[FM15] The Hart Chronicles - Volume I: Paul Hart's Alphabet Career

[PaulHartman71]

J-Watch

Juventus won the league this season Thankfully they were knocked out in the 1/4 final stages of the Italian Cup and CL but this league win will have probably bought Unai Emery at least another season or two. Juve Stabia finished 9th in Serie B - this is still enough to keep their manager on stable. Jaen of course were relegated last season - with any luck they'll have been promoted straight back up to Liga adelante next season to give me another possibly option. I am happy at Ipswich and more then happy to stay - but I've already achieved enough with them to leave "happy" if that makes sense. I'm delighted to get the opportunity to give them a go in the Champions League though - but I would've left if either Juve job had come available.

[Nobby_McDonald]

Well done on qualifying for the Champions League but you pipped Stoke to it

[glennuk]

Good to see you do well with Ipswich. De Meyer sounds a good prospect. Any chance of a screenshot?

[PaulHartman71]

Well done on qualifying for the Champions League but you pipped Stoke to it

I did think that you might approve

Good to see you do well with Ipswich. De Meyer sounds a good prospect. Any chance of a screenshot?

Thank glenn. Ivan De Meyer. All will be explained shortly

[PaulHartman71]

August/September

I had no real plans to sell any of these 3 in the summer - arguably my 3 best players, at least attacking-wise last season. But it seems with success - other clubs get interested. Valencia won the Champions League last season and came knocking for De Meyer - he was desperate to go so I let him when I found a decent replacement. I made £17M profit on him from just one season which is pretty nice. Allan Petit wanted to join Chelsea - not really sure why as they came 10th last season and we have CL football - but his contract ran out next summer and he was threatening to leave on a BOSMAN. I wanted £14M for him but Chelsea would only cough up 11 - it was that or let him go for nothing so I took the money. Chris Lester was another who wanted to leave - he's been fantastic for the last two seasons in the PL but he was desperate to leave for my old side Everton so I let him.

Jordan Rhodes left on a free transfer to join Sheffield Wednesday, with Victor Manuel Romero and Orio Rosell both also leaving on free transfers - they both joined Rayo Vallecano. I let Jasper Cillessen rejoin Ajax - he also left on a free transfer, he's 37 so I wouldn't have got much for him anyway and he was on too high wages for an unhappy back-up keeper. Henrik Nilsson was released at the end of his contract - with cult hero Horour Magnusson leaving to join Celtic on a free.

I was reluctant to sell De Meyer until I saw my old Holland striker Zivkovic was interested in joining - £22M is a big price for a 30 year old but he's a proven quality striker and has scored at least 10 PL goals for the last 10 seasons at Villa. Mustapha Benali joins from Barcelona for £6.75M to be a primarily rotation striker providing competition and back-up to Zivkovic - with the addition of European games this season we needed some decent depth.

Paupol Matondo joins from Arsenal for £12.5M - he's a quality versatile defender that will now be our first choice RB ahead of Luca Palmieri. Nedjeljko Jerkovic joins from West Brom - he's David Deronjic's international team-mate and he's every bit as good as him. Those two at the heart of our defence fills me with confidence. I let Chris Lester leave for Everton so it was nice of them to repay the favour and let me replace him with one of their players - Harry Wilson - he can also fill in at AML too. Per Hansen is our AML to replace Petit - he's a good young Dane who is every bit as good as Petit was. Kouadio Kouame is our new first choice keeper - he was recommended by Jasper Cillessen and by the looks of him - £2.5M for him at 28 years old is an absolute steal.

Our first choice side with everyone fit now looks something like this -

[PaulHartman71]

August

Funnily enough in the CL play-off we drew my old side Borussia Dortmund - I'm not 100 percent but if my memory serves me right this now means since leaving Dortmund - I've played them in Europe at every club I've been at (Dinamo Moscow, Everton, Getafe and now Ipswich). It was a real test and to be honest I wasn't sure if we could do it - we had no fit right wing option so Tommy Carney, a 20 year old right footed left winger, who has been on the fringes of the first team for a while now, ended up playing there. He score a magnificent 90th minute free-kick in the home tie to put us 1-0 up going into the away leg having not conceded an away goal. It was very tense in Dortmund and I don't know how we hung on - but Tommy Carney popped up in 92nd minute to dink it home from 5 yards to give us an away goal that confirmed our place in the Group Stage. What a hero!

Talk about group of death Not sure how we're gonna do here - would be pretty happy if we even managed to get into the Europa League by finishing 3rd in the group.

Tommy Carney opened the scoring in our opening day victory at Middlesbrough. Zivkovic netted a brace on his debut courtesy of two penalties. Deronjic also grabbed a goal from a corner. We absolutely smashed Huddersfield in our first home game of the season - Per Hansen got a brace from the left wing with an impressive performance. Jerkovic grabbed a goal from a corner - whilst Zivkovic and Robles also grabbed goals in the second half. Our only slip up so far was away to Derby - it was a tricky game and just 3 days on from Dortmund, the guys were absolutely knackered towards the end of it and I was worried we might concede.

September looks pretty horrific

[deltablue]

Good luck getting something from that CL group.

[PaulHartman71]

September

Annoying to go out of the League Cup but we just didn't have the squad to compete on all fronts. Could do us a favour in the long run to go out this early on.

An excellent start to the group saw us hang on to a 2-1 win at home to Atletico Madrid. We were 2-0 up in Munich at half-time - Bayern roared back in the second half to grab 5 though.

I was expecting Monaco to be the easiest game but they've already beaten Bayern and Atletico - so who knows.

A mixed month - poor display at home to Southampton saw us lose 1-0. Pretty terrible tired performance away to Old Trafford - we had to play our back-up keeper in this one who is a youth Academy graduate that is probably League 1 level so it was never gonna end well. I went into the Liverpool came quite pessimistic so I was delighted that a brace from Ben Gould managed to grab us a late win after going 1-0 down very early on.

[deltablue]

Do you think you could grab a top 4 spot again?

[PaulHartman71]

I'm not sure it's hard to say so early on. A lot of the traditionally big sides like Chelsea and Arsenal finished very low last season - but have started very promisingly this season. I'm not sure if they're just having good starts and will fade off - or are recovering from poor slumps in form over the last season or so. I think the competition for top four will be a lot harder this year - but I feel like we have a better squad than last season and we've beaten Dortmund home and away, as well as Atletico at home which gives me some hope we are a good side now.

[PaulHartman71]

October

A poor result away in Monaco as we let in 5 against them. We managed to pull off another great performance at home though as Tommy Carney again did the business for us in Europe.

A very open looking group. Atletico away and Bayern away. Tbf I'll be happy with a point in Madrid as that would guarantee at least a place in the Europa League which if the draws went our way we could probably get quite far in. Not sure if we can beat Bayern Munich at home - but would be awesome to get to the knockout stages. Not expecting it though.

A mixed month in the league - we were great at home but pretty poor away. We couldn't repeat the 3-1 win at the Emirates like last season and were on the wrong end of the same scoreline - we were flattered to even score. Then we beat West Brom 4-2 pretty comfortably - Deronjic grabbed a brace from corners - with young Academy AMR/CAM prospect Karlton Flitton putting in a good performance and grabbing a goal. We then went to Stoke and lost 3-1 after taking the lead in the first half - pretty disappointing result as Nobby's boys well and truly put us in our place. But we were back to our fantastic form against Fulham - we went 4-0 up within 25 minutes - at that point I was thinking we could get 10 Zivkovic did get injured in that game though and will miss 3 weeks - I'm hoping Benali can fill in for him sufficiently.

[glennuk]

De Meyer

Haha sure it will work out, but was shocked, confused and sad when I saw he was at Valencia.

[PaulHartman71]

November

A big point in Madrid has guaranteed us passage to at least the Europa League. If we can beat Bayern at home we can go through to the next round - it will be a big ask but who knows we might manage it.

An average month for us in the league. We could only manage a point against bottom place Newcastle - definitely an example of midweek CL games making us drop points as a lot of players were tired and the squad players aren't at the same level as some of the first team We did manage a rare away PL victory though as we beat Hull 2-1 - they very nearly equalised late on in the game but we did well to hang on. We lost 3-1 to City away - were never really in the game and the scoreline flattered us tbf - again another game where we had a CL game midweek, albeit this one was on the Tuesday but still.

The table is still absolutely wide open at the moment.

[deltablue]

Even if we don't do it against Bayern I hope we can have a good Europa run.

[Nobby_McDonald]

That's a tough group you were given.

[glennuk]

Even if we don't do it against Bayern I hope we can have a good Europa run.

Like back in the glory days. One of my most fond memories is playing against Inter Milan in the euro cup (Or whatever it was called back then)

[PaulHartman71]

December

An unbelievable result. It was a very tight game but we conceded early on and weren't really in it at all - Bayern were just too strong. I made a couple of changes and in the last 5 minutes thought we might as well go all out for it as we had nothing to lose. Suddenly the Bayern defence went to pieces. One of their defenders went to smash it clear from inside his own penalty area, but it went straight into the back of their right back, this then set Zivkovic through on goal and he smashed it home to make it 1-1 in the 89th minute. I couldn't believe that we'd got back into the game but still wasn't expecting to even got another shot at goal in the last minute. We blew a counter attack in the 91st minute which saw a Bayern player smash it out for a throw-in in their half with just seconds on the clock. Grant Mason took the throw in which was absolutely awful, it missed Zivkovic and went straight into the path of one of their defenders who bizarrely past it behind him to his CB in the box, in doing this he inadvertently knocked it straight into the path of an oncoming late substitute Carlos Robles intercepted the pass, took a touch to get the ball into the box and then thundered it home off the post to make it 2-1. Absolutely mental scenes that somehow saw us progress to the knockout stages!

An okay month in the league. We picked up two nice home victories against Reading and my old side Everton - with substitute striker Mustapha Benali picking a good time to score his first ever goal for the club to snatch a late winner. We managed a 1-1 draw with Villa which was an okay result - we then lost 2-1 at Spurs after going 1-0 up early on - a bit disappointing especially since Spurs have been in awful form this season but they are still a good side with quality players like Depay. We drew 1-1 with Norwich away - not the best result but it was important we didn't lose that one - Wilson's 74th minute equaliser prevented the fans from witnessing a terrible result against their rival side. The last game of the month saw us lose pretty comfortably to Chelsea.

The table is still wide open at the half-way mark - a good run of form could see us make the top four still, but it's just so close at the moment.

[PaulHartman71]

January

Got no moneyz so was no transfers in January. We did have the irritation of the African Nations this month - meaning our first choice keeper Kouame missed all the games. Our youth Academy back-up choice Jacob Naylor has seen some game time - he's got the potential to be alright but at the moment he's only really League 1 level but I can't afford to get in someone better. Tbf to him he's never been noticeably poor anyway. We also lost our first choice RB Paupol Matondo this month - but that was to injury - he'll miss pretty much the rest of the season after ****ing his calf. Not great but Palmieri is a good enough back-up as he was a decent first choice last season.

Our first of two matches with Middlesbrough this month saw us win 2-1 at their place thanks to goals from Carney and Zivkovic. We then beat Championship side Birmingham 2-0 with Tom Hartley getting a brace - he's not seen us much game time this season but it's good to see he's still got goals in him. He looked class but Birmingham are a poverty side at the moment - rock bottom of the Championship and will likely go down I imagine.

We started the new year with our second win of the month against Middlesbrough - Tommy Carney picked up a nice brace to win it after Boro equalised - just like in the FA Cup game - Zivkovic also scored. We were held to a bore draw with Derby - not much to say about that one really - bore draw sums it up pretty well. We've since won two away games to pick up a big 6 points - 3-1 at Huddersfield and 2-0 at Southampton.

We're now up to 6th place. We're in a good position - where we end up will pretty much depend on how we fair against the sides directly above and below us in the race for top 4.

[PaulHartman71]

February

It wasn't an easy game but we came away from St James' Park with a win and a slot in the 6th round of the FA Cup thanks to goals from Zivkovic and Hansen. We've got Man City away in the next round which is a pretty **** draw.

Not the best of results against Palermo at home. We went 2-0 up early on but they pegged it back to 2-2 in the second half. I thought we'd grabbed a winner when Zivkovic put us ahead in the 84th minute but Palermo managed to score an absolute screamer from 30 yards out to equalise late on. Unless we get 3 goals at their place we have to win in Italy to progress - they seem an alright side going forward so it will be tough.

A pretty good month overall. We managed a 2-2 draw at Anfield against Liverpool which I was overall quite pleased with. We lost at home to United - there's no shame in that though as they're one of the best sides in the league this season. I picked up another victory over my old side with Wilson and Gould getting the goals to give us the 3 points against them after going 1-0 down early on. We sneaked past West Brom 1-0 thanks to a Zivkovic penalty.

It's still tight up there but we're pushing for that top 4 spot. We've got massive games with Chelsea, Stoke and Norwich left which could well decide how well our season ends up being.

[deltablue]

Great work against Bayern.

[PaulHartman71]

March

We very nearly came away from the Etihad with an underdog win. Harry Wilson gave us the lead in the 23rd minute and it looked like we were going to hang on for an unlikely win until they equalised late on. We could well sneak past them into the Semi Final with the game being at home - not great for fixture congestion in April though.

A massive result in Italy. We held firm defensively for an hour but still didn't really look like scoring - our wingers had other ideas though as Wilson and Hansen both grabbed a goal within 5 minutes of each other to help put us through to the Quarter Final. We've got PSG in the next round which should be a very difficult task - a real test of where we stand among the top sides in Europe.

A pretty good month saw us absolutely smash Stoke (sorry Nobby). We very nearly followed that up with a loss at Fulham which would have been very poor - Zivkovic bailed us out in the 84th minute thankfully. We managed to win 2-1 away to relegation candidates Newcastle with Zivkovic opening the scoring and Hanford popping one in before half-time.

It's still very tight for a top 4 spot. Liverpool are 2 points ahead of us with Chelsea 4 points off. Norwich are just behind us too - we can't let them finish above us, especially if it means them getting top 4 themselves!

[PaulHartman71]

Oh yeah forgot to add - minutes after scoring that crucial goal against Palermo, Harry Wilson broke his leg which will put him out for the rest of the season

[PaulHartman71]

April

A very gutting way to go out of the FA Cup. We lost 11-10 on penalties - it ended up going all the way back to the start of the queue, Zivkovic missed his 2nd penalty which meant City progressed.

A sad end to a fantastic Champions League run. The first game in Paris was just horrendous - it was 1-0 at half-time and we were still in the game but they came out flying and put another 2 past us in quick succession. Zivkovic went off injured on the hour mark - to make things worse it turned out he'd done his calf and would be out for the rest of the season. PSG grabbed a late goal to make it 4-0 to add insult to injury. To our credit we did manage to fight for a win to restore some pride at home - but we'd lost the tie in Paris.

A decent month in the league however - we almost lost 2-0 to relegation candidates Hull, but we thankfully got 2 goals back in the second half. We then got some revenge on City for knocking us out of the FA Cup - we somehow held on to a 1-0 lead which could well cost City the title. We very nearly followed that up by losing to 17th place Reading - Ben Gould's goal really saved us there. We did manage to go to my old side Everton and win though - Per Hansen's goal being the only one in that victory.

We're thankfully 3rd now but it's so tight. Dropping 2 points at Reading could be crucial if we drop anymore points - we've got Chelsea and Norwich to play still which are both absolute huge games now. It is nice that with 4 games to go we're still not mathematically out of the title race though

[DodgeeD]

Tight for the title and 4th place! Good luck with the run in

[deltablue]

Great race for 4th. Don't lose it to Norwich!

[PaulHartman71]

May

A big end to the season saw us thump Spurs 4-1 at home and then win away at both Villa and 3rd place Chelsea to ensure 4th spot. Despite having 4th wrapped up I was still quite desperate to beat Norwich on the last day in-case it ended up being my last game at Ipswich - go out on a high and all that. We were 2-0 up at half-time and pretty annoyingly managed to blow our 2-0 lead and actually almost lost.

We ended up finishing 4 points ahead of 5th place Liverpool. It was nice to see Norwich denied European football.

[deltablue]

Yessssss!!! Really should have won at PR though.

[PaulHartman71]

Season 13 - (I)pswich

Another good season - we managed to cement ourselves as a genuine top 4 club which is great. We reached the Quarter Final of the FA Cup - would've been nice to get further but we did only go out on a replay penalty shoot out. Champions League run was fantastic especially considering the group we had.

Squad pt 1, Squad pt 2

Nathan Ake was key again at DM. Zivkovic came in and provided the goals I hoped he would - 28 goals and 13 assists in 45 games for him is a great return. Per Hansen did well as new LW - with Deronjic doing well at CB again alongside Jerkovic.

GK - Kouame had an excellent first season and looked great as first choice GK.

DR - Paupol Matondo was a good signing and did well at RB. Palmieri filled in well when Matondo was injured.

DL - Grant Mason did okay in his first season as definite first choice left back. The 20 year old is still learning though and I will look to get in an experienced guy to challenge him.

DC - David Deronjic and Nedjelko Jerkovic are a very strong first choice pairing. Academy graduate Luke Sparkes is a more than capable 3rd choice option - doesn't get as many games as I'd like as the other two are generally quite fit and don't get injured.

DM - Our club captain Nathan Ake had another great season at DM. He's getting older though and Omar Mertens looked poor when he featured this season - I'll dispose of Omar and get a better player in to challenge Ake next season.

MC - Ben Gould, another Academy graduate had a decent season at CM but a bit like Mason at LB I fear the lack of a real option to challenge him for his place may be causing him to stagnate. I will look to get someone in during the transfer window as Archie Buck is leaving on a bosman after refusing to renew his contract as back-up.

AMR - Harry Wilson had a good debut season here - he did get injured though and missed a large chunk of the season. Carlos Robles filled in relatively well in his absence - but I do fear I may need to get another player in here.

AML - Per Hansen came in and did arguably just as well as Petit did last season. Gaudalupe had a pretty disappointing season and with Tommy Carney, another Academy graduate, performing well, Juan pretty much lost his place and could well be gone in the summer.

CAM - Dale Hanford and Mauro Mallorca battled it our for first choice again this season. Neither were hugely impressive but Dale tended to be the better player. Mallorca is 31 now and I may well ditch him in the summer and get a new player in to challenge Hanford.

ST - Zivkovic came in as a relatively expensive signing but he easily justified his price tag with his goals return this season. Mustapha Benali wasn't the greatest back-up option - he did manage 5 goals in 6 starts and 16 sub appearances though and a few of the goals were important ones. Tom Hartley was still about as 3rd choice and scored 3 goals in 5 starts and 10 sub appearances.

History

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Season     Club                Division          Position      Achievements
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2014/15    Arsenal             Premier League    2nd           League Cup winners 
2015/16    Arsenal             Premier League    1st           Champions
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2016/17    Borussia Dortmund   Bundesliga        3rd           German Cup & Europa League winners
2017/18    Borussia Dortmund   Bundesliga        2nd           Euro Super Cup & German Super Cup winners
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2017       Cameroon            N/A               N/A           Confederations Cup runners up 
2018       Cameroon            N/A               N/A           N/A
2019       Cameroon            N/A               N/A           African Cup of Nations winners 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2018/19    Dinamo Moscow       Russian PL        2nd           Russian Cup winners
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2019/20    Everton             Premier League    2nd           N/A
2020/21    Everton             Premier League    7th           League Cup winners. Champions League runners up
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2020       France              N/A               N/A           N/A
2021       France              N/A               N/A           European Nations League winner
2022       France              N/A               N/A           World Cup winner
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2021/22    Getafe              La Liga           5th           N/A
2022/23    Getafe              La Liga           9th           Europa League semi finalists 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2022       Holland             N/A               N/A           N/A
2023       Holland             N/A               N/A           N/A
2024       Holland             N/A               N/A           European Championship runners up
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2023/24    Ipswich Town        Championship      1st           Promoted as Champions  
2024/25    Ipswich Town        Premier League    13th          N/A
2025/26    Ipswich Town        Premier League    4th           N/A
2026/27    Ipswich Town        Premier League    4th           N/A

Trophy Cabinet

[u][b]International
[/b][/u]
African Cup of Nations  x1 - 2019 (Cameroon)

European Nations League x1 - 2021 (France)

World Cup               x1 - 2022 (France)


[u][b]Continental[/b][/u] 

Europa League       x1 - 2016/17 (Borussia Dortmund) 
European Super Cup  x1 - 2017/18 (Borussia Dortmund)

[u][b]England[/b][/u]

Premier League x1 - 2015/16 (Arsenal)
League Cup     x2 - 2014/15 (Arsenal), 2020/21 (Everton)
Championship   x1 - 2023/24 (Ipswich) 

[b][u]Germany[/u]
[/b]
German Cup        x1 - 2016/17 (Borussia Dortmund)
German Super Cup  x1 - 2017/18 (Borussia Dortmund)

[u][b]Russia[/b][/u]

Russian Cup x1 - 2018/19 (Dinamo Moscow)

[PaulHartman71]

J-Watch

We did have some good news this year as Jura-Sud Football were promoted to the French National - thus making them a playable team. Unfortunately they finished rock bottom of the French National meaning that they're now no longer an option. Jaen finished 7th in LIGA adelante, just 1 spot off the playoffs, this has actually put their manager rating up to "untouchable" which would suggest he's not going anywhere anytime soon. Juve Stabia actually nearly went down from Serie B - despite finishing just 1 spot off a relegation spot, their manager is still "secure". Juventus won Serie A quite comfortably - the only saving grace is that the Italians' poor European performances has put them back down to 3 CL spots - meaning if Juventus do slip to 4th then they will be out of the CL and hopefully out of a manager. For now though unless Unai Emery gets offered a big Spanish job over the summer - it looks very much like I'll be Ipswich manager for at least another season. Let's hope for another CL run, a title run and of course - battering Norwich several times

[PaulHartman71]

2 years running

[DodgeeD]

How about another international job? Japan springs to mind... oh, wait - licensing! I guess that would leave Jordan or Jamaica if either post ever comes up...

[PaulHartman71]

How about another international job? Japan springs to mind... oh, wait - licensing! I guess that would leave Jordan or Jamaica if either post ever comes up...

Jamaica popped up at one point on the job centre page and it would be a nice little job because I could have a go at the Caribbean Cup and the Gold Cup - but it disappeared soon after (not sure if it just came up whilst the World Cup was on?) their manager was "very secure" the whole time he was on there tbf. I was really hoping Juve Stabia would sack their manager as they really didn't do all that well this season - but alas they kept him on. Real Madrid actually just sacked their manager and I was hoping they'd offer it to Emery - but they've chosen to go with Razvan Lucescu instead

[Nobby_McDonald]

Another cracking season Paul.

[nie jem frytek]

You should hire some Jamaican coaches in hope, that Ipswich will produce some Jamaican youngsters and it will be enough to Jamaica become available to manage.

[PaulHartman71]

You should hire some Jamaican coaches in hope, that Ipswich will produce some Jamaican youngsters and it will be enough to Jamaica become available to manage.

Gonna have to try and hit up Deon Burton and Ricardo Gardner

[PaulHartman71]

August

A couple of major departures this summer. Per Hansen who has only been a year was sold to Sevilla for £21M - he was desperate to leave and for £15M profit you can't really say no - I had a replacement lined up anyway. I had no real intention of selling Kouadio Kouame as he was a good GK - but Sevilla wanted him too and he wanted to leave - £8M not much but it was still like £6M profit on him - I only let him go as I had a better player lined up to replace him. Dervishi has barely played recently so was let go to Derby - with Omar Mertens suffering the same fate as he left for Panthrakikos. Mauro Mallorca left on a free transfer and joined Hannover, with Shane Duffy leaving for Celtic also on a free. Archie Buck left on a bosman ruling.

Your eyes aren't deceiving you. Allan Petit has rejoined us to replace his replacement Per Hansen. Chelsea barely played him at all - so he wanted to leave - and I was happy to bring him back. £3M more than I sold him for - but he's a talented guy so I snapped him up. Dan Walker signs from Southampton - he's a 28 year old Goalkeeper to replace Kouame. Danny Cross joins from Spurs for £11.5M - he's a good 28 year old midfielder who can play at MC or CAM. Sam Palmer joins from Villa for £10.75M - the 24 year old is adapt at DM and MC. It's nice to see us getting somewhat of a English feel to the team. Finally - Jose Antonio Ruiz joins from Arsenal for £5M - the 28 year old Mexican will provide cover and competition for Grant Mason at LB.

Our first choice side should look something like this throughout the season. I'm hoping we can push on from 4th and maybe challenge for the league. It would be nice to a win a cup and have a hefty Champions League run too. First we have to qualify from the CL Playoff - where we will be reunited with Ivan De Meyer as we've drawn Valencia. It will be a tough match as they're a great side - hopefully we can keep De Meyer quiet.

[PaulHartman71]

August

A very eventful two matches with Valencia in the CL playoff. We won 3-1 at home quite comfortably really thanks to Zivkovic and two own goals - they scored a late goal themselves - a bit of a dent in the plans as they had an away goal - but we looked good and I wasn't majorly concerned going into the away game. I should have been. At half-time we found ourselves 4-0 down thanks partly to a Ivan De Meyer hat-trick. We were 5-3 down on aggregate and had looked terrible - but I knew that if all we had to do was lose by 2 goals, as long as we scored 2 away goals we would still be alright. Ben Gould scored soon into the second half to make it 5-4 - but we still needed 1 more goal and it didn't look like it was coming. Benali popped up with a brace in the space of a few minutes though - his goals made it 4-3 on the night and 6-5 on aggregate - that put us into a great position as we had way more away goals. De Meyer hit the post and the bar but he couldn't grab anymore goals - Karlton Flitton popped up to make it level on the night late on - and 7-5 on aggregate which thankfully put us through.

An okay start in the league aside from our slip up away to Nobby's boys.

[PaulHartman71]

September

I put out a lot of squad players and youth prospects in this one and I was glad we still managed to win with relative ease - it was only 1-0 but Doncaster never threatened us really. Flitton's goal gave us the win late on.

We met PSG again and were well beaten yet again. We lost 3-1 in Paris, despite a late Robles goal we never looked in it or like we might get back in the game. We did manage to beat Kobenhavn 3-1 ourselves at home though - a very comfortable win which could prove vital.

Our two matches with Sevilla coming up will certainly decide our fate. Sevilla beat PSG which is worrying as PSG have dominated us the last 3 times we've played them. We could be looking at the Europa League.

A pretty dismal month in the league. Admittedly we had 3 very difficult games but we looked pretty poor in all of them except the Arsenal game - but even that is a bit disappointing since we've beaten Arsenal a fair few times in the last few seasons.

[PaulHartman71]

October

I rested a few players again in this one but we just about managed to get past Sheffield United thanks to a penalty shoot-out. Tom Hartley scored the crucial equaliser and the winning penalty in the shoot-out. We've managed to get City away in the Quarter Final which is a pretty crap draw - we always seem to get City in the cups which is why we probably a big reason as to why we haven't won one

A massive game in Seville saw us go 2-0 up early on only to squander our lead and end up 3-2 down. It looked like Sevilla were gonna get their 3rd win from 3 games - but Allan Petit managed to smash an equaliser home against ex-keeper Kouame from an almost impossible angle late on to give us a big point.

We could really do with a result against Sevilla and PSG at home if we're to progress - but we did perform heroics last season in the Group Stage - can we repeat them?!

Elsewhere - in the league, things finally started to click. We couldn't get all 3 points against West Brom but since then we've beaten Chelsea, West Ham and Sheffield United all on the bounce even despite Zivkovic being out with a injury - he should be back soon though which will only reinforce us some more.

Our good run of form sees us rise up to 5th place.

[glennuk]

Do you think it is too big of an ask to win the league this season?

I think you have a good enough squad, and may actually help if you aren't in Euro competition.

I have a feeling you may just clinch the title on the last day.

[PaulHartman71]

Do you think it is too big of an ask to win the league this season?

I think you have a good enough squad, and may actually help if you aren't in Euro competition.

I have a feeling you may just clinch the title on the last day.

We were only 10 points off of top spot last year - I think our head to head results against the likes of City, United and Chelsea will be the real test. We lost at City away - but that is a tough place to go, if we can win our big matches at home, like we did against Chelsea, we should hopefully be up there at the end of the season. We'll need guys like Zivkovic, Ake, Petit and our CB's to stay fit and injury free too - but I think we definitely have an outside shot. I'd definitely love to clinch the title on the last day - our penultimate game is at home to Norwich, that would be a great game to win it in - but I think that's just a dream at the moment

[PaulHartman71]

November

We pulled off a big home win against Sevilla - Danny Cross came off the bench to score a brace that helped us finally score against a Sevilla side who had been down to 10 men since the 31st minute. We came very close to getting a point against PSG but they just had too much - they scored a late penalty to take all 3 points.

PSG's late winner complicated things a fair bit. We can now only go through if PSG beat Sevilla in Paris in the final group game - we would also have to win in Kobenhavn. Tbf I don't think it's a massively unlikely scenario as PSG are a good side, especially at home, and Kobenhavn have lost every game so it would be very annoying if we couldn't beat them even in Denmark.

Not that great of a month really. We started the month well with a good 3-1 win at Hull - but then couldn't get the job done at home to Southampton despite taking a very early lead. We then lost a massive game at Old Trafford - we scored twice, including a 90th minute 40 yard thunderbolt from Sam Palmer, but it wasn't enough and United took all 3 points. We did however manage to beat relegation candidates Spurs - it was great to put 5 past them.

It's still extremely tight at the top of the table.

[PaulHartman71]

December

Another narrow loss to City sees us eliminated from the League Cup. We did score a late consolation own goal which was pretty hilarious - a defender passed it back to their Goalkeeper who smashed it straight into Zivkovic, the ball then went flying at the Goalkeeper, hit him in the face and then went in.

A pretty comfortable away win in Denmark. But was it enough to qualify?

PSG just did enough to beat Sevilla in Paris - which meant that yes, we have sneaked through to the knockout stages of the CL once again!

We've drawn none other than Juventus in the 1st Knockout Round. Let's hope we can knock them out and help get Unai Emery sacked

A good run of form this month - none of the games were hugely challenging, with exception to the derby at Norwich and Reading when we played them just 2 days after beating QPR at home. Other highlights of the month included a 4-2 win at my old side Everton and a 1-0 win over Aston Villa thanks to a dubious penalty.

I'm surprised West Brom are still as high as they are. City have a lot of games in hand. I think it will definitely be between United, City and us for the title. We've got City and United to play, both at home, if we can win those games we could well win the league.

[PaulHartman71]

January

A good start to our FA Cup campaign. Tom Hartley scored a brace to help us past Cheltenham - with debutant winger Ian Cork also grabbing a goal. We beat Derby 3-1 away from home - this was a good victory especially since we went 1-0 down very early on. We have QPR away in the next round.

A pretty good month in the league. We started well by winning 1-0 at Derby thanks to a Zivkovic goal. We put 4 past Reading, including a brace from Zivkovic, but they just kept coming back and back and in the end we could only draw 4-4. We then slipped to a 1-1 draw at home to Stoke - a last gasp equaliser from Nobby's boys robbed us of all 3 points. We did manage to go to Fulham and win 3-2 - another Zivkovic brace and then a last gasp winner from Allan Petit gave us all 3 points. The month ended with victory at my old side - a 3rd Zivkovic brace of the month and a goal from Karlton Flitton helped us beat them 3-1.

Despite dropping points twice this month - the league table is looking very nice. City have a game in hand on us but we have superior goal difference. Tbf if we could avoid defeat against City and United and West Brom don't keep up their good form - the title could well be ours.

[PaulHartman71]

February

We couldn't quite beat QPR at their place - Zivkovic scored what looked like the winner early in the second half but they got a late equaliser to drag it to a pretty unwanted replay. I was quite annoyed it went to a replay really as we've got enough fixtures as it is - I like to think the team thought this too and so decided to take vengeance on QPR by smashing them 5-0. We've drawn none other than Norwich in the Quarter Final - we're at home so it would be great to knock them out in the process of booking our place at Wembley.

Karlton Flitton's 64th minute strike gave us the lead and for a while it looked like we were going to get a perfect 1-0 result. Unfortunately Juve did get the all important away goal late on - playing them at their place won't be easy, but at least they only scored 1 away goal.

An absolutely massive month in the league. We smashed Liverpool 3-0 to start the month. West Brom have been right up the table all season so going to The Hawthorns wasn't going to be easy - we were 3-0 up at half-time and I was really wondering how they'd occupied a top four spot all season. This back-fired in the second half as they promptly came back from the dead and made it 3-3 in the 70th minute. It looked like we weren't getting the 3 points after all - but Zivkovic had other ideas. More or less straight from kick-off - we won the ball back and a long ball was chucked up to Zivkovic, he flew past the West Brom defence, picked up the ball and dribbled it into the box before promptly firing home a massive winner. We took this momentum and went and smashed Chelsea 3-0 at Stamford Bridge (not all that impressive this year as they're currently 17th) and then also smashed West Ham 4-0 at home. Unfortunately we did slip up in Sheffield - we very nearly lost that match and only got a point courtesy of a pretty comical own goal.

We are however top of the table with 9 matches to go. We have both City and United to play - Southampton too, they shouldn't be forgotten either, we have to play them away which will not be an easy game.

[PaulHartman71]

March

Academy graduate Tom Hartley came off the bench to score a last minute winner against the club's biggest rivals - doesn't get much better than that. Wembley - here we come!

We knew going into this game that a win or draw greater than a 1-1 would be enough to see us through. At half-time when we were 2-0 down - it really didn't look like we were getting through. Carlos Robles smashed one in 5 minutes into the second half though which gave us some home - and he popped up again in the 74th minute to score the equaliser which ended up seeing us through. We've got Man United in the Quarter Final - not sure how I feel about that - it also means next month we play them 3 times in less than 2 weeks.

The Champions League and FA Cup runs seem to be catching up to us in the league. What should have been a comfortable home win at Hull saw us concede a goal late on - it was very frustrating as we should have had 3 or 4 against them. We managed to get a point against City - Carlos Robles popping up with another vital equaliser in our season. We didn't have too much luck away to Southampton though - we took an early lead through Zivkovic but managed to go 3-1 down by half-time. Danny Cross pegged it back to 3-2 on the hour mark and it looked like were back in it, but Southampton grabbed another one soon after which killed the game.

Our next league game is against United at home - could well decide the title. Although I am quite wary of Southampton now - incidentally Southampton and Man United actually play each other on the last day of the season, which could really play into our hands (or not).

[PaulHartman71]

April

That man again - Carlos Robles popped up in the 110th minute to score the winning goal that sent us to the final of the FA Cup - Ipswich's last won the trophy 50 years ago - let's hope we can win regain the cup on that milestone. We face none other than my former club - Everton, in a final that will be a very special day for me.

We won't be in the Champions League final - we lost 4-1 on aggregate to Man United with all of the goals coming at Old Trafford. The first leg was a complete disaster - Zivkovic had been injured by United in our PL game just days earlier, with Benali also injured, it meant Robles would start. Robles was injured himself within a minute of the game - Tom Hartley came on to replace him. United managed to injure Hartley on the half hour mark - they were already 2-0 up at this point, so we had an hour to get back into the game without a recognized striker available. We went for it - I knew if we didn't get at least 1 away goal we were pretty much out - Petit finally grabbed one in the 90th minute after relentless efforts - the only problem was at that point we'd already let 4 in. I went into the home leg aiming to go all guns blazing to try and grab a few early on and see what happened - you'll see in our PL home game with them that this was a viable option. Unfortunately despite having Zivkovic and co back we just couldn't score against United - I put 3 up front with wing backs and all sorts towards the end of the match and we still couldn't grab one.

As you can see the month started incredibly well - on April Fools we pulled off an absolute joke of a result. We beat United 4-0 with Academy graduate Karlton Flitton bagging a sensational hat-trick. Following our defeat to United in the CL though, confidence seemed to drop, we went to bottom of the table Spurs and just couldn't score - a disappointing result but I did find a slight silver lining in the fact that this point confirmed their relegation to the Championship. We went to Villa and again - just couldn't score. I was nervous going into the Everton game - but Ben Gould scored early on to calm me down. A returning Benali smashed one in later on in the first half to make it 2-0 and we never looked back - I hope the FA Cup final will be this comfortable. I got confused with the Southampton/United game - that was actually both of their penultimate games of the season. Southampton won it 2-0 which does this to the table -

As fate would have it - the stage is set for our next match.

If we beat Norwich - we're champions.

[deltablue]

Surely it's fate? I've relegated Norwich at Portman Road twice in a row

[PaulHartman71]

May

It seems only fitting that a Zivkovic hat-trick sealed the title for us. We went 2-0 up just before half-time and things looked pretty comfortable. Norwich tried to ruin the party and brought it back to 2-2 - but Zivkovic wasn't having it and completed his hat-trick in the 70th minute - and in doing so crowned us champions. We beat QPR away from home on the last day - even if if the result didn't matter at that point.

We went to Wembley to face my old side Everton to see if we could secure an unprecedented double for the people of Ipswich. It was a result that in some ways mirrored our game with Norwich - Zivkovic scored twice to put us 2-0 up - but Everton fought back, by half time it was 2-2. I was concerned that Everton would have all the momentum thanks to their two goal comeback - but Academy graduate Karlton Flitton fired home 5 minutes after the break and we managed to hold Everton from scoring another equaliser.

Karlton Flitton, Richairo Zivkovic and Allan Petit celebrate Zivkovic's title winning goal against Norwich.

Paupol Matondo and Tom Hartley wait nervously for the full-time whistle to be blown against Norwich.

Ben Gould, Grant Mason, Nedjeljko Jerkovic and Luke Sparkes pose with the FA Cup trophy.

Dan Walker, captain Nathan Ake, David Deronjic and Danny Cross during the celebratory bus parade through Ipswich.

Dale Hanford, Tommy Carney and Carlos Robles celebrate the Premier League win at full-time.

Assistant manager Roy Keane almost raises a smile just after the final whistle at Wembley.

[nomorezen]

Those edited pictures are genius