FM10 - From the Bottom Up

[Radii]

-- I've been checking this closely since Jean started playing better and it JUST happened since the last match. MC Jean now has a basic mastery of the English language. I wonder if getting close to that has helped his recent success or if it was just luck. I didn't realize exact how hard I'd forced Jean into the lineup when he was doing poorly, he has 28 starts!

May 6th, 2024

Ipswich(20-6-9, 3rd) @ Liverpool(15-8-13, 9th)

Liverpool are 13:8 to win today, we're super slim 6:4 dogs. Liverpool are 2 points out of 7th. We beat them 1:0 back in January in our first meeting. We're 4-3-5 lifetime against them but 0-1-4 on the road.

GK: Capitani
D: Hughes/Welsh/Aldrovandi/Jackson
M: Ros/Jean/Smith/Hutchinson
F: Bryan/Darcy

I don't totally mail it in here but do start Jean/Smith even though Mills is fresh, Hutchinson is in at MR after not too long ago getting back to full training, and Bryan/Darcy up front. We'll just do commentary today.

12': Aldrovandi a yellow. Ros and Bryan have had clear cut chances already but neither finished.

25': goal from ST Bailey deep in the 6 yard box, surprised really that they didn't have a penalty there, Bailey picked up the loose ball after their MR coming in from the right was tackled and went down. 0-1

31': Craig Smith is hurt, he's forced to leave the match. Bartlett is in.

35': throwin in their end, Bartlett with a ball into the area for David Ros, Ros has a clear cut chance but their keeper gets a hand to it, but it continues to roll towards the goal. They get a defender there to try to clear it off the line but he mishits it or something.... and puts it into his own net, own goal! 1-1

HALF: Our youngster Ros with the assist on that own goal and he's found himself open a number of times here.

They are seriously aggressive in the second half, they need this a lot more than we do, but they put shot after shot off target, taking 26 shots on the match with 9 on target.

Liverpool 1 : 1 Ipswich

Man of the Match: David Ros (7.8)
Assist: Ros
Notables: Jackson (7.0), Hughes (7.0)

Bryan 6.4 today, everyone else did fine. 18 y/o David Ros with man of the match, congrats to him!


-- Craig Smith was hurt today and will miss 2 weeks (probably the rest of the year). DC Bartlett was hurt and is out about a week.


Man Utd won and they've clinched a top 4 spot now as well. So the 4 teams in the Champions League next year are Arsenal, Man City, Man Utd and Ipswich.

The rest of the standings:

5. Everton - 62 pts
6. Sheffield Utd - 58 pts
7. Blackburn - 55 pts
8. Newcastle - 55 pts

There are still 5 teams competing for 7th place, and they are massive, big name teams... Newcastle, Liverpool, Chelsea, Aston Villa... but it doesn't matter. The FA Cup Final is Arsenal vs Huddersfield. Since Arsenal has clinched the champions league spot, Huddersfield will be taking an automatic bid for the Euro Cup no matter who wins the tournament. That means only 5th and 6th place in the EPL earn Euro Cup spots. 7th is completely screwed. Everton is safe no matter what. Sheffield Utd has a +9 goal differential, Blackburn +4, Newcastle 0. So Sheffield Utd would have to lose their last match by a lot and have either Blackburn win by a lot or Newcastle put like a 7:0 up on someone. Seems very very likely that Everton and Sheffield Utd make the euro Cup and look at all those giant names going nowhere next year.

[bbgunn]

Congrats on making it to the Champions Cup!

[Radii]

May 9th, 2024

Ipswich(20-7-9, 3rd) @ Man City(20-10-6, 2nd)

We're 3 points behind Man City for 2nd place. We've both got 2 to play. But to be honest being rested for the Euro Cup final is way more important so its more likely we'll finish 4th than anything.

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

Hopefully we go injury free here but we do start a strong lineup. Most of these guys will start in the Euro Cup Final. They're playing today and we'll have a totally different lineup change in our final league match vs West Brom, then most of these guys will be back for the Euro Cup.

Counterattacking, commentary only.

10': Clifford with a wonderful through ball into the area, Khan breaks on it perfectly and gets a clear cut chance and finishes well! 1-0

34': They pass it into the area after a lot of buildup, there's a pass back to ST Mihci, we had 3 men closing down on the guy that first had the ball, Mihci is one of the top strikers in the world right now and he shows it here with a incredible volley from 15 yards out, powerful, perfectly placed, goal for them. 1-1

37': Constantino is hurt. He doesn't have to come out but screw that, Darcy is in.

HALF: They have 7 shots to our 2, but the goals are even.

75': They play a cross to the far post from deep out right, a really beautiful cross really, they get their left midfielder behind Jackson and he heads it in from near point blank range. 1-2

75': Chrzanowski and Hutchinson in for Mills and Gordon


Man City 2 : 1 Ipswich

Goal: Khan (6.8)
Assist: Clifford (6.9)

Heywood 5.9 and some 6.1-6.3 ratings here too.


Injury Update

I didn't really think I could play my backups and U18's for the final 3 league matches or anything... but shit maybe I should have. Constantino has a thigh strain and is going to miss the Euro Cup Final vs Man Utd. Really if there was one single player I could have held out... well it'd be Capitani to be fair. And after that Constantino. Oops? Nah, this was the plan all along, no second guessing. But damn!

[Radii]

Originally Posted by bbgunn

Congrats on making it to the Champions Cup!

thanks!

[Radii]

-- We fell to 4th in that last match. Man City clinch 2nd. We could still finish 3rd but this is the one match I was planning to sit everyone, and I do mean EVERYONE that's going to start in a few days in Spain.

May 12th, 2024

West Brom(7-7-23, 18th) @ Ipswich(20-7-10, 4th)

Neither team has much to play for here, we're in the top 4 and they've relegated. We're 1:3 favorites.

GK: Mason
D: Ormerod/Welsh/Barnett/Heywood
M: Crespo/Clifford/Ros/Chrzanowski
F: Kershaw/Darcy

No one here is starting in the final. We have some really good players here though. Heywood, Crespo, Clifford and Darcy have played with the first team a ton and could still make something happen against West Brom.

35': Their star ST Andy Singh receives a pass 25 yards from goal, turns to his right and shoots before our defenders close in. Its a beautiful shot, Mason dives but its inches inside the right post for a goal. 0-1

HALF: They shoot 4 times, we shoot 3 despite holding all the possession. We'll attack in the 2nd half.

90': Welsh is brought down in the penalty area on a corner kick. Our kid David Ros steps up to take the PK and drills it. 1-1

Ipswich 1 : 1 West Brom

Man of the Match: James Welsh (7.5)
Goal: Ros (7.2)
Assist: Welsh
Notables: Chrzanowski (7.0)


Ipswich are given $28,936,000 for their final position in the English Premier Division

Ipswich have qualified for the 2024 Champions Cup by coming in 4th in the Premier Division

-- We pay out $1.9M to the squad as a bonus for finishing 4th in the EPL.


3 days off until the final of the Euro Cup!

[Radii]

-- Oh I made one mistake in my lineup for the final. Mattle is still suspended for one more match. I should have played him against West Brom and sat Welsh. Ah well if anyone can play on 3 days rest its a 28 y/o DC.

-- The Euro Cup final is hosted in Spain, and they'll be out to watch two English clubs play for the title. From Wikipedia: Camp Nou is a football stadium in Barcelona, Catalonia (Spain). The stadium, located in the west of the city, has been the home of FC Barcelona since its construction in 1957. The Camp Nou seats 99,354, making it the largest stadium in Europe and the eleventh largest in the world in terms of capacity.

In the game the capacity is listed as 98,000. A sellout is expected.


May 15th, 2024

Euro Cup Finals

Ipswich (4th, EPL) vs Man Utd (3rd, EPL)

Man Utd are 4:5 favorites today, we are 3:1 to get a win. Will this be like Arsenal who we are capable of beating in league play but when they give it their all in the FA Cup Semis at Wembley we get run off the pitch? Its May 2024... the last time we lost to Man Utd was December 26th, 2021. We've now played 7 times since then, 5 in league play and twice in the FA Cup. We have 4 wins and 3 draws. In fact, we've won the last 3 times we've played. And even more than that, Man Utd has not scored a goal against us this season. 2:0 at Portman Road, 1:0 at Old Trafford. I'm sure they'd like to make up for all of this all at once with a win in front of 98,000 today.

GK: Capitani
D: Hughes/Welsh/Aldrovandi/Jackson
M: Adagsmar/Jean/Mills/Gordon
F: Khan/Bryan

Kirkland, Mattle, Craig Smith and Constantino all very possibly would have started today if healthy so we could consider ourselves very weakened. Meh, we can win.

Man Utd run 4-1-2-2-1, DMC/2 MC/2 wide AM's and a ST. Stuart Wray is their striker, between league/cup/continental play he has 31 goals in 54 matches (43 starts). MC Peter Wynter is valued at $30 Million and one of their best mids, 10 goals/10 assists this year and ratings to die for.

We counter attack today, our defensive line is pushed up slightly as it always is vs Man U, and we turn on extended highlights for this one.

5': First highlight of the match shows Wray shooting weakly from 20 yards out, easy save.

10': Here Wray beats Aldrovandi to get into the area, he's got a clear cut chance and blasts a shot from 15 yards... Capitani saves, was basically hit right at him.

17': We win a ball in defense, passed back to Capitani. He advances and sends a long ball... Bryan gets behind their last defender, controls the ball with precision and perfection 25 yards out, a great first touch, into the area.. he's got a clear cut chance and strikes it well, by the keeper and into the left side of the net!!!! 1-0

20': throwin deep in their left corner. Gordon throws it to Khan, Khan to Hughes, Hughes into the area, they have 3 defenders at the 6 yard box and their keeper leaves his line thinking he's going to come get this ball, but Bryan is the one who sees it land at his feet, he dodges a tackle, turns away from the defense and the keeper and puts it into the net from 6 yards out!!!!! 2-0

22': They get a shot right after kickoff but its from their AML and he mishits it, it was from a tough angle anyway, and shot well wide.

23': Aldrovandi with a yellow and I'm happy it was just that, they had played a long ball that it looked like their star Wray might get to easily and Aldrovandi appeared to kinda hip check him and drop him to the ground.

27': Yellow for Adagsmar.

28': They get a cross in from the left side and a header, but its a weak one and right at Capitani.

31': We get a counter attack, Khan ahead to Gordon and if not for a poor first touch he might have gotten into the area for a shot. Instead we earn a corner, they clear that but we recover, back to Gordon who crosses it in, header from Bryan is over the bar.

33': Jean a yellow in midfield.

35': Gordon has it out right, passes into the center for Jean, Jean ahead to Bryan, Bryan into the area for Gordon, its a beautiful move and its a clear cut chance... but the keeper saves it.

36': Mills a yellow. That's our 4th one. All appear totally deserved.

38': their defender Digne a yellow, their first.

39': Their star MC Wynter with a counter after we miss out on a corner, he makes a long run to the left corner, plays a great cross to the far side of the area, Capitani starts to come out to try to intercept it and thank god goes back on his line, gets in position and easily saves the header by Wray. that could have been disaster, nice recovery.

42': Another nice move by them, Wray beats his man, gets Wynter open 18 yards out but a weak shot is taken right at Capitani.

43': a pass to their ST Wray, he goes by Welsh, Aldrovandi comes over, misses a tackle and its a brilliant individual effort. He's into the area and has a clear cut chance and isn't missing this. 2-1

45': They foul us 20 yards out, its on their defender Digne who has a yellow, I wish for the red but no. Free kick is off the wall and out for a corner, they clear that and begin a counter attack but Aldrovandi makes a nice tackle and cuts it off.

HALFTIME: If we led by 2 goals I was 100% going to sub out Khan and play a 4-1-4-1 the rest of the way. With a 1 goal lead I think I'm going to wait until the 60 minute mark to do that assuming nothing else changes. They shoot 10 times, putting 7 on target but a lot of their shots have just been weak. Capitani's positioning has been brilliant, but these aren't diving saves or reflex saves... he's just catching the ball with ease most of the time. We have 8 shots, 3 on target. Possession is 53/47 for Man Utd. Both teams are passing really well (83% for them, 77% for us). Tackling 65% for them, 59% for us, we could stand to be a bit better here. We're getting crushed in the air, 76% headers for them 26% for us.

-- I am concerned greatly by our 4 yellow cards, but I can't tell our guys to back off when tackling.

50': Brilliant control by our guys here after a free kick, header won by Bryan 35 yards out to win us possession, volleys by Khan and Mills to control it while being heavily marked, a pass up from Mills to Bryan, he beats his man and shoots from 18 yards out, he probably could have dribbled once more, and it ended up being a weak shot at the keeper. Counted a clear cut chance, I don't quite buy that though.

57': Khan a yellow, our 5th.

61': Clifford in for Khan, 4-1-4-1 formation for us and we will still counter.

70': Some buildup after a free kick near midfield for us, but Mills ends the play with a weak shot from 20 yards, right at the keeper and saved.

70': Talignani, their DMC, a yellow.

72': We earn a corner kick after a long run by Bryan. Gordon takes it to the near man Welsh, his shot is blocked and its another corner. The second is cleared out.

74': Crespo is in for Adagsmar, purely for fresh legs plus he was one of the guys w/ a yellow.

80': We counter hard after winning a ball in midfield, Bryan charging down the right, he's tackled by DMC Talignani, and that's his second yellow, RED CARD!! We've got a man advantage.

82': Defensive mindset.

83': We give up a corner, lucky its just that, Hughes missed an interception that messed up our defensive positioning. We give up a second corner, they win a header on that one but Capitani saves.

85': They are fighting hard for everything as expected, this is tough even with a man advantage.

91': A pass to their ST Wray, he fires from ~23 yards, it was a strong strike, if on target it would not have been saved, but its a foot or two wide.

-- 3 minutes of added time.

92': Yellow for their defender Morrison.


THATS IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Man Utd 1 : 2 Ipswich

They put the pressure on is big time in the second half. 19 shots total, 10 on target, they ended the game still completing passes at an 82% clip. Even in the loss their average team rating was a 6.96. Our average rating was a 7.10. This was a well played, tightly contested match and we proved that we can play against the best Man Utd has to offer on the biggest of stages. So awesome!!!

Man of the Match: Chris Bryan (9.0)
Goals: Bryan 2
Assists: Capitani (7.5), Hughes (7.0)
Notables: Mills (7.0), Jean (7.0)

Clive Jackson struggled some with a 6.4 rating, everyone else was strong.


Ipswich have won the Euro Cup!!!


-- Attendance 98,000

-- Ipswich are given $4,304,000 for winning the Euro Cup (second place was $2.87M)

Coaching Hall of Fame

-- Winning my first trophy has made me the 7th most successful American manager ever. I've got a score of 40 for my 1 "minor European trophy". Bruce Arena has a score of 162 and is the most successful US based manager ever. Bob Bradley is #3. I'm still a loooooong way from the top 10 in England.


-- Ipswich won the Euro cup in 1981 so this wasn't a first, but still a long time!

-- The Ipswich board issue a statement declaring that they are happy with the Euro Cup victory and are grateful to me for doing the club proud.

-- Ipswich have been given $6,618,000 from Euro Cup Television Revenue

-- We pay out $3.8 Million to the squad as a bonus for winning hte Euro Cup.

[Radii]

Financial Update

Last year we turned a profit of $5.3M. We made $152.2M (not including player sales) and spent $124.1M (not including player purchases). After spending $22 Million net on players we turned a profit of $5.3 Million.

This year we made $189 Million, spent $141 Million, and overall spent $11.2M on player transfers (lower b/c we sold Donnelly). This leaves us with a profit of $36.6 Million.

A stadium expansion fell onto last year's budget so that ate into those profits a bit.

Gate Receipts: Last year $33.4M, this year $46.1M
Prize Money: Last year $28.5M, this year $39.1M

[JonInMiddleGA]

I feel like I ought to chant or something

Simply outfnstanding.

[Radii]

Affiliate Relegated

2 years ago I loaned Darcy, Rogers and Kershaw to Shrewsbury to help them promote to the Championship. Last year I loaned the same guys out to help them stay up. This year I didn't get them any help and they relegated back down, missed staying up by 1 point. DOH. We'll do something to help them promote back up next year.


Ipswich Youngsters

Reserve Squad

GK Chris Mason - 22 y/o - $3.2M value - We haven't given Mason enough first team time to develop, and he's fallen short of what was once very lofty potential. He's still decent, a 2 1/2 * "fairly good" player. But he'll never be a guy I want to rely on in the EPL for long stretches of time.

GK Michael Rogers - 21 y/o - $2.5M value - Rogers was loaned out to Exeter but got hurt and didn't play much. Rogers is a year younger than Mason and seems a little more well rounded. We can probably only hang on to one of these with a new keeper coming in next year.

DC Sam Barnett - 19 y/o - $850k value - 2 1/2 * potential that he hasn't come close to meeting yet. Barnett will be loaned out next year. He played this year for Oldham in League 1 on 2 short term loans, putting up a 6.7 rating. Shrewsbury would be perfect next year.

ST Rob Kershaw - 21 y/o - $5.5M value - Kershaw played 10 matches for me, scoring 1 league goal. Kershaw only has 2* potential and is light years behind Darcy and Bryan. If I can get $5M for him I will do so. If I can't I'll loan him out probably.


U18 Team

GK Rob Lines - 17 y/o - $950k value - 6.84 rating in U18 play. Starting keeper for England U19 squad. "good" (3*) to "Important Player" (4*) potential depending on which coach you ask. Looks like he is better than Mason and Rogers right now. Turns 18 during the offseason.

12 Month Training: Str +2 (10), Sta +2 (13), Pace +1 (8), Agi +1 (9), Reflexecs +2 (13), Composure +2 (6), Throwing +1 (7), One on Ones +2 (12), Kicking +1 (14), Command of Area +2 (16), Communication +1 (13), Decisions +2 (13), Positioning +2 (10), Anticipation +1 (10)

That probably isn't very readable. Improved LOTS.


DC Pablo Olvera - 17 y/o - $1.2M Value - 1 1/2* NOW, 3 1/2* - 4* potential. 6.97 in U18 play this year. Heading/Concentration/Bravery/Balance 16+. 16 ratings already 11-15. Needs some 1st team time next year + mentoring.

MC Jose Antonio Ramirez - 16 y/o - $3.5M Value (inflated b/c I paid that for him) - 3* - 4* potential. 7.18 rating in U18 play, 5 assists in 15 matches. 2 ratings 16+ (both physical). 12 ratings 11-15. 5 key ratings exactly 10. Plays for Spain U19s. Not as ready for 1st team action as Olvera, but younger as well.


AM LC David Ros - 18 y/o - $2.1M Value - 7.32 rating in U18 play, 6 goals/12 assists in 38 matches. 1 goal/1 assist in 5 first team matches. 3* potential by every single coach. Rated as a Championship level player now. Only showed marginal improvement over the last 12 months. Likely to be loaned out to a Championship squad next season.


We still have a lot of guys on the U18 squad who were youth pulls with "decent" (ie 1.5*) potential. None of them did anything to show the potential to break out or anything.

[Simbo Klice]

Congrats on the Euro Cup Victory and best of luck in the Champions League!

[Radii]

So Arsenal... +56 goal differential... yeaaaah.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

I feel like I ought to chant or something

Simply outfnstanding.

Originally Posted by Simbo Klice

Congrats on the Euro Cup Victory and best of luck in the Champions League!

Thanks both! Hell of a finish to the season

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

I feel like I ought to chant or something

Simply outfnstanding.

This.

[Radii]

these stats are "overall", they include league play, FA Cup and League Cup and Continental play (Euro Cup) all rolled into one. Some players padded numbers in some of those early Euro Cup qualifiers against bad teams, things like that.

Thoughts looking at this:

-- Constantino is still the man, but the gap isn't quite as wide.

-- Bryan suffered two long term injuries this year or he would have played a LOT more.

-- No one really got neglected. A guy like James Welsh, my #4 DC, felt like an afterthought but he still found his way into 20 matches that counted.

-- Another year for Craig Smith where he was one of the best players on the team, and I didn't cherry pick easier matches for him this year at all.

-- I thought last year that Anthony Heywood was stealing the starting DR job away from Clive Jackson. Not so fast, apparently Jackson told me this year.

-- Can't wait to see what Jean does next year. After being plain awful for a very long time he still ends up with a rating not too far below everyone else and scored 5 goals late in the year.

-- I miss Gordon Donnelly and his 18 yellow cards.

[Radii]

Expiry is 6/30 on the year mentioned. Its currently May 2024, so anyone listed 2024 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
Michele Capitani	29	$46500	$9M	2027	6.91
Chris Mason	22	$13750	$3.2M	2025	6.8
Michael Rogers	21	$11500	$2.5M	2025	----
Rob Lines	17	$2300	$950K	2026	----

Capitani's value went up $4M this year. He was extended 3 years. We have a new keeper coming in next year that will compete with Capitani and marginalize Rogers and Mason to even more extreme levels.

Left Defender

Name	Age	$/Wk	Value	Contract Expiry	Rating
Stuart Kirkland	24	$53000	$10M	2026	7.12
Jack Hughes	23	$24000	$5.25M	2025	6.94
Anthony Heywood	22	$32500	$7.25M	2027	6.71
Liam Ormerod	18	$170	$425K	2025	6.25

Hughes value dropped $1M, Heywood's went up $1M. Hughes proved his worth to me in a big way this year though when Kirkland was hurt for a month+. Ormerod is not good enough for this league.

Central Defender

Name	Age	$/Wk	Value	Contract Expiry	Rating
Carlos Aldrovandi	28	$88000	$8.5M	2026	6.93
Otmar Mattle	27	$53000	$6.5M	2025	6.93
Neil Bartlett	25	$40500	$6.5M	2025	6.97
James Welsh	28	$31500	$4.2M	2026	6.81
Sam Barnett	19	$550	$850K	2026	6.9
Pablo Olvera	17	$5000	$1.2M	2026	----

Aldrovandi's value dropped $1.75M this year, that's ok. He's still my #1 and its not close. I'm extremely happy with Mattle, Bartlett and Welsh all. Bartlett was an incredible Bosman signing. Olvera is very promising but probably won't play for me next year.


Right Defender

Name	Age	$/Wk	Value	Contract Expiry	Rating
Clive Jackson	24	$30500	$6.25M	2026	7.02
Anthony Heywood	22	$32500	$7.25M	2027	6.71

We sold McKerr and need to find a 3^rd guy here. Jackson and Heywood are a solid pair but injuries happen.

[Radii]

Left Midfielder

Name	Age	$/Wk	Value	Contract Expiry	Rating
Juan Pablo Crespo	23	$25000	$8.5M	2026	6.91
Adagsmar	29	$35000	$4.1M	2025	6.89
David Ros	18	$5500	$2.1M	2026	7.2

Crespo's value rose from $4.1M->$8.5M over the last year. Crespo has improved a lot the last two years in training and I expect him to slowly change this position from an even split between Crespo/Adagsmar to more of the situation Neil Gordon has at MR where its his position and anyone else just backs him up. Ros will probably be loaned out but he's still an exciting young guy.


Central Midfielder

Name	Age	$/Wk	Value	Contract Expiry	Rating
Steven Mills	26	$110000	$11.25M	2027	7.1
Craig Smith	19	$2000	$5.75M	2025	7.12
Jean	24	$51000	$23M	2027	6.79
Conor Clifford	32	$30500	$1.6M	2025	6.83
Jose Antonio Ramirez	16	$90	$3.5M	2027	6.5

Donnelly's gone and our midfield is still good. Smith jumps way up the depth chart. Jean underperformed for that $23M fee but we have reason to hope going into next season. Clifford is on the tail end of his career but still valued. Lots of other guys play here as a secondary position so there is more depth than listed, but these are the main guys.


Right Midfielder

Name	Age	$/Wk	Value	Contract Expiry	Rating
Neil Gordon	28	$47500	$8.75M	2025	7.19
Daryl Hutchinson	30	$46500	$3.7M	2025	6.97
Dariusz Chrzanowski	26	$33000	$2M	2027	6.6

Gordon was really good this year, Hutchinson was a very very solid Bosman transfer and Chrzanowski played mainly MR but he is a utility guy across the midfield.


Forwards

Name	Age	$/Wk	Value	Contract Expiry	Rating
Constantino	29	$54000	$10.25M	2027	7.43
Chris Bryan	21	$35000	$9.25M	2028	7.47
Matthew Khan	29	$47500	$8M	2025	7.04
Eoin Darcy	20	$3700	$7M	2027	6.89
Rob Kershaw	21	$9,750.00	$5.5M	2027	6.51

Bryan jumps over Khan as my #2 striker. Doesn't mean he starts with Constantino, we rotated around a lot and got goals from all of my top 4 guys. Kershaw probably gets sold next year.

[Radii]

Ipswich 2023/24 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

Continental Play

2021/22 - Euro Cup - 4th Qualifying Round
2023/24 - Euro Cup - Winners

This year:

Top Goalscorer - Constantino - 27 goals
Top League Goalscorer - Constantino - 12 goals
Most Assists - Steven Mills - 13 assists
Highest Average Rating - Chris Bryan - 7.47
Most Man of the Match - Constantino - 8

[Radii]

2023/24 Premier Division Leaders

1. Matteo Cavalleri - Southampton - 22 goals
2. Bugra Yildirim - Arsenal - 20
3. Romelu Lukaku - Man City - 19
3. Luca Vanelli - Sheffield Utd - 19
5. Jeroen Mihci - Man City - 18
5. Ivan Popov - Nottingham Forest - 18
..
17. Constantino - 12
34. Matthew Khan - 7
43. Neil Gordon - 6
43. Eoin Darcy - 6
56. Chris Bryan - 5

Constantino only scored 2 league goals in the second half of the season. That's crazy. We didn't score nearly as much as we had in past years either in league play.

Assists

1. Tal Gamliel - Arsenal - 14
2. Coutinho - Aston Villa - 13
3. Bugra Yildirim - Arsenal - 12
4. Sergio Canales - Chelsea - 11
4. Aaron Ramsey - Arsenal - 11
4. Bob van Schindel - Man Utd - 11
...
7. Constantino - 10
26. Neil Gordon - 6
38. Matthew Khan - 5
38. Steven Mills - 5


Average Rating

1. Hans Nooij - Arsenal - 7.66
2. Bugra Yildirim - Arsenal - 7.49
3. Romelu Lukaku - Man City - 7.43
4. Bob van Schijndel - Man Utd - 7.40
5. Jeroen Mihci - Man City - 7.34
...
7. Constantino - Ipswich - 7.33
15. Neil Gordon - 7.23
40. Stuart Kirkland - 7.10
40. Steven Mills -7.10
82. Clive Jackson - 6.96
82. Craig Smith - 6.96

[SirFozzie]

Conga Rats!

Huge step up.. you'll probably have to play in a couple rounds of CL qualifying, but hopefully you'll get minnows.

[Radii]

-- Craig Smith is #3 in the English Young Player of the year voting.

-- No Ipswich players in the starting 11 for the Players team of the year this year. Last year Constantino and Donnelly both made it. Constantino is one of the guys off the bench though.

-- Bugra Yildirim of Arsenal is the English footballer of the year. Its the 3rd time he's won the award in the last 6 years, and the 3rd straight year an Arsenal player has won it (Hans Nooij won it last year, Yildirim the year before).

-- Manager of the year voting goes right down the standings. Arsenal's manager #1, Man Utd's #2, Man City's #3.


-- Huddersfield upset Arsenal 2:1 in the FA Cup final. Huddersfield were going back to the Euro Cup either way.

Champions League Update

-- The Euro Cup was an all-England final. The champions league is all-Italian. Inter beat Juventus 1:0. That's their 3rd Champions League title in this dynasty, they made the finals twice as well.

Looking back a bit:

Tottenham made the first knockout round but lost to Inter
Chelsea made the quarterfinals and lost to Juventus.
Arsenal lost in the semifinals to Inter.



Training Upgrade

-- The board announces they are upgrading the training facilities. Right now we have good training facilities and good youth facilities. This upgrade is only $1.4 Million.

[Taz13]

Nice end to the season, a nice 4th place finish and then a championship trophy for the club. Now the expections are going to continue to shoot up. Can't wait for the next season.

[Barkeep49]

Congrats on the great season. It seems like you've nearly accomplished the bottom to top goal of the dynasty.

[chesapeake]

Another fantastic season. Well done!

[Izulde]

Phenomenal work! Congratulations on that shiny Euro trophy.

[bulletsponge]

grats on your team

[Radii]

thanks all! Looking forward to seeing if any of my guys play in the European Championship this summer, and seeing how long I can last in the Champions League.

[Radii]

-- Contract reminders but I'm long done here. I'm letting a scout and one of my fitness coaches go. The fitness coach was a 3 1/2* strength coach, the only training slot I don't have filled with 4* or better.

-- I'll be looking to bolster my scouting as well. I have a guy scouting the Spanish U19s which is why I have 3 quality U18 players on my team now from spain. I'm going to try to expand on that this year and get guys looking at the youth play in Italy, Germany and France if I can find find quality scouts to hire to do so.


June Update

The European Championship Group Stages are in June.

-- The board is delighted with my leadership. Our Euro Cup win is the highlight and the league cup remains the only negative.

-- We made a profit of $31.6M last month, basically prize money - bonuses.


New Signing

So the keeper I picked up in January from Celtic has arrived. Got him for free.




My scouts and coaches universally rate Bogdanovs as a 4 1/2* or 5* player. I've never had a player on my team rated 4 1/2* by even a single scout. A friend of mine is super worried about his eccentricity and says he'd give Capitani top billing still. They'll both see the pitch this year for sure but I'm curious what others think.

[RPI-Fan]

I like eccentricity in my GKs. Defs would go w the new guy to start.

[SirFozzie]

I'd go with Bogdanovs to start, but the amount for those two goalies per week.. eek.

[Radii]

-- We're going to be playing in the European Super Cup on August 30th against Inter. That pits the winner of the Euro Cup vs the winner of the Champions Cup. We'll get our asses beat but should make some good cash out of it. Its in "Stade Louis II" which I assume is in France


European Championships

We have five players called up for the upcoming European Championships.

England: Capitani and Kirkland
Poland: Chrzanowski
Austria: Mattle
Italy: Aldrovandi

Groups:

Austria, Serbia, France, Spain

England, Poland, Portugal, Germany

Croatia, Romania, Holland, Italy

Hungary, Switzerland, Turkey, Norway



-- Poland 2:1 over England. Michele Capitani plays all 90 minutes for england putting up a 6.8 rating.

-- France 0 : 0 Austria. DC Mattle puts up a 7.5 rating, playing all 90 minutes. He's got the second highest rating on either team.

-- Poland 2 : 0 Germany. Chrzanowski earnsa 6.9 rating in one half of play at MR in a 3-5-2 formation.


Poland becomes the first team to qualify for the quarterfinals... in a group with Portugal/England/Germany. Finishing this up shortly.

[Radii]

European Club Rankings

1. Inter - 161.759 (no change)
2. Chelsea - 154.583 (+1)
3. Arsenal - 151.583 (+1)
4. Olympique Lyonnais - 149.244 (+3)
5. At. Madrid - 146.595 (no change)
6. OM - 145.244 (was not ranked)
7. Barcelona - 144.595 (-5)
8. Roma - 139.759 (+2)
9. Juventus - 134.759 (was not ranked)
10. Man Utd - 134.583 (-2)

Real Madrid and Benfica drop out.

Our season last year was worth 31.1 points which is huge. That was the 8th best in all of Europe last year! That's good enough for us to rise from 111th to 60th in Europe for the last 5 years. We're bunched in with teams like Dinamo Kiev, Nice, Shakhtar and Sheffield Utd.

We're 9th in England:

1. Chelsea
2. Arsenal
3. Man Utd
4. Tottenham
5. Man City
6. Newcastle
7. Aston Villa
8. Sheffield Utd
9. Ipswich

lots of those teams didn't make contintenal play this year and will be losing a lot of points, a good showing by us will jump us up some more.


Home Grown Status

We're up to 10 players trained at Ipswich, we only need 4.

Jackson, Kirkland, Smith, Hughes, Rogers, Barnett, Mason, Bryan, Gordon, and Kershaw all trained at Ipswich. rogers, Mason and Kershaw don't have much of a role to play here but the other 7 will absolutely be on the roster for European play so we're in great shape.

We've got more coming to. ST Darcy will get home grown status in a couple weeks. U18 GK Rob Lines will get it in just a few days.


Champions League Scheduling

So there are four rounds of "Champions" qualifying, and three rounds of "Best Place" qualifying. I assume that means two different groups of teams that have to go through different qualifiers. It appears that we do have to go through qualifiers but that we enter in the "Best Place Third Qualifying Round".

If I'm reading everything right we'll play qualifiers on July 31st and August 7th. If we get past that then there's a playoff series on August 21st and August 28th. If we can get through those two series then group play would start in September. The main reason to note this is that we're getting some friendly offers. We're forced to accept friendlies on the 23rd and 27th with our feeder clubs.


Euro Championship

-- Austria beats Spain 2:1 and Mattle earns a 7.1 rating playing 90 minutes here.

-- England beats Germany 1:0. Stuart Kirkland plays the final 30 minutes and earns a 6.9 rating.

-- Austria beats Serbia 1:0 and Mattle puts up a 7.1 rating there.

-- Italy and Croatia tie 1:1, Aldrovandi plays 90 minutes and has a 6.9 rating in this one.


Group A

Austria 2-1-0, 7 pts
France 0-3-0, 3 pts
Spain 0-2-1, 2 pts
Serbia 0-2-1, 2 pts

Group B

Poland 2-1-0, 7 pts
England 1-1-1, 4 pts
Portugal 0-3-0, 3 pts
Germany 0-1-2, 1 pt

Group C

Holland 2-0-1, 6 pts
Italy 1-2-0, 5 pts
Romania 0-2-1, 2 pts
Croatia 0-2-1, 2 pts

Group D

Hungary 2-1-0, 7 pts
Switzerland 1-2-0, 5 pts
Turkey 1-0-2, 3 pts
Norway 0-1-2, 1 pt


Top two teams from each group advance. All four teams with Ipswich players advance!


Quarterfinals

England 4 : 2 Austria
-- Kirkland plays 90 minutes with a 7.1 rating
-- Mattle plays 90 minutes with a 6.4 rating

France 3 : 1 Poland
-- Chrzanowski plays 90 minutes and earns a 6.8 rating

Holland 0 : 0 Switzerland
-- Holland wins on penalties

Italy 1 : 0 Hungary
-- Aldrovandi comes in at the half and earns a 6.9 rating. This went to extra time so Aldrovandi played 90 minutes.

[Radii]

-- We had a couple bank loans and the board pays both of those off. The big debt is still there though, a $40 Million loan from the chairman back before I took over the team. Our remaining debt is $13.5 Million and won't be paid off in full until 2030. I was hoping the board was paying that back and we ewre totally debt free. But its just $185k/mo, not really noteworthy at this point.

-- Constantino is changed from an Ipswich Legend to an Ipswich Icon. I assume that's a permanent step up.

-- The current Favored Peresonnel are now Matthew Khan, Chris Bryan and Neil Gordon. Bryan's 2 goals in the Euro Cup Final I assume are reason enough for this status. Stuart Kirkland is removed from this list so I guess favored personnel is not permanent.

Fans Player of the Year

-- Neil Gordon wins this award this year.

Award history:

2024: Neil Gordon
2023: Constantino
2022: Stuart Kirkland
2021: Constantino
2020: Constantino
2019: McDonald Mariga
2018: Constantino


Ipswich Best Eleven

GK: Capitani
D: Kirkland/Bartlett/Mattle/Jackson
M: Hughes/Smith/Mills/Gordon
F: Constantino/Bryan

Aldrovandi not being in the starting lineup and Hughes being on the team is a surprise.


Ipswich All Time Best Eleven

GK: Michele Capitani (195 apps/6.98 rating)
DL: Stuart Kirkland (288 apps/7.16 rating)
DC: Alex Bruce (234 apps/4 goals/6.73 rating)
DC: Troy Brown (240 apps/2 goals/6.79 rating)
DR: David Wright (166 apps/2 goals/7.11 rating)
ML: Mario Licka (115 apps/8 goals/7.23 rating)
MC: Gordon Donnelly (342 apps/38 goals/7.03 rating)
MC: Steven Mills (178 apps/10 goals/7.12 rating)
MR: Neil Gordon (261 apps/60 goals/6.99 rating)
ST: Constantino (294 apps/215 goals/7.50 rating)
ST: Matthew Khan (257 apps/133 goals/7.10 rating)

Clive Jackson is now on the team as a sub. He's played 133 matches with Ipswich, has 2 goals and a 6.93 rating.


2024/25 Schedule Announced

We play Watford on August 17th, assuming it doesn't get changed. Watford promoted back up from the Championship last year. We'd travel to Arsenal on August 20th and play our first home match vs Sunderland on the 24th.


-- We receive the standard $48,510,000 for TV Rights


Season Expectations

-- The minimum expectation this year is to qualify for the Euro Cup via our final standing in the EPL. For that we receive A transfer budget of $59 Million and payroll budget of $1.2M/wk.

We could get $72M and $1.4M/wk for a title run, $78M and $1.4M/wk if we say we'll win. I decide $59 Million is A-ok. We aim for a top 7 finish.


U18's Promoted

-- ML David Ros, GK Rob Lines, and DL Liam Ormerod are promoted up to the reserves. None are seriously in my plans for the senior team this year. Lines and Ros are prime targets to loan to Shrewsbury and Ormerod we'll probably sell for whatever we can get.

Ipswich Youth Intake

We bring on 11 new youth players. One of them is singled out in the news item as "possibly one of the best players of his generation." I don't think we've ever gotten someone like that. But I'm the type of weirdo that likes to build up the suspense for myself, not just for everyone else in the dynasty. We'll look at him last.

AML Danny Fraser - 1 1/2* - Decent Player potential. Ok mentlaly, 13 crossing. Not spending a long time on the Decent guys.

AMC John Wilson - 1 1/2* potential. Physically pretty good, 14 pace/11 accel some other 14s and 15s. Mentally some 10-12 ratings. Not much here though.

M RLC Scott Sharp - Mostly 1 1/2* potential, a couple guys see 2*. Strong physically (lots of 13-14 ratings). 10 other ratings are 10+. Crossing 11, mostly good but not great mental ratings.

AMC/FC Frank Battersby - 3* to 3 1/2* potential. Best at AMC but close as Striker. All physical attributes other than Jumping are 12-14, really strong. Mentally determination 11, Off the Ball 12, Tearmwork 15, Work Rate 12, Anticipation 12. Tehcnial 14 finishing, 10 first touch, 10 crossing. Better than anything we saw last season by a lot.

We cut a number of guys immediately that are nowhere close. Time to take a look at the once in a generation talent.

16 y/o DC John Ashworth -"only" 3* - 3 1/2* potential. I am not used to seeing "once in a generation" talent so I expected ridiculous potential here. Still, something to be excited about for sure!

Physical: 16 pace/17 accel/17 balance/15 agi/13 sta. Jumping 9, Strength 7, will need to improve there. That speed at DC though!

Mental: Determination 9, Teamwork 17/Work Rate 13. Aggression 15, Positioning 12, Composure 12, Concentration 13, Bravery 10. Pretty solid to start. Needs mentoring from our highest determination DC starting yesterday.

Technical: Marking 15, Heading 11, Tackling 9, Technique 11, Passing 12. Really strong out of the box ratings.

New Attendance Record

36,543 fans per match last year, really really strong! That broke a record from 2022 where we hit 33,764.


EPL Title Odds

We were 40:1 last year. Last year two teams were 3:1 and another 6:1. This year its all Arsenal.

Arsenal 5:1
Man Utd 12:1
Chelsea 20:1
Ipswich 33:1
Everton 33:1

We are picked to finish 5th by the media in the EPL this year.

[Radii]

European Championship

Semifinals

Italy 2 : 1 England
-- Kirkland plays 90 minutes and earns a 6.8 rating.

Holland 1 : 1 France
-- Holland wins on penalties.

Final

Italy 1 : 0 Holland

-- Carlos Aldrovandi starts and plays all 90 minutes in the final, earning a 6.3 rating, third highest in the match! Aldrovandi won 17 of 18 headers he contested, 4 of them key, and made 5 interceptions to help the Italians win with a shutout.


MLS All Star Game

-- I don't see how or where its decided which club will play the MLS All Stars, but this year its Ipswich! We'll be playing on June 18th. Last year Liverpool played, two years ago Barcelona. Some smaller teams have played and lost to the MLS All stars. Our friendly vs Brighton is cancelled to make room for this.


-- We're up to about 6k season tickets sold. We expect to get to 25,800 total.


-- We have our first coaches meeting, Matthew Khan may be the next to go the way of "wanting a new challenge".


July Update

-- We'll get our friendlies started up early this year to make sure we're fit for July 31st when we expect to play our first Champions League qualifier.

-- One of the bigger rumors of the offseason is that Real Madrid are planning on making a major move to sign Stuart Kirkland. If they come calling we may not be able to say no.


"Rich List"

We were worth over $100 Million as a franchise last year so we were on this list... but this is the first time I've ever seen a news item. The top clubs in the world are just unbelievable:

1. Real Madrid - Franchise Value $844 Million
2. Barcelona - $808M
3. FC Bayern - $612M
4. Inter - $527M
5. OM - $512M
6. Arsenal - $506M
7. Ajax - $501M
8. Chelsea - $408M
9. Roma - $406M
10. Man Utd - $389M

Man City 16th ($250M), Tottenham 18th ($245M), Newcastle 24th ($202M0, Everton 29th ($178M)...

36. Ipswich - $146 Million Franchise Value

The #100 club is Havre AC in France, valued at $70 Million.


With all of that out of the way, we have $59 Million that we can spend. What the hell do we do with $59 Million!?

[Radii]

-- I start going through my scout reports looking for huge targets, going through unhappy players throughout Europe.

-- I sign a scout to scout France.

-- I sign a new fitness coach who is a 4* strength coach so we've upgraded there.


-- I reject offers as high as $15.25M for ML Crespo. He's improved over the last 2 years and I'm not weak at ML anymore.


-- I have 3 defenders that I'm looking at. Two of them are in their late 20s playing for Sevilla. They're not transfer listed but very unhappy. 4* DL "better than Kirkland" and 4* DC "better than Aldrovandi".

-- There is an unhappy Huddersfield MC I'd really love to have but he tells me to screw off on the same day Man City makes an offer. Looks like they're getting a new great MC for $27.5M.

-- Star DC for Girondins Bordeaux. He wants to leave but they don't want to sell. He's 29 y/o, 3 1/2* "better than aldrovandi" according to my most reliable scout. After making 5 offers ($9M, $11M, $12M, $13M, $14M) over the first week of July they respond asking for $29.5M. If I don't get a superstar striker I'd seriously consider it tbh. I sit on that one.


-- Man City buy two players I really would have loved. They spend $37 Million on these two players. Byron Williams is the MC from Huddersfield. He's a name we'll recognize if he makes a big play against us this year.

-- Turkey offer me their head coaching job. I turn it down.


-- One of the two DC's I want only had a $11 Million min release clause, despite being valued at $9M. I offer it but the guy doesn't see Sevilla->Ipswich as the career move he needs to be making. He turns down a huge huge contract offer that would have made him my highest paid player.

-- The other leading DC, the one that Bordeaux wanted $29.7M for... I negotiate again and get them down to $23 Million. We'll see what happens there.


-- This is not the year for me to make a ridiculous splash on a Striker. We're not ready for that. We have very good, but not world class, goal scorers. Right now I don't feel that there is one out there that I could obtain and afford to pay.


Friendly #1

We host Scottish side Aberdeen. Neil Gordon with a spectacular free kick from 30 yards out gets us goal #1. Jackson to Mills after they clear a cross out, Mills from 15 yards for goal #2. gordon cross/Bryan header for goal #3 and its halftime. No goals in the second half.

Ipswich 3 : 0 Aberdeen


-- We have a deal with a DC that I like a lot. I delay it a week though just to make sure since we're dealing with insane amounts of money here.



Ipswich Captains

-- Kirkland and Clifford remain Captain and Vice Captain. Clifford's time at Ipswich is diminished a bit and he may not be around too many more years. He turns 33 this year. But, my other really high influence guys aren't ready to take that responsibility yet. Jean and Eoin Darcy. Maybe Jean gets fully fluent in English, has another year or two here where he does really well and I hand over the assistant captain role. Darcy is super young still for that. So no change yet but that's probably in the cards down the road.


Final Transfer Decisions

-- The last striker I was still poking around with is a guy from Palermo. They finally respond asking for $42 Million. He's not a guy I'd blow $42 Million on. He's a guy who scouts as probably slightly better than Constantino but that's really it. He's not Rory Wright at Roma who every time he touches it even if he's 35 yards out I am terrified. And I know I can't get *that*, Wright is one of the best 2 or 3 strikers in the world... but I want to start to approach that. This Palermo guy is an upgrade... probably... and I'd probably pay $25 Million for him. But this isn't happening. I withdraw my offer.


-- In a few days we'll introduce our new DC, I'd delayed that and its coming back around soon.

-- I was going after a "way better than Kirkland" DL but he's not obtainable either. There are no midfielders in this caliber on the radar.

-- Towards the end of each year players start to become unhappy, and there are opportunities. I think this may be the first year that it makes sense to say that I'm holding on to a significant part of my transfer budget to see if there are any opportunities to take advantage of in the final half of the season. I've always felt left out while Man U and Man City are raping smaller teams of the unhappy, the relegated, those dying to make the big time.

[Alf]

Girondins de Bordeaux. That name rings a bell

[Radii]

Friendly #2

July 14th, we host Dortmund. They use some great passing in the 14th minute to get a goal. 40th minute Welsh gets caught doubleteaming their star ST and leaving a hole open for another man to run in, leading to an easy goal. They get a 3rd goal i similarly easy fashion to end the first half and we never recover.

Ipswich 0 : 3 Dortmund



-- Rumors have been going crazy about it but Newcastle officially enquire about Craig Smith and I reject any idea that I'll sell him. This is the first attempts to go after Smith I believe so we'll see how he responds.

-- I transfer list my two younger GK's, Chris Mason and Michael Rogers.

-- ST Kershaw and ML Ros go out on loan for the year.




New Signing

29 y/o DC Abdul Skhosana - $23 Million to Girondins Bordeaux (French Ligue 1) - $90,000/wk.

Skhosana, yes, s-k-h to start his name, gonna be fun typing that for the next few seasons, is south african. He has 54 caps for South Africa and one international goal. After coming up in south africa he had very brief runs with Dinamo Moscow and FC Twente (in Holland) before going to Bordeaux for $14 Million in the 2016/17 season. For the last 8 years he played 25ish matches a season for them (sometimes 30-35). His worst rating for them after year 1 has been 6.88. His best 7.24. All but two seasons were over 7.00.

Physical: pace 12/accel 16/str 15/balance 15/jumping 14

Mental: determination 10/decisions 16/composure 16/concentration 16/positioning 13/anticipation 13 ... most other ratings 12-13 as well.

Technical: Marking 18/Heading 16/Tackling 14/Passing 15/First Touch 14

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, and I feel like once again I'll go into a season stronger than ever.

I feel like Jean just got it going last year so this season he'll be way more valuable and this guy hopefully fits in easily and improves us a bit more. Oh yeah and that new keeper thing! Whee!

We still have $33 Million to spend... but we really don't. I'm only $17k/wk under payroll if I keep it maxxed. I drop transfer money down to $28M and get payroll up from $1.2M/wk to $1.3M/wk.

Next up we'll likely go into the season with this squad. I'll look at contract extensions soon, I think this is a pretty big year for them, and we'll get rolling.

[Radii]

-- The Champions Cup "Best Placed" qualifiers have started and I'm confused. I'm listed as being seeded in the "best placed third qualifying round" but its been scheduled and Ipswich isn't playing. Maybe that seeding means we join in after that round.


MLS All Star Game

No wonder the US keeps getting worse in this game, not a single American on the all star team in their own league. 5 African starters, one Iranian and one Vietnamese.

First half is scoreless though we dominate with 8 shots to just one for them. 49th minute Constantino hits Craig Smith for our first goal. Khan to Neil Gordon for goal #2 in the 62nd minute. Chrzanowski gets a 72nd minute goal, Crespo a 75th minute goal and we break it open. They get one back in the 85th minute and that's the final score.

Ipswich 4 : 1 MLS All-Stars


-- A french side bids for Chris Mason, he'll be gone soon.

-- GK Rob Lines and DC Sam Barnett join Rob Kershaw on loan at Shrewbury. ML David Ros is at Brighton.

-- Newcastle bids $6 Million for Craig Smith. Heh, no.


Transfer Out

GK Chris Mason has agreed to a deal with Grenoble Foot 38 in France. Mason was the top guy in my youth program for a long time, but this was before I was properly hiring coaches and he likely suffered for it. In the last couple years he's been sitting in the reserves and I haven't been getting him enough play in the EPL. Hopefully he'll have some success elsewhere.

I made $2.3M on the sale.


Friendly #4

We travel to feeder club Shrewsbury. Aldrovandi scores on a penalty in the 6th minute. Chrzanowski takes a corner, Bartlett heads it in in the 63rd minute. That's all the action in this one.

Shrewsbury 0 : 2 Ipswich



-- We make $130,000 from a sell on clause. We sold youngster ST Kyle McGlashan to Motherwell in scotland for $130k last year. He played one year for them and has now been sold for $850k to Exeter in the Championship. We get a $130,000 cut out of that.


Friendly #5

We travel to Brighton for our last friendly. Constantino to Crespo, a great volley from 15 yards out for a 3rd minute goal. Crespo to Khan in the 21st minute for goal #2. We give one back though, a freak goal on a free kick, aimed for the left side, bounces off one of our players and deflects perfectly into the right side of the net. Khan is hurt near the end of the half.

Goal #3 is similar to their goal.. Jean blasts a free kick, it *seems* like it is aimed far post but Clifford deflects it.. hard to tell if its on purpose or not.

Brighton 1 : 3 Ipswich



Its july 27th and this was set to be my last friendly because I thought we were playing twice in the next two weeks for champions league qualifying, but nope. So I get one more friendly set up in August.


New Signing

20 y/o MC Brett Connolly - $6.75M to Genclerbirligi in Turkey - $12,500/wk. Connolly is a development project. He's rated as a guy that can play in the Championship right now, but he has 3 1/2* potential and my scouts say they believe he could be as good as Steven Mills.

Physical: Pace 13/Accel 15/Agi 16/Str 9

Mental: Determination 11/Teamwork 11/Work Rate 15/Creativity 15/Anticipation 14

Technical: Passing 18/Technique 14/First Touch 15/Dribbling 12/Tackling 12/Marking 9/Heading 7

He's got some skills, a great passer, really strong technique.

Our midfield will be dominated by Mills/Jean/Smith/Clifford but those are our only 4 primary MC's (Hutchinson/Chrzanowski/Adagsmar/Bartlett can play it but we slot elsewhere). Connolly will hopefully play 10-15 matches for us this year.


That takes us to the end of July. August starts, one last friendly, Champions League draw, and we're pretty much set to start the year.

[Radii]

Contract Updates

11 players have contracts expiring this year.

MC Conor Clifford - turns 33 in October. He's lost a point in a lot of ratings in the last 12 months. He makes $30,500/wk. He'll drop to $24,500/wk for $100k bonus and an extra year. I go ahead and offer it. He may not play as much anymore but he's really strong mentally and I like him as a mentor.

MR Daryl Hutchinson - turns 31 in March. 7.08 rating in 17 matches last year. But worth $40,000/wk for an extra year? B/c he's not willing to take a pay cut. We hold on this one and will revisit in December.

ST Matthew Khan - Turns 30 this year. Makes $47,500/wk, will take $45,500/wk for another year. I offer it.

MR Neil Gordon - Makes $47,500/wk. Turns 29 in February and is still going super strong. He wants to get paid, and he deserves it. Wants $80,000/wk, he asks for just a 1 year extension, I try to make it a 3 year extension instead.

ML Adagsmar - Makes $35,000/wk, will turn 30 in January. Will take $28,500 for an extension. I try to give him 2 years instead of just 1 to limit the signing bonuses every year. I'd like him here two more years and can't imagine him staying after that.

DC Neil Bartlett - Makes 44,500/wk, will take the same for 2 extra years with a bit of a bonus. I offer it, he put up a 6.91 rating in 19 starts last year and was a great free signing. Bartlett is only 25.

DL Jack Hughes - Makes $27,500/wk and will take the same for 3 additional years. He seems perfectly content to be a rotation guy behind Kirkland, one of our stars. He's only 23, I don't' think he'll ever start but he's a very good depth guy and affordable.

DC Otmar Mattle - turns 28 this year, makes $53,000/wk. He's been a very consistent 6.90 type player in ~30 starts the last 3 years for me. He'll sign on for an extra 2 years at the same rate.

GK Michael Rogers - I'm hoping to sell him, but so far no interest in him. I wouldn't be extending him after this year.

MC Craig Smith - makes basically nothing. Wants next to nothing. He's becoming an important and reliable player for me, so I am certainly keeping him. He wants $12,000/wk for 2 extra years. I try to give him a little more to get a 3rd year cheap.

DL Liam Ormerod - We won't be keeping him.


August Update

-- One friendly, EPL matches on the 17th, 20th, 24th and the Euro Super Cup on the 30th. Some of that may well get rescheduled once our champions league playoff draw occurs though.

-- ML Crespo is singled out for training well. He's improved so much over the last couple years and I haven't given it enough comment or given Crespo enough credit. Our youth DC Pablo Olvera from Spain is noted for training well also.

-- The board is pleased with my leadership. Increase in stature is the highlight, nothing negative so far.

-- We lost $24.6M last month. We made $17M in season ticket sales but spent $32M buying players and of course had to pay people too.

-- I might be losing my assistant coach. Tottenham's assistant job opens up and my assistant wants it.

Injury Updates

-- Jack Hughes is hurt in training, he should be available again by the season opener.

-- On August 6th MC Craig Smith hurts himself in practice and is out 2-3 weeks. He'll miss our first few matches.

New Assistant

My old Assistant John Carver leaves for Tottenham. I receive $1.3M in compensation. I hire QPR's assistant Tony Coton and pay them $450,000 in compensation.

Coton is slightly worse than my old assistant when it comes to discipline (15 compared to 17) and Motivation (12 compared to 14). However, he has a 20 in determination and is a *much* better judge of player ability than my old assistant.

Coton is actually a really strong coach as well. We upgrade our Ball Control training from 4* to 4 1/2* with this guy.


European Champions Cup Best Played Playoff Draw

There are 10 teams in this round. 5 seeded, 5 unseeded. We are one of the unseeded teams. Other strong teams like Sevilla in La Liga are also unseeded.

The top seeded team is AS Monaco in France. They are the #18 rated team in Europe. But we've also got AEK in Greece as a seeded team, we blew them away in the Euro Cup last year. So lets see what we get:

Ipswich play AEK Athens from Greece, Winner advances to Champions League Group Stage

Whew. Monaco drew Hoffenheim, a German side. We aren't guaranteed to make it by AEK or anything, but I'm very very happy to have drawn a team I have experience playing (and beating).

-- We have our first match against Arsenal rescheduled due to the Champions League playoff. We're only going to play two league matches in August now.


Friendly #6

We host Romanian side Steaua on August 9th. We open the season against Watford on August 17th, this is our last warmup.

Our new DC whose name I can't spell ... Skhosana, with a ball ahead for Constantino for our first goal Gordon to Skhosana on a corner kick for goal #2. Constantino to Khan for goal #3. Its 3-0 at the half. clifford to Hutchinson for goal #4. Clifford to Bryan for goal #5.

Ipswich 5 : 0 Steaua


We've only got a couple injuries heading into the regular season (as long as we don't pick any up in the last week of training). Next up, Regular season opener!

[Radii]

Injury Update

-- MC Steven Mills turns a knee in training and is out 2 weeks. So Mills and Smith will now both miss our first couple matches.


August 17th, 2014

Ipswich @ Watford

We are on the road for our opener and are just 6:4 favorites today. Watford spent one year in the EPL 2 seasons ago, they promoted back up again here. We're 7-4-11 lifetime against them but most of that is in the Championshpi. We beat them both times in league play 2 seasons ago.

We play again in 3 days against AEK so we have to be ready for that too.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Skhosana/Aldrovandi/Jackson
M: Crespo/Clifford/Jean/Gordon
F: Khan/Constantino

We put out a strong lineup, most of these guys can give me 2 games in 3 days and we have strong backups in many spots. Watford run a 4-1-4-1 with striker Maurizio De Masi, not someone who should be a big threat to us I don't think.

8': First highlight shows them attacking, we give up a corner blocking a cross, then a second corner. They get a shot on that one and Bogdanovs makes his first save for us.

21': Constantino puts a shot high after receiving a pass 15 yards out, not a clear cut chance but a decent look.

27': Kirkland is injured and we'll check on him.

39': Throwin for them in our half, a number of passes, finally a through ball to ST De Masi, he's got a great shot, clear cut chance and a shot near post is in the goal. 0-1

41': Jean a yellow.

HALF: Not a good start. Constantino 5.9, Skhosana took the blame for the goal it appears, he has a 5.8 early here. Only 4 total shots taken this half, we only allow two but only shoot twice. We'll attack this second half.

48': Yellow for their defender Cooke, and soon after midfielder Rojas.

56': Corner for us, Gordon passes low to Skhosana, he gets a shot off, saved, and turned behind for a second corner. This one they clear out.

77': Jean and Jackson work to build forward down the right side, Jean passes to Constantino, he burns one defender, earns us our first clear cut chance of the match... but shoots right at the keeper.

79': Fresh legs to try to get us a goal at the end. Hutchinson in for Gordon, Bryan in for constantino, Connolly makes his debut with Smith/Mills injured, he's in for Clifford.

87': Jean wins a ball in our half and gets the offense going, Bryan a deep run down the right side, crosses into the area, headed away. Kirkland wins it and sends it back through the area again, they head it away but we recover. Another attempt as Jackson gets a cross in, Chris Bryan wins a header.. but its just over the goal and high.

We can't do anything else and its not the ideal start to our new season.

Watford 1 : 0 Ipswich


Notables: Jean (7.4), Jackson (7.3)

A couple strong efforts. A few guys end with 6.4 and 6.5 ratings. Skhosana a 6.5 in his first start, Boganovs a 6.8.

-- Kirkland is out 4-5 days. That's enough that he'll miss our Champions League Qualifier.

[Radii]

-- We sell 25,312 season tickets, about the same last year.

-- Unlike our early Euro Cup matches, the Champions Cup has the fans excited from the outset. A sellout is expected for our first leg home match vs AEK.

August 20th, 2014

European Champions Cup Best Place Playoff First Leg

AEK Athens @ Ipswich

We are huge 4:5 favorites today at home, I'd love to get a big win to make this easy.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Hughes/Mattle/Aldrovandi/Heywood
M: Crespo/Clifford/Jean/Gordon
F: Darcy/Constantino

Lots of changes in defense,Hughes in for the injured Kirkland, Mattle in for Skhosana, Heywood for Jackson. Darcy for Khan up front.

AEK run a 4-1-4-1 with ST Hruby up front. We're going to attack from the start today.

17': Throwin in their half for us, after a few passes Jean shoots from 25 yards, its a solid strike, saved by the keeper. We get our first clear cut chance as Darcy is there for the rebound, but his volley is saved and its a corner, we get another shot on target on the corner by Mattle, but saved.

40': A run down the right, Jackson to Gordon up to Constantino, cross into the area, Darcy wins a header... but its just high.

43': Jean passes ahead to Constantino, he splits their two DC's and gets a clear cut chance from 15 yards out, but its not a great shot, saved.

44': Heywood with a long pass to Constantino, he's fouled 20 yards out. Gordon lines up, but his shot is well over.

HALF: Really not good enough here. We have 7 shots, 4 on target and 2 clear cut chances but have failed to finish them. We needed to have the lead at this point. They shoot 5 times, 1 on target, all 5 from long range, our defense is playing great. Clifford is really tired, and I bring Adagmsar in at MC.

55': midfielder Szollosi a yellow for them. We build up after our free kick, Constantino 25 yards out, he has a good ball into the area for Gordon, not a clear cut chance but a really good opportunity for him... but he shoots wide.

71': We clear it out of their end and counterattack, Jean a pass to Constantino, he's 18 yards out, cuts right by one man, bursts into the area by another and gets a clear cut chance and this one he buries! 1-0

75': Hutchinson in for Gordon, Connolly in for Jean, both rested guys.

83': Crespo rushing down the left, he gets a cross by his man, Constantino in the 6 yard box, he heads it into the net!!! A defender takes the blame for missing a header there. 2-0

91': Our young MC Connolly with a shot from 20 yards out, they have to make a save, not a bad shot at all there for our youngster who I didn't really plan on having in a pressure spot like this.

We finish this one up.

Ipswich 2 : 0 AEK

It took us a long time to get going, but a great job in the end and we'll take a 2 goal lead in the series.

Man of the Match: Constantino (8.8)
Goals: Constantino 2
Assists: Crespo (7.7), Jean (6.8)
Notables: Heywood (7.5), Hughes (7.4), Aldrovandi (7.4), Mattle (7.2)

Neil Gordon couldn't get anything working at all today and had a 5.5 rating.

We play Sunderland in 4 days and AEK again in 7 days.

[kingfc22]

Late congrats on your awesome season.

Can't wait to see what happens next...

[Radii]

-- We sold out our match vs AEK and pull in $2.9 Million, blowing away the $2.6M record we set vs Feyenoord in the Euro Cup Semis last year.

-- Craig smith resumes full training. Definitely not playing against Sunderland, hopefully he can go vs AEK.

August 24th, 2014

Sunderland @ Ipswich

We're even money favorites today at home against Sunderland, they're 11:5 to win. We're 4-0-6 lifetime against Sunderland but won both matches last year, including an insane 5:3 win at home.

GK: Capitani
D: Hughes/Mattle/Skhosana/Heywood
M: Adagsmar/Connolly/Jean/Gordon
F: Darcy/Bryan

Capitani in goal today. Mattle/Skhosana, giving Aldrovandi a rest. Adagsmar starts over Crespo, and Connolly again forced into a lot more action that I was expecting early on. Darcy/Bryan up front.

They run a 4-4-1-1 with an AMC and ST. Standard mindset for us.

9': Bryan has a goal disallowed, clearly offsides, he didn't get back onside after they cleared out a corner.

21': Connolly a yellow for us.

27': We have a corner but can't do anything with it, a nice tackle to stop Jean, then a poor through ball effort from Connolly.

38': Another corner for us, cleared out to the left, Connolly goes and recovers it, passes to Jean and he's got one of his shots from 18 yards that he scored so much on to end last season... but here he just hits the left post, close!

41': A breakaway for Bryan on a counterattack, service from Jean.. Bryan is into the penalty area, clear cut chance #1 for us... but saved.

43': Another attack for us, a ball ahead to Darcy from Jean, Darcy into the left side of the area and Adagsmar gets behind his man, shoots as the keeper tries to rush out, and scores! 1-0

45': Jackson a yelllow. They have two defenders with yellows as well.

HALF: We're all playing well here today, we didn't really see any attacks by Sunderland to speak of. We limit them to 4 long shots, all off target. We shoot 7 times, 3 on target, earning 2 clear cut chances and getting the one strong goal. We have a possession edge, 56/44, other stats are fairly even.

59': We give up a corner, Jackson misses a tackle but gets back to block a cross attempt. Corner cleared out and we look to counter attack.. but they head out a cross.

66': Hutchinson in for Gordon.

74': A really poor tackle attempt allows their AMC into the area, a clear cut chance.. but Capitani saves. They push back ahead after a clearance, Mattle with a foul inches outside the area, so lucky that wasn't a penalty. Free kick into the wall, but it falls in the area and they get to it, a blast towards the right side of the net, Capitani with a great diving save.

76': We begin to attack after winning it in their end. Jean to Darcy at midfield, Darcy passes to bryan, 35 yards out. He runs ahead deliberately, by one defender... running with a second one, jukes by a second man, into the area and has a clear cut chance and a solid finish!!! A ridiculous individual effort by Chris Bryan. 2-0

84': Jean to Bryan who is 30 yards out, he avoids a tackle and attacks, Darcy fills the open space left by their defender whiffing on Bryan so far out, Bryan ahead to Darcy, he shoots from 18 yards out, off the right post and in! 3-0

88': We allow a through ball to their ST Edson for a goal, lots of complaints about offsides but not given. 3-1

93': There's a long ball ahead by Capitani, we're stalling, seconds from the end. Their defender flicks a header back towards his own goal, a defender recovers it there but Chris Bryan hasn't stopped playing yet... he tracks down on their defender, tackles the ball away from him just about 10 yards from goal, wins possession and scores all by himself!!! 4-1


That's how it ends, much better.

Ipswich 4 : 1 Sunderland

Man of the Match: Chris Bryan (9.3)
Goals: Bryan 2, Darcy (9.1), Adagsmar (8.0)
Assists: Darcy 2, Bryan, 1 unassisted.
Notables: Capitani (7.3), Jackson (7.1), Hughes (7.0), Skhosana (7.6), Mattle (7.4), Jean (7.1), Connolly (7.2)

Love the ratings all throughout the defense. Skhosana wins 7 key headers, Mattle 15 for 15 in the air, 5 key headers today. Darcy is my best threat in the air up front and he won 10 of 15 headers himself, we controlled things so well today.

New kid Connolly fit in nicely here too, he wasn't spectacular but with Smith and Mills hurt all he needed to do was not lose the game for us and he played well.

[Radii]

-- Jean is now fluent in English, smart kid, its barely been a year. He's been giving me solid performances to open the year and I just happened to look. Whether it was language, or settling in, he's definitely begun to justify at least some of the $23 Million I paid for him. Skhosana (yay, spelled without looking, first time!) on the other hand hand struggled in our opener but was really, really good against Sunderland, helping to make me feel ok about my spending for him already!

-- There's a $12.5M bid for Heywood... if I had more options at DR besides just Clive Jackson that would really be tempting. But Heywood/Jackson cover the DR spot quite well and there's no need at all.

-- No offers this August so far for Mills or Kirkland, guys I've had to fend off suitors for quite a bit over the years. Heywood and Crespo were popular this August but neither ever got upset at all as I reject offer after offer.

-- Bryan and Darcy are named to the EPL team of the week.

-- Mills resumes full training, hooray.

August 27th, 2014

European Champions Cup Best Placed Playoff Second Leg

Ipswich (2) @ (0) AEK

We are slim 6:4 favorites on the road today. We're in great shape to get through here, but our injury situation in the midfield I think prohibits me from running a 4-1-4-1, but hopefully we won't need to.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Skhosana/Aldrovandi/Heywood
M: Crespo/Clifford/Jean/Gordon
F: Khan/Constantino

Smith is available at MC but not ready for 90 minutes so I just make him available off the bench. Almost all our changes today are fatigue based, other than getting Kirkland and Crespo back in since they're just way better than their backups.

We'll look to counterattack today.

20': We have 80% of the early possession but neither team has a shot.

33': We have 65% of the possession and neither team has taken a shot.

40': Their ST Hruby shoots from 20 yards out, first shot of the match, Bogdanvos is kinda insane, I guess this is the eccentricity, he rushes out like crazy... Capitani would have *never* defended it this way, but he's talented enough to make the stop.

HALF: We've got 60% of the possession, we're passing well but not winning too too many tackles or headers. But the main thing is that we just rush to the half with our 2 goal aggregate lead. They take 1 shot... we have no shots.

47': Hah yeah Bogdanovs may be superman, They shoot from 25 yards out, its a ridiculously powerful bending shot, Bogdaovs comes flying in to cover the left side of the net and somehow gets a hand on this shot.

49': They keep pushing forward, a through ball to ST Hruby, he's got a clear cut chance from 10 yards out, and again Bogdaovs gets down for it and makes a great save.

54': Smith in for Khan, back to a 4-1-4-1. If we have to sub out Jean/Clifford later we can go back to two strikers.

60': they clear a ball out of our end, its sent really long and their ST Hruby gets behind our defenders. Its a clear cut chance and Bogdanovs again makes a great save. This guy is winning the game for us, Capitani has done things like this before to be sure, but our new keeper is winning me over in a HUGE way right now.

70': Jean is hurt and forced to leave the match immediately. Crap! Bryan is in, back to a normal 4-4-2.

85': Gordon takes a free kick from 25 yards out, but his shot hits the side netting.

AEK (0) 0 : 0 (2) Ipswich

The scoreless draw here is perfect, we advance into the group stage of the Champions League!!

Man of the Match: Dmitrijs Bogdanovs (9.2)

Notables: Heywood (7.0), Kirkland (7.4), Skhosana (7.1), Gordon (7.2)

Bogdanovs saves 4 shots, 2 of them clear cut chances. He seems to just *attack* the ball with a dramatic flair, he's diving all over the place, kinda fun to watch at least today when he's stopping everything.


Injury Update

Jean has a broken rib, and he's going to be out for 4 weeks. I guess getting smith and Mills both back is consolation, eh?


Groups will be announced in a few days for the Champions League.

[Radii]

Messing around with the camera angles in game and the replay speed. Here's the long range shot that Bogdanovs saved against AEK. Maybe it looked so spectacular in full speed because he didn't actually get there and some invisible arm extension actually pushed the ball wide.

As always full screen to see anything.

[Radii]

Ipswich are awarded $10,187,000 for playing in the European Champions Cup Group Stage -- Just making the group stage of the champions league is worth almost as much money as our entire run through the Euro Cup, TV rights + winning the whole thing included.

Champions Cup Group Stage Draw

8 groups of four are to be drawn. Teams are given a seeding, 1, 2, 3, 4, so each group consists of a 1 seed, 2 seed, 3 seed and 4 seed. I'm not sure how seeds are determined exactly as they don't perfectly match the European club coefficients.

1 seeds: Inter, Arsenal, Man Utd, OM, Barcelona, At. Madrid, Roma, Juventus

2 seeds: Real Madrid, Porto, Ajaz, Celtic, Benfica, Dortmund, FC Twente, Man City

3 seeds: Club Brugge (belgium), Zenit (russia), Standard (belgium), Sevilla (spain), FC Bayern (germany), Fenerbache (turkey), Genoa (italy), Ipswich

4 seeds: Bohemians (Ireland), AIK (sweden), Slavia Prague (czech), Hoffenheim (german), Rosenborg (norway), FC Kobenhavn (denmark), AJ Auxerre (france), Aris (greece)


The 4 seeds look to be much smaller squads, so that's good, a couple great chances for wins. Not gonna cover the whole draw or anything. I think we got one of the very best draws possible though Some really scary 2 seeds are out there in Benfica, Real Madrid, and Ajax, we instead get Celtic.

Group C

1. Juventus - runner up in the Champions Cup last year, 2nd in Italy
2. Celtic - Has won Scottish Premier League 15 seasons in a row. Failed to advance out of groiup stage the last two seasons of the champions league. Best finish: Semifinal in 2011, Quarterfinal in 2019.
3. Ipswich
4. AJ Auxerre - 2nd in French Ligue 1, kinda out of nowhere. 16th and 17th the two previous seasons. This is also their first Champions League appearance.

I really like my draw, we could get out of this group if we play well!

A news story announces that we have a tough group with AJ Auxerre and Juventus. The French side I suppose is considered one of the tougher 4 seeds.

Schedule:

9/17: @ Juventus
10/2: vs Celtic
10/23: @ AJ Auxerre
11/5: vs AJ Auxerre
11/27: vs Juventus
12/10: @ Celtic

2 of our first 3 on the road. our 2nd match is super critical, if we want to advance i'd think a good result at home against the 2 seed in Celtic would be the most important thing.

[Radii]

August 30th, 2014

European Super Cup

Ipswich vs FC Internazionale

That's the full name of the team commonly refered to as Inter. This is a one match competition at a neutral site between last year's Champions Cup winner and Euro Cup winner. The stadium that holds the match only seats 18,000, so we'll see how much money can be made here. We're sitting at $4.11M in gate receipts going into this match, $26M total income.

Inter are 4:5 favorites today, we're 3:1 to get a win. We don't play again for about 5 days so we get a decent rest after this.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Skhosana/Mattle/Jackson
M: Crespo/Clifford/Smith/Hutchinson
F: Bryan/Constantino

Inter start Kim Yong-Suk up front, a south korean that they paid $44 Million for 3 years ago. He scored 13 goals in 27 matches last season, and Vaclav Kadlec, a 32 y/o ST that they bought from Cagliari 3 years ago for $32 Million. AMC Marco Fanelli came over from Udinese 4 years ago for $31 Million... you get the idea.

We'll counter attack.

8': ST Kim scores easily after a few passes cut through our defense. their AMC Fanelli beat a doubleteam in pretty impressive fashion to find the open man. 0-1

44': Yellow for Smith.

HALF: They shoot 4 times, just 2 on target, we held them off nicely after their first goal (or they're just sitting ontheir lead...). We shoot twice but don't get one on target yet. Mills in for Smith at the half.

50': A nice give and go and a brilliant strike by AMC Fanelli from a really tight angle puts them up 2:0. 0-2

53': They score on a corner, DC Situ heads it in. 0-3

Commentary only.

68': Darcy in for Constantino, Hughes in for Crespo.

79': Mills is hurt again.

Ipswich 0 : 3 Inter

Notable: Bryan (7.4)

Clive Jackson got killed today, 4.9 for him. Crespo a 5.7 when he left.


-- We receive $2.87M for losing in the European Super Cup. The winner would pick up $3.5M or so.

-- Only about $600,000 in gate receipts ("only", hah, I think i'm getting a bit spoiled!). The prize for just playing in this is obviously the highlight.

[Barkeep49]

New Assistant

My old Assistant John Carver leaves for Tottenham. I receive $1.3M in compensation. I hire QPR's assistant Tony Coton and pay them $450,000 in compensation.

Coton is slightly worse than my old assistant when it comes to discipline (15 compared to 17) and Motivation (12 compared to 14). However, he has a 20 in determination and is a *much* better judge of player ability than my old assistant.

Coton is actually a really strong coach as well. We upgrade our Ball Control training from 4* to 4 1/2* with this guy.

Coton is the guy who I have used throughout my current FM12 play through starting with Charlton and now with Man City. He's done well for me.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Barkeep49

Coton is the guy who I have used throughout my current FM12 play through starting with Charlton and now with Man City. He's done well for me.

hah, nice to see names pop up across careers. His judgement of my players is similar to my last assistant and his skills are different, but still quite good, I'm definitely happy with him so far.

[Radii]

League Cup 3rd Round Draw

-- 32 teams left, 13 of them are Championship or lower caliber. No luck for us though, we are traveling to Nottingham Forest on September 25th.

-- Arsenal is the new Man City. We've had our first match vs Arsenal changed 3 times now. From August to September 18th, then back to Sept 25th b/c of the Champions League, now back to Oct. 8th b/c of the League Cup.


September Update

-- We play on the 4th, 14th, 17th, 21st, 25th, and 28th this month. World Cup Qualifying is underway and there's a break for that. 17th is the Champions League, 25th is the League Cup.

-- Chris Bryan had a goal vs Sunderland that was the EPL Goal of the Month for August!

-- We have 11 players called up for international duty. Gordon and Capitani get England callups. My new guy Brett Connolly is an Australian callup, Skhosana South Africa, Bogdanovs for Latvia.

-- The board is pleased with my leadership, and the signing of GK Bogdanovs is the highlight, our defeat to Inter in the Super cup is the lowlight.

-- We made $12.36M last month, with prize money being by far the biggest part of our income.

Injury Update

Conor Clifford has a groin strain he picked up in training. He's out 2-3 weeks. So Mills and Smith are back and now Jean and Clifford are hurt. Who needs midfielders!!


September 4th, 2014

Blackburn @ Ipswich

Blackburn are off to a good start this year up in 4th place, but today we're still even money favorites at home. We're 5-3-4 lifetime against them. We haven't lost to them in our last 5 meetings, 3-0-0 at home and 0-2-0 on the road.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Skhosana/Aldrovandi/Jackson
M: Crespo/Smith/Mills/Gordon
F: Darcy/Bryan

Darcy/Bryan are up front today. Smith and Mills both start but probably aren't playing 90 minutes. Standard mindset today.

2': Spectacular start, straight up the middle, Kirkland to Bryan, Bryan is 25 yards out, turns and hits Gordon who is charging into the area from the right. He's got a clear cut chance and easily scores! 1-0

18': Darcy receives a pass 25 yards out and shoots from there, its just over.

22': We crowd the area on the throwin in our end, throwin to Bryan, he passes low into the area for Mills and he's totally uncovered at the penalty spot... but he shoots right at the keeper. Corner goes nowhere.

28': Jackson a yellow.

32': Their ST Lindqvist turns by Skhosana and bursts into the area, he's got a clear cut chance... but Bogdanovs dives and pushes it wide. Corner is cleared easily.

HALF: Possession is even, they shoot 9 times and get 3 on target, we shoot 7 times and get 2 on target, but it feels like we're playing better. They have 5 shots from long range and it feels like we are consistently getting more dangerous opportunities.

52': they attack down the right side, a pass comes in to ST Lindqvist, he uses a great first touch to get by Skhosana and drills a shot into the left side of the net. A solid shot there. 1-1

76': Connolly in for Smith, Constantino in for Bryan.

79': Gordon with a cross, Darcy a header.. not on target though.

79': yellow for defender Jorge. We pass the free kick forward, Darcy out wide left for Constantino, he cuts inside, its a very crowded area but he finds a shot... and drills it off the crossbar.


Nothing happening in the final 10 minutes and we come out of it with a point.

Ipswich 1 : 1 Blackburn

Man of the Match: Neil Gordon (7.6)
Goals: Gordon
Assist: Bryan (7.3)
Notables: Kirkland (7.1)


We pushed hard to attack after they tied it up but they did well in defense and didn't allow us many more strong chances.

[Radii]

-- International Break time. Mostly friendlies for the first games, but DC Skhosana plays 90 minutes and has a 7.1 rating in a 4:1 South Afrida win over Guinea.

-- DC Welsh (Scotland), GK Bogdanovs (Latvia), MC Connolly (Austrlia), DC Mattle (Austria), MR Chrzanowksi (Poland), DC Aldrovandi (Italy) and ST Darcy (Irelnd) all played in world cup qualifiers. Aldrovandi scored in a 5:1 rout of Ireland by Italy. That was Aldrovandi's 1st goal in 13 caps for Italy.


Injury Update

-- Skhosana is hurt in his second World Cup Qualifier, he'll miss a week.

-- Eoin Darcy has a neck injury from his world cup qualifier, he's out a week as well.

September 14th, 2014

Ipswich(1-1-1, 13th) @ Bristol City(1-1-2, 15th)

We are slim 6:4 favorites on the road against a Bristol squad that avoided relegation by just a few points last year. We're 5-8-7 against them lifetime, 3-0-1 the last 2 seasons we were both in the EPL.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Mattle/Aldrovandi/Heywood
M: Crespo/Smith/Mills/Gordon
F: Khan/Constantino

Khan/Constantino today up front, Mattle in for the injured Skhosana. Standard mindset on the road today.

2': their keeper sends a ball into our half but their offense isn't there. Aldrovandi picks it up and calmly sends a long ball down the right, Gordon has broken behind the defense, he's got a trivial run into the area and finishes well, beating the keeper! 1-0

14': We control possession for a long time but almost give it away with bad passing 2 or 3 times, finally we do and they counter, ST Hooper gets downfield, cuts right, a pass to midfielder Coqeulin about 20 yards out, eh shoots, Bogdanovs dives for it... but its perfectly aimed for hte upper right corner, no stopping it. 1-1

22': Mills shoots from ~23 yards out instead of trying a through ball, keeper saves and turns it over, corner kick. We win a second corner, they clear that one, we push it back forward though and Crespo shoots from 20 yards out, a diving save made by their keeper.

31': Crespo with two great moves on a run down the left to get by a midfielder and defender, passes inside for Mills, he tries to shoot but blocked. Constantino chases it back down, passed back ahead to Mills, another shot from 20 yards.. this one is by the keeper!! 2-1

HALF: That's it for the first half, occasionally our passing has led to some dumb turnovers but I watched a lot of highlights here where we're running all over and passing really really well and setting things up really nicely. Still, just a 1 goal lead. No change just yet. We shoot 6 times to their 4, but we get 4 on target and are pretty happy.

52': Mattle a yellow.

65': We earn one corner... then a second.. Aldrovandi goes up for a header on the second one... and he's brought down, its a penalty!! Gordon to take the PK, and he buries it! 3-1

71': Connolly and Adagsmar in for Smith and Mills, Hutchinson in for Gordon. Defending.

88': they build up down the middle and use a solid through ball to ST Hooper to get a goal back. He cut in front of Aldrovandi who I think will take the blame for that one. 3-2


91': They get forward again to try to tie this thing up, Mattle blocks a shot and it goes back for a corner. They win a header off the corner but Bogdanovs hangs onto it.


Good enough!

Bristol City 2 : 3 Ipswich

Their man Hooper is man of the match.

Goals: Gordon 2 (8.8), Mills (7.4)
Assists: Heywood (6.9), Aldrovandi (7.1), Constantino (7.7)

Lots of 6.8-6.9 today, no one was bad or anything.