Ipswich Town - Bringing Back The Glory Days

ScottT - those games were horrible to try and navigate through, fortunately we had that West Ham game as a sort of 'breather' type game to get us back on track. The European dream is still alive and kicking, and I'm glad that we have shown that we can hang with the big boys.

We are all here for the football, and what better football can you watch than Ipswich Town vs MK Dons on the 3rd of May? The final game of the league season, a time to see if we are actually good enough to go up to the Championship in real life.



02/05/24

The first game of the month sees us host Spanish side Valencia in the Europa League Semi Final first leg.

Ipswich will be without Luke McCowan and Nuno Mendes through injury, whilst Yukhym Konoplya is suspended for the first leg.

Valencia will be without Francis Coquelin and Jose Carlos Novella through injury as they look to take an away goal back to Spain.




Good to get the win but that away goal for Valencia could be a problem. Hopefully we can hold them out on the away leg.



05/05/24

The first of the final three games of the league season sees us face Arsenal at home looking to secure European Football for the new season.

Ipswich will still be without Luke McCowan, but other than that they have a fully fit side to choose from as they look to secure European Football.

Arsenal will be without Ferland Mendy who has a lower back stress fracture, whilst Rodrigo Bentancur and Victor Lindelof are doubts.




I’ll take that. An excellent win against a side in and around us, with Dean Martin picking up another goal this season. He’s made right now. Honestly. He slipped slightly during March and April but he’s got 2 goals in 2 games now.



A brilliant performance against Arsenal results in the confirmation of our assault back on Europe next season. Europa League has been secured, and hopefully we can go one better than last year and get Champions League football.



09/05/24

Back to the Europa League now as we are one game away from our first European final since 1981. That day, we beat AZ in the final to lift the UEFA Cup, and hopefully we can do the same this year. To do so, we must overcome Valencia in Spain.

Valencia will be without Francis Coquelin and Pelayo Morilla for today’s game as they look to overturn their 2-1 loss in the first leg.

Ipswich will be without Luke McCowan and Daniel Naumov as they look to cement their place in the Europa League final.




YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS! Europa League final here we come! We had to do it in extra time, and of course it was Dean Martin that would step up to lead us into the final.




The draw has been made, and after being Chelsea 3-0 in the second leg, it will be Lazio that faces Ipswich Town in the Europa League Final.



12/05/24

Back to the Premier League now as we host bottom of the league Reading at Portman Road looking to secure a Champions League spot.

Ipswich will be without Luke McCowan who is still recovering from his torn wrist ligaments, but everyone else is available.

Reading have a fully fit side to choose from as they look to prevent Ipswich’s attack on the Champion League spots.




Excellent result against a side that was already relegated, but I’m glad to see 3 different goalscorers in the game. Martin’s a mental case, but Osimhen has had a brilliant 2024. But that’s not all that’s good about this game.......



WE’VE DONE IT! Champions League football is ours. It was getting to be so tough with that horrible 7 game run against the best 7 teams in England. Fortunately we took 3 points from Arsenal but everyone else beat us. Victory over Reading was sweetened by Chelsea’s loss to Aston Villa on the same day guaranteeing us Champions League football.



19/05/24

Into the final Premier League game now as we travel to European hopefuls Brighton.

Brighton may be without Lewis Dunk and Alfred Duncan for today’s game against Ipswich as they look to try and jump above Tottenham.

Ipswich will be without Luke McCowan for today’s game with Brighton as they look to overtake City and jump into 3rd.




The rotated side does the job, and even better because Man City lost to West Brom as well which means we jump up above them and into 3rd spot. An incredible season from our young squad, sitting as the 3rd best team in England.



30/05/24

The time has come for our first European Final of the save, as we travel to Austria to face Lazio in the Europa League Final. It’s been 43 years since our last assault on a European Final, and he’s hoping we can find some inner strength to pull through this game against a very good Lazio side.

Lazio have a fully fit side to choose from as they look to overthrow Ipswich in this captivating Europa League tie.

Ipswich will be without Kemal Gul who is suspended for the Europa League final today, but everyone else is fully fit.




EUROPA LEAGUE WINNERSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!! We had to do it the hard way all the way into extra time, but two goals from Dean Martin and an extra time goal from Victor Osimhen secures us the 3-2 win. Even if we didn’t finish in the top 4 of the league, this win would have given us a Champions League spot next season.


So there we have it, our second season in the Premier League has ended, and somehow we have defied all expectation and secured a Europa League spot, and emphatically at that!!! A brilliant season, so many of our kids stepped up and performed admirably. Next season will of course be as tough to retain our place as ‘best of the rest’, but I’m excited to see what we can do. The next update will of course be the annual ‘End of Season Review.’

Victor Osimhen and Dean Martin prove to be the heroes! Congratulations on both your Champions League qualification and your Europa League success. Incredible stuff to have achieved such heights in very limited time.

We have reached the end of the league season, and we have secured ourselves a place in the Champions League for the 2024/25 season. Now that the 2023/24 season has come to a close, its time to look back across the world to see what’s being going on in our save this year.

LEAGUE TABLES

TROPHIES AND AWARDS

IPSWICH POSITIONS

CLUB STATS

So, that’s the round up of all the extra bits that have happened this season. I hope you have enjoyed reading my 2023/24 season with Ipswich Town, and let’s hope 2024/25 can be a belter as well. Our next update will be a look ahead to Pre Season, and any interesting things that happen between now and the 1st of July.

Wow! Europa League winners already, what an incredible achievement and it is great to see Osimhen play a massive role in winning that final after the uncertainty of signing him to replace that french bloke who didn't win anything at Barca

That run of games between March and April was horrific and whoever designed the schedule clearly had something against you (I assume they were Norwich fans or something!) but you managed to get through it and qualify for the Champions League. Continuing to go from strength to strength in this save, could we potentially see a real title push next season!?

We begin our 6th season in the save, and so far we have made progress each year. Year 1, we won League One. Year 2, we won the Championship Play Offs, Year 3, we overachieved and finished 13th in the Prem. Year 4, we defied expectations and snatched 7th spot. Year 5, we changed the landscape of the game by finishing 3rd. Year 6 has arrived......what could go wrong?


10/06/24

I mentioned in the June update last year that Manchester United signed Sergio Gomez for £47mill from Villarreal, and made a joke that because of his 1 goal in 100 games that is the criteria to be considered a good signing by United. I would like to apologise for being so mean about United, and to be fair he did pay back the £47mill last year playing 7 games.............

This year, they’ve gone bigger signing Thiago Almada from Roma for £85million. A direct replacement for the aforementioned Gomez, with 12 goals in 100 games. I mean it’s getting better right? Woodward is at it again!


13/06/24


Ipswich have acted fast to avoid a repeat of the almost calamity last season, by offering star defender Oumar Solet a new deal to eradicate his release clause. The Frenchman had a £60mill release clause in his contract, but Burley has been able to get rid of the possible sale by giving the defender a new 5 year deal with a 10k pay rise.

Imagine if Martin had left last season for £32mill to Leicester. I don’t know what I would do. I saw that Solet had a release clause and I wasnt making the same mistake twice. 83k a week, 5 year deal, no release clause. The 24-year-old defender is here for the long run.


15/06/24

The European Club Rankings have been announced. Ipswich started the season in 640th position, and have ended it in 69th spot. A remarkable climb for our side, and we are beginning to mix it with the big boys.


16/06/24

Not to be out spent by United, current holders Liverpool have stumped up £56million to bring in Ian Anderson from Vitesse. Stupid money being thrown about this window. £30million less for someone who’s done a lot more than Almada has done for Roma.


21/06/24

It’s not just the big boys that are spending a lot of money this season. Last seasons FA Cup runners of Norwich have allowed their midfielder Antonio Marin to move to FA Cup winners Leeds for £52million. I get a headache when I have to stump up £20mill let alone £50mill.


30/06/24


Ipswich have announced a monster contract for their leading striker Dean Martin, shoehorning of the interest from Manchester City and PSG. The Manchester side had a £75mill bid rejected in the final few days of June, and although Martin came to Burley in anger for rejecting the contract, the managers fears were quickly eradicated when Martin revealing the extent of his anger was because City were offering a pay rise. He indicated that he didn’t want to leave, and a big contract has been handed to one of the worlds best attackers.

I got so worried when Martin came to me saying that he was upset I rejected the bid from City in June. I expected him to come to me saying ‘nothing will change his mind and he wants to leave now’. But fortunately he just said that he wants a pay rise. £165k may sound like a lot of money for a club like Ipswich, but for someone like Martin you pay whatever you can.


So that’s the end of the June update. Not as much happened here compared to the previous seasons, but that’s because the youth facilities are all finished, and the training facilities are still being worked on, which are scheduled to be completed in December. Next update will be the July run through.



TheLFCFan - Osimhen has been a revelation. Probably the most improved player of the season, which is weird to say about someone you signed for £10mill. Gouiri really struggled last year at Barca, not being able to make the first team until March time. Played 7 games after that, scored 8 goals. Class is permanent.

I still don’t know how we stayed in the Champions League spots after that run of games. Must have been Norwich fans, guess they were jealous by our position in England. They were the favourites to win promotion from the Championship last season, didn’t even make the Play Off final. A title push might be a step too far, unless we can start to shore up our defence ever further.

Phew! Glad you've managed to keep hold of Martin.

Great accomplishment last Season and a good sign of Club growth with Martin and Solet staying at Ipswich! I am excited to see how you get on against Real Madrid and Leipzig as they are fitting opposition to see if the team is Champions League ready.
Keep on pushing Mate!

The beginning of the pre season. The most wonderful time of the year on Football Manager. Time to see what deals we can bring in and let out, hopefully finding some hidden gems for the future, and a few starlets for the first team.



01/07/24




So that's the transfers for the month of July, and as you can see the biggest news of the window is that Dean Martin is still with the club after big bids were rejected in the summer, and then he signed a new monster deal with us. Here are the new signings:

CM - Grant Margeman
LW - Reiss Nelson
LB - Domagoj Bradaric
ST - Alexey Tkachuk
CB - Jonas Bank
RW - Ludwig Englund
CM - Siviwe Motloung
RB - Tony Adebayo
LB - Brehima Karembe
CB - Karim Afkir
CB - Gabor Tamasko



03/07/24

Mexnat Yaypan vs Ipswich Town

Blue = trialist





07/07/24

LASK Linz vs Ipswich Town





11/07/24

Ipswich Town vs New York Red Bulls II





17/07/24

Ipswich Town vs Louisville





20/07/24

Barnsley vs Ipswich Town





24/07/24

IF Hallby vs Ipswich Town





27/07/24

Ipswich Town vs Real Madrid





29/07/23

RB Leipzig vs Ipswich Town





All in all a very productive pre season, especially that victory over a fully first team Real Madrid side at the end of the month. Lots of goals, almost too many for my poor graphic to handle! Seeing lots of different players impress throughout pre season has been good as well. The first month of the season has arrived, with a quick pre season friendly in there as well, and then we have a tough tie to newly promoted Huddersfield to start the season, but we also have the European Super Cup tie with Paris St Germain.




ScottT - I am so glad that we did keep him. Was worried he was going to want to leave once City came in for him, but he must love the club so much that he wants to stay.

Scholle - Solet was a big one, he developed so much last season alongside Valentin Antov. Very happy with the Madrid results as all their big names played, shame about the Leipzig one though.

Very good signings on paper once again. I'm intrigued to see if Bardaric performs as well as the previous recruit from Lille for a relatively low sum of money... Reiss Nelson is a very good option to bring in to not only fit with the required quota for homegrown players, but to also vastly improve the options you have with the step-up in competition that the Champions League brings. Margeman and Tkachuk also excite me!

As for pre-season, you've absolutely blitzed through everyone with the exception of Leipzig, but notably the inclusion of Real Madrid.

Some very exciting players joining an already brilliant side. Best bit of business has to be keeping Martin though, despite his huge wages, he is a world class talent and someone you need to be keeping as long as possible!

Pre-Season was fun and if it's any indication of the upcoming season. it should be a good one!

The beginning of the season. The second most wonderful time of the year on Football Manager. Yes I know it’s basically the same opening but it’s very much true . Time to see what we can do for this season, hopefully building on our excellent season last year. We have a pre season friendly to navigate first, but then we are into the big games.

We had one outgoing in January as well, with wing back Vladimir Spremo moving to Huddersfield on loan for the rest of the season. Spremo is considered our hot prospect for the future, so hopefully getting first team football in the Premier League will be good for the youngster.



03/08/24

Ipswich Town vs Osasuna

Blue = trialist






09/08/24

The first game of the new season sees us host newly promoted Huddersfield Town as we look to start our season in the best way possible.

Ipswich will be without Kemal Gul and Alexey Tkachuk for today’s games against Huddersfield with ankle and hip injuries respectively. They will be hoping to start on the front foot on their way towards another good season.

Huddersfield will not be able to play new signing Vladimir Spremo as he is on loan from Ipswich, and will also miss Christopher Schindler who has a sprained knee ligament.




Decent win to start the season. Would have liked a few more to show that we mean business once again this season, but you can’t beat three points and a clean sheet to start the season.



14/08/24

Only the second game of the season and we are already moving away from the Premier League, as we travel to Kazakhstan for the European Super Cup tie with Paris St Germain. Should be an interesting test for us.

PSG will be without N’Golo Kante as they look to claim their first Super Cup crown after losing to Tottenham in the match last season.

Ipswich will be without Kemal Gul, Alexey Tkachuk and Grant Margeman for the next few games, whilst Nikola Colic is suspended.




4 of our best players missing for the game, not bothered about winning this game. Glad to see we can still compete against the best team in the world with back ups forced into the team.



17/08/24

The third game of the month sees us travel to another recently promoted side in Sheffield United, as we look to bounce back from our defeat to PSG

Sheffield United will be without key man Mathias Jensen who has a hamstring strain, but besides him have a fully fit side to choose from as they look for their first point of the season

Ipswich will still be without Kemal Gul and Alexey Tkachuk for today’s game, whilst Grant Margeman is a doubt with blisters.




Embarrased. Pathetic. Lacklustre.



24/08/24

Moving on from that truly embarrassing performance against Sheffield United, in which I abused every single player after the game in person, we now travel to Wolves to try and find some dignity.

Wolves will be without Jonny for a while after he suffered a double hernia in training a few weeks back.

Ipswich will be still be without Alexey Tkachuk for a while, whilst Kemal Gul has returned to training but this game will come too soon for him.




A desperately needed victory to get us back on track. David Quinn scoring his first 2 competitive goals for us is massive as well, after spending the last few seasons out on loan in the Championship.



31/08/24

The final game of the month sees us host mid table Brighton as we look to end the month on a high.

Ipswich will be without Alexey Tkachuk for today’s game against Brighton with his hip injury. However, Kemal Gul and Grant Margeman should be fit enough to feature for the home side today.

Brighton will be without Carlo Holse with a pulled thigh as they look to jump back up into the European places with a win today.




Decent win against a good side. Still not happy by the fact we aren’t decimating teams like we did last year. The team is better, but the players aren’t performing like they should be.



Valentin Antov has made a decent start to the season, notching up 2 goals from centre back. In a month where Dean Martin has looked like a shell of his former self, we need others to step up and prove their worth to the team.




4 games, 3 wins, 1 clean sheet. Not content right now, which is weird considering where we sit, but against 4 poor teams this side I’ve created should be winning 5/6-0 each time. They really need to step it up once we actually play a half decent team.





Some interesting ties have been thrown up for this years Carabao Cup 3rd Round. Holders Manchester United travel to Swansea looking for more domestic glory. The tie with the most intrigue will be Tottenham vs Wolves, a game which sees two big sides battle each other. Liverpool are at home to Derby, whilst Chelsea travel to fellow Premier League side Newcastle.

Ipswich Town have been given an away tie with League Two side Stevenage as they look to add the Carabao Cup to their collection of trophies in this save.








ScottT - Bardaric looks like a decent player, but he's finding it tough to displace Nuno Mendes from the first team right now. Reiss was pure back up, but a few games here and their could be great for both him and the club. Tkachuk is my favourite signing, shame he did his hip in training, won't see him till the end of September.

TheLFCFan - Martin was a huge plus keeping him, but the new contract seems to have gone to his head as he's not scored yet and only got one assist.

A very disappointing loss to Sheffield United... I'm glad you managed to restore parity immediately with successive victories and it's also nice to see Quinn bag a brace for the club in the Premiership after loan spells out in the last few seasons. The Super Cup is a glorified exhibition event so I wouldn't be too upset about losing out there.

As for cup draws, a rotated side is likely to be played against Stevenage I think. I would be surprised if you didn't and the Champions League looks fairly well-rounded in terms of quality, but I reckon you have enough to qualify alongside Napoli, I would presume.

Wow you've went and took Ipswich on another trajectory since I last read this.. Bit late but well done on the story of the month and you'll have to get used to winning those for the next X amount of months before story of the year at this rate. Fantastic graphics, great detail and attention to detail too and the success continues. Well done on the EL win and getting Champions League so early as well. Dean Martin has become a monstrous player too, happy to see a world class Scottish striker!

We enter September preparing for our first adventure into the Champions League, and we have 3 league games to tackle on top of that. Hopefully we can keep our good run of form going, even if we aren’t demolishing teams like we should be right now.


Ok so there is something that we need to talk about, and it involves the sale of our second choice goalkeeper Daniel Naumov in July.

I was looking at selling Naumov because I didn’t want to slow down his development and wanted him to go out and play first team football. When I confirmed the deal for Naumov to leave, one of my ‘work permit-less’ signings from two years ago was having his paperwork dealt with having spent two years in Spain with Cadiz. The plan was to sell Naumov and use Ismael Ferreyra as my second choice keeper. Earlier in the summer, another ‘work permit-less’ player in Ignacio Olivera received his Spanish paperwork as was made available for the team. Upon completion of his 720 days in Spain, it took 4 days for his paperwork to be completed, so I was optimistic that Ferrerya’s paperwork would be the same.

Fast forward to the middle for July, Ferreyra’s 720 days were complete, so whilst the paperwork was going through, I confirmed the deal to sell Naumov to Brighton for £6million. This was on like the 15th of July. Instead of taking 4 days to get his paperwork like Olivera, Ferreyra’s took exactly 24 days, receiving his licence the day after our transfer window shut. I couldn’t recall him back before the deadline because he wouldn’t have got his work permit, and when he did I couldn’t bring him back because we were ‘outside the transfer window’. So I go into the first month of the season without a second choice goalkeeper, bar a 18 year old Christian Stevenson who has 1 star ability. Don’t want to rely on him. Now we find ourselves at the beginning of September, and I’ve had to act irrationally and sign a keeper on a free. Only here for a year, as he retires in the summer. Here he is:


Yep, we’ve gone a grabbed David Ospina for the year. He is also our U18 Goalkeeping Coach as well, so he’ll be here after he retires. Problem I have, he signed on the 4th of September. One day after the Champions League registration was due. As a free agent, he can be registered at any time for the Premier League, so he is in that squad, but he isn’t available for the Champions League until the knockouts, if we get there. Frustrating.




Ipswich have announced their squad for their upcoming Champions League adventure. All eyes will be on Dean Martin and Alexey Tkachuk to try and lead them to European glory once more, whilst Christian Stevenson, Brahima Karembe and Aytac Durmus will be looking to shine from the u23s.



14/09/24

The first game of the month sees us travel to bottom of the league West Brom looking to avoid another banana skin type of game.

West Brom have a lot of players unavailable, with Kostas Tsimikas and Bill Hopkins suspended for today’s game. Fabricio Bustos and Christoph Kramer are definitely injured, whilst Sam Johnstone and Karlo Bartolec are doubts.

Ipswich will be without Alexey Tkachuk for today’s game as he slowly returns from his hip injury, whilst everyone else is fit and available for today’s game.




Good to get the win, finally Dean Martin gets his first goal of the season. Another two goals for David Quinn. Maybe we don’t need Alexey Tkachuk to spearhead our European hunt.



18/09/24

The first of our European Adventure begins, as we travel to Russia to face Spartak Moscow in what needs to be a win in a tough group.

Spartak will be without Magomad-Shapi Sulemanov for today’s game against Ipswich as they look to start their European Journey in the best way possible.

Ipswich will still be without Alexey Tkachuk for today’s game against Spartak, whilst David Ospina and Luke Webb are unregistered.




An excellent start to the campaign, a win that we desperately needed to obtain considering the others teams in our group. Great start, old Deano is stepping up again.



21/09/24

Back to the Premier League now as we are host mid table Watford in a big clash for our season. A win here could see us jump up to first in the league.

Ipswich have a fully fit side to choose from as they look to jump to the top of the league above Manchester City.

Watford also have a fully fit side to choose from as they look to push themselves into a European spot.




Finally looking like a top tier side now. Dean Martin is back to his best, 2 goals and an assist for today’s game. Solet showing his prowess from corners once again.



24/09/24

Another competition for us to navigate how as we travel to League Two Stevenage as we attempt to avoid a big upset in the Carabao Cup Third Round.

Stevenage will be without Venancio Monteiro and Tony Springett for today’s game against Ipswich as they look to cause a massive upset.

Ipswich have a fully fit side as they look to a avoid defeat and progress towards a cup final that they have been unable to win so far.




The banana peel has been stepped over, and with a rotated side we get a 4-0 win. Hat trick for Osimhen is nice to see, plus Tkachuk gets his first Ipswich goal after his two month injury.



28/09/24

Back to the Premier League now as we host second in the league Leeds United at Portman Road looking to bridge the gap between the two of us.

Ipswich will be without Luke McCowan and Angus Gunn for today’s game against Leeds through minor injuries, so we will see a league debut for David Ospina.

Leeds will be without Waniss Taibi for today’s game against Ipswich as they look to continue their impressive start to the season and leapfrog the East Anglian side.




Excellent result against a side that was hunting us down. These are the kind of results we should be getting this season. Admittedly we haven’t had a ‘tough’ team to face yet, but hopefully we can take this form into those games.



He looked way of the pace in August, but Dean Martin has finally realised how good he can be. 5 games, 8 goal contributions. But at the same time, Quinny has got 2 goals. Osimhen got a hat trick against Stevenage. Tkachuk netted his first Ipswich goal after his injury lay off. Seeing all 4 strikers scoring goals is really exciting for this season.




That win against Leeds was massive in our pursuit for an unlikely Title push, but we can’t get complacent now because we have a lot of tough games still to play this season.





The 4th round draw has been made for the Carabao Cup, with one key tie taking the attention away from the others. Liverpool face current holders Manchester United in a must see tie, whilst last seasons runners up Manchester City face fellow Premier League side Huddersfield at home.

Ipswich face fellow Premier League side West Brom in a repeat of the first game of this month.





ScottT - the Sheffield United defeat was horrible, but we seem to have made up for that. I’m really excited about the 4 strikers we have currently, whilst the 3 in our U23s and 2 in our U18s have also been stepping up as well. Rotated side did the job against Stevenage, whilst the Champions League is a great opportunity for some more international acclaim. We are currently 37 games unbeaten at home in Europe. Let’s get that increasing.

Imagine - thank for the appreciation bro, the story of the month victory has only made me want to keep improving. A have a few new ideas graphics wise for my next adventure, but that’s down the road. For now, I’m really enjoying where we are right now. Martin is showing that he is a contender for the Bálon D’or. He’s doing Scotland proud.