FM10 - From the Bottom Up

[Radii]

-- The offer for Skhosana is made on the 20th. By the 24th its still not finalized. If it goes through our transfer budget will be $53 Million and I'm very seriously considering trying to blow it all for a striker who I think I can land but I need that deal to go through.

January 25th, 2015

FA Cup 4th Round

Luton (21st, L1) @ Ipswich (5, EPL)

we're 1:8 favorites today over Luton, a team facing relegation out of league 1, at home.

GK: Capitani
D: Kirkland/Mattle/Skhosana/Heywood
M: Crespo/Connolly/Clifford/Hutchinson
F: Khan/Battersby

Capitani starts again today, our defensive line is a strong one, Connolly/Clifford at MC and Hutchinson at MR, and we start 17 y/o Frank Battersby at ST today, he's progressed well this year and is rated as a guy that should do well in League 1 already, so seems a good time to give him a match. Stronger backups are ready if needed.

Standard mindset today.

10': Connolly a yellow.

13': Clifford has it dribbling forward, no strikers seem available, he passes back to our new kid Connolly, he launches it with his first touch from 25 yards away and its a beauty of a strike, he beats the keeper and scores from long range, his first ever Ipswich Goal! 1-0

23': Another first, Hutchinson wins a ball on the right side, drives down the pitch, crosses into the area and 17 y/o Frank Battersby controls it, shoots, and beats the keeper!! His first ever goal for the senior squad! 2-0

29': Embarrassing defending, one of their forwards receives it 35 yards out, Skhosana goes in hard for a tackle, misses, Mattle has to come over to cover and that leaves their other ST open, in the area and he scores. 2-1

HALF: We cruise to halftime after that. We should be in complete control here, another goal would be nice though.

47': Throwin in their end, its thrown to Connolly about 30 yards out, he sends a ball into the left side of the area, Battersby runs onto it, shoots with his left foot from a really awkward angle... and beats the keeper far post! 3-1

52': Jackson is in, Heywood to DL, Kirkland out, he's the one starter playing right now that I *really* want to make sure is available for our next match in 3 days.

66': Khan to Hutchinson for our 4th goal. 4-1

69': Chrzanowski in for Crespo at ML.

Ipswich 4 : 1 Luton

Man of the Match: Frank Battersby (9.1)
Goals: Battersby 2, Connolly (8.8), Hutchinson (8.9)
Assists: Hutchinson, Connolly, Clifford (8.1), Khan (7.9)
Notables: Heywood (7.3), Skhosana (7.2)

What a debut for our first year youth pull Frank Battersby, don't really care what level the opposition, that was fun.

[Radii]

-- We get $150,000 for advancing to the FA Cup 5th Round

FA Cup 5th Round Draw

6 of the final 16 are Championship level or below, and our good luck keeps going here. We don't know who we play just quite yet, but we will play at home, against either Championship side West Ham or Reading, both teams have have spent time in the EPL, and West Ham is actually a secondary rival of ours. But we could make the EPL Quarterfinals without playing a single EPL team. Two other matchups are between two non-EPL sides so 2 of the quarterfinals are guaranteed to be lower league teams.

Transfer Out

-- Abdul Skhosana has agreed to terms with Man Utd. We receive $46,000,000. Skhosana played 19 matches for us, earning a 6.80 rating and scoring once. He had a 6.85 rating in league play (10 matches), 6.63 rating in 7 continental matches and 7.15 rating in 2 Cup matches.

-- I express my awe for Everton's Brian Kelly, England's vice captain, a 25 year old left footed striker, two time Young Player of the Year in the EPL back when I first brought Ipswich up to this level.


-- Everton has already rejected a $33 Million offer for Kelly. I up it to $39 Million after Kelly responds favorably to my comments to the media.

-- Everton reject my $39M offer. I up it to $44 Million + 20% of his next sale (not profits, of course, just next sale).

-- The story about Kelly leaks. He's not unhappy and not begging to leave, and really we've grown but Everton has too and it seems like he'll be just fine to stay there if we can't pry him away. He has no min release clause or anything like that.

-- My scouts had estimated Kelly could be had for $49 Million. Everton have counter-offered... and asked for $72 Million.

-- I adjust the offer to $51 Million, my max available budget. I also just out of curiosity ask for more transfer money. The board politely bitchslaps me and says they haven't seen a return from the money we've spent so far, and thus, no. Its starting to seem like this won't be happening, I *really* thought I had a shot here, and I'm not sure there's another player in the world right now I would so easily drop $50 Million on that I would have deemed even remotely gettable (ie guys not already at the top 10 clubs in the world that I was *that* sure were worth this much).

-- With my chances at landing Kelly diminishing I go back to many targets I looked at early in the season, guys I would drop $20-$30 Million on easily and start to send out feelers.

-- Up to Jan 28th we play our next match and there's a real chance we just sit on a massive pile of cash.

January 28th, 2015

Ipswich (11-6-6, 5th) @ Sheffield Utd(7-6-10, 13th)

Sheffield Utd just embarrassed us at our house and due to prior scheduling rearrangements we have to play them again today. They are even money to win at their house and we'll without question be running our 4-1-4-1 formation today to try to just keep things steady against a team that has our number big time.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Mattle/Aldrovandi/Heywood
DMC: Smith
M: Adagsmar/Jean/Mills/Gordon
F: Bryan

We go with our 4-1-4-1 formation today. We counter attack and use a deeper defensive line and a narrower formation as recommended by our coaches.

6': They have a free kick from a looooong way out, they end up passing it and ST Vanelli shoots from 35 yards away.. Bogdanovs has to make a diving save and the rebound falls to their other ST Kane in the area. Smith tries to make the tackle before he has control, and brings him down... penalty given. They score on it. 0-1

13': Yellow for midfielder Boers.

28': We see our first offensive highlight, a throwin in their end, Bryan ends up with it on the left side of the area, crosses it through the area and Neil Gordon sends an awful header both high and wide by a lot.

41': Adagsmar with a great run down the left, dodging a tackle nicely... but there's no one there when he sends a cross in. They head it away, Mills ends up shooting from 25 yards out, he hits the crossbar but they clear.

HALF: We end up kinda dominating possession, 59/41 in our favor, 6 shots, just 1 on target though. They shoot 7 times, 3 on target, 4 from long range. Its a fairly even match and we're one bad bounce on a rebound (we had a lot more guys in the penalty area then they did and their guy ends up with the ball after the save, yuck). But now we've got to find a goal.

52': Yellow for defender Stevens. Gordon has a free kick at the right corner of the penalty area, he sends a cross towards the far post, Mills is there, wins his header and its our first clear cut chance... but he sent it wide.

71': Chris Bryan!!!! Smith passes it to him about 20 yards out, he's lined up with the left side of the goal, cuts right, leaves his man in the dust, cuts into the penalty area and places a low shot to the far post by the keeper, spectacular individual effort! 1-1

80': Chrzanowski, Connolly, Crespo in for Gordon, Mills, Adagsmar, fresh legs throughout the midfield.

86': Chrzanowski with a long run down the left, he tries a cross, its too close to the end line, it seems like their keeper is going to catch it at the near post, but they have a defender who heads it away instead, Connolly is first to the header, passes to the left side of the area where Crespo is streaking in and he shoots and scores!!!! 2-1

93': They are trying to push ahead, Connolly blocks a pass and is off to the races... he runs down to the right corner and holds the ball, waiting for the defense and earning us a corner, we stall and that's it!

Sheffield Utd 1 : 2 Ipswich

Huge win, against a team we struggle with, that we just lost to, with our form a bit less than ideal lately, just a great time to get a big road win for us!

Their goalscorer is man of the match.

Goals: Crespo (7.4), Bryan (7.1)
Assists: Smith (6.9), Connolly (6.9)
Notables: Bogdanovs (7.0), Kirkland (7.4), Aldrovandi (7.1)

[Radii]

January 28-29

This is about to get really interesting.

-- Everton are willing to come down from their $72M offer on Brian Kelly, but only to like $65M. I try one last offer for Kelly, I offer them my new MC Connolly, Matthew Khan and Frank Battersby + $51 Million for Kelly. Yes, I really, really believe he's worth it.

-- At the same time I had met the reserve clause of $11M on a DC from Sevilla that my scouts *love*. I tried to get him in August and he wasn't willing to come. Now he is... so I've got a contract offer in there.

-- Sevilla had two players I *really* wanted earlier in the year. The other was a 27 y/o DL/ML (equally adept at both, starting at ML for Sevilla and a consistent 7.3 rated player for them for a number of years). I couldn't get him at any cost back in August either. They want $39M, I end up offering $25M and Battersby, and they come back with $30M. Another intriguing offer. I take it to see if I can get a contract to him that's reasonable too.

-- Celtic's ST Yuri Di Giuseppe... "better than Constantino". They ask for $42.5M for him, he's valued at $12M. I want to I think, I don't know. Here's the thing with Di Guiseppe... he's 18. And he's better than Constantino right now with really solid potential to improve past that if my scout is on. But unlike everyone else that I'm going after right now, he hasn't had success in one of the top European leagues. I counter for $40 Million, an amount that would allow me to sign the DC + Di Giuseppe, I really love the look of the kid but I'm not sure yet.

-- I had two other serious offers out for a Man City DR and another strong DC that I drop out on.


January 30th

-- The potential to sign Brian Kelly is officially gone.

-- DL/ML Eugene Vasyljev is not interested in coming to Ipswich. That was the other Sevilla player in addition to the low buyout DC.

-- New DC is ours, for $11M. I would have signed this guy instead of Skhosana bakc in August. I can make no other moves and come out in amazing shape, tons and tons richer with a DC I would have preferred back in August. The question now is whether to sit there or not.

New Signing

29 y/o DC Jose Antonio Ballester - $11 Million to Sevilla - $91,000/wk - Ballester has spent his whole career at Sevilla. The last 8 years in a row he's averaged over 7.00 rating in La Liga. This year in 20 matches he had a 7.27 rating. My coaches love this guy.

Here is what I wrote about Skhosana when we signed him:

To me he looks strong. Quite strong, he's a guy I can spend money on. But I look at my coaches now that he's here. 2 of my coaches view him as a 5* "best player on the team" rating. Others 4* or 4 1/2*. Every single coach views him as significantly better than Aldrovandi. I look at the ratings and I don't instantly see that. But I trust my coaching staff

I have 13 coaches right now. 3 of them rate Ballester 5*, 7 of them 4 1/2*, the rest 4*. 4 1/2* for most of these guys is "twice the player of Aldrovandi".

Physical: Strength 19/Stamina 19/Pace 14/Accel 13/Jumping 16
Mental: Determination 15/Positioning 17/Concentration 18/Anticipation 19. Most other ratings 13-15. Decision making is 11.
Technical: Marking 20/Heading 18/Tackling 11

Dude has some serious strengths and will make the same as Skhosana was making, seems like a great exchange for us.


-- My offer of $40 Million for Di Giuseppe is accepted. And the rest of our transfer season comes down to this decision. Better than Constantino now but whether he's worth $40 Million really really depends on the rest of his development. Grab this kid and ride him for the next decade, or hold and try to grab someone closer to Brian Kelly in the next year or two. I'm leaning towards taking him but as I post this I honestly haven't decided. It would definitely be really exciting!

[Radii]

In the end I decide to spend $40 Million on an 18 year old Italian Striker. Its easy to tend towards the exciting splash in a game, eh? I feel good about it though. He is our most talented striker now without question. Most of my coaches rate him 4* coming in, a couple 4 1/2*, a few 3 1/2*. Constantino is at this point 2 1/2* - 3* and our best striker according to most coaches.





Unsure whether we are upgraded in defense or not (though at minimum we should be about the same) but we should clearly be upgraded up front. The question to answer down the road will be whether we're better enough for this to be $40 million.


My hope is that this is the push we need to keep us in the Champions League, and we know *that* is worth a ton.

[RPI-Fan]

Great work Radii!! The board might have just pocketed your transfer gains at the end of the year anyways, so I think it was very wise to make the splash.

It's really too bad the Brian Kelly thing didn't work out, but glad you put in all the efforts possible! What does he look like and what are some of the stats he's put up to make him such an out-of-the-park hit??

[Izulde]

I love your gamble here. This kid should be a lot of fun to watch.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by RPI-Fan

It's really too bad the Brian Kelly thing didn't work out, but glad you put in all the efforts possible! What does he look like and what are some of the stats he's put up to make him such an out-of-the-park hit??

My impression from my time in the EPL is that he's the best scorer that hasn't been scooped up by one of the top prestige teams above me with more money.

Two time young player of the year in England, heading towards 7 seasons in a row with a rating over 7, 7 seasons in a row with more than 10 goals in England and at least 7 assists (including cup/continental play he has 14 goals/7 assists in 30 matches this year). The last two years he's had 15+ goals in England. He's starting to play consistently for his country. I've been staring at him for years now, since age 22 or so all of my UK/England scouts every year give him a 4* rating and tell me he's a lot better than Constantino.

So he seemed like the perfect combination of my scouts love him, I've seen him do it in England, and he hasn't hit Man Utd or Arsenal yet.

The factor that put it over the top for me for any cost is that his left foot is his dominant foot and his right is strong. All my strikers are right footed. Many of my strikers have no left foot at all. When you see me start Bryan and Constantino together, I put the hotter of the two on the right side and that person is significantly more likely to score goals. Matthew Khan almost exclusively plays on the left side and sets up more chances than he gets. Its the reason I don't play Constantino/Bryan together too often, one of them is gimped by being on his bad foot too often. So the idea of Kelly/Constantino or Kelly/Bryan with both being on their strong side is something I really wanted to see.

Di Giuseppe seems to have the potential to be better than this but I felt like he was a much bigger risk.

[Radii]

-- Updated standings going into February and at the point that the transfer window ends for everyone. 25 matches played (and thus 13 to go) unless otherwise noted:

1. Arsenal - 55 pts
2. Man Utd - 50 pts (1 less played)
3. Chelsea - 45 pts
4. Newcastle - 43 pts
5. Ipswich - 42 pts (1 less played)
6. Liverpool - 42 pts
7. Man City - 37 pts
8. Everton - 37 pts
9. Aston Villa - 37 pts
10. Huddersfield - 34 pts


February Update

-- We went 2-1-1 in league play in January, winning our last two in a row. We also made it through two FA Cup rounds against lower league teams.

-- We play on the 1st, 5th, 8th, 11th, 15th, 19th, and 23rd this month, a busier month than January. 15th is our FA Cup match against a Championship side, 19th is a road match at Roma in the Champions League First Knockout Round.

-- 17 y/o ST Frank Battersby is singled out for training well in January. Tons of his ratings go up recently, as you'd hope for out of a 1st year youth pull. Looking to the future if we ever decide to switch things up, Battersby is a natural at AMC as well as ST.

-- The board is very pleased with my leadership. Signing Brett Connolly is the highlight, I considerd him a project and he's exceeded my expectations in a crazy way this year. Our 2-0 loss at home to Sheffield Utd is the lowlight.

Payments over time!

-- Holy crap I didn't even notice, Man Utd is paying me $1.8M/mo for awhile and only paid me about $13M up front for Skhosana. I think that's fine, I would not have turned that down though I might have negotiated to get more up front. But it does mean that I lost $44M last month. I hope that doesn't end up being a critical mistake in some way (we may have less money to work with next year as our transfers wen't as much of a wash in the short term).

February 1st, 2025

Huddersfield (9-7-9, 10th) @ Ipswich (11-6-6, 5th)

We are huge 4:6 favorites today at home against Huddersfield. We're 10-7-9 lifetime against them, but we lost 2:1 at their place back in September.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Ballester/Aldrovandi/Heywood
M: Adagsmar/Jean/Mills/Gordon
F: Di Giuseppe/Constantino

I get both my new players into the mix right away at home.

3': They attack down the middle, a pass to ST Platas, he sends a pass into the left side of the area... Heywood seems to be right there but instead of going to intercept the pass Heywood leaves the penalty area and Bogdanovs rushes out for the ball. Their other ST Ghisleni beats Bogdanovs to the ball and shoots and scores.... well that's pretty freaking ridiculous. 0-1

6': They get a free kick about 19 yards out. Taken by midfielder Clark, and drilled into the right side of the net past a diving Bogdnaovs. 0-2

19': Mills is at midfield, passes to Di Giuseppe 25 yards out, he turns right to generate an opening, blasts a shot from there and its into the left side of the net, a beautiful ball by the keeper! 1-2

41': 20 minutes without a highlight. Here we earn a corner. Its cleared out easily though.

43': Ballester with a yellow.

HALF: Well, we're back in it after an unbelievable nightmare start. Constantino and Heywood put up simply awful ratings early on. We end up with 4 shots, 2 on target. They have 7 shots, only two on target, both goals. We are passing well, tackling much better than them but losing out terribly on headers (76% for them, 39% for us). I leave Constantino in for now. Jackson is in for Heywood.

50': There's a long fight to control possession a little on their side of midfield, we finally win the ball, a pass ahead to Constantino, he puts a good ball into the left side of the area for Crespo, not a clear cut chance but a really good look, but the keeper is able to save it.

58': We win a ball in their end, Di Giuseppe receives a pass way out left near midfield, a pass ahead to Constantino, help is coming, pass to Jean, through ball into the area for Mills, Mills isn't a great scorer but he can do it here, he puts it into the net and we've tied it up! 2-2

69': Bryan in for Constantino.

71': We win a ball in their end, sent to midfield, Di Giuseppe heads it on to Bryan, Bryan with a long run down the right, he gets to the end line, there's a man on him, but he does a great job getting the cross around him, it looks like someone int he 6 yard box tries to head it away but it just floats weakly to the far post, Di Giuseppe is there and he sends a header into the left side of the net, his second goal in his debut and we pull ahead!!! 3-2

72': We will counterattack from here.

75': Adagsmar in for Crespo.

85': They get forward, Ghisleni with a ball into the area for their other ST Platas, Ballester "makes a superb sliding tackle" to dispossesses Platas... but the ball falls into an open space and Ghisleni is there, he is first to it, shoots and we can't stop it, they tie it back up. 3-3

85': We'll try to attack and see if we can get a crazy win here.

89': Gordon has it near the area but can't find anyone free to break towards the goal, passes back to Jean, he shoots from 25 yards out and the keeper has to make the save there, we earn a corner. They head the corner out but we recover. passed out wide right to Jackson, a cross to the far post, Di Giuseppe wins the header... and it hits the left post, nooooo! So close to the hat trick.


That's going to do it.

Ipswich 3 : 3 Huddersfield

We could have won here but after giving up two goals in the first 7 or 8 minutes coming away with a point isn't something we can get too upset about. Their ST Ghisleni is man of the match.

Goals: Di Giuseppe (8.8), Mills (7.9)
Assists: Mills, Jean (8.1), Bryan (6.8)

Constantino left with a 5.6 rating, Heywood 5.9, Ballester a 6.5 in his opener.

[Radii]

Full screen recommended as always, here is Di Giuseppe's first goal for Ipswich:

[Radii]

-- Di Giuseppe and Ballester are both ineligible to play for us in the Champions League, I believe because they both got continental experience with their former clubs, Celtic and Sevilla both played in the Champions League group stage.


Injury Update

Awful news in the midfield. Craig Smith has a torn hamstring and will miss the next 2-3 months. Smith has been really solid for us again this year, in 26 matches combined (between cup/league/continental play) he's scored once, gotten 8 assists and earned an average rating of 7.07. 4 assists and a 6.96 rating in 16 league matches.

February 5th, 2025

Ipswich (11-7-6, 6th) @ Southampton (14th)

We're slim 6:4 favorites on the road today. We actually haven't played Southampton yet this year, 5-4-4 lifetime but we haven't lost to them in 2 years now (2-2-0). We'll play them again in about 5 weeks. This is a makeup match and will get us even in matches played with everyone else in the top 7. If we win we move to 4th, if we draw or lose we stay 6th. We play Man Utd in 3 days, they are also playing a make-up match today so they will be no more or less rested than us when we meet.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Mattle/Aldrovandi/Heywood
M: Adagsmar/Connolly/Mills/Chrzanowski
F: Khan/Constantino

Southampton ST Matteo Cavalleri has 11 goals to lead them, Simon Hamilton has 6 goals for them (sound familiar? We loaned him in from Southampton two years in a row from 2019-2021. He scored 15 goals the last time we promoted up from the Championship).... *advances to starting lineups* ... neither of these guys start today. Ryan Lambert and Billy Peters have a combined 4 goals up front.

Both our new guys sit today, Mattle in on defense, Connolly and Chrzanowski in, Jean/Gordon sit today. Khan up front. Counterattacking mindset to start today.

17': Free kick out a bit to the right 20 yards away, Adagsmar takes it, off the wall for a corner, they head that away but we recover and build up on offense again. We pass it around forever and ever (like 2 minutes), Mills has a shot blocked, Constantino has a bad first touch prevent a clear cut chance, in the end Connolly shoots miles wide.

21': Adagsmar with a yellow.

26': Throwin in their end, we get a pass into the area for Adagsmar, he gets a close range shot but the angle is bad and its weakly hit right at the keeper.

28': A great slide tackle on Khan prevents another clear cut chance as we got it ahead to Constantino for a strong counter attack, but they did a great job getting back.

33': A ball ahead from Mills to Khan, he turns by his man and shoots from 18 yards out, a strong shot but right at the keeper, rebound is contested by Adagsmar and one of their midfielders... Adagsmar goes down, penalty given! Connolly takes it and scores! 1-0

43': defender Baddelly with a yellow.

HALF: We were the better team and though it took a penalty to get on the board I think we're in good shape. We have 9 shots, 3 on target, they have 5 shots, 3 on target. We have 58% of the possession, are passing extremely well and have had a couple highlights where we seem to have free room to pass it around deep in their end looking to set something up.

59': Connolly passes to Khan about 25 yards out, he cuts out wide left, skips by a tackle and cuts into the penalty area, they are slow to close down and he has a great shot, shoots far post and the keeper can't stop it! 2-0

74': Kirkland a yellow. Hughes is in for Kirkland, Bartlett in for Mills (Bartlett usually DC but he can hold his own in the midfield too and I want to rest these guys).

91': We work it around on offense, a pass to Khan 25 yards out, he plays a great ball into the right side of the area for Chrzanowski, his first touch is quite poor and the keeper comes out to try to dive on the ball, but Chrzanowski recovers just in time and gets a shot off, beating the keeper and scoring! 3-0

Southampton 0 : 3 Ipswich

Man of the Match: Matthew Khan (9.0)
Goals: Khan, Chrzanowski (8.1), Connolly (7.7)
Assists: Khan, Connolly, Adagsmar (8.6)
Notables: Bogdanovs (7.1), Heywood (7.5), Kirkland (7.1), Aldrovandi (7.1), Mattle (7.4)

Outstanding play today on the road.

We bump up to 4th place with that win heading into a huge match vs Man Utd.

-- West Ham win their FA Cup Replay and we will play them in the FA Cup in 10 days.

[Radii]

-- 12 players are called up for International Duty. Our match vs Birmingham on the 11th is rescheduled. This gives us a week off for everyone not playing between Man Utd and the FA Cup (and a few days later Champions League). Gordon and Capitani called up for England, Aldrovandi and Di Giuseppe for Italy (all for friendlies, and Di Giuseppe doesn't have a senior team cap yet).

February 8th, 2025

Ipswich (12-7-6, 4th) @ Man Utd (15-8-3, 2nd)

We're 7 points behind 2nd place Man Utd (and 12 points behind Arsenal). Only 3 points separate 3rd and 6th so if we could find a way to get points on the road here it would be a huge help. Man Utd are 5:4 favorites, we're 7:4 to win. We have now rather famously come to own Man U. We tied 0:0 at our place back in October. We're 6-5-6 lifetime against them but are 5-4-0 in our last 9 against them. 1-2-0 at Old Trafford (3-1-0 at home and a neutral site win in the Euro Cup Final last year). Man Utd have really taken a dominant second place position here in England and keeping that streak alive will not be easy.

Man Utd plays defense, seriously. They only have 34 goals, far lower than anyone else in the top 4... but they've only allowed 13 goals in 26 league matches. We have 46 goals for/32 allowed by comparison.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Mattle/Ballester/Jackson
DMC: Bartlett
M: Cresp/Jean/Mills/Gordon
F: Di Giuseppe

Their star ST Stuart Wray has 8 league goals to lead them. He's a sub today though, AML Martin has 4 goals and ST Steer has 4 goals for them, both of those guys are in.

We go with a 4-1-4-1 today with such a difficult road matchup. Mills won't go 90 minutes probably, Connolly will be prepared to come in there. Di Giuseppe starts up front by himself but Bryan will come in if it seems like there are communication issues with our new player preventing us from generating chances.

We will try to counterattack today.

24': All highlights are Man Utd attacks so far, here they get their first clear cut chance, a ball to Steer in the penalty area, he beats Mattle, but Bogdanovs makes a good save. They have over 60% possession and a 6-1 edge in shots so far.

27': They earn a corner kick, Crespo wins the header to send it out, they retain possession, but Bartlett makes a tackle and sends it long... their keeper comes way out for it, he's 30-35 yards from goal, but he seems to misjudge the bounce and instead of controlling it with his feet and distributing he just heads it forward. Di Giuseppe picks it up precisely on the midfield stripe inside the circle. The keeper turns and tries to sprint back into the area. Di Giuseppe takes one dribble and shoots from just a couple steps on their side of the midfield. The ball goes over the keeper's head just as he gets back into the area, its under the crossbar and lands in the goal!!!!! 1-0

27': Defensive mindset.

31': Star MC van Schjindel shoots from 25 yards out and just misses wide right.

39': MC Sikorski receives a pass 25 yards out dead center, he launches a shot from there, into the left side of the net, nothing anyone could do about that at all. Crespo takes the blame for missing an interception on the previous pass to let that one happen. 1-1

HALF: They have 60% of the possession, 12 shots, but 10 are from long range and just 3 on target, but they have some really deadly long range shooters. We shoot twice, both on target. They are in control of everything, we're going to go back into a counter attacking mode to try to get it out of our end at least on occasion. Crespo has a 5.5 rating allowing their goal, Di Giuseppe an 8.2, everyone else is 6.8-6.9.

61': Just two highlights so far this half, both with really scary looking long shots from Man U that just miss.

72': Connolly in for Mills, Bryan in for Di Giuseppe, both are exhausted.

76': Adagsmar in for Crespo, his rating never improved.

88': We have a throwin in their end, can't find anything and end up passing it all the way back to Bogdanovs, he sends a ball long and we catch them seriously off guard, Bryan is behind their defense as he receives the ball, he has a decent first touch, into the area, clear cut chance... but the keeper dives and gets a hand to it and the ball goes just wide, daaamnn!! They clear out the corner.

That's it, and we get a point.

Man Utd 1 : 1 Ipswich

-- We have now played Man U 10 times in a row without them beating us.

Man of the Match: Yuri Di Giuseppe (8.3)
Goals: Di Giuseppe (unassisted)
Notables: Bogdanovs (7.2), Jackson (7.0), Kirkland (7.1), Gordon (7.0)

Crespo left with a 5.7 rating, unable to do anything at all and missing an interception that led to their goal. Everyone else 6.8-6.9.

-- Liverpool draw Blackburn and Newcastle loses to Tottenham (all of us were on the road today). As a result we stay in 4th place.

[Radii]

Just noticed I'd been putting the year as 2015 in game updates, I have a text file where I do updates and edit it for each different match so once I typo'd that once it stayed. We didn't travel back in time at all, its 2025 in game now.

[Radii]

-- Its only a friendly, but Carlos Aldrovandi scored a goal for Italy against Israel, while Yuri Di Giuseppe started and earned his first cap for Italy, not bad for an 18 year old!!

-- In a coaching update we're informed that 20 y/o MC Brett Connolly has improved in training. His passing is up to 19, Determination 12, Off the Ball up to 13. Connolly has only been with us 6 months and has seen a good number of training improvements. His anticipation has gone from 14->16, Concentration from 7->9 with many other important ratings up 1 point.


February 15th, 2025

FA Cup 5th Round

West Ham (6th, CH) @ Ipswich (4th, EPL)

We've made the quarterfinals of the FA Cup 4 years in a row and are looking to make it 5 with a win here. West Ham spent almost 20 years straight in the EPL from the 05/06 season to the 22/23 season, finishing 9th three times and never better than that. Their first year back down in the Championship they finished 9th. This is their second year in the Championship where they're in a tough fight for the last playoff spot.

We play Roma in the Champions League in 4 days. That makes Ballester and Di Giuseppe automatic selections here.

GK: Capitani
D: Kirkland/Welsh/Ballester/Jackson
M: Cresp/Jean/Mills/Chrzanowski
F: Di Giuseppe/Bryan

Bryan up front with Di Giuseppe, Gordon sits, Welsh gets a rare start at DC, and Capitani is in goal.

Attacking today.

11': We begin to attack, they compete for a ball about 40 yards out, Jean wins it, Di Giuseppe comes back as if to receive a pass and pulls a defender up with him, Jean takes off towards the goal, by the defender, into the area and he has a clear cut chance... the keeper is able to save it and turn it behind though, corner goes nowhere.

14': We win a ball in defense, after a couple passes in the midfield Jean sends it 30 yards forward, Bryan outruns the defense, gets to the ball about 25 yards out, into the area, clear cut chance #2 for us and Bryan finishes! 1-0

19': Crespo with a corner kick, he takes it to the near side of the 6 yard box, Ballester runs onto it, drills a header, its by the keeper and in!! His first goal for us!! 2-0

25': We pressure, they win a ball and send it back to the keeper who sends it towards midfield. Mills wins the header and heads it up to Bryan, he's about 30 yards out. He cuts right, gets by his man, into the area and he scores! 3-0

-- Just commentary unless they get back into it.

34': Mills to Di Giuseppe, he pulls up and shoots from 25 yards away, a rocket into the right side of the net bending by the keeper! 4-0

HALF: 12 shots to 6, 5 of theirs from long range though. We have 7 on target, 3 clear cut chances (all goals) + the great long range strike from Di Giuseppe. Khan for Bryan and Hughes for Kirkland at the half.

54': We're attacking, Crespo into the left side of the area, Di Giuseppe centers it for Khan who volleys it in! 5-0

85': Jean to Di Giuseppe, he dodges a tackle,shoots from 20 yards, hits the left upright and it bounces in. 6-0

91': aww, no shutout here, they get one in the last couple minutes.

Ipswich 6 : 1 West Ham


Man of the Match: Yuri Di Giuseppe (9.4)
Goals: Di Giuseppe 2, Bryan 2 (8.7), Ballester (8.8), Khan (6.9)
Assists: Mills 2 (9.1), Jean 2 (8.9), Di Giuseppe, Crespo (8.9)
Notables: Capitani (7.3), Kirkland (7.1), Welsh (7.5), Chrzanowski (7.4)

Jackson appears to take the blame for the one goal and his rating drops from the low 7's to 6.5.


-- Championship side Coventry destroy Sheffield Utd 3:0, Fulham beats Burnley in a meeting between two Championship sides, and CH Cardiff ties L1 Stockport, one of them will advance. So 3 of the final 8 will non-EPL teams! Watford upset Chelsea as well.

-- We make $297,000 for advancing here.

[Radii]

-- I randomly check through many guys on the team personal page where we see favored personnel and such. I had forgotten that I signed Bogdanovs from Celtic during the offseason. I dunno if they were already friends before or if it happened right after Di Giuseppe made the same Celtic->Ipswich move, but Di Giuseppe is one of Bogdanovs' favored personnel. Most players "good relationships" are linked to Kirkland, Mills or Constantino, they're clearly the 3 most popular guys on the team, but a few players relationship notes are about how Di Giuseppe has an amazing future ahead of him.

-- ST Eoin Darcy resumes full training following a hip injury that saw him miss the last 2 months. He has 4 goals in 18 matches for us this year.

FA Cup 6th Round Draw

BOOOOOOOOOO. Only 7 opponents available, 3 of them play in the championship, and who do we draw? We are going on the road to play the winner of Arsenal/Tottenham. I guess that's what we get for getting a free ride this far. The cardiff/stockport replay winner (CH/L1) will play Coventry (CH), so a championship team will make the semis. Also, EPL cellar team Watford plays Fulham from the Championship, so one of them makes the semis as well. That leaves the last Quarterfinal to be the Man Utd/Liverpool winner vs Man City.

February 19th, 2025

European Champions Cup First Knockout Round - First Leg

Ipswich (4th, EPL) @ Roma (2nd, Serie A)

We're finally back into Champions League play, we've got Roma here and the return leg is 3 weeks away after this. We have experience with Roma from the Euro Cup last year, we pulled off a pretty big upset to get by them in the Quarterfinals. Today Roma are even money favorites at their place, we are 11:5 to get a win.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Mattle/Aldrovandi/Heywood
M: Adagsmar/Jean/Mills/Gordon
F: Khan/Bryan

There's just one name on my mind going into this one, Rory Wright. Wright is once again one of the top strikers in the world this year. He's missed 8 weeks with injuries this year, but he's really making up for it, he's got 15 goals in 19 matches for Roma, and 8 goals in 5 international matches for England...

Looking at their stats Wright maybe shouldn't be the "only" name I'm worried about. Their other striker Patrick Ceccaroni has 21 goals in 27 matches this year and has been incredible. Wright is the better talent but i'd rather face Arsenal's two strikers any day than these two.

Back to a full starting level lineup today, Khan/Bryan up front, Mattle/Aldrovandi at DC, standard stuff elsewhere. I'm running a 4-4-2 because my coaching staff tells me Roma struggles against this formation, otherwise I'd be in my 4-1-4-1.

We will look to counter attack today.

5': Neil Gordon gets the first shot on target today, a solid effort from 20 yards out after a throwin.

9': They have a throwin in our end, a pass to Wright, he shoots from the edge of the box, Bogdanovs has to dive to save it, rebound to midfielder Plave, and he puts it in before we can recover. Jean takes the blame here. 0-1

15': Jean with a tackle near midfield and he wins the ball and takes off down the left side, he gets a cross to the far post, Bryan wins the header... but it hits the crossbar. damn!

34': We have it in the midfield, a ball up ahead to Bryan from Mills, he's 30 yards out and he just takes off, sprints by his man, he pulls up and shoots at the edge of the box... and its a really really poor effort, way wide.

44': throwin for us in their end, taken to Khan near the left edge of the box, he passes up to Jean who is 25ish yards out, Jean shoots from there, its a well placed shot but the keeper dives and stops it. We do get a corner but it goes nowhere.

45': We control it in their end, some really good movement and passing between our MC's and Forwards, Bryan to Mills, to Jean, up to Bryan who is in between their two central defenders, Bryan controls it well, shoots from 15 yards out and its by the keeper and into the net!!! We tie it up! 1-1

HALF: Adagsmar has a terrible 5.6 rating despite not being the one to take any blame for their one goal. I don't see why, he is passing well, must have a couple mistakes I am not seeing. My assistant feedback just says he's made a lot of mistakes and I decide to get Crespo in now. Its been an action packed half, we have 10 shots, 4 on target. They have 9 shots, 3 on target. Possession is even, passing is even, heading is even, they are winning tackles much, much more reliably than we are.


48': Jean is hurt, and forced to leave the match immediately. Ugh! Hope its not long term. Connolly is in.

56': We earn a corner kick, they head it out but we recover... a second corner after they clear away a nice pass into the area... they head that away too.

58': We move down the left, Mattle saves us as a backpass from Crespo is almost intercepted by Wright... Mattle hustled to it and sent it back up, ahead to Khan, he gets into the left corner, passes into the area for Crespo, Crespo crosses to the far side of the 6 yard box, Bryan is there, heads it, the keeper gets his hands to it... and fumbles it into the goal!!! Its an own goal and we take the lead!!!! 2-1

62': Khan a yellow.

65': I'm nervous about using my last sub now but I think its the right move. Clifford in for Khan, we back up to our 4-1-4-1 to hold the lead.

78': Throwin near midfield, thrown to Bryan, he is on the left sideline 30 yards away... dribbles forward, towards the end line, into the area, he shoots from outside the 6 yard box at a crazy crazy tight angle, and its by the keeper and in!!!!!! 3-1

85': Khan is hurt.

95': UGH. We're still going to win but they get a great strike from Rory Wright from a bit over 20 yards away and its just a 1 goal win instead of 2. 3-2

Roma 2 : 3 Ipswich

What an incredible win on the road!!!

Man of the Match: Chris Bryan (9.2)
Goals: Bryan 2 (+1 own goal)
Assists: Bryan, Mills (7.6), Kirkland (7.4)
Notables: Bogdanovs (7.1)

Adagsmar left at the half with a 5.6 rating, everyone else not mentioned earned a 6.8-6.9.


-- Jean is only out for 4-5 days, whew.

-- So Chris Bryan, 2 goals in the Euro Cup Final and two goals and an assist on the road in front of 70,172 people in our first ever Champions League knockout round match... Constantino has been the star most of this dynasty, and Di Giuseppe has instantly become the next big thing, but Chris Bryan has some of the most important goals in the biggest moments in Ipswich history so far.

[Radii]

-- Di Giuseppe has a cold, we send him home. He's only out a couple days but it'll likely keep him out of our next match against Everton.

February 23rd, 2025

Ipswich (13-8-6, 5th) @ Everton (10-8-9, 10th)

Liverpool destroyed Bristol City (5:0 while we were off playing Roma, that dropped us back to 5th place with a match in hand on the top teams.

We're big even money favorites on the road today thanks to the hot streak we've been on. We beat them 2:0 at Portman Road back in November and are 5-5-4 lifetime against them, but we've dominated more recent history, 4-4-1 in the last 9 matches against them.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Ballester/Aldrovandi/Heywood
M: Crespo/Connolly/Mills/Chrzanowski
F: Khan/Bryan

Everton's Colin McCoy and Brian Kelly both have 9 goals in league play to lead them. Ballester in for Mattle, 3 changes in midfield, only Mills stays in from our last match. We run Khan/Bryan up front again. We play again in 3 days and will look for a lot of changes then.

Standard mindset on the road today as big favorites.

17': Free kick for us near midfield, ahead to Crespo, he passes to Khan who makes a great move to beat his man in the left side of the area... and then he shoots a terrible terrible shot from 10 yards away wide left.

24': Yellow for Ballester.

27': Mills up ahead to Bryan, he's got a half step on his man, gets into the area and shoots... saved by the keeper, rebound to Chrzanowski, he shoots.. and the keeper holds it. One of the two was a clear cut chance, I am not sure which.

34': Mills passes ahead to Khan, he turns by his man, shoots from just inside the penalty area, its considered a clear cut chance... but the keeper was rushing out as soon as Khan beat his defender and makes the stop.

HALF: We rush to the half after that. Possession is about even, we have 6 shots, 4 on target and 2 clear cut chances but couldn't find a goal. They shoot 7 times, 4 from long range and get just two on target. They're passing better, we're tackling better, things are even in the air. Bryan and Connolly are struggling with ratings of 6.0 and 6.1, we need them to turn it around in the second half.

54': Aldrovandi a yellow.

60': Clifford is on for Mills.

62': Kelly sends it into the right side of the area for their MR and that's their best chance yet, he shoots just wide.

64': they have a free kick out near the right sideline 35 yards away, crossed into the area, their man Brian Kelly wins the header and drils it into the net. Kirkland takes the blame for the goal. 0-1

73': We'll attack to try to get level.

75': Clifford a yellow.

75': They attack down the left side, a cross comes in, Kelly wins a header over Ballester... and scores their second goal. 0-2

75': Constantino in for Bryan, Gordon in for Chrzanowski.

87': Crespo wins a tackle in our defensive end and is off to the races, he beats everyone down the left sideline, crosses into the area, Constantino with the header... it hits the right post, hits their keeper and goes in!! Its considered an own goal... I disagree with that based on the highlight, but a goal is a goal, and we have a slim prayer here! 1-2

91': goal kick for us, 3 passes get it quickly downfield, Constantino crosses into the area, they head it away but fairly weakly, Connolly is there 20 yards out and shoots, but his shot is wide right.

That's it.

Everton 2 : 1 Ipswich

It seems inevitable after lavishing praise on Brian Kelly and trying so hard and failing to acquire him, he burns us for two goals and gets them a win when we're fighting like hell for a Champions League spot next year.

Assist: Constantino (6.8) - only goal was an own goal
Notables: Balester (7.2), Crespo (7.0)


Newcastle got a win and while we still have a match in hand we are now in 6th place.

9 matches to play unless otherwise noted:

1. Arsenal - 62 pts
2. Man Utd - 58 pts
3. Chelsea - 55 pts
4. Liverpool - 50 pts
5. Newcastle - 49 pts
6. Ipswich - 47 pts (1 less match)
7. Man City - 44 pts (1 less match)
8. Aston Villa - 43 pts (2 less matches)
9. Everton - 41 pts (1 less match)
10. Huddersfield - 38 pts (2 less matches)

We're still fighting like hell for 4th place, but we have to be careful here to make sure we stay in the top 7 no matter what as well. And really there are 4 teams left in the FA Cup that are not challenging for a spot in Europe, one of them may well get a Euro Cup spot and only 5th and 6th would qualify. AND, Man City is in the finals of the League Cup against Man Utd... if Man City were to win that and not finish in the top 6 or 7... there is a chance only 5th place would make the Euro Cup this year.

[Radii]

February 26th, 2025

Birmingham (6-8-14, 17th) @ Ipswich (13-8-7, 6th)

Must win against a struggling team at home. They're only 2 points ahead of a relegation spot and have everything to fight for too, but we are 1:2 favorites and will need to get 3 points today. The last 4 times we've played we won 1:0.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Hughes/Ballester/Mattle/Jackson
M: Adagsmar/Connolly/Mills/Gordon
F: Di Giuseppe/Bryan

Lots of changes today on short rest again, Hughes, Mattle and Jackson start over Kirkland, Aldrovandi and Heywood on defense. Adagsmar and Gordon in, Di Giuseppe up front but he's not full strength after his little cold and may not go 90 either.

We attack today.

5': Di Giuseppe receives a pass 20 yards out and shoots from there, right at the keeper but there's a rebound, Adagsmar has it and has a clear cut chance... but also shoots right at the keeper, saved.

15': corner for us, Gordon sends it to the far post, Mattle with the header and he scores! The keeper dove out for it and the net was wide open. 1-0

17': Highlight opens with Di Giuseppe wide left, he crosses to the far post, Bryan with a header... diving stop by their keeper, but he's quick to his feet, rebound to Mills, another diving stop...

20': We intercept a ball in their end, Mills to Di Giuseppe, ahead to Bryan in the area, he's got a clear cut chance... keeper again dives and stops it. We have 8 shots already, 6 on target.

23': They have a corner kick, taken to the edge of the 6 yard box, dead center... Mattle misses a header, their defender Harding is there and heads it into the net. 1-1 Ugh ugh ugh. Ugly.

35': Connolly is hurt and forced to leave the match... Jean is in, back from his short term injury, not full strength but he should be able to go 55 minutes.

40': Adagsmar a yellow.

41': Kirkland wins a ball in their end, pass to Adgasmar, ahead to Di Giuseppe, he's down the left side, crosses into the area, Bryan wins the header... saved by the keeper and its a corner. They head the corner away but we recover.. and can't do anything with it.

HALF: We are really really frustrated to be tied here. We have 9 shots, 7 on target with 2 clear cut chances. They have 3 shots, 2 on target, 2 from long range. We should be crushing them here. Ballester is dying out there with a 5.6 rating and I'm bringing Aldrovandi in for the second half.

51': Corner for us, Gordon takes it to the near post, Aldrovandi wins a header... and its off the post and away to safety.

63': Corner for us, they head it away but we send it back forward.. and earn corner #2. They win a header there and its out to the side for a throwin. they clear that away.

83': Constantino in for Bryan, fresh legs to try to get the winner here.

93': We earn what may well just be one last corner here (3 minutes of added time), taken to the near post, Aldrovandi heads it way high, and that's it.

Ipswich 1 : 1 Birmingham

We don't allow a single shot in the second half, we just couldn't find a damn goal. Not good enough by a long stretch.

Man of the Match: Neil Gordon (8.7)
Goal: Mattle (8.2)
Assist: Gordon
Notables: Hughes (7.1), Adagsmar (7.3)

The offense just didn't get it done today. A couple clear cut chances whiffed and a lot of other looks where we just couldn't get a goal. A huge mistake on a corner allowed their only goal as well, we had our chances here.


Injury Update

MC Brett Connolly has a torn hamstring and is out 2-3 months, at this point he may miss the rest of the season.


At the end of the day we now have the same number of matches played as everyone in front of us... and still sit in 6th place. 2 behind Liverpool, 1 behind Newcastle.

[MIJB#19]

Great dynasty report, Radii.

[Radii]

March Update

-- March is going to be a really light month for us. We play on the 1st, 8th, 12th, 15th, and 22nd. World Cup Qualifying picks up at the end of the month. The FA Cup is on the 8th while the Champions League match is on the 12th. That means only 3 league matches this month. I believe we will be heavy heavy favorites for all 3 of them and we really need to get 7 to 9 points out of them, we are going to open April @Newcastle/@Chelsea, we need to make a move now before that happens.

-- 1st year Youth Pull DC John Ashworth is singled out for training well, he's played well for the U18s and is still a 3* - 3 1/2* potential prospect.

-- Matthew Khan is 2nd in player of the month voting for February. He only played two league matches, getting a goal and earning 9.0 and 7.5 ratings. He played against Roma and West Ham as well

-- Yuri Di Giuseppe is the young player of the month for February! He has 3 goals in 3 league matches and is off to a great great start for us.

-- Di Giuseppe's long shot against Man Utd is the #2 goal of the month as well.

-- The board remains very pleased with my leadership. Signing DC Ballester is the highlight, our 2:0 loss to Sheffield Utd is still the complaint, that was awhile ago.

-- We lost $1.8M last month.


March 1st, 2025

Tottenham (10-6-13, 12th) @ Ipswich (13-9-7, 6th)

We're big 4:6 favorites at home today over Tottenham. This remains one of the teams we struggle against like no other. We're 1-3-9 lifetime against them with a 2:1 loss at their place earlier in the year. We did beat them at home last season for that first ever win.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Ballester/Aldrovandi/Heywood
M: Crespo/Jean/Mills/Gordon
F: Khan/Di Giuseppe

Emmanuel Amoako leads them with 13 goals in 22 matches, he has incredible skills but is slow (10 pace/8 accel) and can't jump (7). After coming over from the dutch premier league, he had two rough seasons with 5 goals and 4 goals before coming up big this year.

Kirkland is back in defense, Aldrovandi starts over Mattle. Khan/Di Giuseppe up front for the first time today.

Standard mindset today.

7': We have a corner, Gordon takes it to the near man, Ballester wins a header just outside the 6 yard box... and it beats the keeper for a goal!!! 1-0

21': Their first highlight is a throwin in our end, we let a through ball go to midfielder Smart and he has the first clear cut chance for either team, Bogdanovs makes a big save for us. Corner goes nowhere.

27': Non stop highlights for Tottenham, they now have 6 shots, most of them in the last 6 minutes.

38': We build up on offense, Jean passes ahead to Khan, he does an amazing job getting by his man and into the area for an open look, not a clear cut chance somehow, and not a goal somehow... he hits the left post on a shot that looked great.

HALF: We get out of the half with the lead. We control 57% of the possession, shooting 5 times but only putting our goal on target. Tottenham shoots 7 times, 3 on target with the 1 clear cut chance. There was a 7 or 8 minute stretch in the middle of the half where tottenham put insane amounts of pressure on us, but we withstood that and are doing well.

57': Aldrovandi a yellow.

61': Khan to Mills for a horrible horrible shot from 18 yards out. It might have been 18 yards high.

66': Clifford in for Mills.

71': their ST Amoako a yellow.

72': Clifford is hurt.

79': Ballester is hurt, he'll stay in for now.

88': After almost 30 minutes with no highlights we watch them put a shot well over.

We put this one away really well, totally shutting them down in the second half.

Ipswich 1 : 0 Tottenham

Man of the Match: Neil Gordon (8.4)
Goal: Ballester (8.2)
Assist: Gordon
Notables: Bogdanovs (7.5), Heywood (7.0), Kirkland (7.2), Aldrovandi (7.2), Crespo (7.1), Jean (7.2)

Really strong performance here. Our forwards each with 6.8 ratings, Mills 6.9, everyone else with a 7.0 or better rating in a big win at home against a team we struggle a lot against.


injury Update

Our new DC Jose Antonio Ballester has a pulled hamstring and is out 3 weeks.

MC Conor Clifford is out 5-6 days with a thigh injury.


Liverpool draw at home against Huddersfield and Nottingham Forest upset Newcastle so we make strong gains on both our key Champions League challengers.


8 matches to go unless otherwise noted:

1. Arsenal - 63 pts
2. Man Utd - 58 pts (1 less played)
3. Chelsea - 55 pts (1 less played)
4. Liverpool - 51 pts
-----------------------------------
5. Ipswich - 51 pts
6. Newcastle - 49 pts
7. Man City - 44 pts (2 less played)
-----------------------------------
8. Aston Villa - 43 pts (3 less played)

Man City and Aston Villa remain super dangerous with 2 and 3 less matches played, depending on how they do we might have a solid 5 team race for 1 Champions league spot. Liverpool have a +18 goal differential, we are at +14. Newcastle are at -2....


-- Man City beats Man Utd 1:0 in the league cup final, clinching a Euro Cup spot.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by MIJB#19

Great dynasty report, Radii.

Thanks!

[Radii]

Injury Update

awful news here as Chris Bryan has a torn groin muscle and is going to miss 5-6 weeks.

-- Arsenal beat Tottenham 5:1 in their FA Cup replay. We travel to Arsenal for the quarterfinals. Arsenal will be on shorter rest.

March 8th, 2025

FA Cup 6th Round

Ipswich (5th, EPL) @ Arsenal (1st, EPL)

Arsenal are even money favorites today. They have knocked us out of the last two FA Cups, both times in the semifinals. After upsetting Arsenal at their place 1:0 in October they crushed us 3:0 in December. That win is the only time we've beaten them in the last 7 meetings. Only 1 draw as well, 1-1-5 over the last couple years.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Mattle/Aldrovandi/Heywood
M: Crespo/Jean/Mills/Gordon
F: Di Giuseppe/Constantino

With a week off we have everyone that's healthy rested. With Smith and Connolly both hurt in the midfield and Roma coming up in 4 days I'm not putting 3 MC's out there for a 4-1-4-1, we'll run Di Giuseppe and Constantino and hope to get a counter attack goal.

27': They shoot wide from 20 yards out after a couple passes... this is the first highlight of the match for either team. they have 5 shots, we have 1.

31': Mills steals a ball from one of their mids and triggers a counter attack, passing ahead to Constantino, he gets down the right side and passes back to mills who shoots from 18 yards away, but misses wide.

39': Free kick for Arsenal in midfield, after one pass its up ahead to ST Nooij, he plays it to Yildirim in the area and he's completely lost Mattle... he's got a clear cut chance and finishes easily. 0-1

41': We build up on offense, Di Giuseppe has it out wide left, he avoids a tackle, comes towards the penalty area, avoids a second tackle, passes to the penalty spot for Neil Gordon, Gordon sends it towards the goal with his first touch and its by the keeper, we tie it up!! They claim offsides and the commentary seems to agree that it was at least extremely close, but its a goal! 1-1

HALF: Aldrovandi comes into the half with a 5.6 rating, it looked like Mattle was to blame for their goal but Aldrovandi seems to have taken the hit for it. We have a 56/44 possession edge here, 5 shots, 2 on target. They shoot 10 times with 3 on target, 5 from long range but their long range shots are scary as hell. Our tackling stands out today, 79% success rate there, otherwise stats are extremely close.

57': A highlight opens with Crespo heading it out of their end. Ahead to Di Giuseppe, he passes back to Kirkland, we set up a bit and its passed ahead to Constantino, he's 35 yards out, runs with his man and gets a bit further forward and spots Di Giuseppe wide open, passes over to him, Di Giuseppe into the area and he has our first clear cut chance and its a goal, he beats the keeper!! 2-1

64': Bartlett in for Constantino, 4-1-4-1, we really need Constantino fully fresh for Roma and I change my mind about a 3rd defender.

67': Of course... through ball to Burgra Yildirim and he has their second goal, a really quick highlight, didn't see the setup, but its tied. 2-2

85': Chrzanowski and Adagsmar in for Jean and Mills at MC, every minute of rest helps hopefully.

We earn a replay at our house here, a really solid result!!

Arsenal 2 : 2 Ipswich

Their assist man Nooij is man of the match with a 9.0 today and their scorer for both goals Yildirim has an 8.8.

Goals: Di Giuseppe (7.9), Gordon (7.6)
Assists: Di Giuseppe, Constantino (6.9)
Notables: Bodganovs (7.4)

Everyone else 6.8-6.9.


A few matches were played during this last week. 8 matches to go still unless otherwise noted:

1. Arsenal - 63 pts
2. Man Utd - 58 pts (1 less played)
3. Chelsea - 58 pts
4. Liverpool - 51 pts
-----------------------------------
5. Ipswich - 51 pts
6. Newcastle - 49 pts
7. Aston Villa - 47 pts (1 less played)
8. Man City - 45 pts (1 less played)

Aston Villa overtakes Man City for 7th, though with Man City winning the league cup 7th wouldn't be worth squat right now.

[Radii]

-- Clive Jackson is hurt in training, he'll only miss 4-5 days but that is enough to keep him out of the Champions League match with Roma and very possibly our next league match 3 days after that.

FA Cup Semi Final Draw

Arsenal/Ipswich winner vs Man City

Watford/Fulham winner vs Cardiff

If we were to win our replay we'll once again get the tough draw in the semis.

March 12th, 2025

European Champions Cup First Knockout Round - Second Leg

Roma (2) @ (3) Ipswich

Everything is in our favor today. 3 away goals and we're even up a goal. We're slim 6:4 favorites to win and 2:1 to draw which would count as a win for us too.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Mattle/Aldrovandi/Heywood
DM: Clifford
M: Hughes/Jean/Mills/Gordon
F: Constantino

I decide to go with Clifford at DMC today and Constantino alone up front. Hughes starts at ML because he's better defensively than our two primary ML's, also that leaves Adagsmar available to sub at MC.

We'll counter attack.

7': We win a ball in defense, a short pass to Jean, he's 30 yards from our own goal... their defense shows a crack though, Jean with a long pass ahead and Constantino beats everyone down the field, he got to linger behind his man due to one of their defenders hanging back way too far, Constantino is 35 yards out, makes a run, the keeper comes out, Constantino shoots 20 yards away, its by the keeper and in!!! 1-0

30': they have 60% of the possession but 2 off target shots.

34': They get it back here, our defense gets stuck out of position, Ceccaroni with a pass to Wright who found himself wide open in the penalty area and he isn't missing a clear cut chance. 1-1

HALF: We get to the half after that. They have a 55/45 possession edge. Each team shoots 4 times, 2 on target for us, just 1 for them. We're tackling well and doing exactly what we need to, limiting their chances. We're up 4-3 aggregate.

52': After a couple passes Wright found a little space and shoots from 20 yards away, Bogdanovs makes a nice save and we clear.

56': We work the ball around on offense, ahead to Gordon, back to Heywood... to mills, Mills sends it into the right side of the area for Gordon, he doesn't have a shot, or a pass really, but he protects the ball and he's fouled as they try to take it away, that's a penalty!!! Gordon drills the penalty and we go ahead. 2-1

68': Bartlett in for Clifford at DMC, Chrzanowski in for Mills.

70': We intercept a pass as they try to get their offense going, a pass to Hughes at midfield, he sends it right for Chrzanowski, with his first touch he plays it up ahead for Constantino and Constantino times his run perfectly, he's by their defense, once again pulls up from 20 yards as the keeper rushes out, and once again finishes beautifully!!! 3-1

82': Adagsmar in for Jean.

86': They get one back, Ceccaroni blasts a shot in from 18 yards out. 3-2

That's it!!!!!!

Ipswich (6) 3: 2 (4) Roma

Man of the Match: Constantino (8.8)
Goals: Constantino 2, Gordon (7.5)
Assists: Jean (7.5), Chrzanowski (6.9)

Heywood struggles with a 6.3 rating, everyone else 6.8-6.9.

We play two really exciting matches against Roma, winning both 3:2 (and leading both 3:1 before giving up late goals that in the end meant nothing). Constantino must have heard me talking about how clutch Chris Bryan has been in key continental matches, getting 2 goals of his own today!


-- We receive $4.304M for playing in this round of the Champions Cup.

-- The Champions League matches are split out over two weeks, this is the first week. The quarterfinal draw won't be for another week+.

-- Barcelona (over hoffenheim), Genoa (over At. Madrid), and Real Madrid (over Inter) have advanced so far. Arsenal, Man City and Man Utd all finish their series up next week.


Man Utd beat Aston Villa to further even out the matches played. 8 left unless otherwise mentioned.

1. Arsenal - 63 pts
2. Man Utd - 61 pts
3. Chelsea - 58 pts
4. Liverpool - 51 pts
-----------------------------------
5. Ipswich - 51 pts
6. Newcastle - 49 pts
7. Aston Villa - 47 pts
8. Man City - 45 pts (1 less played)

Man Utd is only 2 points out of first now, and Aston Villa still sit 4 points behind us. Next up is a match against Southampton that we really should win, but we're on short rest and injuries are adding up, hopefully we can get it done.

[Alf]

Exciting season so far. And very nice reading.

[Taz13]

I had a lot to catch up on. I can see how this season is going to keep you up late trying to get through it with all of the excitement of challenging for top 4.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Taz13

I had a lot to catch up on. I can see how this season is going to keep you up late trying to get through it with all of the excitement of challenging for top 4.

Last night, err this morning, definitely a "just one more turn" thing going on.

[Radii]

March 15th, 2025

Southampton (8-9-13, 14th) @ Ipswich (15-6-9, 5th)

We are huge 4:6 favorites over Southampton at Portman Road today. They're 7:2 to get a win. We're 6-4-4 lifetime against them and played just last month, getting a big 3:0 road win. Our schedule gets tougher very soon and we need 3 points here in our fight for 4th place.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Mattle/Aldrovandi/Heywood
M: Crespo/Jean/Mills/Chrzanowski
F: Di Giuseppe/Darcy

We've got a week off after this so I don't try to rest too many guys here. Gordon does need to sit. I go with Di Giuseppe and Darcy up front, Darcy is match fit again and sees his first action since his injury months ago.

Southampton didn't start their star striker against us last time, today, ST Cavalleri is in.

8': Some nice passing almost leads to an early goal for us but Chrzanowski broke early and was well offside.

11': Di Giuseppe with a pass ahead to Crespo, he gets a shot off, closely defended, and the keeper makes the save, rebound back to Crespo, another shot is saved though.

22': Their keeper clears away a ball after another attack for us, Aldrovandi heads it back at midfield, Mattle tries to control it... and fails, he doesn't bring the ball down cleanly, it pops away and ST Peters is there, he steals it and takes off, into the area, Bogdanovs rushes out... and cuts off his angle to stop the clear cut chance. That was their first shot but it was a scary one.

39': Throwin for us in their end, after a pass Darcy has it in the right side of the area, they tackle it away but it falls to Di Giuseppe, he gets into the area and shoots... but saved, that was our first clear cut chance as Di Giuseppe beat his man. We're dominating everything but the scoreboard with 10 shots to 2 right now.

46': Buildup down the right side, a pass goes to Darcy, played back to Jean, Jean passes ahead to Di Giuseppe, he shoots from 18 yards out, its well placed but the keeper makes a diving save.

47': Heywood a yellow.

HALF: We have 62% of the possession, 12 shots, 5 on target, we're dominating every stat... but no goals. They have 3 shots, just one on target. We will continue to push, I can't imagine we wouldn't be able to get a goal if we keep this up.

60': Just one offensive highlight for each team so far, we put a shot into the side netting, they put one 10 feet wide.

65': They counter attack after winning a ball in our end, both of our deep defenders go to close down on their first striker at midfield and he just lays it off to the side for Cavalleri, he gets forward, but again Bogdanovs makes a great save.

79': Bartlett in for Mattle, Gordon in for Chrzanowski, Adagsmar in for Hughes.

95': We get a free kick 30 yards out, Gordon takes it and almost scores, their keeper dives and makes the save, we earn a corner. Corner it taken into the area, Heywood goes up for a header, and he's fouled... penalty!!!! Gordon steps up to take the penalty, the match almost certainly ends immediately after this, and he nails it. CRAZY. 1-0

Ipswich 1 : 0 Southampton

We deserved to win today, we outplayed them like crazy, but Southampton is going to be pissed with the way they lost to us today, on a 95th minute penalty. We end up shooting 18 times to their 5, control 62% of the possession for the entire 90+ minutes, its crazy that it took that much for us to score.

Their keeper is man of the match.

Goal: Gordon (6.9)
Assist: Heywood (8.0)
Notables: Bogdanovs (7.0), Kirkland (7.6), Aldrovandi (7.2), Di Giuseppe (7.7)

6.6 for Mattle (after a 5.8 first half so that's good), 6.8-6.9 for everyone else.

Liverpool wins by 2, Newcastle wins by 1 today. 7 matches to go unless otherwise mentioned:

1. Arsenal - 64 pts
2. Man Utd - 62 pts
3. Chelsea - 61 pts
4. Liverpool - 54 pts
-----------------------------------
5. Ipswich - 54 pts
6. Newcastle - 52 pts
7. Man City - 48 pts (1 less played)
8. Aston Villa - 47 pts (1 less played)


The race for first just got crazier too as Man Utd and Arsenal both draw, Chelsea wins and 3 teams are within 3 points of first.

[Radii]

-- Arsenal destroys AIK, OM beats FC Bayern. Man City over Juventus, Man Utd over Benfica. Four of the final 8 in the Champions League are English teams!

European Champions Cup Quarterfinal Draw

Man Utd vs Real Madrid
Man City vs Ipswich
Arsenal vs OM
Genoa vs Barcelona


There's no easy team left, that's for sure, but Man City is better than getting Arsenal. We start with them on the road on April 2nd, and play them at home on April 8th.

-- Right now we have 10 matches left on the schedule. 3 of them are against Man City. If we were to beat Arsenal in our FA Cup Replay we'd play Man City again in the FA Cup Semifinals. There's a chance we'll play Man City 4 times in the last 2 months of the season. Chelsea, Newcastle and Liverpool remain on the schedule too. These last two months will test us in a big way.


-- The Champions League Quarters cause our FA Cup match against Arsenal and a league match vs Newcastle to be rescheduled.

-- We have 15 players called up for International matches. 4 of them for U20/U21 action, the rest will be playing in World Cup Qualifiers.

-- Ballester resumes full training.


March 22nd, 2025

Ipswich (16-6-9, 5th) @ Nottingham Forest (7-9-15, 17th)

We're 11-3-9 lifetime against Nottingham Forest. We beat them 3-1 at home back in November and have won 4 in a row against them now. Northwestern are only 2 points ahead of Birmingham and trying to avoid relegation. They are 5:4 favorites over us at their place today. I keep saying it, but our schedule is about to get really really bad, so we need 3 points against every team like this regardless of location.

-- Newcastle plays Man City, Liverpool plays Everton, we've got the "easy" matchup of the 3 teams today.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Mattle/Aldrovandi/Heywood
M: Crespo/Jean/Mills/Gordon
F: Di Giuseppe/Constantino

Constantino and Gordon are back in today and this seems like the best lineup we're capable of fielding today (Ballester over Mattle once he's fit again, and if Bryan were healthy Bryan vs Constantino would be the only question). Standard mindset on the road today.

4': Free kick from about 20 yards away, Neil Gordon takes it, by the wall and drilled into the left side of the net, great start!! 1-0

5': They kick off and try to go straight down the field. Mattle intercepts a pass 25 yards away and launches the ball downfield. Constantino runs by his man on the way to the ball, into the area and he scores!!! 2-0

7': Maybe we should counter attack and protect an early lead on the road.

14': We build up on offense, a cross goes to the 6 yard box by Heywood, Crespo is there and unmarked... but heads it right at the keeper, saved.

15': Mattle with another interception as they try to build up, he passes to Constantino in the midfield, he races down the right side, gets near the end line, crosses into the 6 yard box, Di Giuseppe comes charging in and heads it in, we needed this!! 3-0

16': They kick off, 3 passes later Aldrovandi misses a tackle, ST Byrne shoots from 25 yards out and its in the upper left corner of the net, holy crap. 3-1

31': Aldrovandi with a yellow.

HALF: After 4 goals in 16 minutes things settle down and we charge to the halftime. Each team only shoots 6 times, we have 4 on target, 3 clear cut chances and 3 goals. They shoot 6 times, 3 are on target but 4 of their shots are from long range. We just need to put away this last 45 minutes.

60': Through ball from Jean that almost goes to the 6 yard box, Constantino runs onto it for our 4th clear cut chance, but the keeper is able to save this one.

67': They flood our defense and get a good shot from 18 yards out, but Bogdanovs makes the save. That was their first shot of the half.

68': Gordon with a foul about 20 yards out but wide to the left. They cross it in but a header is way high.

79': Oh lord. Neil Gordon goes down injured, he has to leave the match immediately. Pleeeease don't be long term. Hutchinson is in.

We get a huge win thanks to a spectacular start.

Nottingham Forest 1 : 3 Ipswich

Man of the Match: Constantino (9.0)
Goals: Constantino, Gordon (8.2), Di Giuseppe (7.5)
Assists: Constantino 2, Mattle (8.3)
Notables: Kirkland (7.4), Aldrovandi (7.0), Mills (7.0), Jean (7.0)

Injury Update

Neil Gordon has a couple broken ribs and is going to miss 3-4 weeks. The silver lining here is that we have about 12 days off due to an international break and our next 3 matches are Champions League/FA Cup. We don't play another league match until April 13th and have off until April 23rd after that. So losing Gordon really hurts our cup play, but there's a chance he only misses one match in the EPL.

Everyone in the top 6 won today, I was hoping Everton could pull something off against Liverpool today. 6 matches to go unless otherwise noted.

1. Arsenal - 67 pts
2. Man Utd - 65 pts
3. Chelsea - 64 pts
4. Liverpool - 57 pts
-----------------------------------
5. Ipswich - 57 pts
6. Newcastle - 55 pts
7. Man City - 48 pts (1 less played)
8. Aston Villa - 47 pts (1 less played)

Man City and Aston Villa lost, but wins from all of the top 6 keep everything level. We did gain one goal on Liverpool today. We are +17, they are +21, and if the season ended today, that would be the difference between the Champions League and Euro Cup next year. A ton can change in 6 matches, but I'll point out that (pending schedules changing more) we will close the regular season at Liverpool.

[Radii]

Injury Update

MC Conor Clifford is going to miss 3 weeks with an injury he picked up in an Ireland vs Georgia World Cup Qualifier.

International Break

-- Yuri Di Giuseppe gets his first international goal, coming off the bench and scoring in a 5:0 Italy win over Malta.

-- Mattle (Austria), Chrzanowski (Poland), Bogdanovs (Latvia), Ballester (Spain), Darcy and Clifford (Ireland) also play in qualifiers.


April Update

-- We play on the 2nd, 5th, 8th, 13th, 23rd, 26th. 2nd and 8th are Champions League vs Man City, 5th is FA Cup Replay vs Arsenal. If we win either of those we'll play a bunch more cup matches and have league matches moved around to adjust.

-- Youth pull Frank Battersby is singled out again for training well. He's gained in a large number of ratings recently. He's a superstar in the U18 league and may get loaned out to League 1 or the Championship next season.

-- Neil Gordon is 2nd in EPL Player of the Month voting. Gordon is having a good year. In the EPL in March he played all 3 of our league matches, scoring 2 goals and making 1 assist, twice putting up a rating > 8.0.

-- Yuri Di Giuseppe is the Young Player of the Month in the EPL. He scored 1 goal in 3 matches and had 2 ratings over 7.5.

-- I am Manager of the month. I said going into March that we had winnable matches but only a few of them and we needed to get lots of points. We got 9 points out of our 3 matches and were perfect in league play. Liverpool got 7 points out of 3 matches, so we needed all 9 to keep up.

-- The board is very pleased with my leadership. Signing Ballester remains the highlight (everyone loves him more than Di Giuseppe). No negatives.

-- We made $4.22 Million last month. Because we paid up front for Di Giuseppe and Man Utd are on a payment plan for Skhosana, we have lost $57 Million this year and have are $23 Million in the red for cash. All that should be fine with prize money coming in. Take away transfer spending and we've made $7 million.

-- I keep talking about how difficult our remaining league schedule is, Liverpool plays Man Utd and Newcastle this month, but they do close with Southampton and Nottingham Forest before playing us on the final day. We have a tougher schedule and are still involved in other competitions so its going to be really difficult to top them, but we've got a shot.


-- Arsenal demolish OM 5:0 at home, Genoa 3:0 over Barcelona in the first Champions League quarterfinal matches.


April 2nd, 2025

European Champions Cup Quarterfinals - First Leg

Ipswich (5th, EPL) @ Man City (7th, EPL)

We open on the road. Constantino and Chris Bryan lead Ipswich with 6 goals each in Champions League play. Romelu Lukaku has 9 goals for Man City, Jeroen Mihci has 5 goals. We're 4-5-10 lifetime against Man City. We lost to them 1:0 in the League Cup at home back in October and beat them 2:0 in EPL play in December.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Mattle/Aldrovandi/Heywood
DM: Bartlett
M: Crespo/Jean/Mills/Chrzanowski
F: Constantinio

We're going to start in a 4-1-4-1 today. Ballester and Di Giuseppe can't play in the Champions league and Clifford, Smith, Connolly, Gordon and Bryan are all hurt right now. So we basically have every healthy player available today.

Their top scorer Lukaku isn't playing today, but Mihci is a stud too and their other ST in a 4-4-2 is Alipio, a 32 year old that had some great years for Man City in his late 20s and is still capable of scoring.

We counter attack today.

8': First highlight is ours, Constantino shoots just wide from 20 yards out.

12': they have a corner, taken to the near side of the area, a header is saved by Bogdanovs and we clear it out.

14': A shot from 20 yards out by Mihci is saved by Bogdanovs, we clear the ensuing corner.

23': corner for us, Mattle heads it wide.

27': they earn their 7th corner with another shot from just outside the area that is well placed and Bogdanovs saves. We clear it, they recover but miss a 25 yard shot well wide.

40': Chrzanowski with a nice run down the right, a cross is headed away but Kirkland recovers and passes back up to Constantino, he shoots and its a great shot, just saved. They clear out our corner, we recover and after a few passes Jean ends up with a shot in the left side of the area. He could have scored with a better strike there but he sends it wide aiming for the far post.

HALF: We end up controlling 56% of the possession. They are more threatening for sure with 3 on target shots (out of 5 total) and they've earned 8 corners. We have 4 shots, just 1 on target, 3 corners. We're playing well though and in a position where one counter attack or one well placed strike could sneak a win for us today. So far exactly what we want to do on the road here.

60': Bartlett with a yellow.

62': They earn a clear cut chance as Alipio gets by one man, draws both DC's and passes to Mihci. Mihci shows pretty terrible control though and the ball goes forward 5 or 6 yards on his first touch in the area, allowing Bogdanovs to rush out off his line and get right in front of Mihci and block his shot.

65': A strong free kick from 28ish yards out earns them corner #10, Bogdanovs has to save it and turn it behind. We clear the corner easily.

71': Free kick from 20 yards out for them is wide.

76': Darcy in for Constantino, Adagsmar in for Crespo, both exhausted.

The final 20ish minutes (5 minutes of added time due ot a couple Man City injuries) run off without incident, we see them take a wild 30 yard shot wide and that's it. So we can't get an away goal but we get out of their house with a draw.

Man City 0 : 0 Ipswich

Man of the Match: Dmitrijs Bogdanovs (8.5)
Notables: Heywood (7.2), Kirkland (7.2), Aldrovandi (7.7), Chrzanowski (7.1), Jean (7.0)

6.8 was the lowest rating for any of our guys, we did well and Bogdanovs stopped 3 clear cut chances to save a draw for us.

-- Man Utd also draw Real Madrid 0:0.

[Radii]

-- We play Arsenal on 3 days rest in the FA Cup and then will play Man City again 3 days after that.

April 5th, 2025

FA Cup 6th Round Replay

Arsenal (1st, EPL) @ Ipswich (5th, EPL)

After playing Arsenal to a 2:2 draw at their place we earn a replay at home, something that if nothing else is great for our wallet. We're 3-3-12 lifetime against Arsenal, the road team won both EPL matches this year, plus the previously mentioned draw, so 1-1-1 this season. We are actually slim 6:4 favorites today.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Hughes/Welsh/Ballester/Jackson
M: Adagsmar/Jean/Bartlett/Hutchinson
F: Khan/Di Giuseppe

We have to make wholesale changes today and are weak in some areas as a result. Ballester and Di Giuseppe obviously play here since they can't play in the Champions League, we're strong up front and don't lose much with Jackson or Adagsmar in for Heywood and Crespo. Hutchinson, Welsh, Barlett, Hughes.. all noticeably weaker than other options and we'll see if we can do anything with those changes being made.

We're going to counter attack at home here b/c of some of the weaknesses. There will be a winner today with extra time and penalties to decide it if we have to.

16': They have all the possession and 4 early shots but all have been well off the mark.

19': A ball into the area for Nooij earns them their first clear cut chance after a throwin, but he again puts it wide.

27': They have a throwin all the way at our end line, they take it short and have their team in the area, but Bartlett makes a key tackle before they can get a cross in, he sends a ball up to Di Giuseppe and we are off on the counter attack.. He's running down the right side, and its a... 4 on 2 for us?? They come to close down on Di Giuseppe, he has an easy low pass through the penalty area, Khan is unmarked on the far side of the box and the keeper has no prayer to get in position for it in time, Khan walks it into the net and we take the lead! 1-0

35': Yildirim beats Welsh to get into the area and earn their second clear cut chance, but Bogdanovs is up to the challenge today, he dives and turns it wide and we clear the corner.

43': They win a ball as we try to buildup on offense, a backpass to a defender... is very poor, Di Giuseppe pounces, steals the ball from their defender in the penalty area and shoots near post right away, but their keeper turns it wide, our second clear cut chance, damn!!! They clear out the corner.

HALF: Obviously i'm thrilled, but Arsenal have missed many shots that would normally at least threaten the keeper, surely they're going to play better in the second half. We have 5 shots, 4 on target. They have 8 shots, just 1 on target, 2 clear cut chances, and 5 of their shots are taken in the penalty area. They are getting decent looks, occasionally great looks, and just missing. Bogdanovs is a good keeper and is imposing so he deserves some credit for sure, but they have world class strikers just whiffing from 15 yards away. We make no subs at the half, but we are going to come out defensive to start the second half. We'll go back to counterattacking at 55 or 60 minutes, I just expect a flurry from them early.

50': There it is, Ramsey passes to Nooij and its not an easy shot at all, Nooij turns by Ballester and shoots from the left side of the area, drilling a shot into the right side of the net. 1-1

55': Back to counter attacking.

60': Di Giuseppe is hurt, he can stay on and his fitness isn't bad at all.

68': We build up down the middle, Ballester to Jean, Jean to Khan, Khan with a ball into the area for Di Giuseppe, he gets a step on his man, its not a clear cut chance for us here either but he's got such a precise shot, he puts it in the net!! 2-1

73': We counter attack after winning a tackle about 30 yards from our goal, a long ball ahead to Khan, he draws two defenders out wide left, passes into the area for Adagsmar, he shoots.. and its perfect, he beats the keeper!!!! 3-1

77': They go to a 4-2-4 formation and we go defensive.

83': Chrzanowski in for Di Giuseppe, Chrzanowski moves to MC, Bartlett to DMC, 4-1-4-1 with Khan up front.

That's it!!!!

Ipswich 3 : 1 Arsenal

Our defense only rates as ok today but the forwards were absolutely brilliant, and hell the defense holds a great Arsenal team to one goal and we win with what I felt was a lot of weak spots, we're through to the semifinals of the FA Cup!!

Man of the Match: Matthew Khan (9.0)
Goals: Khan, Di Giuseppe (8.5), Adagsmar (7.7)
Assists: Khan 2, Di Giuseppe
Notables: Ballester (7.0), Jean (7.0)

Everyone else in the 6.8-6.9 range.

We advance to the semifinals and will play Man City again. We may well play them twice in a row now.

-- We win $594,000 for making it through the FA Cup semifinals.

-- We of course sold out our match today, $1.2M in gate receipts. We'll compare that to the sellout coming in the Champions League in 3 days.



There were some league matches today while we played in the FA Cup. We have two pieces of really good news here. First, Man City played Everton and lost, hurting their league standing and they'll be just as tired as us going into the second Champions League leg.

The other big result is that Man Utd beat Liverpool! We're still 5th but now we're tied with a match in hand.

FIVE matches left except where mentioned (most have 6 but whatever)

1. Man Utd - 68 pts
2. Arsenal - 67 pts (1 less played)
3. Chelsea - 64 pts (1 less played)
4. Liverpool - 57 pts
-----------------------------------
5. Ipswich - 57 pts (1 less played)
6. Newcastle - 55 pts (1 less played)
7. Man City - 48 pts (1 less played)
8. Aston Villa - 47 pts (1 less played)

[Radii]

-- 8th, Man City Champions League/13th @Chelsea EPL/16th Man City FA Cup

-- Chris Bryan will be back in less than a week. Gordon in about 10 days, Craig Smith back in 2 weeks but will probably not be close to ready to play. Clifford less than a week as well. Connolly is the only one not back soon, he still appears to be out for the year.

April 8th, 2025

European Champions Cup Quarterfinal - Second Leg

Man City (0) @ (0) Ipswich

Winner advances to the semifinals of the Champions League! Not easy by any stretch but we're in the perfect position, win at home and advance. We are huge 4:5 favorites today, I'm a bit surprised by that!

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Mattle/Aldrovandi/Heywood
M: Crespo/Jean/Mills/Chrzanowski
F: Khan/Constantino

We're in really good shape here, Khan and Jean are surprisingly fit still after our last match and everyone else is rested. Today they run Lukaku and Alipio up front instead of Mihci. Standard mindset today.

25': After a free kick near midfield Mills plays a great ball into the left side of the area for Crespo, he can't score though, saved by the keeper, we get a corner and Aldrovandi sends a header high.

28': They get Lukaku into the area on a nice through ball and he's got a clear cut chance, but Bogdanovs makes a great save. 4 shots by each, 3 on target.

36': Mills ahead to Constantino, he passes to Khan, Khan shoots from 20 yards out, he beats the keeper, but his shot hits the right post, soooo close.

43': We earn a corner, but headed away.

HALF: We're controlling a huge amount of possession, 63/37, but each team has 5 shots, 3 on target, 3 from long range. They have the only clear cut chance. They are passing really poorly (58%), we're at 69% there. They're dominating in the air (70% to 50%). Khan is the only player with a poor rating so far. If we end up 0:0 we go to extra time. I think we're going to attack around the 55 minute mark, just make sure they don't get something going out of the gate.

48': Throwin in our end, a pass ahead to Constantino at midfield, further up to Khan, he's in the right side of the area, Jean is streaking down the middle, Khan passes to him and he's got a clear cut chance... but its saved.

65': We attack.

77': Darcy in for Khan, Adagsmar in for Crespo, Hutchinson in for Chrzanowski, fresh legs in the midfield and Khan playing poorly.

80': They counter attack hard after winning a ball in our end, a long ball ahead to ST Mihci who came in late, he gets behind our defense 30 yards away, he makes it into the area and scores on a clear cut chance. 0-1 We have to score 2 now, damn.

88': Throwin deep in their end, taken short, Constantino immediately crosses far post, Kirkland with a great chance as he wins a header, but the keeper saves.

That's it.

Ipswich (0) 0 : 1 (1) Man City

We ended up with 3 clear cut chances there and couldn't score. Each team played great defense on the road but they get the one counter attacking goal on us that decided the series.

Still, the quarterfinals of the Champions League in our first year here is pretty damn awesome!

Their keeper is man of the match.

Notables: Kirkland (7.4), Heywood (7.1), Bogdanovs (7.0), Mattle (7.0)

Khan left 77 minutes in with a 5.8 rating.

-- We receive $4.735M for playing in this round of the Champions League.


-- We made $1.2M in the FA Cup last match in gate receipts, $2.9M today for the Champions Cup, so we're up to $4.1M on the month in gate receipts.


-- Chelsea picked up a draw against a lower league team but they're still a ways ahead of us. FIVE matches left except where mentioned (most have 6 but whatever)

1. Man Utd - 68 pts
2. Arsenal - 67 pts (1 less played)
3. Chelsea - 65 pts
4. Liverpool - 57 pts
-----------------------------------
5. Ipswich - 57 pts (1 less played)
6. Newcastle - 55 pts (1 less played)
7. Aston Villa - 50 pts
8. Man City - 48 pts (1 less played)

[Radii]

Arsenal and Man Utd won their Champions League series too. The Semifinals will be Man Utd vs Arsenal and Man City vs Genoa.

-- Cardiff beats Coventry in one FA Cup Semifinal. The Man City/Ipswich winner plays Championship side Cardiff.

-- Liverpool beats Tottenham 3:1 the day before our match with Chelsea. Newcastle doesn't play until the day after we do.

April 13th, 2025

Ipswich (16-9-7, 5th) @ Chelsea (20-5-8, 3rd)

Chelsea are 4:5 favorites over us today at their place, we are 3:1 to get a win. We beat them at home back in December 2-1. We're 6-4-7 against them lifetime and we've actually won 3 of the last 4 (and are 4-2-1 in the last 7). If we could find a way to win here it would be massive.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Ballester/Aldrovandi/Heywood
M: Crespo/Jean/Mills/Chrzanowski
F: Di Giuseppe/Constantino

Their young ST David Thomas shows what a Chelsea team can do when they don't have to split focus between Continental play (they had a poor finish last year). He has 22 goals and 9 assists in 28 league matches this year and is dominating the EPL.

Our only changes today are Ballester in for Mattle and Di Giuseppe in for Khan. We have to play Man City in the FA Cup Semis in 3 days but throwing everything we've got towards trying to get back in the Champions League is clearly the priority here.

We counterattack today.

5': Constantino is hurt... UGH. He'll stay in for now but we may sub him at the half.

11': They build up on offense and all of a sudden a long ball comes in from 35 yards out to the right side of the area, Kirkland takes the blame for missing an interception and their MR Sotemayor has a clear cut chance and scores. 0-1

24': We build up down the right and Jean ends up with a fairly solid look from the edge of the area, but he sends it high.

30': They put a long shot on target and earn a corner, headed behind for a second corner, that one we get out of there.

35': Aldrovandi with a yellow.

38': Ballester is hurt...

HALF: We look terrible. Only Aldrovandi and Bogdanovs are better than 6.6 today so far and 4 guys are under 6 at the half. They have 58% of the possession and shoot 6 times, putting 5 on target. We only have 2 off target shots, we had one nice attack but Jean couldn't do anything with the shot at the end of it, and other than that we have just not been good enough. We have in the past had some occasional luck just trying to take it to Chelsea and we'll try to do that here and see if we can put some pressure on them.

50': We have a throwin in their end, after some passing on the left side mills gets it into the area for Chrzanowski, its a clear cut chance and he has a great look, but hits the right post. They end up putting it behind for a corner, we earn a second corner, they head that out and we earn a throwin, but they clear that away.

64': Aldrovandi is hurt.

79': We fly to the 80th minute with no highlights before seeing them put something off target. Bartlett in for Jean, Darcy in for Constantino, Adagsmar in for Crespo.

92': We are able to get a few clean passes up the middle and shoot for the first time in forever, Chrzanowski passes to Di Giuseppe, he fires a shot from a little more than 20 yards away, but its right at the keeper and he pushes it away.

That's it, Chelsea is just too good at their place and they totally shut us down after taking the lead.

Chelsea 1 : 0 Ipswich


Kirkland took the blame for their only goal and finished with a 5.6 rating. The rest of our guys ended up between 6.4-6.9, with most players tending towards the low end.

-- We had 3 players get hurt that match. None of them have long term injuries, but that might keep all 3 from being fully fit vs Man City in 3 days.

Liverpool wins, Newcastle draws Aston Villa.

FOUR matches to go unless otherwise noted.

1. Man Utd - 71 pts
2. Arsenal - 70 pts (1 less played)
3. Chelsea - 68 pts
4. Liverpool - 60 pts
-----------------------------------
5. Ipswich - 57 pts (1 less played)
6. Newcastle - 56 pts (1 less played)
7. Aston Villa - 51 pts
8. Man City - 48 pts (1 less played)


Liverpool schedule: @ Newcastle, vs Southampton, @ Nottingham Forest, vs Ipswich

Ipswich Schedule: @ Newcastle, vs QPR, @ Man City, vs Aston Villa, @ Liverpool (ignoring FA Cup here)

Newcastle Schedule: vs Ipswich, vs Liverpool, @Arsenal, vs Sunderland, @ Watford


Next up we play in the FA Cup, but after that Newcastle vs Ipswich is the next league match, its the makeup match that will get both of us even in terms of matches played. If newcastle beats us we would fall to 6th. I feel like we have the worst schedule here, on the road for our matches against other top teams and Aston Villa is rough. But hey, all 3 of us get to play each other to try to claim that 4th spot.

[Radii]

-- Clifford and Bryan have both resumed full training. Neither are anywhere close to ready to play.

-- On match day Neil Gordon also resumes full training.

-- We're at $4.1M in gate receipts going into this match, lets see how we make out in Wembley today against Man City financially.

April 16th, 2025

FA Cup Semifinal

Ipswich (5th, EPL) vs Man City (8th, EPL) - Wembley Stadium

Before we go play Newcastle in a crazy important league match, we play in the FA Cup Semifinals. We were favored in the Champions League last week and lost there to Man City, here on a neutral field we're favored again but not by as much, we're 5:4 favorites, making them 7:4 to win.


GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Ballester/Mattle/Heywood
M: Adagsmar/Jean/Mills/Chrzanowski
F: Khan/Di Giuseppe

I run Khan/Di Giuseppe up front today, Ballester was one of the 3 to get hurt last match but he can play. Aldrovandi and Constantino both sit. We will try to counter attack today.

We counter attack today.

14': After a lot of buildup and passing around on offense, Mills sends it ahead to Di Giuseppe, he finds a little space and shoots from 18 yards out, the keeper dives and stops it. We get a corner but they clear it.

22': Free kick about 35 yards out for us, but they head it out. Long highlight here but lots and lots of tackles and fighting over possession on both sides all over the pitch, neither team gets a shot in the end.

38': They get a through ball to Mihci for a goal but its offsides... pretty close.

43': We're watching a decent number of highlights here but each team only has 1 shot on target (9 total shots between the teams).

45': We win a ball and look to counter attack, Jean plays it down the right side, Di Giuseppe goes and gets it, he plays a cross into the area, Khan goes up for the header... and he's fouled!!! Penalty given! Jean takes the penalty and scores, we take the lead! 1-0

HALF: Its an incredibly even half, they have 6 shots, 1 on target. We have 5 shots, 2 on target. Passing, tackling, heading is all close, possession is 52/48 in their favorite. The penalty is entirely the difference. We sub Bartlett for Khan and go to a 4-1-4-1 to see if we can hold this. Di Giuseppe up front. We can bring Constantino in if something happens and we need to go back to 2 forwards.

58': We have a throwin in their end, we try to get it to Di Giuseppe but they tackle it away. That gets them a bit out of sorts, they have a defender at the edge of the 6 yard box and Di Giuseppe gets to camp out at the penalty spot. We recover the ball and pass it back in. Di Giuseppe runs left by the defender sitting back, he shoots... the ball hits the left post, angles right across the face of the goal and they clear it away at the right post, that was sooooo close to going in, holy crap.

61': Kirkland a yellow, they get a free kick about 25 yards out a little to the right. the free kick bends around the wall but wide.

62': Crespo in for Mills, Crespo to ML, Adagsmar to MC.

76': Clive Jackson in for Chrzanowski at MR. That's our last sub. They've used all theirs as well.

90': We have a free kick about 40 yards away. Di Giuseppe takes it and just shoots from there, the keeper has to make a fairly tough save and it goes behind for a corner. We control possession on the corner and pass the ball around, 3 minutes of added time and we're stalling now.

That's it!!! We advance to the FA Cup Final and will play Championship side Cardiff!!

Ipswich 1 : 0 Man City

Man of the Match: Stuart Kirkland (7.6)
Goal: Jean (7.0)
Assist: Khan (6.9)
Notables: Heywood (7.2), Mattle (7.3), Ballester (7.4)

Di Giuseppe with a 5.9 today and Adagsmar a 6.3, but we get what we need!

So we lose 1:0 to Man City in the Champions League after a 0-0 draw at their place and a 1-0 loss at ours with just one counter attacking goal... then we go and win the FA Cup Semifinal on a penalty 1:0. Some insanely close matches here, and we play them one more time still in league play.

-- We receive $1.485M for winning this round.

-- The final against Cardiff is in late, late May and won't interfere with the rest of our schedule at all.

-- Wembley didn't sell out but we did get over 87,000 fans at the match. Our take from the gate is $2.8M, we're essentially at $7 million in gate receipts this month.

[Radii]

-- We have a week off before we go play Newcastle. It'd be really disappointing to not get another run in the Champions League next year, but our schedule is so tough.

-- Craig Smith resumes full training after being out for 3 months.

April 23rd, 2025

Ipswich (16-9-8, 5th) @ Newcastle (17-5-11, 6th)

Newcastle are 6:4 favorites today. We've never tied Newcastle, 8-0-10 lifetime against them. We beat them 2:0 at our place early in the season. Last year we got swept, the year before we swept them. So maybe its our turn to take them both.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Ballester/Aldrovandi/Heywood
M: Crespo/Jean/Mills/Gordon
F: Di Giuseppe/Constantino

They are led by Brahim Ba with 11 goals, Joel with 9, and Jay Chapman with 8. On our side Gordon 9, Constantino 8, Khan 6.

Clifford, Smith and Bryan aren't ready, they all played in a reserve match to get back into shape. Neil Gordon is in though.

Standard mindset today even though we're on the road. Its raining today.

25': they have 3 shots, we have 1.

28': We get down the right side, Gordon to Constantino, he crosses to the far post, Crespo with a header but they turn it behind for a corner. We earn a second corner, that one they head out.

35': Heywood is hurt.

41': We have it on offense but are under pressure, Jean passes back to our defenders hanging back at midfield, but its a horrible pass, their ST Joel intercepts the ball, sprints by our defense and he's off to the races. Bogdanovs starts to come out, Joel pulls up about 25 yards out, shoots, Bogdanovs dives and gets a hand to the ball... but it stays on target and rolls into the right side of the net. 0-1

47': We build up down the middle, a pass out left to Crespo, a through ball to Constantino, their defense doesn't react well at all, Constantino shoots from 15 yards away and beats the keeper, we tie it up!!! 1-1

HALF: HUGE goal to end the half to tie this thing up. Its a really close match, we're controlling 52% of the possession, we have 4 shots, 2 on target. They have 5 shots, 3 on target. We're both passing a tackling within a few % of each other, but we're dominating in the air, 68% success rate for us, 45% for them.

49': They get down the right side, Kirkland misses a tackle, they get a solid cross into the area, a really strong header but its just high.

55': Free kick near midfield, Mills passes it backwards and we just setup the offense, Jean ahead to Di Giuseppe, he sends a pass into the area, Constantino cuts by his man and he's got another clear cut chance, he blasts it by the keeper and we take the lead!!! 2-1

59': We change to counter attacking.

66': They earn a corner, we head it out but they push it back in, there's a through ball into the left side of the area for AML Chapman, he's got a clear cut chance... but Bogdanovs makes a huge huge save.

76': Bartlett is in for Constantino, 4-1-4-1 to finish this.

77': Mills a yellow.

82': Gordon with a run down the right, cross into the 6 yard box, Di Giuseppe wins a header and its a clear cut chance.. but he heads it over.

90': Mills picks up his second yellow and he's out, that's a red. Bartlett up to MC and we run a 4-4-1.

That's it!!!!

Newcastle 1 : 2 Ipswich

HUGE win on the road, really, really big win.

Man of the Match: Constantino (8.8)
Goals: Constantino 2
Assists: Di Giuseppe (7.8), Crespo (7.9)
Notables: Bogdanovs (7.1), Kirkland (7.3), Aldrovandi (7.2), Ballester (7.1), Mills (7.0)

Two great poachers goals for Constantino and the defense is stellar outside of the one huge mistake to let them score by Jean.

-- Mills will miss our next match since he got a red card.

Injury Update

DR Heywood is out for 3 weeks with a turned ankle picked up today.

-- Man Utd beats Arsenal 5:0 in the Champions League Semi first leg... damn!


FOUR matches to go unless otherwise noted.

1. Man Utd - 71 pts
2. Arsenal - 70 pts (1 less played)
3. Chelsea - 68 pts
4. Liverpool - 60 pts
-----------------------------------
5. Ipswich - 60 pts
6. Newcastle - 56 pts
7. Aston Villa - 51 pts
8. Man City - 48 pts (1 less played)


Liverpool schedule: @ Newcastle, vs Southampton, @ Nottingham Forest, vs Ipswich

Ipswich Schedule: vs QPR, @ Man City, vs Aston Villa, @ Liverpool (ignoring FA Cup here)

Newcastle Schedule: vs Liverpool, @Arsenal, vs Sunderland, @ Watford

Now we become huge Newcastle fans as we play the team in 17th, QPR, while Newcastle and Liverpool square off. We're now tied with Liverpool again with 4 matches to go, but they have 5 goals on us in terms of goal differential.

[Radii]

April 26th, 2025

QPR (7-10-17, 17th) @ Ipswich (17-9-8, 5th)

We are unbelievably big 1:4 favorites today, QPR are 9:1 to win, 4:1 to draw. We definitely have a tendency to struggle against teams like this. We tied 1:1 at their place back in December. Sunderland and Birmingham are tied for 18th, QPR is only 2 points ahead of them.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Ballester/Aldrovandi/Jackson
M: Adagsmar/Jean/Bartlett/Chrzanowski
F: Khan/Constantino

Smith still isn't ready so Bartlett is at MC. Gordon is exhausted and Chrzanowski is in. Di Giuseppe is also exhausted, Khan/Constantino up front.

We attack.

4': Bartlett to Constantino, he turns by his man, into the area, clear cut chance... right at the keeper.

5': Constantino into the right side of the area for Chrzanowski, clear cut chance... right at the keeper.

11': free kick 30 yards out, a pass to Constantino and he launches a shot way high.

18': Khan is hurt but can stay in.

26': highlight opens with them winning a ball from our defenders in the midfield, their two strikers pass back and forth and ST Heatubun gets a clear cut chance as we can't close down fast enough... but Bogdanovs saves us.

30': Chrzanowski a cross to Adagsmar at the far post after a nice run... clear cut chance #3 but hey, look, right at the keeper.

35': they have a throwin in our half, a few passes around the middle, then a through ball from MC Bright to ST Carnota... Bogdanovs can't decide if he's rushing out or not, stuck in the middle, their man gets to it and scores. 0-1

HALF: Seriously if we miss out on the Champions League because we cannot beat QPR at home I'm going to be very unhappy. Di Giuseppe is in for the injured Khan, Crespo in for Bartlett who isn't doing anything. Adagsmar to MC, Crespo ML. We have 10 shots, 4 on target, 3 clear cut chances, no goals. They have 5 shots and the one goal. We just have to attack and have to get a win, that's all there is to it.

52': Jean ahead to Constantino, he turns and gets into the area, his defender is trailing closely, not a clear cut chance but he does get a decent shot off... saved.

60': Super, super crowded at the edge of the penalty area, Chrzanowski dribbles to the center and drags the entire defense with him... he can't find a through ball chance and just shoots, its blocked and pops up into the area, Di Giuseppe shoots on a volley, saved by the keeper but there's a rebound, Di Giuseppe again... this time he gets it into the left side of the net for a goal! 1-1 Ok, we got it back... now to get the 3 points.

76': throwin in their end, Jean ends up with a long range shot that's wide.

87': Darcy in for Constantino who is having a terrible game.

95': instead of getting the winning goal we see them earn a corner as time is about to be called. Crespo heads it away, and full time is called.

Ipswich 1 : 1 QPR

9:1 to win, 4:1 to tie... and we can't go out and get the result we need against a team that might get relegated. Maybe Newcastle upsets Liverpool, maybe we move into 4th, but not getting 3 points here is a damn embarrassment and I make sure my players know it.

Man of the Match: Yuri Di Giuseppe (7.3)
Goal: Di Giuseppe - unassisted
Notable: Jackson (7.2)

That's it. We didn't play well, no one stood out.

Injury Update

Matthew Khan pulls a hamstring and is out 3 weeks.

Newcastle vs Liverpool is in prime time a couple days later and we have to watch that one to see where we stand...

Newcastle 2 : 2 Liverpool. We take care of business and we're in 4th and up 2 points.

THREE matches to go unless otherwise noted.

1. Man Utd - 74 pts
3. Chelsea - 71 pts
2. Arsenal - 70 pts (1 less played)
4. Liverpool - 61 pts
-----------------------------------
5. Ipswich - 61 pts
6. Newcastle - 57 pts
7. Aston Villa - 51 pts
8. Man City - 48 pts (1 less played)


Liverpool schedule: vs Southampton, @ Nottingham Forest, vs Ipswich

Ipswich Schedule: @ Man City, vs Aston Villa, @ Liverpool (ignoring FA Cup here)

Newcastle Schedule: @Arsenal, vs Sunderland, @ Watford

This is where I think we lose out and why we needed to win so very badly. We play #8 Man City and #7 Aston Villa. Liverpool plays #11 Southampton and #16 Nottingham Forest.

[Radii]

-- In a coaches meeting I'm told that Steven Mills and Michele Capitani are both making a little noise about wanting a new challenge. Nothing will happen there until at least next year, I don't wanna lose Mills!

Injury Update

Clive Jackson has food poisoning. Heywood is already out, its only a few days but I'm not sure Jackson can play against Man City.

May Update

-- @ Man City May 3rd, vs Aston Villa May 10th, @ Liverpool May 18th, FA Cup Final May 31st.

-- Yuri Di Giuseppe wins young player of the month in England again. He's now won the award all 3 months since he came to Ipswich.

-- The board is very pleased with my leadership. The signing of Di Giuseppe is finally acknowledged as the highlight. no negatives.

-- We made a profit of $8.5M last month.

May 3rd, 2025

Ipswich (17-10-8, 5th) @ Man City (13-9-12, 8th)

We were 4:5 favorites at home in the champions league, then 5:4 favorites at a neutral site in the FA Cup, and now we are even money favorites on the road at Man City. They played in the Champions League a few days ago and we are close to full strength with our injured guys finally being back into form, but I can't imagine how we're favorites like that on the road after so many crazy close matches against them.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Ballester/Aldrovandi/Mattle
M: Crespo/Jean/Smith/Mills/Gordon
F: Di Giuseppe/Bryan

We add to our level of difficulty by changing up our formation with Jackson and Heywood both out. I'm pretty embarrassed that I didn't catch and fix this problem in January with a new signing at DR. We run a flat 3-5-2 and its a really really strong lineup, just not one we're familiar with.

22': Crespo is hurt.

24': Oh my god brilliant, BRILLIANT passing!! Crespo wins a ball in our end and triggers a counter attack, ahead to Di Giuseppe, to Bryan, back to Di Giuseppe, back to Bryan, advancing up the field through a maze of defenders that are back and ready for this the entire time, Bryan gets into the left side of the area and lays one more pass, this one off to Mills coming up the middle, and Mills has a clear cut chance and puts it into the left side of the net!! Beautiful play. 1-0

40': Gordon takes a corner to the far post, the keeper dives out for the ball and Aldrovandi wins a header but its high.

HALF: A very quick half, one superb counter attacking move gives us the lead. We watch them take a couple shots but that's it. They shoot 6 times but only put 2 on target and 4 of those shots are from long range. We have 4 shots, 2 on target, but generate the one clear cut chance and finish it. Possession is 56/44 in their favor, we are tackling extremely well (77%) and other stats are even.

52': They send a cross in from the left, Mills heads it out wide right, they get to it and send another cross in now from the right, they win a header, Bogdanovs makes a reflex save, they are first to the rebound inside the 6 yard box, Bogdanovs positions perfectly and gets in front of this one too, two great saves!!

64': They have a corner, taken to the near post, Ballester heads it but not that far away, they recover, one pass to defender Hadji, he has a shot from 15 yards out, somehow avoids all the men in the area and gets his shot into the right side of the net. 1-1

86': Mills tries a through ball for Di Giuseppe but they clear it, we head it back forward, Smith is 35 yards out, he puts a beautiful ball into the area, Chris Bryan runs onto it, he has a clear cut chance and he scores!!!! 2-1

86': Adagsmar in for Crespo, Clifford in for Smith, CONTAIN. Don't let them score, we're so close.

90': They have a free kick just outside the area out wide right, crossed into the 6 yard box, midfielder Williams wins it and scores. Oh man, what a huge huge letdown. 2-2

92': 2 minutes of extra time. We win a corner. Gordon takes it, but they head it away. We send it back forward... but time is called.

Man City 2 : 2 Ipswich

Oh that hurts. We had it!!! We played a great, great match, got two goals at Man City... and gave up a free kick and a goal with just 2 minutes left. We can't be too upset about a draw here overall, but we had it!!!!

Man of the Match: Steven Mills (8.3)
Goals: Mills, Bryan (7.4)
Assists: Bryan, Mills

Everyone else 6.7-6.9.


-- I hit continue and await the results. Right, Liverpool doesn't freaking choke. Liverpool 5 : 1 Southampton.


Injury Update

Crespo was hurt in today's match and he's out 3 weeks.




TWO matches to go unless otherwise noted.

1. Man Utd - 77 pts
3. Chelsea - 74 pts
2. Arsenal - 73 pts (1 less played)
4. Liverpool - 64 pts
-----------------------------------
5. Ipswich - 62 pts
6. Newcastle - 57 pts
7. Aston Villa - 54 pts
8. Man City - 49 pts (1 less played)


Liverpool schedule: @ Nottingham Forest, vs Ipswich

Ipswich Schedule: vs Aston Villa, @ Liverpool (ignoring FA Cup here)


Arsenal beat Newcastle and Newcastle cannot finish 4th.

We wanted to win yet again but in the end, the draw is important. We control our own fate. If we can beat Aston Villa then we will, at worst, be 2 points behind Liverpool going into our final match @ Liverpool. If we win our last two matches we finish 4th.

[Radii]

Damn you addicting game! Can't stay up that late again tonight, as badly as I want to see how we do in our last two matches. They will have to wait until after I'm done watching the NFL tomorrow.

[Taz13]

Isn't it amazing how some of the matches where you are heavily favored can give you the most frustrating results?

[bulletsponge]

this is a nail biter! might come down to the final game!

[MacroGuru]

Originally Posted by Radii

Damn you addicting game! Can't stay up that late again tonight, as badly as I want to see how we do in our last two matches. They will have to wait until after I'm done watching the NFL tomorrow.

It definitely is, I fell asleep last night at the laptop playing my dynasty out.

Great win against Man City...it's been a great read!

[kingfc22]

This is going to be an exciting end to the EPL season.

That was a good run in the Champions League which will also help the coffers $$$

[Radii]

May 10th, 2025

Aston Villa (16-6-14, 7th) @ Ipswich (17-11-8, 5th)

We're even money favorites today. We struggle so much against Aston Villa, 2-5-8 lifetime. Our match on the road against them was a complete disaster. We went up 2-0 in the first 7 minutes, let them back in it with an own goal and led 2-1 at the half. We went up 3-1 in the 48th minute before allowing 50th, 64th, and 82nd minute goals to turn a 3-1 lead into a 4-3 loss. We'll try to get that early lead today and hold on to it.

Liverpool play Nottingham Forest at the same time.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Ballester/Aldrovandi/Jackson
M: Adagsmar/Jean/Mills/Gordon
F: Di Giuseppe/Bryan

Back to a 4-4-2 today with Jackson healthy again. Adagsmar finishes out the year for the injured Crespo, no other changes.

Our coaches point out that Aston Villa frequently give up early goals so we make sure to start out attacking hard. They run a 4-4-2 with a wide diamond formation, DMC/AMC and ML/MR.

8': We have a corner, they clear it but we recover and keep the pressure on. A pass to Di Giuseppe 20 yards out, he puts it into the area and Chris Bryan breaks on it perfectly, has a clear cut chance and finishes! 1-0

15': Jackson a yellow

15': Nottingham Forest just took a 1-0 lead on Liverpool.

23': free kick about 30 yards out, Neil Gordon bends it towards the goal, keeper has to dive to save it. Corner goes nowhere though.

26': Liverpool ties Nottingham Forest.

38': Adagsmar is hurt...

40': Neil Gordon is hurt.....

41': We get another goal but the offside is so obvious its barely worth mentioning.

HALF: We are very clearly in control here, we just need to not screw up and give this one away. We have 61% of the possession, 7 shots and dominate every stat but tackling, where they are doing well and that's keeping us from getting even better chances. They have 2 shots, both off target. Hughes is in for Adagsmar. Gordon can continue, Adagsmar's fitness level took a big hit when he got hurt.

48': Corner by Neil Gordon, crossed into the 6 yard box, Di Giuseppe is there and heads it home!!! 2-0

-- Results as they are now (we lead 2:0 and Liverpool 1:1 tie) nothing really changes. They have a big goal differential advantage so we would still need to beat them in our last match to finish 4th. We'll keep attacking b/c it is serving us well anyway, but right now we're just hoping Nottingham Forest wins their match and that we hold our lead, more goals... unless we get like 6 more goals... won't help.

65': Stuart Kirkland almost scored from 70 yards away. We won a ball in the midfield and sent it down the left side... their keeper came out way wide to his right and about 25 yards out from goal, Di Giuseppe put pressure on him and their keeper just sent it down the sideline. Kirkland controlled the ball and launched it towards the goal, he got it there long before the keeper could get back... and it hit the side netting... so close from well on our half of the field!

74': Liverpool takes the lead over Notttingham Forest 2:1. That also doesn't change anything right now, just means that if we let them come back we'd be screwed.

76': Chrzanowski in for Gordon, Craig Smith in for Di Giuseppe and back to DMC, 4-1-4-1 to make extra sure no disasters happen in the final 10 minutes.

80': Mills with a through ball for Chrzanowski, he doesn't really control it well but the keeper doesn't come out well either, Chrzanowski finishes and gives us some extra room! 3-0


Ipswich 3 : 0 Aston Villa

Man of the Match: Yuri Di Giuseppe (8.8)
Goals: Di Giuseppe, Bryan (7.8), Chrzanowski (7.4)
Assists: Di Giuseppe, Mills (7.9), Gordon (7.1)
Notables: Jackson (7.5), Kirkland (7.6), Aldrovandi (7.7), Ballester (7.1), Mills (7.9)


Injury Update

Adagsmar is out with a turned ankle, 3 weeks, done for the year.




Nottingham Forest get a 95th minute equalizer against Liverpool. Also, Man Ut wins, Chelsea and Arsenal both lose, and Man Utd has won the EPL. That's the first time they've won it since 2018. Arsenal seemed to have it in hand but lost 2 of their last 3 and look likely to finish 3rd.

ONE match left except for Arsenal.

1. Man Utd - 80 pts
3. Chelsea - 74 pts
2. Arsenal - 73 pts (1 less played)
4. Liverpool - 65 pts
-----------------------------------
5. Ipswich - 65 pts
6. Newcastle - 60 pts
7. Man City - 55 pts
8. Aston Villa - 54 pts

Man City won 2 straight and jump back over Aston Villa. That 7th spot is irrelevant though since Man City won the league cup, they are going to the Euro Cup next year... except... Man City is in the Champions League Final, so if they get an auto-invite back into the Champions League then maybe they don't need their Euro Cup invite, so MAYBE 7th matters in the end? I have no idea how that works and am glad it doesn't matter for Ipswich.

So we evened up the points with Liverpool, but they had a recent 4 goal win that put the goal differential out of reach for us. They have 63 goals scored, 37 allowed. We have 62 scored, 42 allowed. We travel to Liverpool in 8 days. If we win we make the Champions League again next year. If we tie or if Liverpool wins Liverpool makes it.

Lastly, we have clinched at least 5th so we will make the Euro Cup no matter what happens from here. That seemed likely all along but there was a chance for awhile based on the FA Cup and League Cup that we could fall to 6th and not make Europe at all.

[Radii]

-- One of my youth coaches wants to leave for Chelsea, Chelsea offers him a job and that's done very quickly. He was a shooting coach for the U18s but I had extra coverage there and am fine.

May 18th, 2025

Ipswich (18-11-8, 5th) @ Liverpool (19-8-10, 4th)

Liverpool are 5:4 favorites today, we are 7:4 to win. The lifetime series with Liverpool is dead even, 5-4-5. They have not beaten us the last 5 times we've played. We crushed them 4:1 at our place back in December. HOWEVER, we have never won at Liverpool. 1:1 draws the last two years, then 4 losses before that. So we're 0-2-4 on the road. We played them once at home in the FA Cup that accounts for the fact we have a couple extra home matches against them.


GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Ballester/Aldrovandi/Jackson
M: Hughes/Jean/Mills/Gordon
F: Di Giuseppe/Bryan

Liverpool are led by ST Andy Bailey, he's got 21 league goals, second only to Chelsea's David Thomas this year. After that Jimmy Hatton has 9 goals and Chris Wood has 8.

Hughes is in at ML for the injured Adagsmar. Everyone else seems to be working together real well the last few matches, no need to change. They know a tie is good enough, we know we need a win, no reason to hold back, we attack from the outset today.

Extended highlights instead of only key ones today.

9': Throwin in their end, passed into the area for Bryan, but he pulls out wide, passes back to Kirkland, he shoots and its saved, corner. A header off the corner is on target and saved, corner #2. This one is taken short to Ballester, he shoots.. and the ball deflects off the man on the line on the right side and wide, corner #3. They clear that one.

11': We push the ball back in and earn another corner, our 4th. That one is finally cleared safely.

20': they earn a corner, Bogdanovs comes out and catches it.

27': Aldrovandi with a foul about 27ish yards out. They shoot on the free kick and its off the wall, behind for a corner. We clear that.

29': We try to push the ball ahead but they win it near midfield, a pass down the left, then a ball ahead for their star Bailey, he's behind our defense, Bogdanovs leaves his line, Bailey shoots from 20 yards out, and Bogdanovs makes the save... clear cut chance #1 there, key stop for us.

32': Through ball for Bailey from 25 yards our or so, he runs onto it and has a clear cut chance and scores... Jackson missed a header leading up to that and Ballester was closest to it and couldn't stop it either. 0-1

HALF: We had the early advantage and got 3 early shots but its been all Liverpool since then. They have 9 shots, just 3 on target and 7 are from long range, we just aren't getting anything going. We're winning balls in their end, sending them straight to Bryan or Di Giuseppe and they are losing them in the midfield. We'll keep pushing and keep pressing and see if we can't get some momentum in the second half.

47': Di Giuseppe a yellow for a rough tackle, lucky it wasn't red I think.

51': Constantino in for Bryan, Chrzanowski in for Hughes.

54': Highlight opens with a ball ahead to Constantino, he is in the right side of the area, its a clear cut chance.. but their keeper makes a great save.

62': Di Giuseppe has it out left, he draws some of the defense over, passes back to Mills, Mills a through ball for Constantino, he breaks onto it, shoots, and ties it up!!! 1-1

74': Goal kick for us, passed short to Jackson and quickly downfield.. Chrzanowski passes to Constantino, he's 25 yards out, turns by his man... and shoots... instead of trying to drive into the area and attack, I have no idea why he did that, but his shot is terrible.

78': They earn a corner, we head it away but they push back up, a ball into the right side of the area... a shot, its a clear cut chance... but saved, whew.

79': That probably does it, we're pressing hard and they win a ball in midfield and counter, ST Sissoko, gets behind the defense and scores. 1-2

81': Wow. We kick off and Mills sits on the ball waiting for someone to pass to... he has it stolen, there's a long ball ahead and our season is done. Their man Bailey with a clear cut chance and goal. 1-3

83': Hah, We get a free kick 20 yards out, Neil Gordon takes it and sends it into the left side of the net. Still need two more. 2-3

That's it.

Liverpool 3 : 2 Ipswich

Winning at Liverpool was a lot to ask, we had our chances to be in the lead coming into this match and could not get wins when we needed them, but still, we lock up 5th place.

Goals: Gordon (7.7), Constantino (7.5)
Assists: Mills (8.0), Constantino

No one else was above 7.0 today.


Arsenal wins their extra match and they finish second. We finish 5th, 4 points ahead of Newcastle and 3 behind Liverpool. I'll post a screenshot of the standings while wrapping up the season.


Ipswich have been given $27,234,000 for their final position in the English Premier Division

Ipswich Qualify for the 2025 Euro Cup by coming 5th in the Premier Division

-- We pay out $1.8M in bonuses for our league position.


-- We've seen Newcastle, Chelsea, Liverpool, etc, completely miss out on Continental play from time to time. Our next goal is to become a top 4 team most every year, and it says a lot about how far we've come that we just finished 5th behind legendary franchises like Man Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool... and we're disappointed about it.

-- This is our second strong year in continental play and we should be climbing up the ranks in Europe as well. European coefficients are based on the last 5 years of play, so we'll have 2 great years under us and a 3rd coming up where we will play in Europe, we're doing a good job establishing ourselves.

We are about 10 days away from the FA Cup Final, we'd love a domestic cup win to our names as well!

[bbgunn]

Too bad you couldn't finish in the top 4, but nevertheless another good season with Ipswich. Congrats.

[Radii]

-- Because the FA Cup Final is so late, and we're in it, end of season reporting and stuff won't happen til June when we're done.

-- I am 3rd in Manager of the Year Voting in England! Man U's manager is 1st and Arsenal's is 2nd.

-- The EPL Players team of the year is announced. MR Neil Gordon is a starter on the team and MC Steven Mills is a reserve.

-- Chelsea's huge scorer David Thomas is English Footballer of the year.

-- Everton DC Evgeni Georgiev is the English Young Player of the Year.

-- Man City beat Man Utd 2:1 in the Champions Cup final. So Man City only finish 8th in the EPL but they win the League Cup and Champions League.

Ipswich have been given $29,891,000 from Champions Cup television Revenue

Oh Yea!


May 31st, 2025

FA Cup Final - Wembley Stadium

Ipswich (5th, EPL) vs Cardiff (7th, CH)

Cardiff missed the Championship playoffs by 1 point. We're huge 4:6 favorites over them today, they are 7:2 to win.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Ballester/Aldrovandi/Jackson
M: Crespo/Jean/Mills/Gordon
F: Di Giuseppe/Constantino

Same lineup we've been running lately, Constantino instead of Bryan and Crespo is healthy so he's at MR.

We'll attack today.

23': They have 2 shots, we have 1 so far.

29': Ballester with a shot that the keeper saves easily. Notable b/c its the first shot I've seen and the first on target.

47': Free kick near midfield, Mills hits it ahead for Gordon, Gordon avoids one tackle, crosses into the area, Di Giuseppe wins a header, and drills it, finally a goal! 1-0

HALF: Possession is even and they do a good job of keeping us from getting anything solid. We're completing crosses at a 10% rate and they have a narrow 4-4-2 diamond with 2 MC, DMC/AMC and it seems like most of our attacking is on the wings, then crosses get headed away. Finally we got something at the end and I feel better. Each team has 4 shots, we did get 3 on target when we found shots, just 1 for them.

46': Yellow for Constantino

52': Clear cut chance for Jean, we send a long ball ahead and Di Giuseppe heads it from 25 yards out into the area, Jean attacks and wins the ball 15 yards from goal from their defender, shoots, but right at the keeper.

69': We win one in defense and attack quickly, Down the left side for Crespo, he makes a run, crosses into the area, to the feet of Constantino, he dribbles once, shoots, and scores! 2-0


Nothing worth noting the rest of the way, we should beat Cardiff and today we do and win the cup!


Cardiff 0 : 2 Ipswich

Man of the Match: Juan Pablo Crespo (9.0)
Goals: Constantino (7.7), Di Giuseppe (7.0)
Assists: Crespo, Gordon (8.2)
Notables: Bogdanovs (7.0), Jackson (7.5), Kirkland (7.5), Aldrovandi (7.1), Jean (7.0)

Ballester 6.8, Mills 6.9 today.


Ipswich have won the FA Cup!


-- It looks like our take from the gate today was about $1.6M.

-- We win a $2.97M prize for winning the cup

-- Ipswich won the FA Cup in 1978, its been 47 years!

-- We pay out a $1M bonus to the players for winning the cup

[SirFozzie]

Cardiff in Europa League next year. Nice

[Radii]

June Update

-- World Cup Qualifying continues in June so many of our players will be seeing some action in June.

-- The players are on vacation for 5 weeks, back July 7th.

-- The board is delighted with my leadership. The signing of Di Giuseppe is the highlight (not winning a cup!?). No negatives.

-- We made $53 Million last month. Har.

-- The board announces that construction work has begun on the upgrade of the club's youth facilities. This will cost $1.4M.

-- We currently have "top training facilities" and "good youth facilities + youth academy".

Affiliate Update

Despite our attempts to help them with loaners, Shrewsbury only finished 15th in League 1.

Brighton finishes 2nd in League 2 and both our affiliate clubs will be in League 1 next year.


Ipswich Youngsters

Reserve Squad

GK Michael Rogers - We tried to sell him but couldn't. This was a contract year and we'd decided not to re-up him. He's joining Betis in La Liga on a Bosman Transfer.

DL Liam Ormerod - Not good enough for the squad. Also in a contract year, also not offered a contract.

DC Sam Barnett - 20 y/o - $1.3M Value - Earned a 6.69 rating in 28 matches for Shrewsbury. 1 1/2* potential. I'm not excited about Barnett in any way. Will either be loaned out to an affiliate next year or sold.

ML David Ros - 19 y/o - $2.1M Value - Not as exciting as he was when we bought him, he now has 2 1/2* potential according to most of my coaches. He was a star in League 2 this year for Brighton, 11 goals/35 assists (35!?). He probably belonged in League 1, and next year we'll probably need to find room to get him ~10 senior team starts + mentoring to see if he has a chance to fill out into his ratings or not.

ST Rob Kershaw - 22 y/o - $4.7M Value - Kershaw is presumed fully developed by most of our staff and is listed as a "good championship striker". He isn't part of my senior team plans at all, and this year we sent him to Shrewsbury to try to help them promote. He scored 18 goals there.


U18 Squad

DC John Ashworth - 17 y/o - $2.9M Value - Ashworth showed decent gains for his first year though not the spectacular gains made by GK Rob Lines last year. He's still got universal 3* potential, and hopefully more tutoring next year + improved youth facilities will help him continue to progress. He'll definitely be with Ipswich next year. He's got strong physical attributes (more of a speedy DC than a strong/heading guy), and his Marking is up to 16.

DC Pablo Olvera - 18 y/o - $2M Value - Olvera rates universally as a 3* potential guy as well. He's rated as a guy who could play in L1 of the Championship right now and will move out of the U18s and into the reserves next year. Olvera put up a 7.24 rating in 42 U18 matches but he really didn't improve a ton this year. I don't forsee him being someone that will be able to earn a ton of first team time next year, we'll most likely loan him out. Strong physical ratings here, Heading 16/Marking 15/Tackling 12, he's got some nice ratings in the right places. Hell we actually could try to work him in next year if we don't find a good loan situation, and I'm not sure L1 would benefit him where our affiliates are.

MC Jose Antonio Ramirez - 18 y/o - $3M value - Most of our coaches give Ramirez 3* potential but a few rate him 3 1/2*. 11 of his ratings improved by 1 point last year, he definitely made some gains. 13 technique/12 passing/12 dribbling/11 tackling/10 marking is all ok if it continues to improve. Some of his mental attributes like Aggression, Composure, Concentration still haven't gone above 10, we need him to be more well rounded there.

ML Eneko Extabe - 17 y/o - $1.1M value - We bought Extebe this year and he hasn't trained as well as I'd like, 2 1/2* - 3* potential, a bit low for a guy I just spent money on. He just turned 17 though and will get another year with the U18's and will get mentoring next year to see if we can get him going.

FC Frank Battersby - 17 y/o - $3.9M - Clearly my best youth pull in a long time. My coaches still split between 3* - 3 1/2* potential for him, he made one senior team appearance and scored two goals against lower level Luton in the FA Cup. A whopping 22 of his ratings went up by a point this year, that's what I want to see out of a young guy who wants to play in the EPL someday. Clearly the brightest prospect I have right now.


We've spent some money here and there on youngsters and had a couple guys come up through the youth program, we're way better off now than we were a few years but even buying fairly highly rated prospects early on, its not easy to turn them into EPL players we are learning.

[Radii]

[Radii]

These stats again encompass all play including league cup and FA Cup and Champions League


Last year Constantino scored 27 goals, Khan 13, Bryan 10. There's a lot more even distribution in goals this year. Part of that was absolutely assigning Neil Gordon my primary penalty kick taker.

Last year Mills led us with 13 assists, Gordon 12 and Constantino 11. This year I'm pleased to see that Jean is up there with double digit assists and that he definitely fit in and earned his starting spot after all of his troubles last year.

And lastly, Di Giuseppe jumped up to 4th on the squad in goals at an absurdly quick pace, woohoo!

[Radii]

Expiry is 6/30 on the year mentioned. Its currently May 2025, so anyone listed 2025 is expiring this year.


Instead of being sorted by rating this is sorted by my opinion of them in senior team depth chart.


Goalkeepers

Name	Age	$/Wk	Value	Contract Expiry	Rating
Dmitrijs Bogdanovs	28	$64000	$13.25M	2027	6.96
Michele Capitani	30	$46500	$5.5M	2027	7.2
Rob Lines	18	$2900	$1M	2026	----
Michael Rogers	22	$13250	$1.3M	2025	----

Capitani's value dropped, not surprising after not being used much, just 9 matches. He's still really strong and I may use him more often next year to see if I can keep him from wanting to leave. Rogers is gone.


Left Defender

Name	Age	$/Wk	Value	Contract Expiry	Rating
Stuart Kirkland	25	$61000	$7.75M	2026	7.16
Jack Hughes	24	$27500	$6M	2028	6.92
Anthony Heywood	23	$37500	$7.75M	2027	6.94
Liam Ormerod	19	$190	$170K	2025	8.3

Kirkland's value dropped a fair bit but he's still my captain and one of my key players. Hughes and Heywood held strong and played well when needed. Ormerod is gone.







Central Defender

Name	Age	$/Wk	Value	Contract Expiry	Rating
Jose Antonio Ballester	29	$91000	$10M	2027	7.03
Carlos Aldrovandi	29	$88000	$7.75M	2026	6.98
Otmar Mattle	28	$53000	$8M	2027	7
Neil Bartlett	25	$44500	$5.75M	2027	6.87
James Welsh	29	$31500	$3.8M	2026	7.1
Sam Barnett	20	$600	$1.3M	2026	----
Pablo Olvera	18	$6250	$2M	2026	----

Once again I love our top 4 here, we have improved so much in defense over the years. Welsh only played 7 matches and he is probably gone next year. Olvera may well stay at Ipswich and I'll use him in cup matches and such where I was plugging Welsh in instead. Barnett either gets loaned out or sold.


Right Defender

Name	Age	$/Wk	Value	Contract Expiry	Rating
Clive Jackson	25	$35500	$4.2M	2026	6.82
Anthony Heywood	23	$37500	$7.75M	2027	6.94

We never did sign a 3^rd guy who could play here and it bit us a couple times, though we learned on the fly we can play a pretty good 3-5-2.

[Radii]

Left Midfielder

Name	Age	$/Wk	Value	Contract Expiry	Rating
Juan Pablo Crespo	24	$75000	$6.75M	2029	6.99
Adagsmar	30	$35000	$3.4M	2026	7.02
David Ros	19	$6750	$2.8M	2026	----
Eneko Extabe	17	$11500	$1.1M	2028	----

Crespo just signed an extension a couple days ago, he made only about $25000/wk most of the year. Adagsmar had a great season, I thought Crespo was going to take this job over completely and he is rated far better, but the results we got showed that both deserved their playing time.


Central Midfielder

Name	Age	$/Wk	Value	Contract Expiry	Rating
Steven Mills	26	$110000	$11.5M	2027	7.12
Jean	25	$57000	$9.5M	2027	7.03
Craig Smith	20	$15000	$7M	2028	7.06
Brett Connolly	20	$14250	$7.5M	2027	7.06
Conor Clifford	32	$24500	$1.2M	2026	6.73
Jose Antonio Ramirez	16	$9000	$3M	2027	----

Last year I listed Mills and Craig Smith as my top two MC's here, but Jean showed he deserves top billing this year after all. Smith and Brett Connolly are both youngsters that I'm really excited for. Both of them put up ratings above 7, and had 9 assists this year, and would have both broken 10 if not for long term injuries. Clifford is on the way out but I'm happy to have him around for another year.


Right Midfielder

Name	Age	$/Wk	Value	Contract Expiry	Rating
Neil Gordon	29	$80000	$11.75M	2028	7.14
Dariusz Chrzanowski	27	$33000	$3.4M	2027	6.96
Daryl Hutchinson	31	$46500	$950kM	2025	6.95

Gordon is still the gold standard at MR, but Chrzanowski really came into his own with the team this year, playing a good amount and playing really well in big matches. Hutchinson fell off a cliff this year,fell out of favor, and isn't going to be resigned.


Forwards

Name	Age	$/Wk	Value	Contract Expiry	Rating
Yuri Di Giuseppe	18	$84000	$40M	2028	7.58
Constantino	30	$54000	$8.75M	2027	7.31
Chris Bryan	22	$40000	$10.25M	2028	7.34
Matthew Khan	30	$45500	$4.1M	2026	7.12
Eoin Darcy	20	$45000	$7.75M	2028	7.07
Rob Kershaw	22	$11,000.00	$4.6M	2027	-----

We had so many injuries up front this year that signing Di Giuseppe really didn't cause any problems, but next year, 5 strikers will be a problem. I keep expecting Matthew Khan to be forced out of a job, but he keeps giving me results.


Darcy was on a scoreless streak when he came off his long term injury towards the end of this season. I tried to play him a little, but his morale dropped into the tank when he wasn't scoring and all of our late season matches were so important I just benched him for guys that were performing.


Also, Constantino is 30 now. This is his 10^th year playing for me counting the two years I loaned him in at Woking. His playing time has to go down some though with Di Giuseppe taking center stage.

[Radii]

Ipswich 2024/25 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
2022/23 - Premier League - 5th - 18 W - 13 D - 7 L - 66 for - 36 ag - 67 pts
2023/24 - Premier League - 4th - 20 W - 8 D - 10 L - 58 for - 40 ag - 68 pts
2024/25 - Premier League - 5th - 18 W - 11 D - 9 L - 64 for - 45 ag - 65 pts

Continental Play

2021/22 - Euro Cup - 4th Qualifying Round
2023/24 - Euro Cup - Winners
2024/25 - Champions League - Quarterfinals

This year:

Top Goalscorer - Constantino - 21 goals
Top League Goalscorer - Constantino - 11 goals
Most Assists - Steven Mills/Constantino - 12 assists
Highest Average Rating - Yuri Di Giuseppe - 7.58
Most Man of the Match - Constantino - 10