FM10 - From the Bottom Up

[Radii]

2024/25 English Premier Division Leaders

Goals

1. David Thomas - Chelsea - 25
2. Andy Bailey - Liverpool - 23
3. Emmanuel Amoako - Tottenahm - 21
4. Hans Nooij - Arsenal - 17
5. Matteo Cavalleri - Southampton - 17
...
16. Constantino - 11
20. Neil Gordon - 10
29. Chris Bryan - 8
36. Yuri Di Giuseppe - 6
36. Matthew Khan - 6


Assists

1. Sergio Canales - Chelsea - 11
2. Bugra Yildirim - Arsenal - 10
2. Constantino - Ipswich - 10
2. Coutinho - Aston Villa - 10
2. Andy Bailey - Liverpool - 10
...
13. Steven Mills - Ipswich - 8


Average Rating

1. David Thomas - Chelsea - 7.60
2. Sultan Al-Inezi - Chelsea - 7.41
3. Danny Wilson - Arsenal - 7.39
4. Andy Bailey - Liverpool - 7.38
5. Dean O'Reilly - Newcastle - 7.31
...
7. Constantino - 7.27
17. Neil Gordon - 7.14
27. Chris Bryan - 7.11
28. Steven Mills - 7.10
31. Stuart Kirkland - 7.09
81. Juan Pablo Crespo - 6.97
87. Otmar Mattle - 6.96

[MIJB#19]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

Cardiff in Europa League next year. Nice

I think Ipswich gets the FA Cup win spot and Cardiff gets nothing. The runner up only goes to the EL if the FA Cup winner qualified for the CL.

Also, if Man City indeed wins the CL, Liverpool should miss out, as the UEFA made a 4 teams of the same FA max rule, pushing Liverpool down to the EL. If Man City doesn't qualify for the EL through the league, Liverpool will be an additional EL entry for England, otherwise Liverpool replaces the lowest ranked EL qualifier.

[SirFozzie]

I don't think you're correct, MIJB:

See last year:

2010–11 FA Cup - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The FA Cup winners are normally entitled to a place in the next season's UEFA Europa League unless they have already qualified for that tournament or for the UEFA Champions League; because Manchester City qualified for the 2011–12 UEFA Champions League via their top-four finish in the 2010–11 Premier League, Stoke qualified for the 2011–12 UEFA Europa League as runners-up.

Ipswich has already qualified for Europe as the 5th place finisher, so their Europa League place goes to the runner up.. unless I'm missing something here.

[MIJB#19]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

I don't think you're correct, MIJB:

See last year:

2010–11 FA Cup - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The FA Cup winners are normally entitled to a place in the next season's UEFA Europa League unless they have already qualified for that tournament or for the UEFA Champions League; because Manchester City qualified for the 2011–12 UEFA Champions League via their top-four finish in the 2010–11 Premier League, Stoke qualified for the 2011–12 UEFA Europa League as runners-up.

Ipswich has already qualified for Europe as the 5th place finisher, so their Europa League place goes to the runner up.. unless I'm missing something here.

That's apples vs oranges, actually.
In your RL example, Manchester City qualified for both the CL (top4) and the EL (FA Cup win).
In the Dynasty example, Ipswich Town qualified twice for the EL (top5 and FA Cup win).
At all times, the cup runners up only receive the EL ticket if the cup winner qualified for the CL.

[SirFozzie]

Ah, ok, they changed that a couple years ago (wonder if it's in FM10)

Premier League clubs in limbo over Europa League qualification - ESPN Soccernet

[MIJB#19]

Not like it matters or anything.

[Radii]

So as of right now (June 7th in game), when I go to the Champions Cup and look at the teams I see Arsenal, Chelsea, Man City, and Man Utd all seeded for the group stage. Liverpool is not listed.

Looking at the Euro Cup I see Ipswich, Newcastle, Liverpool and Aston Villa listed. No Cardiff.

Assuming those listings are set in stone, it looks like only 4 teams make the Champions League and the 4th place team got screwed pretty bad by Man City. But there is an allowance for an extra team to make the Euro Cup, Aston Villa finished 7th last year and I assumed wasn't going to make it in b/c of Man City having qualified via the league cup, but Man City going ahead and winning the Champions League hurt liverpool and helped Aston Villa.


So I'm not glad Ipswich finished 5th, but what a letdown that would have been if I'd finished 4th and not made the CL.

I'll check again once we roll over into July and qualifiers start to make sure that stuff doesn't change.

[Radii]

-- We used up our transfer budget and giving Crespo a contract extrension put us over our wage budget for the rest of this season, so we're just moving ahead until we start getting news on the upcoming season.

-- Jean (Brazil), Mattle (Austria), Chrzanowski (Poland), Ballester (Spain), Bogdanovs (Latvia), Aldrovandi and Di Giuseppe (Italy) all play in World Cup Qualifiers. Yuri Di Giuseppe starts and scores in a 3:1 win over Switzerland, his second goal in 3 caps for the Italian senior team.

-- The Euro U21 Championship is this month and Chris Bryan, Craig Smith, Anthony Heywood and Rob Lines are all called up for it. Heywood is 23, the cutoff must be like on the first day of qualifying or something?


-- In a second round of World Cup Qualifiers everyone mentioned above plays again, and also MC Brett Connolly plays for Australia and has an assist in a 1:0 win over Japan.


-- World Cup Qualifying for June is over, and the 2025 Confederations Cup is beginning. Australia and Italy are both participating, and Aldrovandi, Di Giuseppe and Connolly are called up to represent their countries here.


European Club Rankings

1. Arsenal - 155.240 (+2)
2. Inter - 150.130 (-1)
3. Barcelona - 142.110 (+4)
4. Man Utd - 137.239 (+6)
5. OM - 136.611 (+1)
6. Chelsea - 135.240 (-4)
7. At. Madrid - 134.110 (-2)
8. Juventus - 133.130 (+1)
9. HSV - 132.753 (was not ranked)
10. Olympique Lyonnais - 132.611 (-6)

Roma fell from 8th to 12th.

Ipswich rises from 60th to 32nd in European rankings. Two spectacular seasons in a row have seen us rise about 70 places. We have 3 more years on our 5 year record where we basically did nothing and if we can continue to make it into Contintenal play we could easily rise into the top 20 in a year or two.

England ratings:

1. Arsenal - 155
2. Man Utd - 137
3. Chelsea - 135
4. Man City - 125
5. Tottenham - 114
6. Ipsiwch - 79
7. Sheffield Utd - 71
8. Huddersfield - 70
9. Aston Villa - 61
10. Newcastle - 49


Home Grown Status

We've got 10 senior team members trained at Ipswich: Gordon, Kirkland, Hughes, Jackson, Rogers, Kershaw, Bryan, Barnett, Darcy, Smith.

Rogers, Kershaw and Barnett won't be registered but that still leaves 7, more than enough (must have 4 trained at the club registered for Continental play).

Apparently we signed Yuri Di Giuseppe at a young enough age that he will eventually get home grown status.



-- "Flamboyant Midfielder" Craig Smith plays 90 minutes for the England U21's and scores their only goal in a 1:1 draw with Italy. Heywood plays as well.

-- Italy 2 : 0 New Zealand - Aldrovandi plays 90 minutes, Di Giuseppe does as well and scores a goal.

-- Italy 1 : 0 Tunisia - Di Giuseppe plays but doesn't do well.

-- Australia 3 : 1 Bolivia - Brett Connolly scores a goal for Australia, his first ever goal for his national team in 15 caps.

-- Italy 2 : 1 Guatemala - Aldrovandi played well for Italy in this one.


WTF

Ipswich Chairman Adam Banks has loaned the club $1.2M to help with the club's running costs. When i go look at our finances I see that we have a positive bank balance of $39 Million... WHY.

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by Radii

-- WTF

Ipswich Chairman Adam Banks has loaned the club $1.2M to help with the club's running costs. When i go look at our finances I see that we have a positive bank balance of $39 Million... WHY.

Hmmm, that has tax loophole written all over it, you may want to check your chairman's personal status and see if shady appears

[Radii]

-- Ipswich Fans have voted Stuart Kirkland the player of the year. He was good as always but didn't have a spectacular year, I'm surprised it wasn't Gordon or Constantino. He is our captain though so that maybe helps.

Ipswich Best Eleven

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Ballester/Mattle/Heywood
M: Adagsmar/Mills/Smith/Gordon
F: Di Giuseppe/Bryan

No Aldrovandi, no Constantino. No Jean. Mattle and Bryan totally deserving so those are fine to me. Jean 100% should have made it over Smith on the starting team.

Ipswich All Time Best Eleven

GK: Michele Capitani (203 apps/6.99 rating)
DL: Stuart Kirkland (337 apps/7.16 rating)
DC: Otmar Mattle (148 apps/6.93 rating)
DC: Troy Brown (240 apps/2 goals/6.79 rating)
DR: David Wright (166 apps/2 goals/7.11 rating)
ML: Mario Licka (115 apps/8 goals/7.23 rating)
MC: Gordon Donnelly (342 apps/38 goals/7.03 rating)
MC: Steven Mills (221apps/15 goals/7.12 rating)
MR: Neil Gordon (304 apps/74 goals/7.01 rating)
ST: Constantino (335 apps/236 goals/7.48 rating)
ST: Matthew Khan (282 apps/142 goals/7.10 rating)

Clive Jackson with 133 appearances and a 6.93 rating remains in the backup list. So 7 of the all time best 11 currently play for me now, not bad! Kirkland and his 337 appearances is only 25 years old.


2025/26 Schedule Announced

Our first two matches are at home, Chelsea on opening day and then Nottingham Forest a few days later. Toughest stretch on the schedule as it sits now would be Liverpool, Man City and Arsenal in a week's time in mid December towards the end of the first half of the season (and thus also to finish out the season in late April/Early May).

-- We receive the standard $48,510,000 in TV Money.

Season Expectations

Minimum expectation is to qualify for the Euro Cup through EPL play. That would give us a transfer budget of $33.5M and a payroll of $1.5M/wk. Sounds fair to me, its not the nearly $60M we were given to compete in the Champions League but I'm sure we can find something to do with 33 million. I'm happy to see the payroll continue to go up as well. We could get $41M if we say we're challenging for the title but I'm perfectly fine competing for that top 7 (and hopefully top 4) spot.

English Community Shield

We'll be playing in this event as the winners of the FA Cup last year. Its an early season (August 10th here) competition between the FA Cup winner and the EPL Title winner, its a charity event and 5 subs are allowed, so we'll be using it as our last friendly basically.

Players Promoted

DC Pablo Olvera and MC Jose Antonio Ramirez are promoted to the reserves, too old for the U18's. The rule I've seen other people mention is that if you can get them 10 matches for the senior team, keep them up, if not, loan them out. Ramirez is a good fit for League 1 and will benefit from a loan to Shrewsbury. Olvera may get the same, though he's a better candidate to play for us in early round cup matches, etc.


Youth Intake

Looks like we have 10 new players this year. And its a complete bloodbath of suck. 9 of them are 1/2 or 1* potential players, GK James Donaldson is 1 1/2* "decent player" potential. Horrible!


Pre-Season Meeting

-- Every year the coaching staff compares our abilities to those of other teams around the league, and usually all our ratings are fairly low and its annoying and I know we'll outperform everything anyway. That's started to change in recent years and its actually worth looking at.

Youth: We are the youngest team in the league. A couple long time players have just turned 30 but many of our starters are still in their mid 20s with a few much younger.

Aggression: I don't really scout specifically for this but we are one of the most aggressive teams in the league.

Determination: I do value determination very highly and it has paid off as we are one of the most driven teams in the league.

Dribbling: Another area where I really like to see my midfielders and forwards be able to dribble the ball, and we are near the top of the league here as well.

First Touch: We are in the top half of the league here, its something I like to see in my midfielders.

Flair: We are on the low end here. Chelsea at the top. I am often ignoring flair in favor of determination and technical skills.

Height: We're one of the shortest teams around.

Speed: I've always loved pace and do tend to favor speed over height at virtually every position (DC is the only exception).

Fitness: We're good here too, I had some problems with strong players technically who were crappy athletes and I tend to go for good athletes.

Strength: We are one of the best rated here as well and I'm surprised to see this. I like all around good athletes but in most cases I will take someone with good speed but lower strength (except at DC).

Technique: We are near the top here too. I've been valuing Technique as a stat more in recent years simply because I can afford more well rounded players than I could in earlier years.


We compare really favorably in many many areas, and that's a first for us I think. We've always been fast, always had good passing and dribbling, but many of these areas its a new thing to see us near the top.


-- Our coaches tell me that 4-5-1, 4-4-2 and 4-3-1-2 would be our strongest formations.


-- We set another new attendance record last year with 36,832 fans on average, breaking the record we set last year of 36,543.


EPL Title Odds

Man City are the favorites at 3:1 this year.

Man Utd 6:1, Arsenal 6:1, Chelsea 10:1.

Behind the obvious favorites are Liverpool and Ipswich at 33:1. We're picked to finish 6th by the media this year.


-- Italy beats Argentina 1:0 in the semifinals of the Confederations Cup, Aldrovandi plays 90 minutes and earns a 7.0 rating, Di Giuseppe plays 90 minutes and earns a 6.7 rating.

-- Italy and Holland play to a 2:2 draw in the Confederations Cup Final, going all the way to penalty kicks. Each team makes 3 of their first 5 penalties, both teams make the 6th, then Italy wins on the 7th kick.

In the final, Yuri Di Giuseppe scores in the 30th minute and the 59th minute, getting both of Italy's goals! He also takes the first penalty and makes it. He earned an 8.8 rating on the match. Aldrovandi came in in the 70th minute, earning a 6.9 rating. He missed a penalty kick in the shootout.


-- Tunisia's Wassim Ayari scores 4 goals in 5 confederation cup matches and is the top goalscorer. Yuri Di Giuseppe scored 3 goals in 4 matches and is second!


-- That takes us up to the end of June. Next up we look for ways to spend $30 Million. Off the top of my head the only "needs" the club has are a 3rd string DR and 3rd string MR so we are less likely to completely lose coverage at a position due to injury.

[Radii]

July Update

-- July will just be a time to play friendlies and research player moves. We don't have to play until the final qualifying round of the Euro Cup (the fourth out of four). Aston Villa have to start in the first round, Newcastle the third, Liverpool and Ipswich the fourth. That'll take place in late August.


Richest Clubs

Last year we were the 36th Richest club in Europe, and the 8th most valuable in England.

Real Madrid and Barcelona top the list worth over $800 Million each. Inter is 3rd at $750M. FC Bayern is the only other club over $600M at $617 Million. Ajax and OM appear in 5th and 6th before the first english club.

Man Utd is 7th at $504M, Arsenal 8th at $469 M, Roma 9th at $462M and Chelsea is the #3 English team and in 10th in Europe at $400M.

15. Man City $304M
19. Tottehnham $240M
27. Newcastle $179M
28. Ipswich 174M

Huddersfield, Everton and Liverpool are the next 3 English teams behind us. Last year we were valued at $146M so we rose 8 places on the list and by nearly $30 Million in value during our first Champions League season.


New Youth Signing

We made this move last year but it didn't take effect til now, in the hype of the Champions League run we were on I think I forgot to mention it completely!

17 y/o MC Victor Manuel - $1.4M to Athletic in La Liga - rates worse than my scouts initially thought, some coaches have him 2 1/2*, some have him 3*, that's disappointing.

Physical: Pace 14/Accel 17, Jumping 3/Str 7 but other ratings 12-14

Mental: Determination 14/Decisions 14/Bravery 15/Composure 13, 8 other mental ratings between 10-13. Anticipation and Concetration are weak.

Technical: Passing 12/Technique 14/Dribbling 13/First Touch 10 .. lacks in Marking (4) but can tackle (10).

He just turned 17 in June.


-- Reserve GK Michael Rogers, young DL Liam Ormerod and MR Daryl Hutchinson all have their contracts expire and leave the club. Rogers was actually picked up on a bosman transfer by Betis in La Liga, the other two just leave w/ no contract in place. Hutchinson fell to 3rd on the depth chart and wouldn't take less than the $45,000/wk he was making and I wasn't willing to keep him. Ormerod just isn't good enough.


-- With players leaving the squad I check out our position quickly. We are spending $1,407,951/wk in salaries. We're allowed $1,500,000.

I could drop our transfer budget to $25 Million and get up to $1.6M. I think I'd better look at contract renegotiations first this year, IIRC we have some key players coming up and I want to see if they want big raises or not.

[Radii]

Contract Update

MC Conor Clifford - 33 y/o, makes $24,500/wk and will take $18,000/wk for an extra year, but I dunno if I want to offer it yet. We wait.

ST Matthew Khan - He's 30 y/o now, he still seems to give me results and I could see the value of having an extra veteran striker around but this year might push him out with Constantino and the younger guys we have. He makes $45,000/wk now and will take $41,000/wk for an extra year but again we wait.

DC James Welsh - Only makes $31,500/wk right now, but he only played 7 matches last year and he's not bad, but he's not on the level that my 4 main DC's are (Ballester/Aldrovandi/Mattle/Bartlett). I transfer list Welsh and plan on getting my young DC Olvera some playing time where i would have normally played Welsh instead.

ML Adagsmar - 30 y/o now, but still a reliable player, actually out performed Crespo at ML last year over long stretches. Makes $35,000/wk, will take the same for another year, done.

DC Carlos Aldrovandi - 29 y/o, key player and will be for awhile longer hopefully. Makes $88,000/wk, wants the same thing + a bonus, I try to give him a two year extension instead of just one.

DL Stuart Kirkland - 26 y/o, makes $70k/wk and wants the same for 2 more years + a bonus. Absolutely.

DR Clive Jackson 25 y/o, makes $40,500/wk and wants the same for 3 extra years. If I signed a world class DR I might sell Jackson, but I am happy to keep him at the same rate, yes.

DC Sam Barnett - won't be re-signed. Worth $1.3M, might as well try to sell him.


Youngsters GK Rob Lines, ML David Ros and DC Pablo Olvera are all up as well, they'll make a few thousand/wk more between them as we figure out if they're going to have a place on the team.


So there's no one who recently became a bigger part of the team that we need to give a big raise, so that helps me understand what we have to work with.


-- There is immediate and heavy interest in both Welsh and Barnett after I transfer list them. Barnett mainly by Championship level clubs, Welsh is a good player, I just have exceptional depth at DC after all my focus on the position.


Injury Update

Adagsmar has an injured knee in training on July 6th and will miss 4 weeks. Terrible time to get hurt since he'll miss all our preseason training and friendlies.


Transfers Out

DC Sam Barnett signs with Charlton in League 1. We made $1.3M on the transfer.

DC James Welsh signs with German top division side HSV. We make $3.9M selling him and could probably have asked for more than he was worth, but I'm happy to get both moves done quickly.



With those two moves done, we are now spending $1,379,040/wk on salaries out of a $1.5M budget, and our transfer budget has gone up to $37.6M.

I could now drop our transfer budget to $32M and get the payroll up to $1.6M/wk if I needed to.


I still don't have any big transfer targets. I've offered a contract to a MRC that was dropped by Arsenal that would cover my need for a 3rd string MR behind Gordon and Chrzanowski, that's all I've done so far.

[Radii]

-- The MR we were trying to sign that Arsenal had let go ends up going to Palermo so we still need backups at MR and DR.

-- A name that's come up each of the last two years, DL/ML Eugene Vasyljef, comes up again. This is a guy who is a natural at both positions and is better than kirkland and better than crespo. He's been unhappy at Sevilla for years, and I've tried to sign him for years. And this was the year to do it, he'd finally decided he *really* wanted out. But OM in France comes calling as well, the bid is $25 Million, we both offer a contract, we actually offer $40,000/wk more than OM, but he goes to the higher caliber team, and he's off to France. That's a huge disappointment and that was really the one big name we were completely all in on.



Injury Update

DR Anthony Heywood is hurt in training and is going to miss a couple weeks. He'll likely miss about half our friendlies.


We end up bidding on a very strong MC who seems like he could be a great fit for us, we end up getting a deal done with Turkish side Galatasary, but the guy wants $170,000/wk. I can't offer that and he's not good enough to justify it for a club on my budget. So I offer $100,000/wk and he accepts b/c he wants to make the jump to a bigger nation than Turkey. There's a work permit issue that I'm pretty sure is going to get resolved, but I'm about to hit my first friendly and I've been very very slowly moving through this while chatting with an old friend on Facebook, and I'll stop here and let everything play out tomorrow.

[Radii]

Friendly #1

We travel to Genclerbirligi which I imagine is a really fun name to say once you get it right, they're a turkish 1st division team, we agreed to play each other when negotiating over MC Brett Connolly last year.

Di Giuseppe scores in the 1st and 2nd minute, Constantino in the 8th and 36th. Bryan in the 46th minute, Connolly 48th, Bryan again 69th. We do allow one.

26th minute, Jean goes down hurt and must leave the match.

Genclerbirligi 1 : 7 Ipswich


Injury Update

Jean is out 3-4 weeks, he broke his arm in a fall today.



-- Arsenal Bid $21.5M for Jose Antonio Ballester. I say no, we'll see how he reacts.

-- Man Utd bid on GK Rob Lines, again I say no.

-- MC Connolly is hurt in training and will miss our second friendly. Adagsmar, Jean, Heywood also out.

-- The MC I'm trying to sign has his work permit rejected, I appeal.

[Taz13]

Well I think I am going to pick up FM2012 (since it has tutorial) thanks to reading this. I actually play in real life, but I am not sure how it will translate to the game. Oh well thanks again for the inspiration. Not sure I would be brave enough to type my save story for a long while as I have a feeling that I would be let go quite a bit during the first save. Cheers.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Taz13

Well I think I am going to pick up FM2012 (since it has tutorial) thanks to reading this. I actually play in real life, but I am not sure how it will translate to the game. Oh well thanks again for the inspiration. Not sure I would be brave enough to type my save story for a long while as I have a feeling that I would be let go quite a bit during the first save. Cheers.

woohoo! Its a great series, just a big learning curve, hopefully the tutorial stuff they've added will help with that though.

[Radii]

Friendly #2

We travel to Leeds today. No goals in the first half. Ballester and Crespo are hurt. Subs at the half and Chris Bryan gets the only goal of hte match in the 87th minute. We outplayed them but their keeper came up big and we missed a couple clear cut chances.

Leeds 0 : 1 Ipswich

-- No injuries long term today, Crespo and Ballester are both fine.



New Signing

28 y/o DC/DMC/MC Sergio Roberto - $25 Million to Galatasaray - $100,000/wk - Sergio Roberto is Brazilian, he spent 3 years in Brazil before being bought by CSKA Moscow for $16.75M. He dominated for them for 4 years putting up ratings over 7.65 every year before being sold to Galatasaray in Turkey for $19.75M. He played there 3 years putting up ratings 7.50+ and is now coming to Ipswich for $25 Million.

He doesn't speak English but I hope with Jean on the squad he'll learn fast, they are both members of the Brazilian national team and of course both speak Portuguese.





Opinions on Sergio Roberto vary from my coaching staff, a couple of my coaches only view him as a 2 1/2* player, while a couple view him as a 4* player. Most list him as a 3* or 3 1/2* guy. He is better as a DMC than a MC and his defensive skills at DMC are so good that it has me thinking about running a different formation more often to take advantage of the great midfield that I have between Jean/Mills/Sergio Roberto/Smith/Connolly/Clifford

EDIT: He is hurt for the next 2-3 weeks, he picked up that injury very recently.

[SirFozzie]

Ugh. Natural Fitness 7 means he's not going to be quick to recover stamina. Hope it works out!

[Radii]

-- We have $12.6M that we may still spend on transfers but at this point have hit our limit as far as salaries, we're spending $1.48M/wk out of $1.5M/wk allowed. We'd have to drop the transfer budget down to $6 Million to increase the wage budget.


Friendly #3

We travel to affiliate Brighton. Crespo gets a first half goal. Bryan, Di Giuseppe and Clifford score in the second half and no one gets hurt.

Brighton 0 : 4 Ipswich



-- I try to send ST Rob Kershaw back to Shrewsbury to try to help them promote but he's 22 y/o now and not interested in slumming it in League 1. That's fair, but that was also the only reason I kept him employed. He's valued at $4.9 Million, I transfer list him, asking for $7M, we'll see if we get any bites.

-- MC Jose Antonio Ramirez isn't going to play for us this year and he's listed as league 1 caliber by many coaches, so he is a good candidate to be loaned to Shrewsbury. He'll play for them this season.

-- ML David Ros is also not interested in a loan to Shrewsbury. He may be ready for the Championship, I list him for loan. If I don't get any bites I will make an effort to play him some.


August Update

-- We play Shrewsbury on August First, Man Utd on August 10th in the Community Shield.

-- League matches are for now scheduled for the 16th, 19th, 23rd, and 30th. Euro Cup Fourth Qualifying Round play should occur on the 21st and 28th and may cause league matches to be rescheduled.

-- The board is pleased with my leadership. Signing Di Giuseppe remains the highlight.

-- We lost $19.65 Million last month. Buying Sergio Roberto is the main expense while it was offset a good deal by the $17 Million we made on season ticket sales.

-- We go into August with $22 Million in the bank, having taken an early loss of $11 Million on the year. We expect to steadily lose money this year, we won't make nearly as much in the Euro Cup but can hopefully last awhile in the tournament and make some good cash on home matches.


Friendly #4

We travel to Shrewsbury. Di Giuseppe scores in the 15th minute. Bryan in the 24th. Mills in the 38th minute. We give up a goal in the second half but then Hughes scores late.

Shrewsbury 1 : 4 Ipswich


Ipswich Captains

DL Stuart Kirkland remains the captain. Conor Clifford doesn't play nearly as much anymore and I decide to promote Jean to vice captain.


-- Adagsmar resumes full training, and Crespo is hurt in training on the same day. Crespo will likely miss the Community Shield but that should be it.


-- Both Barcelona and Real Madrid have bid ~$21 Million for DC Ballester. So far I reject everything and he's still ok with it. I don't know if the rumors of this deal haven't gone public or if he's just content to stay here.


Injury Update

Backup GK Michele Capitani is going to miss 2 months with a hip injury

[Radii]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

Ugh. Natural Fitness 7 means he's not going to be quick to recover stamina. Hope it works out!

Hah I actually didn't know that, we'll see how that plays out.

It feels like we're in a bit of a weird position where there is a class of guys that we just can't get, Man Utd, Chelsea, Barcelona guys. But we're *almost* competitive with those teams, and there's an extremely narrow band of players that seem like they are worth the money we have to spend that make our team better that are willing to come here right now for the salaries we can afford to pay. For right now, this is that type of player... err, assuming he can play enough He has played more than 30 matches each of the last 2 years, with our midfield I'd be fine with that.

[bulletsponge]

BTW you mentioned earlier you wernt sure what the personalities meant so heres a link to them at the SI forums

Sports Interactive Community

model citizen seems to be the absolute best, and i can say i dont know if ive ever seen one of them in all my fm days

[Radii]

Euro Cup Fourth Qualifying Round Draw

We're a seeded team in this draw, so we'll get one of the lower rated teams. The vast majority of them are teams we should totally crush. A few are teams in top divisions but still teams we should be better than.

We draw Icelandic Side KR, Knattspyrnufelag Reykjavikur. The year that we lost to Livorno in this final qualifying round, our first year in the Euro Cup, we played this team in the 3rd round that year. We won 3:0 and 6:1. It'd be hard for us to get a bad draw here, but this is one of the best draws possible to be sure.


-- League matches with Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa are re-arranged for the Euro Cup.

August 10th, 2025

English Community Shield - Wembley Stadium

Ipswich vs Man Utd

Man Utd are 5:4 favorites today. We'll be playing our starting lineup but we'll be sure to use all 5 subs available.

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

10': Di Giuseppe with a ball into the area for Constantino, a clear cut chance for him but its saved.

HALF: We saw Man Utd attack a fair bit here but I'm not slowing this one down to make a ton of comments. No clear cut chances, nothing really special. Possession is 50/50, they shoot 7 times, we shoot 5 times. 3 on target for them, 2 for us. We're way better on tackles and are actually better heading the ball as well.

46': Di Giuseppe a yellow.

54': Hughes in for Adagsmar. He just got back from injury and isn't match fit yet.

72': We get 5 subs today and use them. Mattle in for Aldrovandi, Bryan in for Constantino, Heywood in for Jackson, Clifford in for Mills.

85': There's a header by them around 30 yards out, our defenders are slow to track back to the ball, it settles around 15 yards out and Bogdanovs is slow to rush out and their midfielder van Schijndel beats everyone to the ball and drills it into the net. 0-1

That's how it ends.

Ipswich 0 : 1 Man Utd

Notables: Jackson (7.0), Aldrovandi (7.1), Ballester (7.0), Gordon (7.0)


No injuries and getting ready for the season was the most important thing here, the one little breakaway for them decides it, otherwise there was lost of defense played here.

[Radii]

There was a round of international friendlies on the 12th but I had limited most of my guys to playing in just one half. Latvia beat Montenegro 1:0 and Bogdanovs put up a 9.2 rating and man of the match in that one.

August 16th, 2025

Chelsea @ Ipswich

We're 6:4 favorites at home in our opener against Chelsea. They finished 3rd last year just behind Man Utd and Arsenal and are picked 4th by the media this year. We're 6-4-8 lifetime against Chelsea. The home team has won the last 5 matches, all but one of them by 1 goal.

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

Hughes starts at ML, Crespo is still tired after his little short injury and Adagsmar isn't fit after being out most of the preseason.

Chelsea have David Thomas and Sultan Al-Inezi up front. Al-Inezi is 32 but still real damn good, and Thomas is clearly world class.

Standard mindset today.

4': Gordon takes a free kick from 30 yards out, its a few feet high, but not a bad effort.

17': buildup down the midfield, Mills to Di Giuseppe, he's 25 yards out, plays a brilliant pass that splits two defenders and lands on Constantino's right foot, he's into the area, drills a shot far post and scores!! 1-0

20': Throwin near midfield, a pass quickly to the center for Smith, ahead to Di Giuseppe, he pulls the ball back and draws a defender, Constantino fills the open space, Di Giuseppe passes to him, he's got a clear cut chance and scores, two quick goals!!! 2-0

27': we drop back to a Counterattacking mindset.

HALF: We fly to the half with no more highlights and that's just perfect. Possession is about even but we're in full control here. 11 shots, 5 on target, they only have 4 shots with 1 on target. We're winning 62% of our headers compared to just 48% for them, just a spectacular half for us.

66': Jack Hughes is hurt.

73': We win a ball in midfield, Kirkland up to Hughes, up to Di Giuseppe, he sends it into the area for Constantino, this time its not the pass, Constantino is well defended, cuts right by his man and gets a great look and beats the keeper! 3-0

73': Crespo in for Hughes, Bartlett in for Di Giuseppe and we go to a 4-1-4-1.

We end this one extremely easily and what a start for Ipswich!!!

Ipswich 3 : 0 Chelsea

Man of the Match: Constantino (9.5)
Goals: Constantino 3
Assists: Di Giuseppe 3 (9.0)
Notables: Bogdanovs (7.6), Jackson (7.3), Kirkland (7.9), Aldrovandi (7.8), Ballester (7.1), Gordon (7.3), Hughes (7.6), Mills (7.0), Smith (7.2)

The entire starting team is 7.0+. This is one of the most dominant matches we've ever played against a quality team.

[Radii]

-- We sell 25,400 season tickets.

August 21th, 2025

Euro Cup Fourth Qualifying Round - First Leg

Ipswich @ KR

We're big 1:2 favorites over this really really small team.

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

We start the same lineup today that crushed Chelsea. We have way too many guys still lacking match fitness b/c of injuries during the preaseason, so I'm hoping to get a big lead here and be able to get some other guys in the replay.

16': Gordon down the right side, ahead to Constantino, he pulls out to the right a bit, passes into the area for Gordon who shoots with his first touch and beats the keeper! 1-0

43': Hughes with a yellow.

45': Di Giuseppe to Constantino for our first clear cut chance of the match, but he shoots right at the keeper.

HALF: We end up with 15 shots, 7 on target, but they're just not that well placed. KR shoots 5 times with 3 on target and has 1 clear cut chance. We've had a few letdowns to allow shots. This is definitely us playing down to our opposition's level. Crespo is in for Hughes at the half.

47': Crespo picks up an injury, guh. He can stay in and we'll check on him later.

50': Mills puts a ball into the area for Di Giuseppe, he has to fight for it, wins it from the defender, the defender goes down but no foul, a pass to Constantino who scores easily! 2-0

58': Ballester is hurt.

66': Di Giuseppe to Constantino for another very easy goal. These guys just are too fast and can control the ball too well. 3-0

67': Heywood in for Jackson, Mattle in for Ballester.

74': Mills to Crespo in the left side of the area, he gets a shot off before a defender can close down and its our 4th goal. 4-0


KR 0 : 4 Ipswich

It takes us awhile to get going but we get the big win we need to be able to play youngsters in our next match.

Man of the Match: Constantino (9.3)
Goals: Constantino 2, Gordon (8.3), Crespo (7.8)
Assists: Constantino, Di Giuseppe (8.8), Mills (7.5)
Notables: Bogdanovs (7.1), Jackson (7.3), Kirkland (7.8), Aldrovandi (7.4), Smith (7.0)



Injury Update

Crespo will miss 5-6 days with a bruised thigh

Ballester will miss ~2 weeks with the twisted knee he picked up today

[Radii]

-- Inter bid $21 Million for Bogdanovs. I say no.

August 26th, 2025

Euro Cup Fourth Qualifying Round - Second Leg

KR (0) @ (4) Ipswich

We play our second league match on the 30th. We're 1:6 favorites today but I am using a full slate of reserves today.

GK: Lines
D: Hughes/Olvera/Ashworth/Jackson
M: Ros/Jean/Connolly/Chrzanowski
F: Darcy/Battersby

Jean and Connolly aren't quite match fit yet so we'll let them run around awhile. This is a true B team, a C team in many ways. Rob Lines gets his first ever start at GK. Olvera and Ashworth their first starts in defense, Ros has a couple senior team appearances, Battersby destroyed a lower league team in the FA Cup last year, this is his second ever match.

So uh, hopefully we don't lose 5-0. I have quality subs ready to come in if needed.

We'll counter attack.

38': Darcy is hurt...

40': We get a goal from Chrzanowski but he was deemed offsides, nope! Connolly with a nice pass ahead minuse the part that he wasn't onsides :P

HALF: Just fine. Most of the highlights show us on offense but acting rather aimlessly before shooting from long range. Probably to be expected with a group of kids that don't play together a lot.

52': Darcy keeps getting hurt so I pull him out before he kills himself out there. Clifford is in. Clifford to DMC, Ros and Chrzanowski up to AML/AMR with BAttesrby up front.

68': Battersby shoots from 18 yards out and its saved by the keeper. We have 12 shots they have 1. That was the first shot on target.

74': Chrzanowski receives a pass out right from Battersby, cuts into the area, dribbles by 3 or 4 defenders all the way to the left side of the goal before shooting and putting it past the keeper! 1-0


Ipswich (5) 1 : 0 (0) KR

We get what we want out of this series. An easy win and a chance for a lot of younger players to get some first team action. Because we're still having guys come off of injuries this was less of "get a few U18's a chance to play with the regulars" and more of a "play whoever we can that won't risk first teamers who need to play in 4 day".


Man of the Match: Dariusz Chrzanowski (8.8)
Goals: Chrzanowski
Assist: Battersby (6.8)
Notables: Lines (7.5), Jackson (7.2), Hughes (7.0)

Everyone else 6.8 except for Darcy and Clifford (6.5 each).

-- We receive $244,000 for playing this round and $130,000 for winning it.

-- ST Darcy is out for 5-6 days.


There's a lot of this last qualifying round for the Euro Cup left to play, so we'll wait a bit to find out our group.

[Radii]

League Cup 3rd Round Draw

We draw a home game against Championship side Middlesbrough for our first league cup match, sounds good!

August 30th, 2025

Ipswich @ Exeter

We're 6:4 favorites going to play against an Exeter team that just promoted back to the EPL this year. We're 10-0-2 lifetime against them with a little more than half of that being in the Championship. We've beaten them the last 4 times we played.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Mattle/Aldrovandi/Jackson
DM: Sergio Roberto
MC: Smith/Mills
AM: Hughes/Gordon
ST: Di Giuseppe

There are a number of teams that my coaches tell me in pre-match meetings struggle against a 4-5-1. i'm going to, when possible, run this formation against those teams. Sergio Roberto DMC, Hughes/Gordon AML/AMR, Di Giuseppe up front today.

Standard mindset on the road today.

9': We have a corner, they head it away, we recover but end up making a bad pass in the midfield and they intercept and counter, ST Carcano ends up out wide left, crosses into the 6 yard box and they ahve a midfielder head it in... doh! 0-1

HALF: Uh, we watch one more highlight after htat. We will definitely play a much, much more aggressive second half. They shoot 4 times, just 1 on target. We shoot 3 times, none on target. We have 67% of the possession but can't seem to do anything with it.

49': We pass it around the right side, Gordon into the center for Smith, he's 30 yards out but puts a great pass into the area, Hughes breaks on it and puts it into the net from 10 yards out! 1-1

70': Aldrovandi a yellow.

76': Chrzanowski in for Gordon, Jean in for Mills.

And that's it, Exeter do a good job of shutting this one down, we'll take a point.

Exeter 1 : 1 Ipswich

Man of the Match: Craig Smith (7.9)
Goal: Hughes (7.6)
Assist: Smith
Notables: Kirkland (7.0)

That's a formation we have run some before but aren't experts in, but as I say there are a fairly decent number of teams that my coaches suggest struggle against a 4-5-1 and i'd like to run this a bit more often.

Sergio Roberto with a 6.9 in his first match for Ipswich.

[Radii]

-- We have 19 players called up for international matches in early September. 7 are for U21/U20/U19 matches, the others are for World Cup Qualifying I believe.

September Update

-- With an international break we are scheduled to play on the 14th, 17th, 20th, 23rd, and 27th. Euro Cup Groups haven't been drawn yet so subject to change with that.

-- Craig Smith is 2nd and Yuri Di Giuseppe 3rd in young player of the month voting for august. we only played two league matches.

-- The board is pleased with my leadership. Our increase in stature is the highlight. Losing the Community Shield is the negative.

-- We made a profit of $930k last month. That's outstanding.


Euro Cup Groups Drawn

We are drawn into group B and have an unbelievably good draw.

Maccabi Haifa A well known Israeli side, Usually referred to as M Haifa in game notes, this is a team that occasionally makes the group stage of the Euro Cup and has twice made the knockout rounds. in the last 15 years

FC RB Salzburg - An Austrian side, made the Euro Cup Quarters in 2014, never made it past the group stage since then, has lost in qualifying rounds a few times too.

KF Tirana - An Albania squad, this is only their 4th Euro Cup and only the second time they made the group stage.


Its not at all unreasonable to think we could get out of this group 6-0-0.

-- We receive $1.435M for making the group stage.

-- We have 7 matches rescheduled as a result of the Euro Cup groups being drawn. We're only going to play two September leauge matches between the international break, league cup and a Euro Cup match. So we're going to hit Oct 1st with just 4 matches played in the EPL. Some teams have already played 4!


-- ST Darcy scores for Ireland in a 5:0 win over Malta. Neil Gordon has an assist in a 3:3 tie for England against Hungary.

-- In a second round of world cup qualifiers, Ballester gets an assist in a 7:0 Spain win over Andorra. Di Giuseppe scores for Italy in a 5:1 win over Georgia. Darcy gets an assist in an Irish 1:0 win over Switzerland. Neil Gordon plays in a win over Belgium, his 6th cap for England.


September 14th, 2025

Watford @ Ipswich

We're massive 4:5 favorites today, they are 3:1 to get a win. We're 7-5-12 lifetime against Watford but almost entirely. We lost to them 1:0 at their place last year and tied 1:1 at home.

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

They run a 4-1-4-1 and we'll attack from the outset.

10': Jean lobs a ball ahead from our side of the midfield circle, Constantino runs onto it about 20 yards out, he times his run perfect, behind the defense and he controls it as it comes down, into the area, clear cut chance, and a goal! 1-0

21': run down the right for Constantino, a cross into the 6 yard box, Hughes is there unmarked, heads it into the net as the keeper is out of position! 2-0

30': Di Giuseppe a through ball for Constantino, he's behind the defense again and they can't do anything at all, easy goal! 3-0

HALF: We have 5 shots, 3 on target/3 goals, Watford just 3 shots, all off target. We're totally dominating this one despite the lack of shots.

57': Adagsmar in for Hughes.

58': Free kick out left for Gordon, he sends it low into the area, Adagsmar controls it, shoots, and scores moments after coming onto the pitch!! 4-0

71': Jean with a ball into the left side of the area, way out left, tough angle, Adagsmar shoots near post and its just by the keeper and in, there was almost no space there! 5-0

75': Chrzanowski in for Gordon, Clifford in for Mills.

80': They get a man ahead of our defense, we're closing in and they take a shot from 20 yards out, it hits the top of the bar, bounces down and into the goal. 5-1

Ipswich 5 : 1 Watford

Man of the Match: Constantino (9.3)
Goals: Constantino 2, Adagsmar 2 (8.6), Hughes (8.0)
Assists: Jean 2 (9.0), Constantino, Di Giuseppe (7.3), Gordon (8.1)
Notables: Jackson (7.1), Kirkland (7.8), Aldrovandi (7.4), Mills (7.3)


7 points in our first 3 matches puts us in 7th right now but many teams have 4 or 5 matches, its a good start for us.

[Radii]

September 18th, 2025

Euro Cup Group B

Ipswich @ M Haifa

The Israeli side are 6:4 favorites at their place in our first Euro Cup Group Match and really this should be our single most difficult Euro Cup match. This if our first ever meeting.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Mattle/Ballester/Jackson
M: Hughes/Simth/Connolly/Gordon
F: Darcy/Bryan

We bring in some fresh players, Smith/Connolly at MC, Darcy/Bryan up front. Standard mindset on the road today.

14': First highlight of the match, Hughes makes a long run from inside our half of the field by 3 defenders along the way into the left corner, crosses into the area, Bryan hits a rather weak header... but its at the right angle and the keeper can't get to it, its in! 1-0

25': Smith shoots from 20 yards out, its saved, rebound to bryan for the goal... but very obviously offsides. In fact I think Smith plays a through ball for Bryan if he wasn't offside.

29': Jackson with a long ball out of our end, Bryan runs onto it just after midfield, and he's out ahead of everyone, into the area, but his shot is jsut saved and tipped wide for a corner, 2nd clear cut chance for Bryan today. We can't do anything on the corner.

38': They earn their first shot, a clear cut chance of their own after a nice looking through ball, but their strikers just aren't on the same level, its on target but Bogdanovs has a very easy save on his hands. The pace on that shot was just seriously lacking.

HALF: We control 59% of the possession, shoot 9 times with 6 on target to 1 shot for them. We need to keep playing strongly here as the one shot we did allow was a clear cut chance that could have easily tied it up, but we are clearly the best team here.

46': Wow and it happens right off the bat, they kick off, pass it around for a short while, there's a key missed interception by Jack Hughes, a through ball for ST David and he's got a trivially easy finish and we let them tie it up. 1-1

51': Chrzanowski in for Gordon who is slightly tired. We attack.

60': Bryan and Darcy pass back and forth, Bryan takes it out wide to the right, a cross to the area, Darcy is unmarked and has a header for our 3rd clear cut chance... and he manages to head it wide, ugly.

74': Constantino in for a tired Bryan.

81': Clifford in for a tired Connolly.

88': Kirkland is hurt, his fitness drops badly.

And we can't do anything the rest of the way.

M Haifa 1 : 1 Ipswich

And immediately goes our hopes of finishing 6-0-0 in group play. Undefeated is still an option! To be fair this is the 2nd best team in the group, we were definitely the better team today but missed 3 clear cut chances and I think our biggest problem in this Euro Cup group stage might be our tendency to play down to the level of our opposition sometimes.

Man of the Match: Chris Bryan (7.9)
Goals: Bryan
Assists: Hughes (6.9)
Notables: Kirkland (7.4), Ballester (7.0), Darcy (7.2)


-- Austrian side FC RB Salzburg beats Albanian KF Tirana 5:2 in our other group match.

-- We receive $100,000 for the draw.


Injury Update

Kirkland will miss about a week with a strained neck.


Next up our League Cup match vs a Championship level team. Much of the EPL now has 5 or 6 league matches played to our three. Its been a weird, slow paced start to the year. Some early training injuries that have both Crespo and Adagsmar not at full fitness, a lack of matches overall that leave Matthew Khan not match fit b/c we just haven't played enough to work everyone in... I think I have everyone getting reserve time that needs it and I'm hoping by the time we hit a crazy streak of matches (likely in October) to start to make up our deficit of matches played in the EPL we've got everyone ready.

[MIJB#19]

Originally Posted by Radii

-- Italy and Holland play to a 2:2 draw in the Confederations Cup Final, going all the way to penalty kicks. Each team makes 3 of their first 5 penalties, both teams make the 6th, then Italy wins on the 7th kick.

Naturally.

[Radii]

September 23rd, 2025

League Cup 3rd Round

Middlesbrough (CH) @ Ipswich (EPL)

We are insane 1:4 favorites at home today. As always our issue will be complacency.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Mattle/Ballester/Olvera
DM: Sergio Roberto
M: Hughes/Jean/Connolly/Chrzanowski
F: Darcy/Constantino

We get DC Pablo Olvera his second start today and with Kirkland hurt decide to run a 3-5-2 style formation today, with Sergio Roberto at DMC, 4 Mids and two men up front.

We'll attack.

10': Olvera a yellow.

13': Sergio Roberto ahead to Connolly, Connolly a through ball, Constantino is there and buries a shot from 15 yards away. They were trying to pack it in but our passing was too precise for them. 1-0

22': jean ahead to Darcy, Darcy is to the left of goal about 18 yards away, breaks right, by two men, shoots from the right side about 18 yards away... and drills a shot into the back of the net! I'm really happy to see Darcy score, he went into a funk during a drought last year. 2-0

45': Connolly takes a free kick about 20 yards out and the keeper dives to make a great save on his shot.

HALF: Crespo in for Hughes, Khan in for Constantino, trying to just get them both some time on the pitch.

With the 2:0 lead there isn't a lot to report, we had a few more chances but don't score again, we're never threatened, and we win.

Ipswich 2 : 0 Middlesbrough

Man of the Match: Dariusz Chrzanowski (7.8)
Goals: Darcy (7.3), Constantino (7.1)
Assists: Jean (7.8), Connolly (7.5)
Notables: Ballester (7.3), Mattle (7.2)

Sergio Roberto 6.9 and Olvera 6.8 ratings. I set up Sergio Roberto as a deep lying playmaker at DMC today and I like the looks of triangle that forms between the two MCs and the DMc in that role to move the ball around and trigger it up field to attack.

[Radii]

League Cup 4th Round Draw

Down to the round of 16 already here. There are 5 teams from the Championship still alive... we don't get any of those, instead we get Man Utd, but we do at least get them at home.

-- I've gotten a couple notices in coaches meetings about Matthew Khan beginning to decline.

-- We play Man Utd next. They will be on one day less rest than us, and they had to go to extra time to beat Leeds in the League Cup, so maybe that helps us (probably they used tons of reserves but we'll see).

September 27th, 2025

Man Utd @ Ipswich

Man Utd are on fire this year, they're 5-1-0 in league play and are out in first early. We're 2-1-0 and in 11th but have 2 or 3 less matches than most everyone. They are 4:6 favorites at our house today, we'll be out to prove that wrong.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Hughes/Aldrovandi/Ballester/Jackson
DM: Sergio Roberto
M: Adagsmar/Smith/Mills/Gordon
F: Di Giuseppe

They are heavy favorites today and it came up in the press conference that "Man Utd know how we play and are ready for it" ... so I'm unsure what to make of that! But I decide to run our flat 4-1-4-1 that has served us very well defensively.

We counter attack today.

7': They have a corner, taken to the near post, a header... saved by Bogdanovs but he doesn't hold it, but we are first to it and clear it away. Apparently that header was considered a clear cut chance, I'm confused by that though.

30': Their star ST Wray receives it 20 yards out, turns by Aldrovandi and is into the area, shoots.. but Bogdanovs makes the save, that was their second clear cut chance.

HALF: They shoot 11 times to our 5. They put 4 on target, just one for us. I only saw 2 of our shots in highlights, not the on target one wither. My biggest concern is possession, they have an incredible 67/33 possession edge today. We are tackling really well (84%) but they control everywhere else, passing at an 83% rate and holding on to the ball forever. We're going to come out of the half trying to pressure them. Bryan is in for Sergio Roberto and we go back to our 4-4-2.

50': They hold the ball after winning it in midfield looking to set up an attack, Craig Smith comes up and takes it away form his man and we get a chance to counter. Ahead it Di Giuseppe, he draws two defenders and holds it at the midfield stripe before finding Bryan open about 10 yards ahead. Bryan passes out wide to Gordon and cuts upfield. Bryan gets it back from Gordon, races down to the end line wide right, outside the penalty area. He plays a cross down the end line to the far side of the 6 yard box, that catches the keeper out of position and Di Giuseppe is there to head it into the net!!! Beautiful, beautiful play!!! 1-0

53': Mills a yellow.

62': We have a corner, headed out of the area but Smith recovers it, sends it out wide to Gordon who crosses in again, Di Giuseppe with the header... just inches wide left of the goal, soooo close.

75': A long long spot of possession for us, crosses in multiple times, Bryan headed one off the crossbar, great passing and we control it for 4 or 5 minutes here it seems.

79': Gordon with a cross in from the right, the keeper comes off ihs line to go to catch the cross but a defender heads it away instead. Its a really weak header, Bryan is there still in the area, heads it over to the left side of the area, Adagasmar redirects it with his head into the net as their keeper still hasn't fully recovered and gotten into position!!!! 2-0

That's it!

ipswich 2 : 0 Man Utd

Man of the Match: Yuri Di Giuseppe (8.2)
Goals: Di Giuseppe, Adagsmar (7.7)
Assists: Bryan 2 (8.0)
Notables: Bogdanovs (7.5), Hughes (7.1), Aldrovandi (7.4), Gordon (7.8)

Outstanding win!!

We have done a great job of taking advantage of an early home schedule with a 3-0 win over Chelsea, 5-1 over Watford and now this.

[Radii]

-- Crespo is hurt in a match with the reserves trying to get into shape, only out 4-5 days, but we'd really like to have him playing for us.

October Update

-- We play on the 2nd, 7th, 18th, 23rd, and 28th. There's more World Cup qualifying going on here and for the third month in a row we only are scheduled to play TWO league matches. Euro Cup on the 2nd and 23rd, league cup on the 28th.

-- Di Giuseppe is 3rd in young player of the month voting with two strong league matches.

-- 2-0-0 is good for manager of the month I guess, I win the award for September.

-- The board is pleased with my leadership and our increase in stature in the highlight, no negative.

-- We lost $3.14M last month, that works

October 2nd, 2025

Euro Cup Group B

KF Tirana @ Ipswich

KF Tirana are Albanian. They have a keeper from the Ivory Coast worth $5 Million, only two other players on the roster worth more than $1M and about 2/3 of their roster are from Albania. We are 1:4 favorites at home today, they are 9:1 to get a win.

GK: Lines
D: Hughes/Aldrovandi/Ballester/Jackson
M: Ros/Clifford/Connolly/Chrzanowski
F: Darcy/Constantino

Our young DC Olvera is out playing in the U20 World Cup, ST Battersby is hurt, and a couple other guys are tired, so we mostly run backups, I give GK Rob Lines a start at home today. ML Ros is in, he's suspended from the reserves due to a red card so he's not tired!

4': We win a few headers in the midfield, moving the ball up the field, eventually its put up the right sideline, Chrzanowski chases the ball down, crosses into the area and Darcy heads it in. 1-0

Commentary only.

11': they try to clear a corner, Hughes sends it back forward, Chrzanowski crosses, Darcy volleys, 2-0

13': Constantino with a long run, using his speed to beat the defense and scores mostly on his own. 3-0

20': Darcy to Constantino... 4-0

23': Hughes is hurt.

41': Chrzanowski to Darcy for the 3rd time today. 5-0

HALF: Smith in for Constantino, 4-1-4-1. Heywood in for Hughes

52': Heywood is hurt and has to leave. Mattle is in.


Ipswich 5 : 0 KF Tirana

Man of the Match: Eoin Darcy (9.7)
Goals: Darcy 3, Constantino 2 (9.1)
Assists: Chrzanowski 4 (9.4), Darcy
Notables: Jackson (7.9), Hughes (7.2), Ballester (7.5), Aldrovandi (7.7), Connolly (7.2), Clifford (7.4)

Lines a 6.9 in goal.

Austrian side FC RB Salzburg beats M Haifa 2:1 and leads the group earl:

FC RB Salzburg 2-0-0 - 6 pts
Ipswich 1-1-0 - 4 pts
M Haifa 0-1-1 - 1 pt
KF Tirana 0-0-2 - 0 pts

We host Salzburg on October 23rd, a win there and we'd take control of the group at the halfway mark.


-- We make $201,000 for this win

Injury Update

Anthony Heywood has been fighting match fitness so I haven't been using him much... and now he's out 3-4 weeks with broken ribs.

Jack Hughes is only out 5-6 days. He'll miss our next match.

[Radii]

-- We have 13 players called up for world cup qualifiers. I haven't really been following closely who is going to make it and who isn't, but in Europe this is the end of group play coming up with playoffs remaining.

-- North America is interesting. 6 team group, top 3 make it, 4th one has a playoff with a South American team for a spot. There's two matches to play. Mexico is in, Jamaica is out. US (12 pts), Honduras (12 pts), Guatemala (11 pts), El Salvador (10 pts) are all fighting for the other two automatic spots and the playoff spot. Brazil has qualified, something we care about now with two members of their national team playing for me. We'll look in on Europe during the break.

October 7th, 2025

Ipswich (3-1-0, 8th) @ Everton (1-2-4, 18th)

Everton are off to a bad start though they are 0-0-4 on the road and 1-2-0 at home. They are 6:4 favorites over us today. We're 5-5-5 lifetime against them, the home team has won the last 4 matches.


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

On the road against a team who hasn't lost at home yet we decide to start out conservative in our 4-1-4-1 again. Their star ST Brian Kelly leads them with 4 goals. I remember him torching us the last time we met.

25': each team with a few early missed shots.

26': A counter attack for us after a throwin, Gordon makes a long run down the right, a pass into the area, Di Giuseppe shoots with his first touch but at a tough angle and they save it.

28': Their forward Hooper makes a nice run starting about 30 yards from goal, a through ball for midfielder Clark cutting into the area and he has a clear cut chance and scores. 0-1

45': A great give and go between Di Giuseppe and Jean sees Di Giuseppe with a look from 18 yards out, but saved by their keeper and we can't convert on the corner.

HALF: They shoot 6 times and only put 1 on target. We control 59% of the possession, have 5 shots with 3 on target, but a lot of times the ball has gone up to Di Giuseppe and he's found it impossible to get by anyone to shoot and just passed it back. They have their own wonderkid DC Kieran Conner that matches up with Di Giuseppe. Its worked before, I move Constantino up to forward and sub out Sergio Roberto, he had an ok half with a 6.5 rating. Ballester and Di Giuseppe struggle (5.5 and 6.0) and we hope to se them play better next half.

48': Some quick passing on their part leads to a solid shot by ST Hooper from 18 yards out but Bogdanovs makes a good diving save.

58': Di Giuseppe with a pass ahead ot Constantino, a long run down the right, he passes low through the area, keeper dives but doesn't stop the pass... but a defender wins the ball, not Di Giuseppe in front of the goal, both were there.

62': Kirkland at midfield, a long pass up to Constantino, he leads Di Giuseppe with a ball into the area, Di Giuseppe shoots from 15 yards out and scores!! 1-1

74': Kelly with a run down the left for them, a low hard cross in, Kirkland heads it away but they recover, passed back forward, a through ball into the right side of the area and a shot and goal... 1-2

86': free kick from 35 yards out, Gordon sends it in, a header clears, but Di Giuseppe recovers, passes to the penalty spot, Constantino with a clear cut chance... saved. UGhhhh.

87': Smith in for Mills, Chrzanowski for Gordon.

91': A free kick for us at midfield, its passed ahead, after a couple passes Smith puts a ball into the area, Constantino again breaks on it, he's a little close to the keeper, but its our 3rd clear cut chance... and the keeper makes the save. damn damn damn!

We can't do anything else here and pick up our first loss.

Everton 2 : 1 Ipswich

Their keeper is man of the match as we had our fair share of chances on the road and couldn't finish.

Goal: Di Giuseppe (7.5)
Assist: Constantino (7.0)

No one else above 7.


Week and a half off after this for International play.

[Radii]

Injury Update

Clive Jackson is hurt in weight training and is going to miss 3-4 weeks.

World Cup Qualifying Update

-- Neil Gordon gets another cap for England in a 2:0 win against Liechtenstein, and Eon Darcy gets yet another goal for Ireland in a 1:0 win over Northern Ireland. Darcy has 9 goals in 15 caps for Ireland.

-- In the second round of world cup qualifiers Ballester scores for Spain in a 2:0 win over Slovenia. Steven Mills plays in a 6:0 English win over Kazakhstan and gets an assist. Italy destroys Malta 8:0 and Di Giuseppe scores a hat trick.

-- Group play for European qualifying has completed. Turkey, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Serbia, England, Greece, Holland, Italy and Austria win their groups. There are a lot of huge names missing from this list...

Second place playoffs:

Scotland vs Norway
Ireland vs Israel
France vs Russia
Spain vs Belgium

Teams that failed to qualify: Germany (3rd behind Ukraine and Scotland). Portugal (3rd behind Greece/Israel).

Players of mine from Europe in the world cup:

Mattle (Austria), Aldrovandi and Di Giuseppe (Italy), Gordon and Mills (England). Clifford and Darcy (Ireland) and Ballester (Spain) are in playoff matches and could still advance. We also have Jean and Sergio Roberto representing Brazil. They destroyed the South American group.

-- The USA comes through in the North American qualifiers. Mexico, USA, Honduras are in, Guatemala plays a South American side for the last spot.


October 18th, 2025

QPR (2-0-5, 18th) @ Ipswich (3-1-1, 8th)

One win gets QPR up to potentially 10th so they're not in terrible shape. We are incredible 2:5 favorites at home here, QPR are 13:2. We are 6-7-4 lifetime against QPR. Last year we struggled against them, tying 1-1 both tiems we played. The last time QPR was up we tied once and lost once. We actually haven't beaten them since our last season in the Championship.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Mattle/Aldrovandi/Bartlett
M: Adagsmar/Jean/Connolly/Mills/Gordon
F: Khan/Constantino

Not signing a 3rd DR or MR wasn't an accident back in August (though I should have said so at the time). Jackson and Heywood are both hurt right now and we're just fine, I run a flat 3-5-2 today.

Attacking.

6': Constantino takes a throwin 35 yards out near the right sideline, runs past his defenders, into the area and shoots, but its a really tough angle and saved.

18': They have a corner and get a really good shot from their near man, but Bogdanovs makes the save. There's a throw out to the left, a long ball down the left side and Khan is way way out ahead of their defense, so far that I'm shocked that he could have physically been onside. But he is and he gets into the area and shoots and beats the keeper! 1-0

46': Gordon a yellow.

HALF: We watch a few highlights but nothing really special. We shoot 5 times, 3 on target, they shoot 4 times, 3 on target. Possession is about even, we are tackling well and both teams are heading well. Neil Gordon has a poor 6.0 rating at the half, everyone else is playing ok but i'd really like a second goal here.

53': They build up down the right, a pass into the area and their ST Heatubun has a shot, but we're pressuring him hard and he puts it well off target.

54': Mattle at midfield, ahead to Mills, to Khan, Khan pulls a defender well out of position 30 yards from the goal, Jean fills the open space, receives a pass and scores!! Jean's first goal of the year. 2-0

63': We give up a corner, then a second, this one is cleared easily though.

68': I'm in the tactics screen dragging Chrzanowski's name over Neil Gordon's when the game stops and blinks... back into the tactics screen, instructing me to replace Neil Gordon has he has picked up an injury too major to stay in. Chrzanowski in. Hughes in for Adagsmar too.

72': We have a throwin in their end and pass it around for a good long time, 10+ passes between the midfield and defenders, finally Connoolly ahead to Constantino, he's snuck between two defenders and has a clear cut chance... but right at the keeper.

82': Mattle a yellow.

92': They take a wild shot from 25 yards out but its on target, Bogdanovs has to make a diving stop there. We clear the corner easily.

Ipswich 2 : 0 QPR

We remain perfect at home and get our first win over QPR in quite some time!

Man of the Match: Matthew Khan (8.6)
Goals: Khan, Jean (7.3)
Assists: Khan, Adagsmar (7.2)
Notables: Bogdanovs (7.2), Aldrovandi (7.1)


No long term injury to Neil Gordon, we feel lucky there.

[Radii]

October 23rd, 2025

Euro Cup Group B

FC RB Salzburg (2-0-0) @ Ipswich (1-1-0)

If they could beat us today they'd have a massive lead over the rest of the group halfway through. If we win it'd be very very hard for us to fail to promote and we'd take over the group lead.

We are 4:5 favorites at home, they're 3:1 to win/2:1 to draw. This is one of those matches where I worry about complacency but we're very clearly better.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Mattle/Aldrovandi/Olvera
M: Crespo/Jean/Connolly/Smith/Gordon
F: Di Giuseppe/Darcy

They are led by Russian ST Eugeny Ivanov who has 10 goals in 6 Euro Cup matches. He's a very solid striker with 18 pace, 16 finishing and a number of other 15+ ratings (we can't see everything, don't have full scouting on him) but he looks quite talented. They run a very offensive looking 4-2-3-1 formation with two MC's, 3 AM's and Ivanov up front.

Crespo gets his first start today after 4 injuries of about a week long every time it seems like he's almost ready to go have screwed up his ability to get into full match shape. Olvera starts in defense but will be pulled if we struggle too much.

14': We get our first good look as Di Giuseppe wins a ball deep in their end out wide left, crosses into the area, but Darcy heads it over.

33': this team is pretty good, some tackles they've made in midfield, some runs, they're more talented or at least appear to be more talented than the other teams in our group by a long shot. They've put one shot on target so far and have prevented us from running all over them.

39': throwin in their half, thrown ahead to Darcy, ahead to Di Giuseppe and he makes a little space for himself and shoots from 18 yards out... hits the right post, close!

40': Olvera a yellow

44': Crespo a yellow

HALF: Its been a very even match so far. We do shoot 7 times to just 3 for them but each team has only 1 shot on target. The main thing I'm seeing in the highlights is they are positioned well and intercept a lot of passes, our passing rate is just 65% which isn't bad but could be better. Ballester is coming in for Olvera, this isn't the match for him though he didn't do too bad. I also switch Darcy and Di Giuseppe, moving Di Giuseppe to the right side of the pitch and Darcy to the left.

46': Whether its my changes or not things work out right away! They kick off and we pounce right away, winning the ball at the midfield stripe from them before they go anywhere, they intercept it once but we win it back again as we build up, Smith ends up with a through ball to Di Giuseppe, he shoots and beats the keeper! 1-0

55': they have a corner, taken to the far post, Bogdanovs dives out for it, doesn't win the ball, they win a header... off the crossbar, and we clear.. WHEW.

64': Smith hits Di Giuseppe for another goal but its a clear offsides.

71': Chrzanowski in for Gordon

73': Chrzanowski makes an interception in our own end, immediately starts the counter, a pass to Di Giuseppe at midfield, he goes forward a bit, draws the defense and passes off to Darcy, Darcy isn't the fastest man in the world but he's able to stay ahead of the defense, shoots from 18 yards out and he beats the keeper! 2-0

83': We're passing around the left side, Crespo up to Darcy, he passes ahead to Connolly who cut by his man, Connolly into the area and he scores our 3rd goal! 3-0

86': Piling on now, Darcy to Di Giuseppe who scores easily. 4-0

91': Chrzanowski is hurt.

Ipswich 4 : 0 FC RB Salzburg

Man of the Match: Eoin Darcy (9.1)
Goals: Di Giuseppe 2 (9.1), Darcy, Connolly (8.0)
Assists: Darcy 2, Di Giuseppe, Smith (7.9)
Notables: Aldrovandi (7.9), Mattle (7.4), Crespo (7.1), Jean (7.2)

Slow start but we get it going and crush them in the final 20 minutes.

-- We get $201,000 for winning here.

-- M Haifa beats KF Tirana 2:0 in the other group match.


Injury Update

MR Chrzanowski is going to miss 3 weeks with the injury he picked up today. Damn, he's been playing really well for us.



We're halfway through group play now:

Ipswich 2-1-0 - 7 pts
FC RB Salzburg 2-0-1 - 6 pts
M Haifa 1-1-1 - 4 pts
KF Tirana 0-0-3 - 0 pts

We have a huge +9 goal differential and are in spectacular shape here. We haven't put it away completely yet, we'll travel to Austria to play Salzburg in November.

[Tellistto]

18': They have a corner and get a really good shot from their near man, but Bogdanovs makes the save. There's a throw out to the left, a long ball down the left side and Khan is way way out ahead of their defense, so far that I'm shocked that he could have physically been onside. But he is and he gets into the area and shoots and beats the keeper! 1-0

The reason this was not offside is the part that I bolded in the quote. Throws are not subject to the onside rule. Don't know why exactly, but saw the same situation in a CL match a few years ago that Barcelona were in that the same thing happened and the goal stood.

Tell

[RPI-Fan]

Originally Posted by Tellistto

[/b]The reason this was not offside is the part that I bolded in the quote. Throws are not subject to the onside rule. Don't know why exactly, but saw the same situation in a CL match a few years ago that Barcelona were in that the same thing happened and the goal stood.

Tell

The reason is because it would become hugely disadvantageous to get a throw-in, where the defense could always force you to be throwing backward, running away from your goal.

[SirFozzie]

Also: You can't be offsides in your own half when the ball's kicked, so if he timed the ball kick perfectly, he could be 30-40 years downfield by the time the ball gets there.

[RPI-Fan]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

Also: You can't be offsides in your own half when the ball's kicked, so if he timed the ball kick perfectly, he could be 30-40 years downfield by the time the ball gets there.

You're right. The throw-in has nothing to do with it because there was a ball played after the throw. I didn't read that correctly the first time (although my explanation stands as far as why there is no offside on throw-ins).

[Tellistto]

Ah, I see that there was a ball played after the throw as well. Misread it as well, which is why you probably misread it as well, RPI.

Still, good reasons why Khan wasn't offside on that play, all things correct.

Tell

[Radii]

Facility Upgrade

-- Our Youth facility upgrade is complete! We now have "top training facilities" and "excellent youth facilities"

-- Anthony Heywood resumes full training.

October 28th, 2025

League Cup 4th Round

Man Utd @ Ipswich

We are 6:4 favorites today, already our 3rd matchup with Man Utd of the season. We beat them 2:0 at home in league play a month ago.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Ballester/Aldrovandi/Bartlett
M: Crespo/Jean/Sergio Roberto/Mills/Gordon
F: Khan/Bryan

They sit their superstar striker Stuart Wray today. 20 y/o Antonio Taglignani starts up front for them in their 4-5-1, he's good but nowhere near as good as Wray.

Standard mindset today.

2': A throwin in their end, a shot by Sergio Roberto from 20 yards away earns us a corner, corner is cleared easily though.

25': Free kick out right of the penalty area for Man U, a cross comes in, Bogdanovs dives for it and doesn't get it, but Bartlett wins the header and we clear it away.

39': We build up on offense and put a lot of pressure on with our 3 MC's all about 30 yards out. Sergio Roberto puts a good ball into the right side of the area, Gordon is there, he has our first clear cut chance of the match.. but right at the keeper.

HALF: Its a pretty even match, the one great look for Gordon is the only thing that stands out. We shoot 7 times, just 2 on target. They shoot 5 times, just 1 on target. We are dominating in the air winning 69% of our headers, they are tackling way better. I bring Constantino in for Bryan at the half, Bryan wasn't playing well.

59': We advance down the field with a number of passes, Crespo makes a short run down the left before centering it, Sergio Roberto passes ahead to Constantino, he beats his man and gets into the area and its our second clear cut chance... but saved and cleared.

63': Gordon a free kick from 25 yards out, drilled towards the upper right corner of the goal, but their keeper is there again and saves.

71': Sergio Roberto a yellow.

74': Smith in for Sergio Roberto.

END OF REGULATION: We reach the end of 90 minutes all tied up at zero. I bring Connolly in for a tired Mills and we are set for the next 30 minutes now. We're going to attack, nothing to lose at all and I feel like we had slightly the better of it in the second half and could press our advantage.


HALFTIME/EXTRA TIME: So much for attacking? 15 minutes without a highlight.

116': They have a corner, taken to the far post, Bogdanovs dives out for it, they win the header... but Neil Gordon clears it off the line!!


PENALTIES:

Jean: down the middle and good 1-0
Sikorski: right side, good 1-1

Constantino: wide left... no good
Talignani: left side, good 1-2

Crespo: right side, good 2-2
Hayward: right side, good 2-3

Connolly: left side, keeper dives and saves it... first time either keeper has had any sort of remote impact
van Schijndel: right side, good, game over.

Ipswich 0 : 0 Man Utd (2-4 Penalties)

Notables: Bartlett (7.6), Aldrovandi (7.4), Ballester (7.4), Crespo (7.0), Jean (7.1)

Bryan 6.1, Gordon 5.7, Connolly 6.3 struggled a bit.

Better to lose here than in a league match.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

Also: You can't be offsides in your own half when the ball's kicked, so if he timed the ball kick perfectly, he could be 30-40 years downfield by the time the ball gets there.

That seems likely. There was a short throw followed by a long ball upfield. I noticed it and typed it up but didn't ever rewind to see the whole thing, was just surprised how far ahead he was.


I picked up Dungeon Defenders on steam and have been playing it some so have been playing *slightly* less FM, and we're used to winning a lot now, so I've been moving a little faster through matches when I'm playing, not having the full explanation of what happened there is one of the casualties

[Radii]

November Update

-- We've only played 6 matches in the EPL, and this month is when it all starts to catch up with us. We play on the 1st, 6th, 9th, 12th, 17th, 23rd, 26th, and 30th. Its probably a good thing that we're out of the league cup, that would start to get overwhelming soon. The 6th is our only Euro Cup match, the rest are league matches. Including our Euro Cup match on the 6th we're about to play 4 straight road matches.

-- The board is pleased with my leadership. Our increase in stature is the highlight. Neil Gordon has been struggling a bit and is the negative mentioned here.

-- We lost $1.34M last month.

November 1st, 2025

Ipswich (4-1-1, 8th) @ Stoke (3-2-5, 12th)

We're 4:5 favorites on the road against a Stoke team that just promoted up from the Championship last year. We've never played them in the EPL, they were in the Championship from the 2016 to last year. They are off to a great start this year with 3 wins already. Only 2 of our 6 league matches have been on the road so far but we are 0-1-1 and would like our first road win today.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Ballester/Mattle/Bartlett
M: Hughes/Adagmsar/Sergio Roberto/Mills/Gordon
F: Di Giuseppe/Constantino

Standard mindset on the road today.

20': First highlight of the match is a corner for us, they clear easily and begin to counter attack but we shut that down nicely.

27': Di Giuseppe heads it forward from 35 yards out for Constantino who scores easily... but is offsides.

39': Sergio Roberto shoots from 30 yards out and beats everyone but his shot hits the right post. Adagsmar picks up a yellow going after the rebound.

42': Sergio Roberto ahead for Constantino, he can't turn by his man and passes back out, Mills shoots from 25 yards out... again off the right post, and they clear.

HALF: 3 shots for us, all off target, all from long range. 1 shot for them, off target from long range. Adagsmar is playing awful in his MC spot, Connolly comes in for him. We are going to try to attack this half.

57': Hughes a yellow.

62': Ballester is hurt but can stay in.

64': Constantino a yellow.

68': Darcy in for Constantino, Aldrovandi in for Ballester

77': We've only got one shot all half, they are shutting us down nicely.

78': Long ball down the left, Bartlett should easily be able to clear this.. but he botches it and heads it a few feet away, their ST Logan catches up to the play, takes the ball and charges into the area... Bartlett tries to make up for his mistake... and commits a foul, its a penalty. They step up for the PK... and send it wide!! Whew.

82': Darcy is hurt and must leave the match. I've already used all three subs so i can't bring anyone in.

94': We earn a couple throwins and a corner deep in their end... we can't do anything at all, they're intercepting any pass near the area. Finally we get a long throwin and a weak header right at the keeper.

That'll do it.

Stoke 0 : 0 Ipswich

One of their defenders is man of the match. I'm not terribly disappointed with a draw on the road, but I'm disappointed that we only took 5 shots, all were off target and 3 were from long range. We should be able to do better than that at any time.

Notables: Mattle (7.0)


Injury Update

Darcy is only out 5-6 days.

Ballester is out 10-12 days.

[Taz13]

Tough result in the League Cup against Man U, but you do have a point about over over extending your club. Continued luck with your league matches.

[Radii]

-- Clive Jackson resumes full training.


November 6th, 2025

Euro Cup Group B

Ipswich (2-1-0, 1st) @ FC RB Salzburg (2-0-1, 2nd)

Our first match against Salzburg at home we struggled a bit in the first half but ended up running away to a 4-0 win. We could potentially clinch advancement to the knockout rounds with a win today depending on the other game. On the road though we're just slim 6:4 favorites, they are 13:8.

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

Back to a 4-4-2 with Jackson and Heywood healthy. Counter attacking mindset on the road though.

10': Throwin on the right side for us, after some passing moved around to the left, Mattle ahead for Crespo, he dribbles through the middle, looking for a pass to make it would seem, ends up over to the right, shoots from 20 yards out.. and its into the right side of the net, perfectly placed! 1-0

19': Gordon in the area, the ball is slide tackled away from the side/behind a bit and goes forward into the left side of the area near the end line, the keeper comes over try to cover the ball but Crespo is there first, lobs it to the center of the 6 yard box, Bryan is there and heads it in! 2-0

26': Corner for us, taken well out wide of the far edge of the 6 yard box, Aldrovandi heads it, Mattle is there and wins the next header and puts it in! Where was this start last match against them. 3-0

27': They strike immediately, a few nice passes, through ball and their star Ivanov scores. 3-1

30': throwin in their end, thrown to Bryan in the corner of the penalty area, he turns and passes to Di Giuseppe who has a little space 15 yards out and shoots from there and scores! Insanity! 4-1

45': Long ball to Di Giuseppe, headed backwards to Bryan, passed bakc to Di Giuseppe who plays a brilliant ball just over the heads of the defense, bryan sprints to it, shoots and scores! 5-1

Neil gordon missed a clear cut chance in the 47th minute in added time.

HALF: So we're playing fairly well here. 12 shots to 2, just 3 clear cut chances and we missed one of those. Bartlett in for Kirkland and Clifford in for Gordon at the half. Jackson up to MR, clifford MC and we switch to a 3-5-2. This is mainly to get Neil Gordon a break, with Chrzanowski hurt we've been running Gordon ragged.

Commontary only.

56': They get one back, through ball into the right side of the area and our defenders just don't react in time. 5-2

73': Jean a yellow.

77': Adagsmar in for Crespo.

83': Indirect free kick 40 yards from goal. Clifford taps the ball to Jean standing next to him, Jean shoots from there... and the keeper barely even tries to move as the ball flies into the upper right corner of the net, holy crap!!! 6-2

FC RB Salzburg 2 : 6 Ipswich

Man of the Match: Chris Bryan (9.3)
Goals: Bryan 2, Mattle (8.8), Crespo (8.9), Jean (8.7), Di giuseppe (9.0)
Assists: Aldrovandi (7.7), Mattle, Crespo, Bryan, Di Giuseppe, Clifford (6.8)
Notables: Bogdanovs (7.7), Jackson (7.8), Kirkland (7.1), Gordon (7.1), Smith (7.6)

M Haifa beats KF Tirana 3:1 in the other match.

Ipswich 3-1-0 - 10 pts
M Haifa 2-1-1 - 7 pts
FC RB Salzburg 2-0-2 - 6 pts
KF Tirana 0-0-4 - 0 pts

One more win would clinch the group for us mathematically regardless of any other variables. Realistically we could almost certainly lose both our last two matches and still advance.

-- We receive $201k for this win.


We've got a long stretch of league matches coming up, the next two on the road where we've yet to win in the EPL so far.

[Radii]

We have 16 players called up for international matches, most are friendlies and I limit those all to a half since we're playing makeup matches this month and our rest time isn't that big.

November 9th, 2025

Ipswich (4-2-1, 8th) @ West Ham (0-1-9, 20th)

We're once again massive 1:3 favorites on the road against a team that just promoted back up from the Championship. We're 4-4-5 lifetime against West Ham, 3-1-0 the last 4 meetings including a 4:1 victory in the FA Cup last year when they were in the Championship. West Ham haven't won yet at all this year so even on the road lets hope we can get this one done.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Mattle/Aldrovandi/Jackson
M: Crespo/Connolly/Mills/Gordon
F: Constantino/Darcy

We're attacking on the road against their 3-5-2 formation.

48': Throwin in their end, headed away but we recover, a cross into the area... Crespo goes up for a header, and he's fouled, penalty! Gordon takes it and we take a lead going into the half. 1-0

HALF: We only like 3 highlights all half there, I might have missed a 4th b/c I still had it on Commentary only early on. We have an unbelievable 71/29 edge in possession, but only 5 shots total and just 1 on target. They shoot once all half, on target as well. We are passing and heading better than them, their tackling is likely keeping them alive.

48': free kick in their end, they head out a crossing attempt but we control it, after a number of passes Constantino has it 25 yards out, he plays a good pass into the left side of the area, Crespo is there, shoots, and beats the keeper! 2-0

70': Hughes in for Kirkland, Clifford in for Mills.

77': Ugh, Crespo is hurt and must leave the match immediately. Adagsmar is in to finish it out.

And that'll do it!

West Ham 0 : 2 Ipswich


Our first win on the road in league play!

Man of the Match: Constantino (8.8)
Goals: Gordon (7.6), Crespo (7.8)
Assists: Constantino
Notables: Bogdanovs (7.7), Jackson (7.7), Kirkland (7.4), Mattle (7.7)



-- Crespo is only out 2-3 days after picking up an injury today.

[Radii]

-- We do get an international break after all, a match on the 17th vs Huddersfield is bumped all the way back to January b/c of all the players called up to their national teams. So we'll play on the 12th then the 23rd/26th/30th

-- Chrzanowski and Ballester resume full training.

November 12th, 2025

Ipswich (5-2-1, 8th) @ Tottenham (2-3-4, 15th)

Tottenham are again off to a slow start, they finished 12th and 10th the last two seasons. We're 6:4 favorites on the road today but this is always a team we struggle against, we're just 2-3-9 lifetime against them. We have evened things out a bit though, going 2-2-2 the last 3 years. The last two years the home team won each match and the year before that two draws.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Mattle/Aldrovandi/Jackson
DM: Sergio Roberto
M: Adagmsar/Jean/Mills/Gordon
F: Di Giuseppe

In recent years Tottenham have been led by Emmanual Mangan and Emmanual Amoako, both have 3 goals early in the year.

I run a 4-1-4-1 on the road against a team I've struggled against. Di Giuseppe up front by himself. We'll counter attack. Tottenham run a 3-4-3 formation.

25': Each team has one highlight so far, free kicks off target for both.

HALF: And again we fly into the half with very few highlights. They shoot 6 times, just 1 on target. We shoot 4 times, just 1 on target. I bring Bryan on for Di Giuseppe and will change to a standard mindset at the half to try to generate more attacking.

46': We slowly move up the right side after kicking off, eventually Mills shoots from 20+ yards out and its saved, we get a corner. We get a second corner, that one is cleared out, but we win it back and a blocked cross earns a 3rd corner... that one is cleared out and Sergio Roberto recovers and shoots from 20 yards out and its just over.

80': Smith in for Mills... we've seen a couple more highlights like that in the 46th minute, crosses/corners/pushing the ball forward but cleared back out immediately.

And that's it.

Tottenham 0 : 0 Ipswich

I don't feel like either team ever came remotely close to scoring here. 4 shots out of 19 on target combined, 11 of the 19 from long range.

One of their defenders earns man of the match with a 7.3 rating.

Notables: Jackson (7.2), Kirkland (7.3)

Jean a 5.9 today, most players between 6.7-6.9.

This kind of match makes me wonder if we have reached a level where we need to take more changes on the road, but in the end a point at Tottenham is nothing to feel bad about.

[Radii]

The European World Cup Qualifiers continue with one huge surprise and awful news for the Ipswich players:

Scotland 2 : 1 Norway
Israel 4 : 2 Ireland (Darcy got hurt in the first match and missed the second, he is their biggest scoring threat by far, only out a week so he's fine)
France 5 : 2 Russia
Belgium 3 : 2 Spain

Spain will miss the world cup.

The World Cup Draw will occur in about 2 weeks.


November 23rd, 2025

Ipswich (5-3-1, 8th) @ Newcastle (2-7-2, 11th)

Newcastle are 5:4 favorites at their house today, we're 7:4. We're 9-0-10 against Newcastle, not a single draw in 19 matches, Newcastle this year though has 7 draws in 11 matches, that's a weird start there.. Last year we won twice, the year before they won twice.

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

We field a very strong team today coming off our break. Newcastle runs ST Joel up front in a 4-5-1 with two AM's and a DMC. Joel hasn't scored in 7 league matches.

9': They have a throwin, a pass and through ball to their ST Joel and he's got a clear cut chance 10 yards out... and misses wide!

10': Gordon a nice move to get down the right side, a cross to the 6 yard box, Di Giuseppe a header... the keeper makes a good save to sotp it, they clear the corner.

27': Joel a yellow

41': Aldrovandi intercepts a pass in defense and sends a long ball ahead, Chris Bryan gets ahead of the defense just by a half step, into the area, he tries to beat their keeper with a shot to the near post, but the keeper gets down and makes a save.

HALF: Each team earns one clear cut chance and can't come through. 5 shots, 3 on target for each team. We are crushing it in the air and on tackles, both over 70% while they are under 40%, but it hasn't gotten us anything yet.

53': standard mindset (we were countering)

80': We have a corner kick, taken to the near man Ballester, he heads it over to the penalty spot, Bryan is there, volleys it, and its in the net!!! Great set piece! 1-0

84': Bartlett in for Aldrovandi, Smith for Mills, Adagsmar for Crespo.

We pull off a solid shutout and get the road win!

Newcastle 0 : 1 Ipswich

Man of the Match: Chris Bryan (8.3)
Goals: Bryan
Assists: Ballester (8.0)
Notables: Bogdanovs (7.2), Jackson (7.3), Kirkland (7.1)

Still in 8th but we still have 2-3 less matches than almost everyone above us, and just 2 points out of 5th.

[Radii]

November 26th, 2025

Nottingham Forest (3-3-6, 17th) @ Ipswich (6-3-1, 8th)

Nottingham Forest is just outside of the first relegation spot. We're massive 4:5 favorites at home, they're 3:1 to get a win here. We're 12-3-9 lifetime against Nottingham Forest, a lot of that goes back into the Championship. We have won the last 5 straight against Nottingham Forest, four of the five by 2+ goals.


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

24': Through ball to Crespo who has a clear cut chance, but runs too deep with it and its right a the keeper. All the highlights are for our offense really but that was the first shot on target.

34': Crespo is hurt.

HALF: We are in complete control here but need goals, 7 shots, 2 on target to just 1 shot for them. I bring Adagsmar in for Crespo at the half and we'll keep pushing and will score.

63': A pass ahead to Constantino, he's 25 yards out and has space to work, he gets by his man, into the area... but his shot is saved.

73': Bryan for Di Giuseppe, Mills for Jean.

86': Gordon with a corner to the far post, Aldrovandi heads it over.

Ugh, after a great road win over Newcastle, we have a frustrating draw against Nottingham Forest.

Ipswich 0 : 0 Nottingham Forest

Notables: Jackson (7.1), Aldrovandi (7.3)


We move up to 7th with the draw here, this was a makeup match. A quick standings update since we've been sitting in the bottom half of the top 10 but not worrying much about it so far:

13 played unless otherwise noted:

1. Man City - 27 pts
2. Man Utd - 27 pts
3. Arsenal - 26 pts
4. Liverpool - 25 pts
5. Chelsea - 25 pts
6. Huddersfield - 23 pts - 1 less
7. Ipswich - 22 pts - 2 less
8. Blackburn - 22 pts - 1 less
9. Aston Villa - 20 pts - 2 less
10. Everton - 17 pts

[MIJB#19]

5 down with 6 in hand, that sounds like things are wide open.