FM10 - From the Bottom Up

[Radii]

September 19th, 2026

Ipswich (3-1-1, 5th) @ Exeter (2-1-2, 11th)

We're even money favorites on the road today. Exeter promoted up from the Championship two years ago and did very well last season, finishing 10th to easily stay up.

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

We play this after our coaches point out that Exeter struggles against 4-5-1 formations, I've got Darcy ready to come in if we want to switch it up. We'll play a standard mindset today.

4': After a number of passes Exeter gets a man down the right side, a cross into the area and a header won by their striker... but it hits the crossbar, whew.

22': They clear away a corner but we control, eventually setting up a shot from Gordon 20 yards out, its just wide right.

33': They win a ball in midfield and pass it ahead, there's what seems like a very simple through ball in between Connor and Aldrovandi to their ST Havenith who scores... that was bad. 0-1

HALF: Yeah that's just awful, Darcy is in for Sergio Roberto, I yell at the team and we're coming out attacking this half.

61': Gordon with a beautiful stop and go move to get a long run down the right side but they intercept our cross... we got nothin here.

72': Smith in for Mills, Hughes for Crespo.

79': Things are tight in the middle, Smith to Jean, Jean is only a few yards from both Di Giuseppe and Darcy, our spacing seems poor, but Jean passes to Darcy at the edge of the box, he goes left, cuts back right and leaves the defender in his dust... he shoots and scores from 15 yards out!! 1-1

And that's it, we get the goal back but can't get anything else to try to win it.

Exeter 1 : 1 Ipswich

Their assist man is man of the match.

Goal: Darcy (6.9)
Assist: Jean (6.8)
Notable: Aldrovandi (7.0)

I should impose my will on teams like this even if my coaches say something else might work better and reserve that 4-1-4-1 for defensive situations only. I think I've known that for awhile but it was something I had been experimenting with, but I'm done now.

[Radii]

September 23rd, 2026

League Cup 3rd Round

Colchester (L2) @ Ipswich (EPL)

We are 1:14 favorites today, making them 20:1 to get a win. Wow.

GK: Lines
D: Hughes/Ballester/Bartlett/Heywood
M: Ros/Connolly/Smith/Chrzanowski
A: Bryan/Battersby

We play a mix of younger guys and guys who need some time on the pitch today. We'll attack today.

22': We have two shots, one on target. 70% of the possession but struggling to break down that League 2 defense!

32': There we go, Battersby with a decent run right up the middle, drawing the defense out a bit, passing into the left side of the area for David Ros who cut nicely to the ball, he shoots and scores! 1-0

HALF: We're dominating but seem to struggle a bit to put the last move together, I saw a few through balls just a couple yards too deep in the area that the keeper picked up, passes just a little off that were intercepted that would have led to easy shots, etc. But we have 8 shots to their 1 and should be just fine, hopefully we keep pressing and get another goal.

54': Battersby out wide to the right, a pass to Connolly who shoots from the edge of the area, it hits the right post, so close!

71': Smith with a long pass from 35 yards out into the area, Battersby runs onto it, cuts left to avoid a tackle and shoots and scores! 2-0

That'll do it, they didn't shoot in the second half.

Ipswich 2 : 0 Colchester

Man of the Match: Frank Battersby (8.3)
Goals: Battersby, Ros (7.9)
Assists: Battersby, Smith (8.2)
Notables: Heywood (7.6), Hughes (7.5), Bartlett (7.6), Ballester (7.0)

Battersby has done well for us consistently against weaker teams and will get a little more action this year against decent competition.

[Radii]

League Cup Fourth Round Draw

Down to 16 teams. 6 teams left from outside the EPL, but no such luck for us, we travel to Nottingham Forest for the next round. The board basically doesn't care about the League Cup though. We have very high expectations elsewhere, including reaching the Quarterfinals of the Champions League, but they don't care what happens here and we'll play our backups if there's any issue on fitness at all.

September 26th, 2026

Sheffield Utd (3-1-2, 7th) @ Ipswich (3-2-1, 5th)

We're 4:5 favorites against a Sheffield Utd team who has struggled a lot lately but is off to a nice start here. We're 6-4-15 lifetime against them, last year the home team won both matches, the year before the road team won the both.

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

We're going to attack again today at home.

7': Kirkland ahead to Crespo, ahead to Darcy all down the left side, Darcy puts a nice pass into the area for Gordon who is wide open at the penalty spot when he receives it, barely onsides... if at all, but its not called and he has an easy finish! 1-0

22': they have a corner, taken to the near man who fires a strong shot, but saved by Bogdanovs.

26': Connor a yellow.

29': After fighting for possession in the midfield, we win it and Mills sends it up to Darcy, he makes a run into the area and has a great look from the left side... but right at the keeper.

37': Jean to Crespo who fires a shot from the edge of the box... into the left side of the net! 2-0

HALF: Possession is even and they have 6 shots but just 2 on target. We shoot 10 times, while 6 were from long range we generated some good chances as well and get the 2 goal lead. We'll pull back into a counterattacking mindset to start the second half.

58': Crespo with a beautiful cross in from the left, Di Giuseppe loses his man and powers a header in from close range, pretty looking goal! 3-0

67': Ashworth for Connor and Battersby for Di Giuseppe to get them a little time.

92': Darcy blows another clear cut chance, something seems wrong with this kid.

Ipswich 3 : 0 Sheffield Utd

Man of the Match: Juan Pablo Crespo (9.0)
Goals: Crespo, Gordon (8.3), Di Giuseppe (7.3)
Assists: Crespo, Jean (7.6), Darcy (7.4)
Notables: Jackson (7.7), Kirkland (7.6), Connor (7.1), Aldrovandi (7.0), Mills (7.4)

Back in the win column in league play after loss/tie/tie.

[Radii]

September 29th, 2026

European Champions Cup Group H

Ipswich @ Slavia Prague

We're 4:5 favorites on the road today, wanting badly to take 6 points into our first matchup with Olympique Lyonnais.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Hughes/Mattle/Connor/Jackson
M: Adagsmar/Sergio Roberto/Smith/Chrzanowski
F: Bryan/Constantino

We're not playing a really weak lineup today or anything but we do rest Crespo, Kirkland and Gordon. Bryan and Adagsmar are finally match fit and put into a legit starting lineup immediately. Standard mindset on the road today.

4': Constantino to Bryan in the area for an easy goal, great start and really happy to see Chris Bryan finally part of the team, sucks how long it can take to get going after missing just a little bit of the preseason. 1-0

6': Sergio Roberto to Adagsmar for a clear cut chance but he sends it wide.

14': Sergio Roberto to Constantino 20 yards out, he loses his man and gets into the area and scoers easily! 2-0

Commentary only.

20': Sergio Roberto to Constantino again, a lot like their first hookup. 3-0

42': Bryan a yellow.

HALF: Battersby in for Constantino, Ashworth in for Mattle as we are in complete control here.

88': Craig Smith is hurt.

Slavia Prague 0 : 3 Ipswich

Man of the Match: Constantino (9.2)
Goals: Constantino 2, Bryan (7.5)
Assists: Sergio Roberto (8.4), Constantino
Notables: Jackson (7.3), Hughes (7.2), Connor (7.7)


Olympique Lyonnais wins on the road 1:0 over Austria Wien. We'll be playing for first in the group at the halfway point when we meet next month.

-- We receive $1.148M for this win.

Injury Update

Craig Smith is going to miss 3 weeks with a pulled hamstring.

[Radii]

October Update

-- We play on the 3rd, 17th, 20th, 24th, 28th, and 31st. Champions League on the 20th, League Cup on the 28th. Euro Championship Qualifying comes with the 2 week international break.

-- The board is pleased with my leadership. Increasing the stature is the highlight. No negative.

-- We lost $1.04M last month.

-- In a coaches meeting Di Giuseppe is noted to have trained well recently. I check in on him and bravery, strength and pace are all up.

-- Bretty Connolly's play off the ball and Concentration have gone up recently.

-- I see the first ever 'training drop' notice for Constantino. Agility down to 17, stamina down to 11.


October 3rd, 2026

Ipswich (5th) @ Birmingham (16th)

We are once again 4:5 favorites on the road, this time against a Birmingham squad that is used to the EPL but has spent two of the last 4 years in the Championship. We're 8-3-4 lifetime against Birmingham, 4-1-0 in our last 5 meetings going back 4 years since they have been in and out of the EPL.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Ballester/Connor/Heywood
M: Crespo/Jean/mills/Gordon
F: Darcy/Di Giuseppe

Standard mindset today.

4': Goal kick by Bogdanovs, Darcy heads it forward, it goes into the area... their keeper and a defender seem to be unable to decide who is going to clear it, one of them taps it, the keeper tries to cover it but Di Giuseppe is there and only needs an inch of space, he pokes the ball by the two confused defenders and in!! 1-0

9': Mills with a ball into the area for Darcy and he finishes well, I'm really glad to see that after so many clear cut chances missed lately. 2-0

12': They get a man behind the defense, Connor tries a tackle from behind, he doesn't foul and slows down his man but doesn't win the ball, Bogdanovs rushes out and stops the clear cut chance!

13': Jean into the area for Di Giuseppe for another really easy looking goal and we're out to an incredible start! 3-0

26': They get one back here after winning a number of headers in our end, finally seeing ST Daniel get open, looks like Connor is taking the blame for this one.

49': Gordon is hurt... 2 minutes of injury time, why are we in the 49th minute dammit!

HALF: We have a great half, shots are fairly even, 7 for us and 5 for them, but we've gotten 3 crazy easy looks and converted them all. Chrzanowski is coming in for the injured Gordon at the half here.

46': Chrzanowski a nice run down the right, a cross, Darcy wins a header... just wide, inches wide!

60': A nice give and go between Darcy and Di Giuseppe earn Darcy another trivial finish unmarked in the area. 4-1

78': Long ball from Kirkland ot clear out of our end, Darcy shows great control, getting to it first and pushing it ahead, he's got a step on his man, into the area, and he scores, a hat trick! 5-1

Birmingham 1 : 5 Ipswich

Remembering how amazing Arsenal's goal differntial was last year I'm trying to be more relentless instead of sitting on leads, lets blow some people out like this!

Man of the Match: Eoin Darcy (9.7)
Goals: Darcy 3, Di Giuseppe 2 (9.3)
Assists: Darcy, Di giuseppe, Jean (8.3), Mills (8.6), Kirkland (8.2)
Notables: Heywood (7.3), Connor (7.5), Ballester (7.2), Crespo (7.6)


Two wins in a row pushes us back into the top 4, we sit 3rd. Tottenham stand out with one of the best starts ever, 7-0-0 right now! They just beat Man Utd, their next two matches are @Chelsea and @Ipswich, we'll see if they're still undefeated after that (hopefully not after that second one at least)

[Radii]

-- We have 13 players called up for international duty, most of them for Euro Championship qualifying I believe.

-- ST Battersby is hurt in a reserve match and will miss 3 weeks.

-- MC Mills is out for a month with a back strain he suffered in weight training.

-- England 4:0 Montenegro - Neil Gordon scores and has an assist for an 8.8 rating, Connor earns a 7.5 rating in defense.

-- Italy 3 : 0 Albania Aldrovandi and Di GIuseppe both score!

-- Ireland 2 : 1 Latvia - Darcy scores and earns a 7.4 rating, while Bogdanovs has a 6.8 rating for the losing side. Darcy now has 11 international goals in 20 caps for Ireland.

-- Mattle, Ballester and Chrzanowski also play well in Championship Qualifiers.

-- In the second game of Euro Championship Qualifying Di Giuseppe gets an assist for Italy, Darcy scores yet again for Ireland while Chrzanowski, Ballester, Aldrovandi and Bogdanovs all play. Kieren Connor played in a 1:1 draw for England against Slovenia, but he picked up two yellows and was sent off.


Injury Update

-- Adagsmar is out 3-4 weeks with a training injury.


October 17th, 2026

Tottenham (7-1-0, 1st) @ Ipswich (5-2-1, 3rd)

A huge early matchup here, we are slim 6:4 favorites, they're 13:8 to win. tottenham tied Chelsea before international play started so they aren't perfect anymore, but they are the only team without a loss. In Tottenham's press conference, their boss tells the media that they only way they have a chance is to shut down Yuri Di Giuseppe. We're 2-1-0 our last 3 meetings with Tottenham but still are haunted a bit by our 3-4-9 lifetime record.

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

Di Giuseppe has 8 goals in 8 matches for us, Tottenham has 11 goals in 8 matches from 22 y/o ST Clive Chapman, a very very impressive kid that they bought from Wolverhampton 4 years ago. 19 off the ball/18 creativity/20 flair and amazing technical skills (18 dribbling/18 finishing/19 first touch/18 heading/16 technique) makes him really scary.

Standard mindset today.

5': Their star Chapman receives a pass 20 yards out and beats Connor, but Ballester is back too and their shot is a clear cut chance but we're defending him pretty well I think, and Bogdanovs is able to make the save.

11': A pass ahead to Di Giuseppe, he's 30 yards out, passes to Constantino, he makes two nice moves getting into the area and shoots and beats the keeper! 1-0

21': Jean makes a tackle to win a ball in our end and we counter hard, a pass to Di Giuseppe at midfield, ahead to Constantino, he spots Gordon running down the right and passes ahead to him, Gordon is a half step in front of his man, pushes the ball ahead into the area, sprints to it and shoots, still just a half step at best ahead of his man, and he blasts it by the keeper! 2-0

24': Jean picks up a yellow.

26': Jean with a second foul, the ref calls him over... and just fusses at him, WHEW, was really afraid of the red card.

HALF: We watch a couple long range shots off target for each team on our way to the half. We look great right now! We shoot 6 times, putting 3 on target. They shoot 4 times, just 2 on target. We have 57% of the possession and are passing and heading way better. They're tackling better but that's it.

54': Wow what a beautiful beautiful pass from Constantino, he's 30 yards out near the right sideline, crosses a ball by 3 defenders, right on the spot for Di Giuseppe and he scores easily! 3-0

63': Di Giuseppe is out left, runs into the area, into the 6 yard box, three defenders finally converge and tackle the ball, but it squirts free, Gordon volleys it and its in! 4-0

65': They get one back, Chapman 25 yards out, draws Connor way out and passes into the area, midfielder Tran puts it in. 4-1

69': Chrzanowski in for Gordon, Sergio Roberto in for Jean, Bryan in for Di Giuseppe.

78': Sergio Roberto ahead to Bryan, he shoots from about 19 yards out and its a great shot, by the keeper and in! 5-1

That's it!!

Ipswich 5 : 1 Tottenham

Not only do we give Tottenham their first loss, but we blow them off the field in demoralizing fashion!

Man of the Match: Constantino (9.2)
Goals: Gordon 2 (8.8), Constantino, Di Giuseppe (8.6), Bryan (7.1)
Assists: Constantino 2, Di Giuseppe, Sergio Roberto (6.9)
Notables: Heywood (7.2), Kirkland (7.8), Connor (7.4), Ballester (7.2), Crespo (7.1), Connolly (7.1)

We're still 3rd after this match but we cut a 5 point Tottenham lead to 2 points today.

[Radii]

October 20th, 2026

European Champions Cup Group H

Olympique Lyonnais @ Ipswich

We're both 2-0-0 in group play, the winner is nearly a lock to advance. Most likely we both advance no matter what happens here but a win would really lock things up. We're 5:4 favorites at home today, they're 7:4 to win. We did play our best lineup against Tottenham just a few days ago which may give them an advantage.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Aldrovandi/Mattle/Jackson
M: Hughes/Sergio Roberto/Connolly/Chrzanowski
F: Darcy/Bryan

We played Tottenham 3 days ago and play Liverpool in 3 days. I don't run too weak a lineup here but I am saving some players for Liverpool, Gordon/Di Giuseppe/Connor/Crespo/Jean could all go today but then couldn't play against Liverpool if they did.

We'll start off counterattacking today.

25': They got two shots very early, we had a dangerous corner but good play by the keepers on both ends have it scoreless so far still.

29': Bogdanovs takes a free kick deep in our end, he plays it long, their keeper it out between the 6 yard line and the penalty spot.. Darcy wins a header 18 yards away, mainly just pushing it forward, but it ends up going over the keeper's head and landing in the net!!! The commentary says that "Darcy takes the credit but certainly didn't mean it!" A goal is a goal, whee. 1-0

HALF: There was a lot of action here, Olympique Lyonnais shoots 10 times but I don't see many of them, 6 from long range and only 3 on target. A flurry of early attacks by them was the main threat I saw. We put a few headers over and had a number of attacks cut out that weren't really a threat. We are winning in the air big time, 70% on headers to 41% on them.

47': Hughes takes a corner, Connolly wins a header but its just over, it was close, closest since our goal for sure.

49': Connolly is hurt and forced to leave the match. I bring in Bartlett.

70': They only have 1 shot this half so far and things are flying by with few highlights.

The second half is as boring as it seems and that is a wonderful thing for us!

Ipswich 1 : 0 Olympique Lyonnais

They shot 3 times in the second half, I only saw one of the shots, they were all from long range.

Man of the Match: Dmitrijs Bogdanovs (7.6)
Goal: Darcy (7.5)
Assist: Bogdanovs
Notables: Kirkland (7.1), Aldrovandi (7.3)

All other starters 6.8-6.9.

-- Austria Wien beats Slavia Prague 2:1.

-- We receive $1.148M for winning here.


Injury Update

Connolly is going to miss 4 weeks with the injury he suffered today. Craig Smith just came back from injury but Mills is still out so we're a bit thin at MC for the rest of the month.


At the halfway point, group standings:

Ipswich 3-0-0, 9 pts
Olympique Lyonnais 2-0-1, 6 pts
Austria Wien 1-0-2, 3 pts
Slavia Prague 0-0-3, 0 pts

We've scored 7 and allowed 0 goals. We start the second half of group play at Olympique Lyonnais in early November.

[Radii]

October 24th, 2026

Liverpool (5-1-3, 7th) @ Ipswich (6-2-1, 3rd)

Another home match, this'll put us at 6 home/4 road after 10 matches. We're getting so much respect right now, we are 4:5 favorites against top 7 Liverpool at home today. We're 6-5-6 lifetime against Liverpool. We haven't lost to them at home since 2015 before I was the coach. We've won at home the last 4 years in a row.

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

Smith starts for Mills today and Jackson gets a second run, but mostly we're back to the lineup that crushed Tottenham. Standard mindset today.

25': Connor is hurt and forced to leave the match. Ugh. Ballester is in.

30': Throwin near midfield, a pass ahead to Constantino, he's 25 yards out and draws a defender to him, he cuts by his man and passes to Di Giuseppe, he puts a pretty shot just by the keeper and inside the far post and we're ahead! 1-0

32': A cross into the area for Liverpool... Ballester goes up for a header with one of their strikers, and is called for a foul. Penalty given, midfielder Zuill scores. 1-1

35': Di Giuseppe gets shot off from 18 yards out in heavy traffic, beats the keeper, but it hits the left post, so close!

HALF: We fly to the half after that. Its been a pretty even match, possession is even, 4 shots/3 on target for us, 5 shots/2 on target for them. We're tackling and heading better than them, team ratings are exactly the same. Sergio Roberto in for Smith at the half, Smith isn't quite ready to go 90 after his injury.

50': They're attacking and try a pass into the area, Jean heads it away and Di Giuseppe picks it up on our end. He beats his defender at the midfield stripe nad he's off... Constantino running up the middle, but no one ever stops Di Giuseppe so he gets into the area and beats the keeper, no need to pass there! 2-1

74': A few highlights, all with us attacking, we're looking really strong right now. Here we have a free kick but they head out a cross attempt.

92': Crespo is hurt and has to leave the match with just a minute to go. Hughes is in.

Ipswich 2 : 1 Liverpool

Man of the Match: Yuri Di Giuseppe (8.9)
Goals: Di Giuseppe 2
Assists: Constantino (7.3), Jean (6.9)
Notables: Jackson (7.1), Kirkland (7.1), Aldrovandi (7.0), Gordon (7.0)


Injury Update

-- Kieran Connor is out for 6 days, that's good.

-- Juan Pablo Crespo has the dreaded "generic hip injury"... sending him to a specialist will limit his injury to 2 months. Adagsmar is still out for 2 weeks, Hughes/Ros at ML for now.

-- Chelsea beats Arsenal, Tottenham ties Newcastle and we sit in first place 10 matches in, but holy crap its exciting early:


1. Ipswich - 23 pts
2. Chelsea - 23 pts
3. Tottenahm - 23 pts
4. Man City - 22 pts
5. Arsenal - 21 pts
6. Aston Villa - 20 pts


We have scored 25 goals and allowed 9, a +16 differential. Chelsea +11, Tottenham +10. Arsenal once again has the best differential early on, but just +17, one better than us.

[SirFozzie]

This could be the year!

[chesapeake]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

This could be the year!

I was thinking the same thing. You've got a strong and deep team, and it does not appear that anyone has figured out how to defend you when you are on your game.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

This could be the year!

Originally Posted by chesapeake

I was thinking the same thing. You've got a strong and deep team, and it does not appear that anyone has figured out how to defend you when you are on your game.

Hope so! We certainly are ridiculously good right now.

[Radii]

October 28th, 2026

League Cup Fourth Round

Ipswich (7-2-1, 1st) @ Nottingham Forest (2-4-4, 15th)

Our board isn't looking at our league cup results and neither are we. We've just won 3 straight at home over Tottenham, Olympique Lyonnais and Liverpool and our next league match is on the road at Man Utd in 3 more days. This is a match to play backups.

GK: Lines
D: Ashworth/Bartlett/Mattle
DM: Sergio Roberto
M: Ros/Jean/Chrzanowski/Angelopoulos
F: Darcy/Battersby

We run a 3-5-2 today to keep Hughes/Kirkland both rested out left (with Adagsmar and Crespo both injured). U18 Angelopoulus gets his first senior match today, Battersby and Ashworth start as well at ST/DC.

Counterattacking today.

20': Chrzanowski into the area for Battersby for a clear cut chance but the keeper saves it. We earn a corner, then a second, that one is cleared out.

28': Ros lobs a cross into the area for chrzanowski, he goes up for it, but he's held.. penalty given! Jean takes the penalty and buries it. 1-0

38': Our 3rd clear cut chance as Ros puts a ball into the area for Darcy but he shoots right at the keeper.

41': We allow a penalty and that lets them tie it up here. 1-1

42': we get it right back, Darcy to Battersby after the defense got way out of position, a guy out left was too far back and Battersby got to drift behind his man. He shoots, beats the keeper, it hits the underside of the crossbar and bounces in! 2-1

53': Bryan in for Jean, I need him to rest, we switch to a flat 3-4-3.

75': Darcy is hurt.

86': A long cross from out right, a header over our young kid Angelopoulus and they tie it up. 2-2

89': I was concerned about having to play 120 minutes here... their keeper saves a shot and everyone backs off. The keeper drops the ball and plays a pass straight ahead to a Central Defender... he's looking the other way, the pass bounces off of him and falls to rest harmlessly at the 18 yard line, Battersby charges, is first to the ball and puts it into the net! 3-2


Nottingham Forest 2 : 3 Ipswich

Man of the Match: Frank Battersby (8.8)
Goals: Battersby 2, Jean (6.9)
Assists: Darcy (7.8), Chrzanowski (7.5), 1 unassisted
Notables: Ros (7.2)

Ashworth a 6.8 in defense, Angelopoulos 6.9 at MR, Lines 6.7 in goal.


Injury Update

ST Eoin Darcy is going to miss about 10 days with an injured elbow after a fall today.

-- We've now got 6 players including 3 clear starters (Mills/Crespo/Connor) and 2 regulars (Darcy/Connolly) on our injured list. Most of them are shorter injuries but its having its impact as we are about to play our 5th match in 14 days when we travel to Man U on the 31st. Being able to rest a lot of guys today was really helpful.

[Radii]

League Cup Quarterfinal Draw

We'll be playing the next round at Chelsea. That'll probably be the end of that.

October 31st, 2026

Ipswich (7-2-1, 1st) @ Man Utd (3-3-3, 12th)

Man U is off to a slow start, though with one less match played they are only 3 points out of 7th. We are slim 6:4 favorites at Old Trafford, being favored there has to be a first for us. We're 7-9-8 lifetime against them, 2-2-1 the last 5 meetings on the road.

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

Counter attacking on the road today.

22': Jean to Constantino, 25 yards out or so, he turns by his man, the second Di Giuseppe's DC takes a step away Constantino passes to Di Giuseppe who lines it up from 18 yards out and blasts a shot into the left side of the net! 1-0

33': We've seen a couple more highlights with shots off target, Man U has 4 shots but we haven't seen any in highlights.

HALF: We have 57% of the possession, 6 shots with just 2 on target. They shoot 5 times, 3 on target. I've never seen this before... we are winning tackles at a 93% rate today, Man U is tackling at a 38% rate. WTF? 15 out of 16 for us, with Jean being 5 for 5 on tackle attempts.

46': We kick off but they win it in their end and build up to attack, a long shot is on target and turned aside by Bogdanovs for a corner, they put a header high on the corner attempt.

56': Craig Smith shoots from 20 yards out and sends an incredibly powerful shot just inches wide right.

59': They build up down the right, a cross comes in, the cross deflected off a defender right as it left their wingers foot, but not out of play, it was probably heading to the penalty spot but instead ends up inside the 6 yard box, they react better than we do and head it home. 1-1

85': Bryan in for Constantino, Bartlett in for Smith.

We never do come out from our counter attacking mindset here and we end up playing this one to a draw, that's just fine.

Man Utd 1 : 1 Ipswich

Their goal scorer is man of the match.

Goal: Di Giuseppe (7.4)
Assist: Constantino (7.0)
Notable: Hughes (7.3)

ballester took the blame for the goal and ended up with a terrible 5.4 rating. He was very poor in the air, 8 out of 21 on headers.

[Radii]

November Update

-- We play on the 4th, 8th, 14th, 21st, 24th, and 28th this month. 4th and 24th are Champions League matches. 3 of our 4 league matches will be on the road, @Chelsea on the 21st is circled on the calendar.

-- Di Giuseppe scored 6 goals in 4 league matches in October and wins the EPL player of the month award!

-- Kieran Connor is 3rd in young player of the month voting for the EPL

-- Di Giuseppe has the goal of the month vs Liverpool.

-- We go 3-1-0 and that's good enough for me to win manager of the month.

-- The board is very pleased with my leadership. Our increase in stature is the highlight. No negative.

-- We lost $2.53M this month.

-- Steven Mills resumes full training.


November 4th, 2026

European Champions Cup Group H

Ipswich @ Olympique Lyonnais

Olympique Lyonnais are 5:4 favorites today at their place. We got a slim 1:0 lead at home not too long ago against them.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Mattle/Aldrovandi/Jackson
DM: Sergio Roberto
M: Hughes/Jean/Bartlett/Chrzanowski
F: Bryan

On the road today we're going to run a 4-1-4-1 with Bryan at striker. Counterattacking today.

6': Free kick from 25-30 yards out, Sergio Roberto shoots it around the wall, and the keeper has to dive to push it away, it was headed into the lower left corner of the goal. They clear the corner.

11': A quick shot from 25 yards out after receiving a pass from their best ST Merlo is into the right side of the net, a really really nice shot there. 0-1

17': Chrzanowski gets down the right side, crosses into the 6 yard box, Hughes wins the header, but can't keep it down, its over.

HALF: We see Jean miss a couple shots but otherwise we fly to the half. We shoot 6 times with 1 on target, they shoot 3 times with 1 on target. Two really good long range shots, their keeper saves ours while they get a great strike and score. Sergio Roberto moves to MC, Di Giuseppe is in for Bartlett and back to a 4-4-2. We're going to attack here, our goal differential is incredible and we will take a chance here.


55': They get a man itno the area, Aldrovandi makes the tackle... but he's called for a penalty and they go ahead 2 as they score on the penalty kick. 0-2

60': Jackson with a yellow.

73': A corner for them, taken to the near man, a shot comes in from a very narrow angle, Bogdanovs goes down to stop it, but he can't and its off him and into the net. 0-3

-- Ok, we have room here with our goal differential but we back up to defend now that we aren't going to be coming back.

We took a chance to see how we would do playing aggressively against these guys in the second half once we fell down a goal, and it backfired badly, we'll just get back to league play and win our next champions league match to get past the group stage.

Olympique Lyonnais 3 : 0 Ipswich

Notable: Chrzanowski (7.2)

Jackson a 5.2, Bryan a 6.3, Kirkland 6.3, Hughes 6.2, pretty poor all around.

Austria Wien beats Slavia Prague 2:0.


1. Olympique Lyonnais 3-0-1 - 9 pts (+5)
2. Ipswich 3-0-1 - 9 pts (+4)
3. Austria Wien 2-0-2 - 6 pts (-1)
4. Slavia Prague 0-0-4 - 0 pts (-8)

We travel to Austria Wien on November 24th and can clinch advancement with a win there.

[Radii]

November 8th, 2026

Ipswich (7-3-1, 2nd) @ Newcastle (3-1-6, 16th)

Another slow start for Newcastle. We are huge 4:5 favorites on the road today. We're 11-0-10 lifetime against Newcastle. We have won the last 4 meetings.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: KirklandBallester/Connor/Heywood
M: Hughes/Jean/Smith/Gordon
F: Di Giuseppe/Constantino

Connor is back into the lineup today. Darcy and Mills are both healthy but not quite ready yet. Mills is a sub today and will start next week for sure.

Counterattacking on the road today.

5': Smith ahead to Constantino, Constantino ahead to Di Giuseppe, a shot from 18 yards out and the keeper can't stop it... that seemed way too easy. 1-0

8': Heywood with a yellow.

15': Jean a yellow.

22': Ballester a yellow

25': Hughes a yellow.

37': Constantino a yellow... jesus... I drop back our aggression and tackling, settle down.

42': Kirkland a yellow

44': Gordon a yellow

HALF: 7 yellow cards... what the fuck. As for the actual play on the pitch Newcastle has 58% of the possession but can't do anything with it. 4 shots, all off target, 2 from long range. We have 2 shots, 1 on target. We're in good shape if we don't get men sent off.

63': We clear a cross but they send it back forward, a long shot deflects off Connor and lands at the feet of their ST Joel, he puts a shot in as everyone is out of position from the deflection. 1-1

77': Ros in for Hughes, Mills in for Jean, Chrzanowski in for Gordon.

80': Ah finally a red, Constantino with a foul in their penalty area going for a ball on a corner kick. He gets his second yellow and is sent off.

92': They're pushing hard with the man advantage and the game opens up in the final 10 minutes, here they put a ball forward to ST Joel but Heywood comes in and makes a really great tackle and sends a long ball out left, Ros sprints out ahead and takes it down the left side, a cross into the area, Chrzanowski wins a header... the keeper dives for it, can't get it, the header hits the left post and bounces in!!! This was part of a long highlight where we were going up and down the pitch like crazy, very wide open as they tried to push for a goal but we made a couple key interceptions to counterattack hard. 2-1

That's it!

Newcastle 1 : 2 Ipswich

Man of the Match: Dariusz Chrzanowski (7.4)
Goals: Chrzanowski, Di Giuseppe (7.2)
Assists: Ros (6.9), Constantino (6.7)
Notables: Kirkland (7.0), Connor (7.0), Smith (7.1)

That was kinda crazy!

QPR beats Tottenham and that pushes us back into first place here.

[Radii]

-- There are international friendlies coming up but I tell all my players they can only play a half, I want people rested for the end of November stretch.

November 14th, 2026

Southampton (4-1-7, 14th) @ Ipswich (8-3-1, 1st)

Going back to Nottingham Forest on the 28th of October, this is going to be our only home match for 8 matches, we'd best make the most of it. We're 1:4 favorites today, they are 9:1 to get a win. We're 8-4-5 lifetime against Southampton, 7-2-1 over our last 10 though and 4-1-0 at home.

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

Mostly the same lineup we ran against Newcastle, Ballester hasn't been great so he's out, Mills is starting and Darcy starts for the suspended Constantino. We'll attack today.

3': Jean to gordon for an easy goal very early, this was our second shot, Darcy got into the area and put a shot on target a minute earlier. 1-0

8': Di Giuseppe to Darcy for a clear cut chance but Darcy shoots it right at the keeper.

23': Ugh, for the second time this year Di Giuseppe is hurt in a match and forced to leave immediately. We'll hold our breath and check on him afterwards. Bryan is in.

26': Gordon takes a corner kick into the 6 yard box, Mattle heads it... its in! The keeper was way out of position on that one. 2-0

40': Gordon a yellow.

44': They take a corner to the near man, he shoots immediately, Bogdanovs blocks it but there's a rebound, its volleyed into the net by ST McCoy. 2-1

47': Gordon takes a corner kick, they head it away, we push it back ahead and pass to Gordon int he area, he loses the ball, fights to get it back and brings down his man... that's a yellow, that's his second yellow and he's gone. CRAP. Chrzanowski comes in for Darcy, Bryan is up front by himself in a 4-4-1. This wouldn't be nearly as bad if we hadn't just given up a goal.

HALF: Well the first 43 minutes were pretty awesome, then we let in a goal and had one of our best players sent off. So now we need to hang on for the second half.

63': Hughes is hurt

70': We're flying through this half without a highlight so far.

86': First highlight of the half, we watch them take a corner and head it out of play for a goal kick.

We hold them off very nicely.

Ipswich 2 : 1 Southampton

Man of the Match: Otmar Mattle (7.9)
Goals: Mattle, Gordon (7.8)
Assists: Gordon, Jean (6.8)

No one else over 7.

-- Gordon will miss our next match due to the red card.

Injury Update

Jack Hughes is out 4-5 days

-- Yuri Di Giuseppe is going to miss a month with an ankle injury he suffered today. Obviously that is a massive blow for us and it'll be up to Constantino, Bryan and Darcy to keep us in first. Di Giuseppe is tied for the EPL lead in goals and is 3rd in average rating, only .04 away from 1st (7.69 vs 7.73).


It's November 14th when Di Giuseppe gets hurt. Over the next 4 weeks we play 7 matches, one against Chelsea, the others we should all be heavy favorites for. There is a critical stretch starting December 23rd where we play Chelsea, Man City, and Arsenal back to back to back. If Di Giuseppe is back in time for that we will be just fine.

[Radii]

-- Chrzanowski keeps talking in the media about how he is really sure he'll be leaving Ipswich in January.

November 21st, 2026

Ipswich (9-3-1, 1st) @ Chelsea (9-2-2, 3rd)

Chelsea are 1 point behind us in 3rd. They are slim 5:4 favorites today. For a short time we really had Chelsea's number all over, but that's changed in the last few years, with the home team winning the last 7 straight meetings. We last won at their place 3 1/2 years ago.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Mattle/Connor/Heywood
DM: Sergio Roberto
M: Hughes/Jean/Mills/Chrzanowski
F: Constantino

Chelsea features a new young ST Leif Nylin who has 7 league goals this year in addition to their star David Thomas. On the road today we run a 4-1-4-1 with Constantino up front. We'll counter attack. Gordon is serving his suspension.

2': We slowly build up on offense, pushing more men forward, Kirkland tries a hard low cross into the area, they send it out but it lands at the feet of Sergio Roberto 35 yards out. He passes ahead to Constantino who has a little space in the penalty area, he turns and shoots and beats the keeper! 1-0

16': Jean with a shot from 30 yards out that is by the keeper but hits the crossbar, close!

39': we've seen them shoot a few very far off target, they do have 8 shots now.

HALF: Possession is exactly even, 50/50. They have 9 shots with just 1 on target, 5 from long range. We have 8 shots, just 2 on target with 5 from long range. Stats are all even, 80% passing, 65% tackling, 60% heading for both teams (within a couple points either way of course). We'll keep doing what we're doing.

60': More injuries for Ipswich, Jean is hurt and leaving the match immediately. Craig Smith is in.

69': Sergio Roberto with a free kick from 25 yards out... its very low, around the right side of the wall and into the right side of the net, a perfect strike!!!! 2-0

85': Bartlett in for Mills.

92': Icing on the cake here, Chrzanowski takes a corner to the far post, Bartlett gets way up over everyone to head it into the net! 3-0

Chelsea 0 : 3 Ipswich

What a dominant performance today! They shot 20 times but 12 from long range and only 1 on target all match.

Man of the Match: Constantino (8.5)
Goals: Constantino, Sergio Roberto (8.1), Bartlett (7.4)
Assists: Constantino, Sergio Roberto, Chrzanowksi (8.0)
Notables: Heywood (7.2), Kirkland (7.4), Connor (7.2)


Injury Update

Jean is out for 3 weeks.


Huge win against a top team, without Di Giuseppe even.

[Radii]

November 24th, 2026

European Champions Cup Group H

Ipswich (3-0-1, 2nd) @ Austria Wien (2-0-2, 3rd)

We are fairly slim 5:4 favorites today, they're 7:4 to win. We beat them 3:0 in our first champions league match back in September. A win would clinch advancement. Even with a loss we'd play the worst team in our final match and would be very likely to advance... but we'd rather not put ourselves in that position.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Ballester/Connor/Jackson
M: Ros/Smith/Mills/Gordon
F: Darcy/Bryan

Youngster Ros starts at ML, Darcy/Bryan up front. Counterattacking today.

1': We kick off and move ahead down the right side, Gordon has a cross blocked but we recover, passed back to Gordon again, another cross, this one is headed by Darcy and in! 1-0 47 seconds into the match.

7': A give and go between their two strikers Winkler and Semedo lead to an easy goal... Connor takes the blame for a missed interception. 1-1

27': throwin in their end, Gordon throws it short, passed back to Gordon, a cross into the area, Craig Smith heads it... and its in!!! 2-1

42': Connor is hurt.

HALF: Hopefully we are in good shape after our second goal, the few highlights we saw the rest of the way were of us attacking. Aldrovandi in for Connor at the half. When he took the blame for their goal his rating dropped to 5.9 and it just went down from there, 5.6 as he leaves now.

55': A cross by Gordon, Bryan heads it... into the crossbar, they try to head it away but can't clear, Darcy heads it... into the crossbar, damn!

67': Bartlett in for a tired Mills.

We rather easily end this one.

Austria Wien 1 : 2 Ipswich

Man of the Match: Neil Gordon (9.0)
Goals: Darcy (7.7), Smith (7.7)
Assists: Gordon 2
Notables: Kirkland (7.0)

Connor had his sub-6.0 match, everyone else 6.8-6.9.

-- Olympique Lyonnais beats Slavia Prague 3:0 in the other group match today.

-- We receive $1.148M for winning today.


Injury Update

Kieran Connor will miss 2 weeks with a twisted knee. That's Di giuseppe, Jean and Connor all out for a bit now.


Ipswich Qualify for First Knockout Round -- woohoo!

1. Olympique Lyonnais - 4-0-1 - 12 pts
2. Ipswich - 4-0-1 - 12 pts
3. Austria Wien - 2-0-3, 6 pts
4. Slavia Prague - 0-0-5 0 pts

We host Slavia Prague in our last match. Olympique Lyonnais has a +3 differential over us (thanks to our 0-3 loss to them oops). With injuries and a tight schedule I probably won't be throwing my top team out there against Slavia Prague but we'll push for a big win there.

[Radii]

November 28th, 2026

Ipswich (10-3-1, 1st) @ QPR (4-2-8, 16th)

We are big 4:5 favorites today against a team fighting relegation. 8-7-4 lifetime and 2-2-0 the last 2 years that they've been back up in the EPL.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Mattle/Aldrovandi/Jackson
M: Adagsmar/Sergio Roberto/Mills/Gordon
F: Battersby/Constantino

Adagsmar a rare start at ML, Battersby up front with Constantino today. Standard mindset on the road.

1': Early corner kick for us, taken to the near man Mattle, he holds off his man, passes to Battersby at the penalty spot, a shot... deflects off the keeper and in! 1-0

12': Sergio Roberto with a through ball, Constantino breaks on it perfectly, into the area and he has an easy goal! 2-0

14': Throwin in their end, but we intercept right away and pass it ahead. Battersby to Mills to Constantino and he's ahead of everyone and has another easy goal! 3-0

Commentary only.

30': Another injury... this time its backup ST Frank Battersby, Bryan is in for him.

HALF: 8 shots to 2, 61/39 possession edge, things are looking good.

48': Sergio Roberto with a beautiful bending strike from 25 yards out into the right side of the net! Assist to Gordon. 4-0

63': Chrzanowski in for Gordon, Ashworth in for Aldrovandi.

That'll do it, solid!

QPR 0 : 4 Ipswich

Man of the Match: Constantino (9.0)
Goals: Constantino 2, Sergio Roberto (8.1), Battersby (7.3)
Assists: Mills 2 (8.8), Gordon (8.5), Mattle (7.8)
Notables: Bogdanovs (7.1), Jackson (7.7), Kirkland (7.7), Aldrovandi (7.3), Adagsmar (7.2)


Injury Update

Frank Battersby is out 3-4 weeks with a broken cheekbone suffered today, ouch! We're down to Constantino/Darcy/Bryan up front, Battersby was going to get a few more starts before Di Giuseppe returned until this.


Constantino is having another solid season, he has 5 goals and 8 assists in 9 league matches so far. He appears to be headed towards his 12th straight season with 10 league goals. But the noteworthy thing today is that the first goal Constantino scored today was his 300th in league play. He has 301 goals in 426 matches, add 118 assists and 101 man of the match awards to that total.

[Radii]

FA Cup 3rd Round Draw

A good draw for us as we'll be traveling to League 2 Rochdale to open the FA Cup.

League Cup Semifinal Draw

The rest of the League Cup Quarterfinals have been played, we don't play our match until later in December. The winner of Ipswich/Chelsea will play at Man City. Arsenal @ Man Utd for the other semi.


December Update

-- We play on the 5th, 9th, 12th, 15th, 20th, 23rd, 26th, 28th, and 30th. 9th is our Champions League match and 23rd is League Cup. We'll be taking it pretty easy for both of those. That still leaves us with 7 league matches this month, only 3 of them at home. Everton, Aston Villa, Man city and Arsenal all this month. We travel to Chelsea but that's the league cup match.

-- 18 y/o DC John Ashworth is singled out for training well this month. He has such a long way to go.

-- Man U's Bob Van Schijndel is the EPL player of the month, but Constantino is 2nd and Sergio Roberto is 3rd. Really happy to see Sergio Roberto get some love, he's got 2 goals/3 assists in 8 league matches and was brilliant against Chelsea and QPR last month.

-- Ipswich goes 4-0-0 in November and I'm manager of the month for the second month in a row.

-- The board is very pleased with my leadership. The increase in stature is the positive, our 0-3 loss to Olympique Lyonnais is the negative.

-- We lost $5.84M last month. We've lost $40.2M on the year, thanks mostly of course to the $51 Million (net) we've spent on transfers. Champions League + EPL prize money will make up for it and we'll be fine.


December 5th, 2026

Nottingham Forest (2-4-9, 18th) @ Ipswich (11-3-1, 1st)

Nottingham Forest have lost 5 straight matches and would be relegated if the season ended today. we are 1:6 favorites at home over them today. We're 14-4-9 lifetime against these Nottingham Forest, 7-1-0 in our last 8 including a 3:2 road win in the League Cup with our backups at their place back in October.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Mattle/Ashworth/Jackson
M: Ros/Connolly/Mills/Gordon
F: Darcy/Bryan

Connolly his first start after injury, Ros at ML, Ashworth at DC. We'll attack today.

16': Ros to Darcy, he's 20 yards out and does the work himself, turning by his man, holding off another that is closing down fast and putting a shot by the keeper! 1-0

30': Darcy receives a pass, gets by his man and into the area, this time its tackled away but Neil Gordon gets to the loose ball and blasts it into the net. That'll be unassisted I think. 2-0

HALF: 6 shots for us, 0 for them. That says it all really.

50': We intercept a pass deep in our own end, a long ball to Darcy, a pass ahead to Bryan and he makes a run and gets into the area and scores easily. 3-0

-- Commentary only.

70': Bryan is fouled in the area and a penalty is given. gordon takes it and buries it. 4-0

90': Darcy is hurt. Bleh!

Ipswich 4 : 0 Nottingham Forest

Man of the Match: Eoin Darcy (9.0)
Goals: Gordon 2 (8.8), Darcy, Bryan (8.2)
Assists: Darcy, Bryan, Ros (7.7)
Notables: Jackson (7.5), Kirkland (8.0), Ashworth (7.2), Mattle (7.5), Mills (7.9), Connolly (7.0)


-- Darcy is out 5-6 days. Not a big deal.

[Radii]

December 9th, 2026

European Champions Cup Group H

Slavia Prague @ Ipswich

We'd like to win by a lot today to try to win our group but resting some players is more important.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Hughes/Mattle/Ashworth/Heywood
DM: Sergio Roberto
MC: Smith/Bartlett
AM: Ros/Chrzanowski
ST: Bryan

With Battersby, Darcy, and Di Giuseppe all hurt I'm afraid to run two strikers and risk one getting hurt, so we go DMC and AML/AMR today. Lots of backups start, Kirkland, Gordon, Mills rest.

We attack, commentary only today.

24': Bryan to Smith for our first goal. 1-0

35': Bryan with a run down the right on a counterattack, a cross into the area, Ros is there and volleys it in! 2-0

HALF: Looking good. We'll keep pushing in case goal differential ends up mattering.

65': Smith to Bryan for our 3rd goal. 3-0

Easy win!

Ipswich 3 : 0 Slavia Prague


Man of the Match: Chris Bryan (9.0)
Goals: Bryan, Smith (8.2), Ros (8.1)
Assists: Bryan 2, Smith
Notables: Heywood (7.4), Hughes (7.4), Mattle (7.3), Bartlett (7.2)

-- We receive $1.148M for winning today.

-- Olympique Lyonnais beats Austria Wien 4:2.


We finish 2nd in the group:

1. Olympique Lyonnais 5-0-1
2. Ipswich 5-0-1
3. Austria Wien 2-0-4
4. Slavia Prague 0-0-6

We have a +8 goal differential, Olympique Lyonnais +10. My decision to attack Olympique Lyonnais when trailing 1:0 at the half and giving up 2 more goals is perhaps the difference between winning the group and finishing 2nd.

[Radii]

-- Jean resumes full training.

December 12th, 2026

Ipswich (12-3-1, 1st) @ Everton (4-5-7, 16th)

We're 4:5 favorites on the road, they're 3:1 to win. We're 6-5-6 lifetime against them, perfectly even. The home team wins in this series every time going back 3 years now. 2:1, 2:1, and 3:1 losses the last three times at their place.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Mattle/Connor/Heywood
M: Adagsmar/Smith/Mills/Gordon
F: Bryan/Constantino

Back to a super strong lineup today. Standard mindset on the road today.


5': We have a throwin deep in their end. Its thrown long into the area, they head it up into the air, Kirkland gets under it and heads it into the net!! 1-0

17': Cross into the area by Gordon, Bryan is tackled.. and a penalty is given!! Gordon takes the penalty and scores! 2-0

35': A corner taken by Gordon, Mattle heads it, just high.

HALF: We have an incredible 70%/30% possession edge today. We've shot 9 times to their 1. We appear to be in complete control here, Everton is just down this year (no Connor, that's why!).

54': We win a ball in midfield, ahead to Bryan, ahead for Constantino, he's got a clear cut chance, but the keeper has come well off his line and blocks the shot.

68': Bartlett in for Bryan, he moves to DMC, 4-1-4-1.

89': Corner for us, taken to the far post... a man goes down, and its a second penalty! Gordon takes this one too and gives us a 3-0 lead. 3-0

Everton 0 : 3 Ipswich

Man of the Match: Neil Gordon (9.1)
Goals: Gordon 2, Kirkland (8.3)
Assists: Constantino (7.2), Mills (7.1)
Notables: Heywood (7.7), Connor (7.4), Adagsmar (7.1)


We bought Connor from Everton, so I'm happy to see him play really well today.


Tottenham ties Sunderland today, they'd been keeping us with us every step of the way on this winning streak. The points we pick up today give us a 3 point lead over 2nd place. 4 ahead of Arsenal in 3rd. We're 8 points ahead of Man city who is in 5th right now.

[Radii]

-- We have a coaches meeting, Di Giuseppe continues to train well, Off The Ball (19), Long Shots (16) and Strength (16) have all improved recently. Connolly is noted for

training well but nothing has gone up real recently for him. Constantino and Adagsmar are both mentioned for training poorly, though there were no recent drops in Constantino's ratings.

-- Yuri Di Giuseppe resumes full training. Woohoo!

December 15th, 2026

Ipswich (13-3-1, 1st) @ Sheffield Wednesday (1-3-13, 20th)

We are 1:3 favorites today on the road again, they're 7:1 to win. Sheffield Wednesday was last in the EPL in the 99/00 season and its a virtual certainty that they'll drop back down.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Ashworth/Connor/Jackson
M: Ros/Jean/Connolly/Gordon
F: Darcy/Constantino

Ashworth and Ros start today, Jean starts for the first time since his injury just to make sure he stays fit. Standard mindset today on the road.

18': Gordon with a free kick from 25 yards out, just barely wide.

33': Connolly with a ball into the area, Constantino gets behind the defense and scores easily. We've shot 9 times but lots of stuff wildly off target. 1-0

39': They have a throwin in our end, its one of the longest throws I've seen, into the 6 yard box, headed to the penalty spot, it falls to midfielder Nunez and he puts it in, ugh. 1-1

HALF: We have 66% of the possession, 12 shots to their 3, just the one poor moment where we let in a bad goal.

53': Aldrovandi in for Ashworth... worried about this one now.

54': Connolly with a shot from 25 yards out, the keeper saves it but can't hold it, the rebound comes straight out in front of the goal and Darcy is there, he puts it in before the keeper can recover! 2-1

74': jean is hurt, and he's got to come out, crap! Bartlett and Chrzanowski are in for Jean and Connolly at MC.

78': Defensive mindset.

We finish this off easily.

Sheffield Wednesday 1 : 2 Ipswich

Man of the Match: Brett Connolly (8.2)
Goals: Darcy (7.4), Constantino (7.3)
Assists: Connolly 2
Notables: Jackson (7.3), Kirkland (7.0), Ros (8.1)

Ashworth had a 5.6 rating when we took him out.

Injury Update

-- Jean had a couple ribs broken today and he's going to miss another 3-4 weeks.

[kingfc22]

Geez man. Beatdown after beatdown after beatdown!!!

[Barkeep49]

Originally Posted by Radii

Constantino is having another solid season, he has 5 goals and 8 assists in 9 league matches so far. He appears to be headed towards his 12th straight season with 10 league goals. But the noteworthy thing today is that the first goal Constantino scored today was his 300th in league play. He has 301 goals in 426 matches, add 118 assists and 101 man of the match awards to that total.

That's one hell of a career. What does his International play look like?

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Barkeep49

That's one hell of a career. What does his International play look like?

None. He's Spanish but never got called up. His ratings were always so heavily skewed towards his physical gifts, his technical abilities have always been just average and that kept him from getting any international love. About 2/3 of his 300 goals came from absolutely crushing lower levels (a 50 goal season in the championship etc), though he did have two spectacular EPL seasons (27 goals/17 assists in 20/21 and 23 goals in 22/23).

I hate seeing him start to decline!

[rlmayer32]

This is your year for sure.

[Radii]

Champions League First Knockout Round Draw

We're sitting in first in the English Premier Division, and we draw the team sitting in first place in La Liga in Spain, Betis. That will be a hell of a series. Arsenal will play Germany's Dortmund. Huddersfield plays defending champions OM. Man City was the other team in the champions League and they failed to make it out of the group stage.

-- Our next match will take us to the halfway point of the season.

December 20th, 2026

Aston Villa (10-3-5, 6th) @ Ipswich (14-3-1, 1st)

We're on a run so good right now that the bookies make us 2:5 favorites over a team in the top 7. We're 4-6-8 lifetime against Aston Villa, last year we won at home and tied at their place, the best we've ever done in a single season against them.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Aldrovandi/Connor/Heywood
M: Ros/Smith/Mills/Gordon
F: Di Giuseppe/Constantino

Di Giuseppe isn't quite 100% yet but more than close enough. We attack today.

24': First highlight of the match on either side. Throwin deep in their end leads to a great chance for Heywood but his shot is right at the keeper.

33': Free kick out wide left, almost a corner kick really. Gordon sends it near post, Aldrovandi redirects it with his head and its a goal!! His first of the year we are told. 1-0

45': Bogdanovs with a free kick, taken short to Kirkland, immediately up to Ros, he plays a pass 30 yards ahead to Constantino who burns his man, sprints into the area and scores!!! 2-0

HALF: We only saw like 4 highlights, but 2 of them led to goals and none of them involved Aston Villa having any possession at all. We shoot 7 times to their 1 and appear to be in full control again today.

46': We score 35 seconds into the second half, four passes, Constantino to Mills for an easy goal!! 3-0

57': Constantino receives a pass near midfield and begins a run through their defense, getting by 3 men on his way into the penalty area, he cuts to the right side of the area to try to find a pass, but he's tackled and its a penalty!! Gordon takes it and scores! 4-0

75': Hughes in for Kirkland, Ashworth for aldrovandi, Chrzanowski for Gordon.

We get to the end easily after that.

Ipswich 4 : 0 Aston Villa

Man of the Match: Constantino (9.2)
Goals: Constantino, Mills (8.2), Gordon (8.1), Aldrovandi (8.6)
Assists: constantino 2, Ros (7.7), Gordon
Notables: Heywood (7.6), Connor (7.4), Smith (7.4)

#2/#3 played today with Arsenal beating Tottenham 1-0.

With that nearly every team in the leauge has played 19 matches, we're at the midpoint of the season, 4 points ahead of 2nd, 8 points ahead of 3rd, 10 points ahead of 5th!! Midseason update to come.

[Radii]

English Premier Division 2026/27 Mid-Season Update

League Standings

1. Ipswich - 48 pts
2. Arsenal - 44 pts
3. Tottenham - 40 pts
4. Chelsea - 40 pts
----------------------
5. Man City - 38 pts
6. Aston Villa - 33 pts
7. Liverpool - 32 pts
----------------------
8. Man Utd - 30 pts
9. Huddesrfield - 27 pts
10. Sunderland - 27 pts
11. Blackburn - 23 pts
12. Shefield Utd - 22 pts
13. Exeter - 20 pts
14. Southampton - 20 pts
15. Newcastle - 20 pts
16. QPR - 18 pts
17. Everton - 17 pts
---------------------
18. Nottingham Forest - 14 pts
19. Birmingham - 12 pts
20. Sheffield Wednesday - 6 pts


We are 15-3-1. Arsenal is 14-2-3. Chelsea and Tottenham also both have 3 losses (12-4-3 each).

We've scored 50 and allowed 13 goals for a +37 goal differential. Arsenal is at 49 scored/19 allowed for +30. Tottenham +21.


Goals

1. Bugra Yildirim - Arsenal - 19 goals
2. Clive Chapman - Tottenham - 16 goals
3. Yuri Di Giuseppe - Ipswich - 13 goals
4. Emmanuel Morgan - Tottenahm - 11 goals
5. Hans Nooij - Arsenal - 11 goals
6. Neil Gordon - Ipswich - 10 goals
....
17. Eoin Darcy - 7 goals
18. Constantino - 7 goals

Bryan only has 2 league goals. He was hurt early on and has mostly by chance played more in the Champions League and less in the EPL.

Assists

1. Constantino - Ipswich - 11
2. Clive Chapman - Tottenham - 9
3. Enrico Rocchini - Tottenham - 8
4. Danny Clark - Aston Villa - 8
5. Jean - Ipswich - 7
...
23. Steven Mills - 4

David Ros, Sergio Roberto, Eoin Darcy, Juan Pablo Crespo, Neil Gordon all have 3 assists.

Average Rating

1. Constantino - Ipswich - 7.85
2. Bob van Schijndel - Man Utd - 7.68
3. Yuri Di Giuseppe - Ipswich - 7.64
4. Neil Gordon - Ipswich - 7.57
5. Clive Chapman - Tottenham - 7.56
...
12. Stuart Kirkland - 7.42
13. Steven Mills - 7.40
24. Juan Pablo Crespo - 7.27
55. Clive Jackson - 7.07
79. Kieran Connor - 6.97
86. Jean - 6.96

[Radii]

December 23rd, 2026

League Cup Quarterfinal

Ipswich @ Chelsea

Winner plays Man City. Board doesn't care about the league cup, we'd be content to not have more matches so we can focus on the FA Cup and league play, we're resting guys today as planned.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Hughes/Bartlett/Ashworth/Jackson
M: Adagsmar/Sergio Roberto/Connolly/Chrzanowski
F: Darcy/Bryan

We'll counter attack today.

4': Darcy to Bryan after a pass is intercepted allowing us to catch them off guard, Bryan makes a run into the right side of the area, shoots and beats the keeper! 1-0

21': Their ST David Thomas steals the ball from Adagsmar on a backpass in our own end, he makes a run into the area, we're closing down pretty fast but he gets a good look nonetheless... and misses completely, his shot is well high.

36': Adagsmar a yellow.

HALF: Possession is even, we have 4 shots with 2 on target, they have 6 shots but 4 from long range and nothing on target. So far so good!

62': They have a corner, we head it out but they push it back in, a pass to Thomas and he's not defended at all, really poor positioning on our part, Thomas shoots and scores. 1-1

71': Wow, midfielder Aurier with a blast from 30 yards out and it catches everyone off guard, including Bogdanovs. Its in. 1-2

79': Bryan is hurt.

85': Darcy is hurt...

That's it.

Chelsea 2 : 1 Ipswich

Goal: Bryan (7.2)
Assist: Darcy (7.2)

Hughes and Ashworth both really struggled today with 5.4 ratings.

We are really just fine with not dealing with the league cup anymore.


We are quite lucky in that Darcy and Bryan both are not injured long term.

[Radii]

-- We get contract updates and I extend most of my scouts/coaches that have contracts expiring. Mainly though I had somehow let Bogdanovs go without a contract offer back in August. He wants a raise from $64k/wk to $81k/wk and will be around for 3 additional years. No problem at all.

-- Adagmsar and Capitani both have expiring contracts and won't be getting new offers.

-- Chrzanowski is still not interested in staying here. I'm not going to sell him in January but he'll likely be leaving on a bosman transfer.

-- ML Crespo resumes full training, he'd missed the last two months.

Injury Update

-- Dmitrijs Bogdanovs is injured in training and is going to miss 5-6 days. That's not that long... but we play Arsenal in a couple days and he'll miss that. We did luck out and have a match shortly after against Man City rescheduled, so he'll only miss the Arsenal match.

December 28th, 2026

Arsenal (15-2-3, 2nd) @ Ipswich (15-3-1, 1st)

We're super slim 6:4 favorites, they're 13:8 to win, essentially even. We're 7-3-12 lifetime against Arsenal. It used to be much, much worse, we've beaten them 4 times in a row, including a 2:1 win on the road back in August.

GK: Lines
D: Kirkland/Ballester/Connor/Heywood
M: Ros/Smith/Mills/Gordon
F: Di Giuseppe/Constantino

Counter attacking mindset today, holding back a little trying to protect Lines.

8': Connor with a yellow.

13': They get a ball into the penalty area, Nooij with a shot from close range but Lines makes the stop!

14': Their defender Hazucha with a yellow.

21': Smith with a pass ahead to David Ros, Ros has a clear cut chance but its into the side netting.

31': Di Giuseppe a yellow.

38': Bugra Yildirim with a run down the right side, he crosses into the area, Ballester misses a header and the ball falls to the foot of midfielder Stammen who volleys it into the net. We should not have allowed that cross to connect, that was bad. 0-1

HALF: Lots of shots today but we haven't seen a lot of them in highlights. 8 shots for us with just 2 on target, 7 shots for them with 3 on target. They are slightly better in most every way here today, we've had great success in the past coming out attacking in situations like this and we'll try it here.

63': Constantino!!!!!!!!! He takes a pass 30 yards out near hte right sideline, he comes to the middle of the field, avoids one tackle, cuts by a second man, cuts into the penalty area and shoots and scores!!!! Crazy long individual control by Constantino to find his own shot and score! 1-1

85': Indirect free kick 25 yards out for Arsenal, Bugra Yildirim taps it to ST Wiez who shoots, hits the right post as Lines is diving over that way, and it bounces in... damn! 1-2

We can't do anything else here.

Ipswich 1 : 2 Arsenal

Man of the Match: Constantino (8.3)
Goal: Constantino
Assist: Gordon (6.9)

Ballester a 5.4, everyone else is in the 6.5-6.9 range. We get a point there if Bogdanovs isn't hurt, I'm sure of it.


Arsenal played a league match and won while we were playing in the league cup, so we're 2 points behind them now with this loss but have a match in hand.

[Alf]

Why not sell Chrzanowski and make some money instead of leaving him for free ? Is he playing that much for you ?

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Alf

Why not sell Chrzanowski and make some money instead of leaving him for free ? Is he playing that much for you ?

Only 20% of the money I make selling players right now gets returned to my transfer budget. I don't have enough depth at MR/DR (with Clive Jackson able to play both) to afford to let Chrzanowski go and not replace him with another MR, and so far at least I'm very much so better off with an average morale Chrzanowski playing for me than a player I could afford to replace him.

[Portiere]

In a private chat, promise him you'll allow him to leave in the next window. That should improve his morale for the rest of the season.

[Radii]

European Goalkeeper of the Year

-- For the second year in a row AS Monaco's Mario Masella is the top goalkeeper in the Europe. For the second year in a row Dimitrijs Bogdanovs comes in 3rd for this award.


January Update

-- We play on the 1st, 9th, 13th, 16th, 26th and 30th, and assuming we win against our League 2 opponent in the FA Cup, also on the 23rd. 2 of 5 matches at home, a fairly

easy schedule this month, Huddersfield the biggest competition.

-- Eoin Darcy is 2nd for EPL Player of the Month last month.

-- David Ros wins the EPL Young Player of hte Month award!! His ratings are really not that great outside of having tons of speed, but I've been very happy with the results

I've gotten from him when he's played.

-- Constantino scores the goal of the month!

-- Arsenal's manager is manager of the month as they went 6-0-0. We went 3-0-1 with our only loss to Arsenal without our keeper.

-- The board is very pleased with my leadership. Our increase in stature is the highlight... losing to Arsenal is the negative.

-- We lost $1.27M last month.


January 1st, 2027

FA Cup Third Round

Ipswich (EPL) @ Rochdale (L2)

we're 1:6 favorites on the road today against a league 2 side.

GK: Lines
D: Hughes/Ashworth/Bartlett/Jackson
M: Adagsmar/Sergio Roberto/Connolly/Chrzanowski
F: Darcy/Battersby

Lots of backups today, with some starters ready to go as necessary. We'll attack.

5': Battersby takes a corner to the near post, Ashworth gets his head on it and its in!! Ashworth's first ever goal with the senior team. 1-0

HALF: We see some crappy off target shots and corners go nowhere and go to the half just up a goal. Rochdale actually has 7 shots to our 4, we have a small possession edge. We're awful in the air today, they win 70% of headers to our 40%. I bring Bryan in for Battersby at the half, Battersby isn't match fit after an injury and I was hoping this would be easy enough for him to win playing less 100% but I'm not going to leave him out there for another half.

74': Bryan misses a shot from point blank range.

91': Jackson to Sergio Roberto for the easy goal to secure this one. 2-0

Rochdale 0 : 2 Ipswich

We played much better in the second half, only allowing them to take 1 shot while we took 10 and pressured them much more.

Man of the Match: Eoin Darcy (9.0)
Goals: Sergio Roberto (7.8), Ashworth (8.0)
Assists: Battersby (6.9), Jackson (8.3)
Notables: Hughes (7.5), Bartlett (7.0), Chrzanowski (7.0), Adagsmar (7.0), Connolly (7.1)

-- We receive $110,000 for winning this one.

[RPI-Fan]

Ashorth has been playing a lot in your victories!

[Radii]

-- A match vs Sunderland is moved from the 13th to the 20th since they have an FA Cup replay.

-- Roma and Real Madrid both make bids for Brett Connolly, $9 million and $11 Million, we like connolly and reject the offers. A few days later At. Madrid also bids for him.

-- Roma also bids $21.5M for Steven Mills.

-- At. Madrid bid $12.5M for Sergio Roberto

-- Some of these bids are really decent value, but we don't care at all about money right now, this is our team that's going to win the EPL dammit!

FA Cup Fourth Round Draw

We're getting a home match today, a powerhouse matchup with the #3 team right now in the EPL, Tottenham.

-- The day before our match with Huddersfield Anthony Heywood eats some bad something or other and will miss a few days with food poisoning.

January 9th, 2027

Huddersfield (10-3-9, 9th) @ Ipswich (15-3-2, 2nd)

We're 4:5 favorites at home against Huddersfield today. We lost to them 1:0 at their place back in August, our only loss until that last league match vs Arsenal.

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

Standard mindset today.

20': They get a goal but its pretty clearly offsides. They only have 2 shots but are being pretty damn aggressive here.

26': A run up the right side, Constantino gets by the last man on that side, crosses to the far post, its not perfect cross, a little far towards the end line, but Ros has a completely empty net... and heads it into the left post, doh!

38': They have a corner, taken to he far post... they win the header but it hits the crossbar.

41': Bartlett is in for Ballester, I've seen two highlights where their star ST just takes the ball away from Ballester at midfield to trigger breaks for team and he hasn't been playing great recently anyway, I pull him right now.

HALF: We have 10 shots, but only 3 on target. They have 6 shots, 3 on target. Its seemed like a pretty wide open game, our defense doesn't feel very good right now, I'm really worried that their star Cavalieri is going to burn us.

59': Bartlett a yellow.

60': There's the goal I was worried about, a through ball into the area and Cavalieri is way behind the defense and scores easily. Awful defending. 0-1

68': Connolly in for a tiring Mills. We're going to attack.

75': We have a throwin in our end but they win a header on the throw, a through ball to midfielder Santos and they take a 2-0 lead, baaad. 0-2

81': Bartlett brings down Cavalieri about 25 yards out, its a rough tackle and he's given his second yellow and he's gone. Hughes in for Constantino. 4-4-1.


What an awful performance

Ipswich 0 : 2 Huddersfield


Just an awful, ugly performance. We're 5 points back of Arsenal now, but we do still have a match in hand.

[Alf]

Huddersfield has your number it seems.

[MIJB#19]

Originally Posted by Radii

European Champions Cup Group H
We finish 2nd in the group:

1. Olympique Lyonnais 5-0-1
2. Ipswich 5-0-1
3. Austria Wien 2-0-4
4. Slavia Prague 0-0-6

We have a +8 goal differential, Olympique Lyonnais +10. My decision to attack Olympique Lyonnais when trailing 1:0 at the half and giving up 2 more goals is perhaps the difference between winning the group and finishing 2nd.

Just a FYI: in UEFA competitions, head-to-head (including the well-known away goal rule from the KO phases) is the primary tie-breaker. Overall goal difference is just a last resort tie-breaker.

In this situation losing 'only' 1-0 at Lyon would have resulted in Ipswich winning on the overall goal difference afterall (since 1-0 vs 0-1 requires the next tie-breakers). Losing 2-0 there would have had Lyon win it, independant of overall goal difference, goals scored, goals on the road, etc. In that regard, pushing when down 2-0 did make sense, since going from 0-2 to 0-3 didn't matter, yet going from 0-2 to 1-2 would make a huge difference.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by MIJB#19

Just a FYI: in UEFA competitions, head-to-head (including the well-known away goal rule from the KO phases) is the primary tie-breaker. Overall goal difference is just a last resort tie-breaker.

In this situation losing 'only' 1-0 at Lyon would have resulted in Ipswich winning on the overall goal difference afterall (since 1-0 vs 0-1 requires the next tie-breakers). Losing 2-0 there would have had Lyon win it, independant of overall goal difference, goals scored, goals on the road, etc. In that regard, pushing when down 2-0 did make sense, since going from 0-2 to 0-3 didn't matter, yet going from 0-2 to 1-2 would make a huge difference.

Thanks! I did not know this at all, might matter in future seasons

[Radii]

-- Inter bid $7.5M for Anthony Heywood, we say no as always but that's a big club to come calling.

-- In a coaches meeting we're told that Chris Bryan may be thinking about a new challenge, hopefully challenging for the EPL title and a deep Champions League run ends any

talk of that before it gets going though.

-- Real Madrid bid $15M for Sergio Roberto, I say no again.

-- Unhappy MR Dariusz Chrzanowski will be leaving us for Cagliari on a bosman transfer during the offseason. Hopefully he'll be content with that and will play out the rest of his contract with me and try to win a championship on the way out.

January 16th, 2027

Ipswich (15-3-3, 2nd) @ Blackburn (7-7-9, 12th)

After a couple losses we don't get to be massive road favorites anymore. I'm ok with that, less complacency hopefully. We're 6:4 favorites at their place. We tied Blackburn 1:1 back in September at our place 1:1 and are 6-7-4 lifetime against them.

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

Counterattacking mindset on the road against their 3-4-3 formation.

7': They come out aggressive and get the first good looking shot, a solid strike from 20 yards out that hits the crossbar and bounces nearly straight down, just barely not a goal, lucky for us.

20': Two throwins deep in their end, in one Adagsmar puts a shot over the bar, the other, their keeper comes out and intercepts a poor cross.

25': Adagsmar with a cross into the area, Constantino a good looking header from close range but high.

27': We earn a corner, they clear it out but we control, sent out wide right to Gordon, he crosses far post, Adagsmar is there, the keeper is positioned pretty poorly and Adagsmar heads it in!! 1-0

HALF: We see a few more highlights the rest of the first half but most of them go absolutely nowhere, a few show some back and forth with missed/blocked shots in the end. We have a 57/43 possession edge, shoot 7 times to their 4 with each team putting 2 on target. They are tackling successfully at an 89% rate, the biggest thing that stands out in the other stats. No change at the half for us.

57': We win a ball in defense, intercepting a pass in our own penalty area and the counter attack is on, a long pass to Constantino, he pushes it ahead to Di Giuseppe, a run down the right.. a low pass into the area where Constantino is free and he scores! Nice teamwork between our veteran and young star scorers. 2-0

68': Yellow for their defender Leach. We have a free kick out wide right, a cross into the area is headed away. We recover and build up on offense, Jackson receives a pass 30 yards out near the right sideline, plays a long cross in, Di Giuseppe goes up with a defender, wins a header and puts it in! 3-0

73': Sergio Roberto, Chrzanowski and Darcy in for Mills, Gordon and Constantino.

76': They get one back with a little through ball into the area and a shot by ST Chris Smith that Bogdanovs dives for but doesn't get down quite fast enough. 3-1

We finish it easily from there.

Blackburn 1 : 3 Ipswich

Man of the Match: Yuri Di Giuseppe (9.0)
Goals: Di Giuseppe, Constantino (7.9), Adagsmar (7.8)
Assists: Jackson (7.3), Gordon (8.7), Di Giuseppe
Notables: Kirkland (7.3), Smith (7.0)

Everyone else in the top 6 wins as well.

[Radii]

January 20th, 2027

Ipswich (16-3-3, 2nd) @ Sunderland(9-6-8, 10th)

We're 6:4 favorites again on the road today against Sunderland. We beat them 3:2 at home back in August to open our season. We're 6-1-6 lifetime against them.

GK: Bogdanovs
D: Kirkland/Mattle/Connor/Jackson
M: Ros/Sergio Roberto/Connolly/Gordon
F: Darcy/Constantino

We switch out our entire midfield and Di Giuseppe today. We have a huge match to open the FA Cup vs Tottenham in 3 days. We'll counter today.

16': They get a ball into the area and have a quick clear cut chance, but Bogdanovs comes up huge and makes the save.

17': Connolly is injured and must leave imediately. Mills is in.

HALF: We shoot 5 times but 3 are from long range, they have 3 shots w/ 2 on target. We're going to change to a standard mindset for the second half, we need to generate more chances here.

58': Darcy is hurt.

58': Through ball into the area for them, they take a quick free kick near midfield, one pass and a clear cut chance in the area that they bury. 0-1

62': Di Giuseppe in for the injured Darcy. We attack.

76': They try a cross, we head it away, they recover and pass it back into the area for ST Pique. Connor goes for a slide tackle, misses completely, and Pique shoots and scores. 0-2

Poor loss here, very frustrating!

Sunderland 2 : 0 Ipswich


Injury Update

-- MC Connolly is out for 2-3 weeks with a groin strain suffered today.


-- Arsenal gets the chance to pull away a little as we suffer a couple defeats against teams we need to be beating, or at least playing to a draw.

[SirFozzie]

*poke poke poke*

don't make us get the mob out with pitchforks and torches for updates

[NoSkillz]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

*poke poke poke*

don't make us get the mob out with pitchforks and torches for updates

I'm right behind you Foz - I hear North Carolina is nice this time of year

[Radii]

Right now its either randomly 75 or 30 at all times it seems, its kinda weird in North Carolina right now!

Things have been hectic w/ a big project at work and with dad's health, so gaming time has been reduced heavily and what time I have has been mainly spent playing a couple MP games with friends. Hopefully that's a short term thing

[Radii]

January 22nd, 2027

FA Cup 4th Round

Tottenham (13-5-6, 5th) @ Ipswich (16-3-4, 2nd)

We're even money favorites at home in the FA Cup today. We destroyed Tottenham 5:1 at home in league play back in October.

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

Standard mindset today.

20': the first highlight, and first shot comes with a Tottenham blast from out wide that's blocked behind for a corner. We clear the corner.

24': They bring it forward down the left and pass to a forward 20 yards out, Aldrovandi goes for a tackle but doesn't make it cleanly, the ball comes free into the penalty area where midfielder Toivola recovers it and scores easily. 0-1

34': Crespo with a yellow.

39': Smith passes ahead to Di Giuseppe who is near the edge of the box, he pulls up and sends a shot bending into the right side of the net, it looked way easier than it was, really pretty goal. 1-1

HALF: We have 5 shots, they have 4, they're doing a better job getting good chances though, only a great strike by Di Giuseppe has us tied right now. We're going to attack in the second half.

69': Chrzanowski in for Gordon.

79': Our first clear cut chance of the match, Di Giuseppe gets it with some space, they close in and he passes into the area for Chrzanowski who blasts a shot but right at the keeper.

79': Constantino in for Bryan.

That's it, we don't allow a single shot in the second half but can't take advantage of the few chances we get ourselves.

Ipswich 1 : 1 Tottenham

We'll have to advance via a replay at their place.

Their goal scorer is man of the match.

Goal: Di Giuseppe (7.0)
Assist: Smith (7.1)
Notables: Kirkland (7.2), Aldrovandi (7.0)

[SirFozzie]

good to see an update, Rad.. hope all is well for you.

[Alf]

What SirFozzie said. Hoping all is well.

[DCSportsFan12]

Been enjoying the read even, even went back and looked up some old names. Any of these guys have some notable seasons or careers?
Kevin Lynch
Joe O'Sullivan
Zoltan Harsanyi
Mark Cullen
Stelios Nikolaou
Danijel Subotic

[Radii]

Well, I finished Skyrim, which is where I spent most of January, and just raged SUPER HARD in league of legends after a long losing streak and a streak of horrible horrible people for teammates (assholes on the internet, I know, shocking). I want to try Kingdoms of Amalur but I kinda want to wait for a sale, so lets see if we can get back into this for a little while.

Game Reports may be a little lacking while I try to push the progression a little to get back into the flow of the game at first.

-- We have a match vs Man City rescheduled due to the replay required with Tottenham in the FA Cup.

-- There's a week left until the transfer deadline, but we're not really doing a whole lot there, we're about out of money and don't want to sell off any of our players that have us currently sitting in 2nd place.

FA Cup 5th Round Draw

If we do make it by Tottenham and advance to the next round, we'll be going on the road, but it'll be to play Championship side Watford. Somewhat shockingly, 9 of the 16 teams remaining will be non-EPL teams. Arsenal, Aston Villa, Man Utd, Chelsea all remain though.

January 26th, 2027

Ipswich (16-3-4, 2nd) @ Sheffield Utd (6-7-11, 14th)

We're slim 6:4 road favorites today. We beat them 3:0 at our place back in September and are 7-4-15 lifetime against them. Recent history has had us fairly evenly matched.

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

Harry Kane leads them with 5 goals. Di Giuseppe has 14 for us, Neil Gordon 10.

Standard mindset on the road.

4': Highlight opens with us on offense. Some passing near midfield, Heywood to Mills to Jean, Jean pokes it through into the penalty area, Constantino is the first one to the ball and its a classic poachers goal, an easy finish! 1-0

14': A strong attack for us, a corner, another cross into the area by Gordon, but we can't get a head to the corner or cross for a shot.
29': Corner for us, we are dominating at the moment, only 3 shots but zero for them and 65/35 possession edge.

37': Connor with a yellow.

HALF: We didn't see a single highlight with Sheffield Utd in possession. Not even a highlight that started in our defensive end. We have a 67/33 possession edge, 4 shots, just one on target for the goal. We'll keep this up but be ready to drop back a little if Sheffield Utd starts getting more pressure on us in the second half.

62': Craig Smith in for a tiring Mills.

66': We're passing it around near midfield, Heywood to Smith... Smith is 35-40 yards out, turns by his man, makes a run into the area before any defenders close down, one defender tries to make the tackle but smith scoots around it, by now he's inside 10 yards, and gets a shot by the keeper and in!! 2-0

75': We earn a corner kick, they clear it though, Heywood recovers it, centers it to Smith who is 20 yards out, he takes one step, fires and beats the keeper!! Super sub! 3-0

75': Chrzanowski in for Gordon, Hughes in for Kirkland

80': Chrzanowski with a run down the right side, he gets a cross in, Di Giuseppe wins the header about 8 yards out and it beats the keeper, blowout! 4-0

Sheffield Utd 0 : 4 Ipswich

A solid road win.

Man of the Match: Anthony Heywood (8.8)
Goals: Smith 2 (8.6), Constantino (7.6), Di Giuseppe (7.7)
Assists: Heywood 2, Jean (7.7), Chrzanowski (6.9)
Notables: Kirkland (7.6), Connor (7.7), Aldrovandi (7.6), Gordon (7.4), Adagsmar (7.1)

Heywood's two assists and solid defense earns him man of the match.



-- Arsenal gets a 6:0 win over Everton to stay out in first and even increase goal differential. #3 and #4 (Chelsea/Man City) played today to a wild 4:4 draw.

-- Looking above I don't think I did a mid-season update for the whole league, but I really just want to get some games in and won't be stopping to review a ton. But here's a look at the top of the standings right now.

24 matches played unless otherwise noted:

1. Arsenal - 60 pts - 1 MORE played
2. Ipswich - 54 pts
3. Chelsea - 51 pts
4. Man City - 51 pts
-----------------------------------
5. Tottenham - 44 pts
6. Man Utd - 43 pts
7. Aston Villa - 43 pts
-----------------------------------
8. Huddersfield - 42 pts - 1 more played
9. Liverpool - 40 pts - 1 more played



So the top 4 are pretty far ahead of everyone else, but a slump for a just a week could change everything. Arsenal has a +44 goal differential, ours is +38. We're 6 points out of first with 1 game in hand.