically even. Arsenal had one of the best seasons ever last year going 29-5-4, winning the league by 13 points. We're 1-1-7 lifetime against Arsenal. Last year we lost 1:0 twice. Our win and draw were both two years ago in our magical 6th place run.

GK: Capitani
D: Kirkland/Aldrovandi/Mattle/Jackson
M: Hughes/Donnelly/Mills/Gordon
F: Bryan/Constantino

Khan is ALMOST ready and I might bring him in for a bit today. Hughes starts at ML, Bryan up front instead of Bendtner.

1': They kick off and score, basically. Fabregas to MR Niundulu who shows a great burst of speed to get behind Kirkland and finish... its a 19 second goal. 0-1

13': They have a corner but we head it away... Constantino picks it up about 30 yards from our goal and turns and takes off. He runs all the way down into the right corner with Bryan and Hughes charging up the middle, Constantino gets a low cross into the area, it bounces, Bryan volleys it... but the keeper is able to save it. It was a clear cut chance but Bryan could have done a lot better there.

28': We earn a corner, they head it out but we recover... Hughes out left, plays it into the middle for Mills, into the area for Constantino who got behind his man... a clear cut chance, and a finish, we tie it up! 1-1

39': Gordon with a free kick from 30 yards out, not a bad effort but out wide to the left.

HALF: Its been pretty close, we each generated a couple really good chances and we're ok with a tie of course. Each team shoots 4 times, each team puts 2 on target. They have a 52/48 possession edge. Stats are pretty close, we only complete 60% of our passes to their 67%, but tackling and heading are both pretty even. No changes just yet. Gordon and Hughes have been slightly under par compared to rest of the team and I point it out to them at the half.

57': Donnelly intercepts a pass in our end to interrupt their buildup and we get our offense moving, we build up down the left through Hughes and Donnelly, Hughes ahead to Bryan, he controls it well as they attempt a tackle, passes to Mills, Mills sends it towards the 6 yard box, their keeper doesn't rush out for it, Constantino wins the footrace to the ball and drills it into the right side of the net! 2-1

67': They attack hard, a pass to one of the true stars in the league, Bugra Yildirim, he's running with Aldrovandi shadowing him in the penalty area, he's able to lose him in with a cut to the right and gets a clear cut chance, shoots near post... but Capitani dives and stops the shot!

70': Clifford in for Bryan and we drop to a more defensive 4-1-4-1 for the final 20 minutes. Clifford DMC. We switch from a standard mindset to defensive.

78': Hughes a yellow.

82': They have a free kick out right about 25 yards away, a high lob into the area, header... just wide.

89': We have a throwin in their end, taken to Donnelly, a ball ahead to Hughes and he gets a step on his man in the area, a clear cut chance... but wide.

91': They go direct down the middle, ST Dalla Valle pulls up from 25 yards and launches a shot in, on target but Capitani stays strong and makes the stop.

94': 4 minutes of added time, we're at 94:30, I am yelling at my screen "CALL IT. CALL IT. CALL IT" but it looks like this last Arsenal attack is going to happen... Mattle ends up heading a cross behind for a corner. They send it in, a couple headers before we finally get it out of the area, but we do, and its all over!!

Ipswich 2 : 1 Arsenal

We give up a goal 19 seconds in and are the better side for the remaining 95 minutes.

Arsenal did put a lot of pressure on us at times and Capitani had an outstanding match.

Man of the Match: Michele Capitani (9.3)
Goals: Constantino 2 (8.8)
Assists: Mills 2 (8.9)
Notables: Kirkland (7.5), Gordon (7.0)

Everyone else 6.8-6.9.


Well we just played Arsenal and Man U back to back and still don't have a loss this season, and Constantino scored 2 against each of them to continue what must be a legendary, unprecedented scoring run to begin the season.

Constantino scores his 250th career league goal.

After 6 matches, Constantino now has 13 league goals. 2nd is Chelsea's Sergio Canales with 5, 3rd is Arsenal's Bugra Yildirim with 4. Average rating 8.88. TEEHEE.