FM14: Ipswich Town FC Thread - Life out in the countryside

[goosey3131]

Welcome to this years Ipswich Town Football Club Thread. The Blues, also known as The Tractor Boys, are currently the longest serving SkyBet Championship side…but despite this there is room for promise.

So why Ipswich Town?

• A history of producing a number of internationals through the academy in recent years (Connor Wickham, Darren Bent, Titus Bramble, Kieron Dyer etc).
  
• Ipswich produced the two greatest England Managers of all-time in world cup winning Sir Alf Ramsey and the great Sir Bobby Robson.
  
• A club known for being both a traditional family club and for producing good passing teams
  
• A solid defence means you only need to concentrate on the attacking players
  
• Patient chairman with realistic expectations
  
• Great Training and Youth facilities
  
• Nice sized stadium
  

History

Ipswich Town Football Club were formed as an amateur club in 1878, but it was not until 1936 when they turned professional and then elected to the Football League on May 30th, 1938.

In 1956-57 Ipswich appointed Sir Alf Ramsey and subsequently sprang to prominence when they won the Second Division in 1960-61 and the First Division Championship a year later, meaning they had qualified for the European Cup.

It was back to Second Division football however, and by the end of the 1963-64 season, with Ramsey having left to manage England and after a few years of mediocrity, Bobby Robson was appointed in January 1969.

Robson did not have an easy start, but once he had stamped his mark on the club, it really took off. In 1973 and '75 Ipswich won the FA Youth Cup before winning the FA Cup in 1978 - exactly 100 years after they had been formed as an amateur club.

FA Cup Winners

The late 1970's saw the arrival of Arnold Muhren and Frans Thijssen, the two Dutchmen who made such an impact on the team and with the supporters, and they helped Ipswich win the UEFA Cup in 1981.

Bobby Robson and the UEFA Cup

The First Division Championship eluded Robson's team on more than one occasion, but in 1982, following the World Cup in Spain, Robson became the second Ipswich manager to take over the England post.

John Duncan took over in June 1987, but after three seasons of mid-table positions, Duncan became the first Ipswich Manager to be sacked in 1990, 52 years after the club entered the Football League.

In the 91-92 season Ipswich, became the Second Division Champions. Ipswich Town's first season back in the top flight coincided with the launch of the FA Premier League.

Two seasons later, Ipswich Town found the going just too difficult in the Premier League and John Lyall resigned just before Christmas that season. Former favourite George Burley took over in the hot seat but could not save Ipswich from the plunge into the first division.

Ipswich narrowly missed out on the playoffs in their first season in Division 1, before making it to the playoffs in the following three years, losing out in the semi-final each time, including narrow defeats on the away goals rule against Sheffield United and Bolton Wanderers.

It was a case of fourth time lucky for Town in 1999-2000, when Ipswich gained revenge on Bolton for the previous season, and progressed to Wembley for the playoff final, playing Barnsley. In a thrilling match Town beat Barnsley by four goals to two to gain promotion back into the top flight.

Playoff Winners

On their return to the top flight Ipswich were tipped by most for an instant return to Division One, but instead they took the Premiership by storm, staying in the top six for most of the campaign and reaching as high as third. A place in the Champions League was a possibility until the final day of the season, with Town eventually ending in fifth to qualify for the UEFA Cup.

Ipswich v Inter Milan in the UEFA Cup at the San Siro

The success was unfortunately not to last. A disappointing season followed in 2001/2 saw Ipswich Town finish 3rd from bottom of the Premier League with a return to First Division Football.

Town's first season back in Division 1 got off to a poor start, leading to the departure of manager George Burley in early October 2002 with Joe Royle chosen to succeed Burley. Despite financial problems off the field, culminating in a period of temporary administration, Royle rekindled Town's play-off hopes until the last few matches of the season. The following season Royle led the Blues to the Play-Offs, despite the financial constraints, but they were cruelly defeated 2-1 on aggregrate in the semi-final against West Ham United.

It was a case of deja vu the following year as West Ham once again stopped Town progressing to the Premier League at the Semi-Final stage Play-Offs, but that didn't tell half the story. The Blues led the Championship table by 6 points in March but were pipped to the two automatic promotion places on the final day of the campaign.

A new era had begun and in December 2007 when British entrepreneur, Marcus Evans, became the major shareholder in the Club. With him came substantial investment as the Blues stepped up the bid to return to the top flight of English football.

Town parted company with then manager and play-off hero Jim Magilton in April 2009, only the clubs 12th manager, after almost three years in charge. Ipswich turned their heads to appointing former Manchester United skipper Roy Keane as his replacement, but after 18 months Keane was relieved of his duties by owner Marcus Evans, who installed former Bradford and Wigan boss Paul Jewell as Town’s new manager. That season the Liverpudlian steered the Blues to 15th place after enduring a rollercoaster of a campaign. Following a disappointing start to the season, the former Derby manager agreed to leave his post. On November 1st 2012, Mick McCarthy and Terry Connor were announced as the Club's new manager and assistant manager respectively. The duo recovered Paul Jewell’s work by finishing the season in 14th place, having been rock bottom when they started in November. This was calculated as play-off form if McCarthy had started the season as Ipswich manager and this led to much hope and promise for the 2013/14 season.

[goosey3131]

The Squad

Goalkeepers

There are two goalkeepers at Ipswich; Scott Loach [L] and Dean Gerken [R] both of whom are adequate at Championship level.

Best youth prospect: None

Defenders

The defence is without doubt your strongest area on the pitch and will not require changing for your promotion push. Aaron Creswell is the best left-back in the Championship and will attract interest from Premiership clubs, possibly going on to play for England. Despite being only 23, Tommy Smith has 22 caps for New Zealand and being left footed means he slots in to the left side of your centre back partnership (assuming you play with 4 at the back). Tommy will attract top flight attention later on in your save, so he and Creswell should be kept with care, these are your future players. This leaves Berra and Chambers fighting for the right-sided centre back role, both of whom will be good players at Championship and lower-Premier League level. At right back you have the young Elliott Hewitt, who tends to attract Premiership attention from the beginning, he will turn in to a brilliant right back. You have the aging Carlos Edwards who can play at right back, who may turn into a good tutor for young Hewitt, but you may see Edwards being played further up the field. Waiting in the wings you have Veseli, who has a good pedigree coming from Man Utd; and Tyrone Mings, who has catapulted from non-league football to the Championship. Both players are cheap, young and happy to sit in the reserves as back-up.

Best youth prospect: Elliott Hewitt and Tyrone Mings

Midfielders

You have some solid but not colossal players in midfield, each offering something different. Starting from left to right in the pictures you have Cole Skuse, who arrived in the summer from Bristol City. Skuse is a midfielder who keeps things simple by tackling the opponent and passing it to a more creative midfielder, one of which is winger Paul Anderson who is your only out and out winger at the club. Every club needs a central midfield playmaker and Ipswich Towns is Anthony Wordsworth who can pick a pass from either a deep lying playmaker or an advanced playmaker position.

Tunnicliffe is the only player currently on loan at the club from Man Utd and the word to describe him is combative. Tunnicliffe dreams of being the next Roy Keane (hopefully only as a player) and has high attributes in aggression, bravery and determination, but he lacks the ability to pass. Jay Tabb is a nice little player who want stop running for the team.

Luke Hyam has come through the youth Academy and has really come through over the past couple of years. He is a tenacious midfielder who works hard for the time and goes hard in the tackle and this will attract Premier League clubs attention.

Five of the seven midfielders moved in either January 2013 or in the summer, with the other two, Lawrence and Hyam, coming through the Youth Academy. This is important as it impacts the likelihood of you being able to sell them. Lastly for the midfielders, you have young Byron Lawrence who can turn into a good Championship midfielder with the right coaching.

Best youth prospect: Luke Hyam and Byron Lawrence

[goosey3131]

Forwards

In my opinion, the further up the pitch you get the worse the team gets. The main striker at Portman Road is David McGoldrick who is a nice, but not ground-breaking forward, who has adequate stats in the right areas. Despite only joining in the summer, Darryl Murphy is one of the team’s longest custodians, having been on loan for the past 3 seasons and has good stats as a target man. Paul Taylor is a fast, direct little player who loves to dribble and you may see him as a suitable person to play behind the main strikers. My advice would be to simply let him run. Behind the pecking order you have the powerful Frank Nouble, Jack Marriott and amazingly….Alan Lee, who I suspect you will be releasing.

Best youth prospect: Jack Marriott

Recommendations

This is my first save on FM14, straight from the Beta, so I spent the majority of Season One getting used to the new tactics and match engine but still finished a respectable 8th before being promoted to the Premier League in the second season. I will start with the Tactics.

Tactics

As I mentioned in the squad review, with a defence of Aaron Creswell, Tommy Smith, Christophe Berra, Luke Chambers, and Elliot Hewitt you will find that you have one of the best defences in the league and will find it hard to not play all 5 of them. With this being the case, I have settled on a slightly unorthodox but attacking 5-4-1 or a flat 5-3-2 as shown below.

2-3-2-1-2

5-3-2

[goosey3131]

Transfers

Out

I found that Liverpool and Spurs were sniffing around for Elliot Hewitt straight away, and if you want a large kitty then you can sell him for just under £4 million.

With such a small transfer budget at the beginning of the season, it is worth going to the clauses section and selling the 3 Connor Wickham clauses.

I like to release the youth players that aren’t going to make it so I can streamline the squad and concentrate on the players that will make the cut. With this being the case I release ALL the youth players except for Veseli, Marriot, Lawrence, Galvin, Clarke, Ramadan and Patterson.

Whilst Tunnicliffe is a combative, hard-working midfielder he has poor technical skills, including passing which I feel is the primary attribute for a midfielder, so I decided to terminate his loan spell. With Hyam and Skuse there are already two defensive minded footballers at Portman Road.

Alan Lee starts on a non-contract contract as a player coach and you will have to decide whether to keep him on, which again I chose not to.

One saleable asset is Frank Nouble, who I sold for £500k.

I also tried, but failed, to move Skuse and Anderson on but these were always going to be a hard sell as these are summer signings.

In

Despite having 3 or 4 suitable midfielders I signed Ross Draper for an extra bit of quality in midfield for 400k.

I purchased Keith Fahey on a free transfer and after much pondering I signed Vincenzo Iaquinta on a free transfer. Despite having a Natural Fitness of 1, Iaquinta still had stats in the right area, only wanted 2k a week in wages and will hopefully become a useful tutor for Jack Marriott.

My only other signing for the summer transfer window was Craig Conway from Cardiff on loan that can play in various attacking midfield positions.

Other possible purchases could be Nuno Gomes, Papa Boupa Diop, Vicente, Miguel, Danny Batth and Oliver.

Staff

I’m also equally cut throat when it comes to staff, if they’re not good enough, then they’re out. This view meant that I ‘mutually terminated’ the contracts of Lee, Nash, Liddell, Chapman, Reynolds, Kennedy and unfortunately Terry Connor. Terry Connor is reflected well within Football Manager in that he makes an excellent coach but has poor managerial skills and for this reason I tried to re-new his contract as coach, which he rejected, so I terminated it. Later on I replaced Malcolm Webster for David Coles as a goalkeeper coach.

So to fill in the gaps left I brought in David Coles, Trevor Peake as assistant manager, Garry Pendrey and Clive Allen as coaches, Dean Riddle as a fitness coach, Arthur Albiston as U19 manager and Wally Downes as U21 manager.

[goosey3131]

reserved

[goosey3131]

reserved x2

[Prongsie92]

Looking good, goosey

Season 1

My main areas of concern for Ipswich at the start of the 13/14 season is the lack of width and the lack of firepower upfront. McGoldrick is a 20-goal striker if given the ability to slot them away. I instantly decided to go with a rotation of three formations, rather than the standard 4-4-2 that McCarthy has used, to get the best out of the entire squad whilst aiming for possession control and attacking play. The formations chosen were 4-4-2, 4-5-1 (DM) and 4-1-2-1-2. I'll post the player duties/team duties if there's interest.

My transfer priorities were to bolstering Ipswich's attacking abilities with at least two wingers and a new striker. Defense was also a priority with not many options if the main four were injured. I asked the board for a parent club to help with loans and get around the tight FFP rules. Got Chelsea as a feeder club but sadly only three players were interested in joining. Got Kalas to help with the right-side and allow Hewitt to develop more before placing him as my first choice. I was sadly unable to get any wingers with only free transfers being an option but I was happy to get Bothroyd for under 10k/week and decided to get Diop in to cover DM due to lack of central options (I preferred Hyam in CM with Skuse/Tabb). I also brought in Martinez on loan after my AssMan decided Loach/Gerkin weren't good enough, only to find my scout had done me in!

Only player to leave was Alan Lee, as he didn't add anything to the side and his coaching abilities left something to be desired.

Transfers In: Jay Bothroyd (free), Papa Bouba Diop (free), Damian Martinez (loan), Tomas Kalas (loan)

Transfers Out: Alan Lee (free), Cory Galvin (loan), Frederic Veseli (loan), Kyle Hammond (loan), Jack Doherty (loan), Byron Lawerence (loan), Mark Timlin (loan), Amir Berkane (loan), David October (loan), Rory Thompson (loan), Michael Crowe (loan), Jack Marriott (loan), Paul Anderson (loan)

A sketchy start to the season but the team picked up momentum and cruised to 2nd place by the end of the season (P46 W22 D14 L10 GD+28 p80). Got to the 4th round of the Carling Cup and 6th Round of the FA Cup. Marcus Evans decided he had enough with making a loss with ITFC and sold to local buisnessman Eddie Mitchell. Our new chairman cleared the debts but didn't invest into the side. Overall: extremely happy with the first season and Town getting some solid 2-0 wins throughout the season.

Team of the year:

GK: Scott Loach (53 apps, 0 goals, avg 6.89)

DR: Tomas Kalas (41 apps, 2 goals, avg 7.41)

DC: Luke Chambers (40 apps, 2 goals, avg 7.64)

DC: Tommy Smith (34 apps, 3 goals, avg 7.67)

DL: Aaron Cresswell (47 apps, 5 goals, avg 7.40)

DM: Luke Hyam (43 apps, 1 goals, avg 7.27)

CM: Cole Skuse (41 apps, 2 goals, avg 7.22)

CM: Anthony Wordsworth (39 apps, 8 goals, avg 7.23)

AMR: Carlos Edwards (28 apps, 1 goals, avg 7.03)

AML: Paul Anderson (4 apps, 0 goals, avg 6.75)

ST: Darryl Murphy (41 apps, 14 goals, avg 7.21)

Subs:

Dean Gerkin (1 apps, 0 goals, avg 6.90)

Elliot Hewitt (30 apps, 2 goals, avg 7.38)

Christophe Berra (36 apps, 1 goals, avg 7.63)

Tyrone Mings (22 apps, 0 goals, avg 7.09)

Jay Bothroyd (44 apps, 11 goals, avg 7.15)

Paul Taylor (34 apps, 6 goals, avg 7.02)

David McGoldrick (50 apps, 20 goals, avg 7.15)

Season 2

Main aim of the 14/15 season was consolidation for relegation with a hopeful whim of reaching a mid-table finish. Decided to look for domestic signings that would do decent at the Prem level but would allow me to bounce back to the Prem. I kept the same formations as last season, given that they worked wonders, and simply aimed to bolster my thin squad. Transfer priorities included a Prem-level keeper, RB and LB back-ups, new wingers and new strikers. I was happy to pick-up Ross Turnbull on a free but added Victor Valdes in the Jan transfer window to get some extra quality as Ipswich worked their way up the table. Former Ipswich target Adam Smith was available and able to challenge Hewitt whilst I paid for Graeme Shinnie to join to replace Tyrone Mings.

Gary Mackay-Steven and Liam Palmer entered the starting line-up on the wings whilst James Wallace was signed to provide extra back-up to the midfield with Diop's departure. Scott Parker joined in September to add experience and added quality to the center of the pitch. Abduk joined as a potential first-teamer but was sent on loan to Bolton for the season. Erik Falkenburg joined as starting AM for the 4-1-2-1-2 formation with Paul Taylor acting as back-up. Billy McKay and Matty Fryatt joined to challenge McGoldrick and Murphy as the front two.

Transfers In: Gary Mackay-Steven (1.3m), Graeme Shinnie (1.9m), Billy McKay (1.3m), Liam Palmer (700k), James Wallace (115k), Adam Smith (free), Ross Turnbull (free), Abdul Razak (free), Matty Fryatt (free), Erik Falkenburg (free), Scott Parker (free), Victor Valdes (free), regens (totalling 1m)

Transfers Out: Papa Bouba Diop (free), Carlos Edwards (free), Jonathan Leddy (free), Jack Marriott (free), David October (free), Mark Timlin (free), Tom Winters (free), Jordan Adekunle (free), far too many loans to recite but basically my entire U21/U19 sides

A wobbly start against lower/mid prem sides that had me worried until I met the upper prem sides, which is when my side suddenly found the onion net and played like Barcelona. A 3-1 win against Man Utd (Moyes-less at the time) pushed my side up to mid-table and we kept rising until we hit 6th by the end of the season (P38 W17 D14 L7 GD+17 p65). Got to the semi-finals of the Carling Cup after lucking out with the draws and won the FA Cup with some even more fortunate draws. I'll be sending in my resume when McCarthy takes the Ireland job. Utterly delighted with how the game is going and I have an inkling that it's to do with the formation rotations - the AI always counters my previous formation. Still, I'm not going to complain too hard!

Team of the Year:

GK: Ross Turnbull (29 apps, 0 goals, avg 6.89)

DR: Adam Smith (42 apps, 3 goals, avg 8.07)

DC: Tommy Smith (36 apps, 3 goals, avg 8.03)

DC: Luke Chambers (44 apps, 5 goals, avg 7.83)

DL: Aaron Cresswell (45 apps, 2 goals, avg 7.98)

MR: Liam Palmer (39 apps, 4 goals, avg 7.22)

MC: Scott Parker (38 apps, 0 goals, avg 7.39)

MC: Luke Hyam (39 apps, 1 goals, avg 7.31)

ML: Anthony Wordsworth (23 apps, 5 goals, avg 7.35)

ST: Jay Bothroyd (35 apps, 12 goals, avg 7.31)

ST: Billy McKay (50 apps, 24 goals, avg 7.23)

Subs:

Victor Valdes (22 apps, 0 goals, avg 6.85)

Christophe Berra (30 apps, 3 goals, avg 7.82)

Cole Skuse (35 apps, 0 goals, avg 7.39)

Graeme Shinnie (25 apps, 0 goals, avg 7.45)

Daryl Murphy (24 apps, 10 goals, avg 7.30)

Elliot Hewitt (17 apps, 0 goals, avg 7.39)

Erik Falkenburg (25 apps, 2 goals, avg 7.17)

Ipswich are back in the UEFA Cup via the FA Cup win and I'm aiming for a UEFA finish next season. The matches are tougher now post-patch so it'll be interesting to see if the formation rotation tactic is still a winner. I'm happy with the transfers made, some absolute quality ones, and I'll post a season review once Season 3 concludes.

As always, really enjoying my Ipswich save and will no doubt continue playing it until FM15. Hopefully the Academy upgrades will produce some better regens in the season to come as I am to have an all-Ipswich produced starting line-up.17

[goosey3131]

Thanks Prongsie, sorry for stealing your slot!

Looks like it's going well for you. I also bought Billy McKay and did the business in the Championship.

Tactically you've kept it simple which is something I should have done when first playing FM14, but I just went for it. I always thought we lacked in the wings and attacking positions but had 3 g od ccentre backs and could use Creswell and Hewitt as the width.

It's amazing that Ross Turnbull is ahead of Victor Valdes.

I will do a season review in a new post...

[goosey3131]

Season 1

Other than the transfers mentioned in the OP I only signed Sebastian Viera on a free transfer in March.

Transfers out: I loaned out Cole Skuse and Paul Anderson, and sold Daryl Murphy for 100k, which was a mistake.

Finished 8th after an appalling start.

Season 2

Transfers In:

Kyle Shearer 40k (Regen)

Patrick Flenley £0 (Regen)

Yaya Sanogo on loan

Charlie Mulgrew on loan

Sunny on a free transfer

John Fleck 375k

Tom Cairney on a free transfer

Billy McKay 700k

Iain Vigurs 300k

and in January I purchased Joel Ward on loan, Lorenzo Di Silvestri on a free transfer and Leigh Griffiths cost 31k.

Transfers Out

Jay Tabb, Keith Fahey, Dean Gerken, Paul Anderson all left the club on free transfers.

David McGoldrick went to Peterborough for 625k

Marriott, Edwards and Doherty all were released

Cole Skuse left for 105k

Lawrence, Veseli and Mings all went out on loan and John Fleck was already out of favour come January and was loaned out to Huddersfield.

Finished 5th, was never really in doubt that I would be there or there abouts and it was old playoff foes West Ham who I faced in the semi final. In the first leg I lost 2-1 at Upton Park before winning 2-0 at Portman Road. Having a house mate who supports West Ham, this was fantastic to watch (well, for me anyway).

In the Final I faced Wigan and dramatically won 2-1 in extra time.

Billy McKay and Sanogo were fantastic, with the former scoring 23 goals that season.

I'm near the end of season 3. I am flirting with the relegation zone and I will draw up a more detailed season review when it comes to an end.

[Prongsie92]

Some good signings there, goosey. Glad to see McKay doing the buisness for you. I've got a feeling that he'll be FM14's ALF for me. Just a natural goalscorer at all levels. How's Lawrence developing for you? I've found after two seasons of on-loan play that he doesn't progress further than a solid League 1 midfielder.

[Mattias333]

As a NCFC fan in peace I think your list of quality internationals produced needs looking at....Titus Bramble....Wickham....Dyer....gulp lol

Good layout though chap. Cant believe you released Alan Lee......never forgiven him I assume

[goosey3131]

Hi Mattias,

I agree and I should probably change this.

I have nothing against Alan Lee in real life, I find the whole 'he played for Norwich' reasoning rather silly, but he's not worth giving a contract to on FM14 and offers absolutely nothing as a coach.

Glad you enjoyed the read, must have been odd reading a history section?

[Owen Garven]

Goosey / Prongsie any help with tactics for ITFC would be appreciated, just can't get the team playing with the starting squad. Thanks in advance for any assistance.

Love the thread! COYB

[goosey3131]

Hi Owen, welcome to the thread.

Is this at the beginning of the season?

My method for tactics in FM14 is to fit the tactics around the team which has led me to play the tactics mentioned in post #3.

I would suggest first picking your best 11 in their natural positions, see what that looks like and then alter it to a sensible tactic. This led to the view that I have 3 good centre backs and I need to get the most out of Creswell and Hewitt, which led me to play a 5 at the back. In pre-season I like to work into my tactics, so get the basic team instructions down first and then see what that looks like and then expand/remove further team instructions as needed. Once I am happy with that I go and change some of the Player instructions and change some of these (get Taylor to 'dribble more').

Prongsie looks like he has gone for a different approach, which is obviously fine, so he will have differing views. The beauty of FM is that it is 'each to their own'. With that being the case it's really up to you; what do you have in mind when creating the tactics? what style/shape are you looking to play?

The 2-3-2-1-2 (The V-X? The V-Z?) as you can probably guess has been a troublesome tactic which, whilst being okay, i'm determined to get it to work as I feel it is capable of being a beast.

[Owen Garven]

Thanks for that Goosey, I like a 442 or a 451, 433 combo, short passing at a high temp, but just can't seem to get going, had about 6 starts so far but not just clicking.

I am leaving staff as is as quite like the current set up, transfer wise just brining in free transfers from England trialist squad.

Gonna try again today and take on board you comments, will let you know how it goes

[goosey3131]

There was a period when I used a 451/433 formation which I will post a screenshot off later tonight. Would this be with Taylor on the left as inside forward and Edwards on the wing (s), or Wordsworth on the left as Advanced playmaker (s) with Taylor/Edwards on the right?

[Owen Garven]

Ok, so I have started a new season and decided to follow the following principles:

1. Mutual termination of all staff that where not close to my ITFC heart or had played for Norwich

2. Employ as many ex Ipswich players as staff

3. Try a 3 formation rotation system of 532, 442, 23212

So staff out of the door immediately are; Lee, Kennedy, Reynolds, Chapman, Liddell, Evans, Bowman, Webster, Nash and Conner.

Then came the hard part, trying to get replacements, all my first choices wanted to much money, so had to drop down the list a bit, main staff are:

Assistant = Ian Briskill

U19/21 Coaches = Dyer, Holland, Andy Cole

Scout = David Geddis

Players Out = Edwards to Huddersfield

Also, why oh why is Ryan Stevenson rated so highly!!!

RESULT = Sacked 9th November 2013 !!! W3 D3 L9

[Mattias333]

Hi Mattias,

I agree and I should probably change this.

I have nothing against Alan Lee in real life, I find the whole 'he played for Norwich' reasoning rather silly, but he's not worth giving a contract to on FM14 and offers absolutely nothing as a coach.

Glad you enjoyed the read, must have been odd reading a history section?

haha! Yes! cant wait for whoever does our 'good' team guide thread to write...."we beat bayer munich in germany"...end paragraph. lol

At the time I quite liked Alan Lee when he came to Norwich as it was during a very depressing time for the club and he was really one of the few players that provided any passion to the cause. The rest were nameless loans who showed no emotion.

[goosey3131]

Ok, so I have started a new season and decided to follow the following principles:

1. Mutual termination of all staff that where not close to my ITFC heart or had played for Norwich

2. Employ as many ex Ipswich players as staff

3. Try a 3 formation rotation system of 532, 442, 23212

So staff out of the door immediately are; Lee, Kennedy, Reynolds, Chapman, Liddell, Evans, Bowman, Webster, Nash and Conner.

Then came the hard part, trying to get replacements, all my first choices wanted to much money, so had to drop down the list a bit, main staff are:

Assistant = Ian Briskill

U19/21 Coaches = Dyer, Holland, Andy Cole

Scout = David Geddis

Players Out = Edwards to Huddersfield

Also, why oh why is Ryan Stevenson rated so highly!!!

RESULT = Sacked 9th November 2013 !!! W3 D3 L9

Ryan Stevenson?! what Football Manager are you running?

[Owen Garven]

Fm14 beta! All my scouts rate him, maybe there is some Scottish club bias - he is playing for Hearts I think

Oh and in my 2nd attempt Paul Mariner has been appointed Director of Football

[fairsy]

Hi guys

Firstly, I'm the researcher for ITFC so if you have any comments or feedback on the data I'm happy to hear them - either here or may be better in the specific Data Issues thread, but anything you have to say will be appreciated.

Now onto my game:

I decided not to mess around too much with youth squads as this was always going to be a short term game until the full release came out, and I tried to set my team up as McCarthy would do initially....this meant in a 442 with Aaron Cresswell with the role Wing Back and my left midfielder with the role Wide Midfielder, on the right hand side it was a Full Back with a Winger in front of them to try and mirror the way we currently play.

My team selection didn't veer too far away from what we currently play in real life and it was pretty successful for the start of the season as i found myself comfortably in the Top 2 in December. It was at this point I began to mess around with tactics and the goals dried up, McGoldrick, Murphy and Nouble all had double figures by mid December but only McGoldrick got past 15 goals as I rotated between a 4132 and 4231 using Murphy/Nouble as a wide target man on the left hand side.

The club was bought out by Simon Blizzard during the January transfer window which meant a transfer embargo had been placed on me, and I couldn't spend any of the £2m that had been made available to me until the very end of the window.

Transfers - Main only

Jake Cassidy - £275k from Wolves

James Wallace - £195k from Tranmere

Shaun Cummings - Loan

Team of season

--------------------Loach---------------------

Hewitt--------Smith------Chambers----Cresswell

-------------------Hyam-----------------------

-------Wordsworth--Tabb--Skuse--------------

----------McGoldrick----Murphy----------------

Final league position

9th

In the second season I went back to the 442 that had been successful but found that I wasn't really creating many chances and while results were ok I wasn't happy with the performances. Tommy Smith was a goal machine and was comfortably outscoring my strikers with headers from corners - he ended the season with 17 goals! I sold Cresswell to Celtic for a total fee of around £7m and used this to bring in a few loan players and 3 new full backs (Aidy White and the excellent James Husband from Doncaster on the left and James Tarvenier to compete with Hewitt on the right). i then found and stuck to a 4132 formation which had the full backs up and down the pitch all game - that was why I needed decent back ups.

I went on a really good run towards the end of the season and ended up finishing 4th, I comfortably disposed of Wolves in the Play Off Semis and met Hull in the final - 2 days before the Final Steve McLaren quit Hull to join recently relegated Sunderland, very strange, and I beat them 3-1 in the Final.

Tommy Smith won the Championship player of the year and James Husband won the young player of the year. Most importantly I have worked out my favourite tactics and players that fit this and will now delete this game and start again on the full version - which will be tough to do!

Transfers

Out

Cresswell - £7m to Celtic

Murphy - £150k to Leeds

In

Gary Gardner - Loan

James Tarvernier - £300k Newcastle

Josip Radosevic - Napoli Loan

Bruno Uvini - Napoli Loan

Aidy White - £375k Leeds

James Husband - £1m

Reuben Noble-Lazarus - £105k Barnsley

Team of the year

---------------------Loach-------------------

Hewitt------Bruno Uvini------Smith----Husband

------------Wallace----------Hyam-----------

Anderson-----------Gardner----------Wordsworth

--------------------Nouble-------------------

I ended the season with only 1 defeat from the 1st Feb including play offs so hope to have cracked it.....

When I start the new game, i will be using a 4132 formation and will most probably line up like this:

---------------Loach---------------

Hewitt---Berra-----Smith----Cresswell

--------------Skuse-----------------

-----Tabb---Wordsworth--Hyam------

--------McGoldrick---Murphy---------

I'll try and sell Paul Taylor as I can never get anything out of him, whichever system I use and that may bring in some money.

I'll look to bring in a goal poacher up front, possibly Jake Cassidy who has impressed for me in the beta, and there are 2 or 3 youths that were succesful for me that everyone else seems to have released - Kyle Hammond and Amir Berkane.

I'll flesh this post out a bit tonight, and then keep you all fully updated when I start on the new game.

[Owen Garven]

Would really appreciate any tactical help, with team and player duties, I continually get sacked over Xmas!!

[Prongsie92]

My tactics for you, Owen:

4-4-2

4-5-1

4-1-2-1-2

[goosey3131]

Hi guys

Firstly, I'm the researcher for ITFC so if you have any comments or feedback on the data I'm happy to hear them - either here or may be better in the specific Data Issues thread, but anything you have to say will be appreciated.

Now onto my game:

I decided not to mess around too much with youth squads as this was always going to be a short term game until the full release came out, and I tried to set my team up as McCarthy would do initially....this meant in a 442 with Aaron Cresswell with the role Wing Back and my left midfielder with the role Wide Midfielder, on the right hand side it was a Full Back with a Winger in front of them to try and mirror the way we currently play.

My team selection didn't veer too far away from what we currently play in real life and it was pretty successful for the start of the season as i found myself comfortably in the Top 2 in December. It was at this point I began to mess around with tactics and the goals dried up, McGoldrick, Murphy and Nouble all had double figures by mid December but only McGoldrick got past 15 goals as I rotated between a 4132 and 4231 using Murphy/Nouble as a wide target man on the left hand side.

The club was bought out by Simon Blizzard during the January transfer window which meant a transfer embargo had been placed on me, and I couldn't spend any of the £2m that had been made available to me until the very end of the window.

Transfers

(To be updated)

Team of season

(To be updated)

Final league position

(To be updated)

In the second season I went back to the 442 that had been succesful but found that I wasn't really creating many chances and while results were ok I wasn't happy with the performances. Tommy Smith was a goal machine and was comfortably outscoring my strikers with headers from corners - he ended the season with 17 goals! I sold Cresswell to Celtic for a total fee of around £7m and used this to bring in a few loan players and 3 new full backs (Aidy White and the excellent James Husband from Doncaster on the left and James Tarvenier to compete with Hewitt on the right). i then found and stuck to a 4132 formation which had the full backs up and down the pitch all game - that was why I needed decent back ups.

I went on a really good run towards the end of the season and ended up finishing 4th, I comfortably disposed of Wolves in the Play Off Semis and met Hull in the final - 2 days before the Final Steve McLaren quit Hull to join recently relegated Sunderland, very strange, and I beat them 3-1 in the Final.

Tommy Smith won the Championship player of the year and James Husband won the young player of the year. Most importantly I have worked out my favourite tactics and players that fit this and will now delete this game and start again on the full version - which will be tough to do!

Transfers

(To be updated)

Team of the year

(To be updated)

When I start the new game, i will be using a 4132 formation and will most probably line up like this:

---------------Loach---------------

Hewitt---Berra-----Smith----Cresswell

--------------Skuse-----------------

-----Tabb---Wordsworth--Hyam------

--------McGoldrick---Murphy---------

I'll try and sell Paul Taylor as I can never get anything out of him, whichever system I use and that may bring in some money.

I'll look to bring in a goal poacher up front, possibly Jake Cassidy who has impressed for me in the beta, and there are 2 or 3 youths that were succesful for me that everyone else seems to have released - Kyle Hammond and Amir Berkane.

I'll flesh this post out a bit tonight, and then keep you all fully updated when I start on the new game.

Nice work fairsy. I would be very interested to see how Hammond and Berkane has turned out for you.

In my first season I went with McGoldrick and Murphy, who ended up excelling.

There is a 4-1-3-2 formation floating around the tactics section of the forum that would be great for your team, you should check it out. It would look like Tabb and Hyam as box to box midfielders with Wordsworth being an Advanced playmaker, then McGoldrick being a false 9 and Murphy as a poacher. Not their first choices positionally but they would do the job.

[goosey3131]

Here are two tactics that might work for you, they would need tweaking:

4-1-2-1-2

4-5-1

Something that I have improved on from the Beta, which I hope is a view people share, is that you should not over do your team instructions. These instructions are for EVERY player, so do you want your limited centre backs to play nice short through passes or do you want him to hoof it?

The 4-5-1 tactics could easily be turned into a 4-2-3-1 with Wordsworth pushing into the AMC position and either Tabb or Skuse going into DMC role. This would provide cover for Creswell who I have a slight obsession with trying to get him to attack in a Baines-esque style. Try to get him to overlap when Taylor tucks in as the inside forward could be a great partnership if you can get it to work.

I am by no means an expert at tactics and still getting to grips with the FM14 tactics.

[goosey3131]

Tough decision this...

Declined.

[Prongsie92]

You were tempted to do the "Agent Norwich" challenge and see how low you can take them in the leagues before getting sacked?

[goosey3131]

No. Never. I pressed that button so hard.

(Disappointing result tonight)

[Owen Garven]

Disappointing, putting it mildly! Just returned from PR and it is the worst we have played all season! Same players passing sideways and backwards, Same old subs, same old ideas!

Now I know why I am finding FM14 so hard if that is the level of performance the team has been modelled on!

Back to FM14, I am in my second game now and trying a combo of 442, 451, 4141 all attacking, finished 11th 1st year, not sacked and got a new 2 year contract

Just has a testimonial for Matt Bloomfield of Wycombe, an Ipswich old boy! Like it, good feature

[Prongsie92]

Abysmal I think would be the correct term for yesterday's game. For a 15 minute spell, we were playing brilliant. Sadly the rest of the time we were playing like we were at the ends of Keane's and Jewell's reigns. Hopefully next week is better.

I've just finished Season 3. I've kept with the same tactics, as they've been working well, and bolstered the side with some (imo) quality big name signings. Thankfully I didn't do a Burley and mess things up! My aim of signings were to replace what I had left over from the Championship and bring in Premier League quality. My wide midfield definitely needed added strength and my strikers were on the wrong side of 30. Sergio Canales, Connor Wickham and Alessio Cerci came in to help solve that issue. The remaining transfers were simply players that looked decent in the long term. During the season, I also loaned Javi Garcia and Adnan Januzaj to add cover for unhappy players leaving on loan.

The board agreed to my proposals of expanding the Academy; they'll now be Category 1 and the expansion to the facilities were completed in November to Superb rating. They rejected an expansion to the training facilities though.

Transfers In: Sergio Canales (6.5m), Connor Wickham (115k), Alessio Cerci (free), Kristian Alvarez (10k), Will Hughes (3.3m), Michael McGovern (free), Javi Garcia (loan 58k/pm), Adnan Januzaj (loan), Deividas Stanikiatis (regen - free)

Transfers Out: Scott Loach (325k), Matty Fryatt (450k), Tyrone Mings (free), Paul Taylor (115k), Dean Gerken (free), David McGoldrick (free), Frank Nouble (free), Frederic Veseli (free), Kyle Hammond (free), Cory Galvin (free), Amir Berkane (free), Ted Bishop (free), Michael Crowe (free), Jack Doherty (free), youth players, tonnes of loans

A tough start to the season but fortunes changed to end 5th in the League, won the Carling Cup, exited the EURO Cup in the First Knockout Round and lost out to Man City in the FA Cup semi-finals. Cresswell, Hyam, Adam Smith and Hewitt all got capped by their respective national sides. A few of my youth team are ready to make the step up to the first team and the team were highly optimistic in thinking we could win the title next season! I personally blame Valdes... he led the group when I was happy with EURO Cup qualification.

Alveraz proved to be a massive steal. Leading Prem player (as per Al Stewart) for 10k. He has made a solid partnership with Tommy Smith.

Team of the year:

GK: Victor Valdes (55 apps, 0 goals, avg 6.92)

DR: Adam Smith (49 apps, 3 goals, avg 7.46)

DC: Luke Chambers (27 apps, 5 goals, avg 7.19)

DC: Tommy Smith (41 apps, 1 goals, avg 7.19)

DL: Aaron Cresswell (51 apps, 2 goals, avg 7.59)

DM: Scott Parker (31 apps, 4 goals, avg 7.27)

CM: Luke Hyam (49 apps, 3 goals, avg 7.17)

CM: Will Hughes (42 apps, 3 goals, avg 7.15)

AMC: Adnan Januzaj (27 apps, 7 goals, avg 7.04)

ST: Connor Wickham (32 apps, 13 goals, avg 6.97)

ST: Darryl Murphy (30 apps, 12 goals, avg 6.88)

Subs:

Ross Turnbull (3 apps, 0 goals, avg 7.07)

Kristian Alveraz (44 apps, 8 goals, avg 7.13)

Javi Garcia (40 apps, 0 goals, avg 7.13)

Sergio Canales (42 apps, 3 goals, avg 6.92)

Alessio Cerci (43 apps, 6 goals, avg 6.88)

Christophe Berra (25 apps, 1 goals, avg 7.02)

Billy McKay (49 apps, 22 goals, avg 6.82)

[ipswichjon2]

After a tough spell of transfer wheeling and dealing I managed to trim the wage bill by loaning out a swathe of players including Anderson as I wasn't using any wingers and Nouble as I felt Murphy was a better option. I let Loach go after Celtic came in with an offer and proceeded to sign some free transfers and loan players in order to keep costs down. Nicky Maynard came in on loan as my biggest outlay but he was sent back after a few months as he was contributing very little for big wages. Simon Davies came in on a free and did well but I had to move him on near the end of the season so his contract extension clause didn't kick in.

After a solid start we had a very sticky spell during November and March but generally played some nice possession football finishing in a play off place.

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Forest were despatched 4-1 on aggregate, Taylor getting 2, so it was onto Wembley where we would meet a Millwall side featuring ex Ipswich boys Liam Trotter and Ed Upson. Taylor scored 2 again in the final as he finally came into some form, after using all my subs I lost Tommy Smith to injury and held out 3-3 AET we eventually won 4-2 on penalties, Premiership here we come!

Pleasing first season after spending zero money with a net transfer spend of -£800,000

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Stand out performers were my central defenders and Luke Hyam in the middle of the park and McGoldrick bagged a respectable 18 goals. Next season will probably be a struggle without some major signings up front and in goal!

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

[fairsy]

Nice work fairsy. I would be very interested to see how Hammond and Berkane has turned out for you.

In my first season I went with McGoldrick and Murphy, who ended up excelling.

There is a 4-1-3-2 formation floating around the tactics section of the forum that would be great for your team, you should check it out. It would look like Tabb and Hyam as box to box midfielders with Wordsworth being an Advanced playmaker, then McGoldrick being a false 9 and Murphy as a poacher. Not their first choices positionally but they would do the job.

I'll try and work out how to do a screenshot - neither are exceptional but have decent attributes in areas required (12s and 13s) and are decent enough when they play - however think they'd struggle in the Prem so they may end up being released if I were to carry on that game.

That formation you mention isn't too dissimilar to what I use - although finding a DLP with a Poacher is working well.

[ipswichjon2]

Nice work fairsy. I would be very interested to see how Hammond and Berkane has turned out for you.

In my first season I went with McGoldrick and Murphy, who ended up excelling.

There is a 4-1-3-2 formation floating around the tactics section of the forum that would be great for your team, you should check it out. It would look like Tabb and Hyam as box to box midfielders with Wordsworth being an Advanced playmaker, then McGoldrick being a false 9 and Murphy as a poacher. Not their first choices positionally but they would do the job.

Is that the Fulcrum tactic? I've been using that too, works a treat but you have to keep working on the player's morale as it drops like a stone after a defeat!

[Prongsie92]

Nice going, ipswichjon! Any targets in mind for the first season back in Sky's domain?

[ipswichjon2]

Nice going, ipswichjon! Any targets in mind for the first season back in Sky's domain?

After reading other guys experiences I've gone for a few familiar names and some promising youngsters. I'm trying out a high pressing 4-2-2-2 this season, high risk strategy as top teams might just pass through me but I think it'll suit my determined high work rate type players, I'm lacking real quality but the transfer and wage budget are peanuts for the first season in the premiership (£8M and only 50% of transfer revenue) and despite a £4M profit when we went up! I'm particularly hopeful for my pair of Dutch youngsters Houwen & Hooi who my scouts have rated as 4 /12 stars for potential, and Jonathan Walters who is perfect for either the defensive forward or winger role I've earmarked for him!

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

I also bid for Thomas Ince but his wages were too high and Begovic and Butland seem to prefer life in the championship and wouldn't even discuss terms!

[Prongsie92]

Solid signings

Adam Smith is this year's "legend" for me so far.

Just started Season 4 and it's going woeful. All draws in the league and scrapped through the Champions League knockout. My strikeforce is awful! I brought in Jordan Rhodes to replace Darryl Murphy and I'm wondering why people keep cursing Keane's name for selling him! Brought in Suarez on loan to help out but Al Stewart is of the belief that he's worse than Billy McKay.

[ipswichjon2]

Quite pleased with the result in my opening Premiership fixture!

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[ipswichjon2]

Solid signings

Adam Smith is this year's "legend" for me so far.

Just started Season 4 and it's going woeful. All draws in the league and scrapped through the Champions League knockout. My strikeforce is awful! I brought in Jordan Rhodes to replace Darryl Murphy and I'm wondering why people keep cursing Keane's name for selling him! Brought in Suarez on loan to help out but Al Stewart is of the belief that he's worse than Billy McKay.

Rhode's stats mean he lacks the pace to be a poacher but he's a natural finisher, he was out of my price range but I'd have tried to sign him and play him as a defensive forward

[Prongsie92]

I'm tempted to try Rhodes as a False Nine to avoid relying on his (poor) physical skills in the Premiership. So far I've had him in DLF and as a P with DLF being his better position.

That's a fantastic opener to the season! Cracking stats for your side as well. Definitely dominated that game

[fairsy]

I started my full game over the weekend with the 4132 formation I spoke about in the previous post. Obviously I had no real money to spend and have a sense of loyalty to current ITFC players so have tried to not bring in too many players and go with what I have.

Unfortunately on Day 1 of my game, in the Ipswich v Ipswich Reserves friendly, Freddie Veseli managed to break David McGoldrick's leg and he was out for 6 months - as tempting as it was to start again I thought that would be 'cheating' so opted against it and brought Harry Kane in on loan.

I tried to retrain any wider players to fit into a 4132, but by January Anderson and Taylor had shown no progress so I've got rid of them - I couldn't get a fee for Taylor so he went to Birmingham on a free transfer but with a big saving on wages, and Anderson has joined Burnley on loan until the end of the season with them paying all his wages. I have brought in a young loan midfielder from Udinese on loan to replace Ryan Tunnicliffe who went back to Man U after a fairly ineffective loan spell.

I am currently in the Top 2 in early February but have been reeled in by clubs around me and promotion is looking unlikely - I can't score enough goals and although my defence is excellent (only 19 goals conceded in league so far) there are far too many draws. McGoldrick is just back from injury and seems more effective than Harry Kane in the DLF position so hopefully this will allow for more goals to be scored - but I think it's lack of quality going forward that is costing me and I need to bring a couple of players in, in the summer - obviously if I scrape promotion that will help my budgets - although the Premiership with this squad could be very sobering!

[Owen Garven]

Well, what a few seasons, season 1 and my new 41212 and 4141 combination led to a comfortable mid table position, it was a long season, no money to spend, but for some unknown reason Nottingham Forest decided to spend 1million on Paul Taylor, I could not say no.

My second season was said, by the majority of managers to be a season of over achieving, I spent the grand total of 1.5million on players, with 4million being received as Scott Loach and David McGoldrick got snapped up by premiership sides. My players coming in where

Allan Bain – Raith 200k

Jason Holt – Hearts 1m

Albeto – Tenerife 300k

Other players on frees included, Victor (Mallorca), Mauro Dos Santos Free, Cameron Stewart Free, Ross Turnbull free, Schmeichel free.

Despite only getting 4 points from my last 7 games we finished 2nd and promotion was achieved.

So we now move into the premiership, I can’t sign anyone, all cost to much, but acquired Steven N’Zoni from a relegated Stoke, and Darren Bent on a free transfer at the third attempt, wanted 42k wages to start, settled at 21k.

Only won a single game so far as we strive to avoid relegation, and that was a win at Liverpool who had a man sent off.

My Current 11

Kasper Schmeichel (GK)

Elliot Hewitt (FB-s)

Luke Chambers (CD-d)

Tommy Smith (CD-d)

Aaron Creswell (CWB-a)

Steve N’Zonzi (HB-d)

Luke Hyam (CM-s)

Cole Skuse (DLP-d)

Jason Holt (T-a)

Darren Bent (AF-a)

Victor (DLF-s)

[keepersam1]

As always I have started my Ipswich save, only started on the demo 2 days ago, got the full game today, in January currently. I hate how the wage budget is lower than the current team budget, anyway I'm second in the league and looking decent. First thing I did was set up a parent club which turned out to be Arsenal!

Players In:

H.Emphriam-loan

J.Flanagan-loan

Players Out:

P.Taylor-Loan to Millwall

D.Gerken-Loan to Chelsea, they wanted him as a key player!!!!

J.Marriott-Loan to Exeter Why oh why is Marriott's potential so low

M.Timlin-Loan

D.October-Loan

T.Bishop-Loan

My top scorers so far is McGoldrick and Nouble(I think its because he's so quick)

My Lineup is a flat 4-4-2 or 4-4-1-1 when playing away or a top table clash. Both on Control and balanced with Hassle opponents, Retain Possession and play out of defense

--------------Loach-------------

Flanagan---Berra--Smith---Cresswell

Anderson--Hyam--Skuse---Wordsworth

--------McGoldrick----Nouble---------

Murphy is absolutely awful for me and doesn't get in the side

Hewitt is just as good and I normally rotate

Chambers is just as good as well, but performs slightly worse

Edwards is too old

Hoping that IRL we can put a run together to get a play-off finish, we can all dream COYB

[goosey3131]

I'm tempted to try Rhodes as a False Nine to avoid relying on his (poor) physical skills in the Premiership. So far I've had him in DLF and as a P with DLF being his better position.

That's a fantastic opener to the season! Cracking stats for your side as well. Definitely dominated that game

I'd play him as a Poacher. 'Feed the Goat and he will score' as they say.

[goosey3131]

I started my full game over the weekend with the 4132 formation I spoke about in the previous post. Obviously I had no real money to spend and have a sense of loyalty to current ITFC players so have tried to not bring in too many players and go with what I have.

Unfortunately on Day 1 of my game, in the Ipswich v Ipswich Reserves friendly, Freddie Veseli managed to break David McGoldrick's leg and he was out for 6 months - as tempting as it was to start again I thought that would be 'cheating' so opted against it and brought Harry Kane in on loan.

I tried to retrain any wider players to fit into a 4132, but by January Anderson and Taylor had shown no progress so I've got rid of them - I couldn't get a fee for Taylor so he went to Birmingham on a free transfer but with a big saving on wages, and Anderson has joined Burnley on loan until the end of the season with them paying all his wages. I have brought in a young loan midfielder from Udinese on loan to replace Ryan Tunnicliffe who went back to Man U after a fairly ineffective loan spell.

I am currently in the Top 2 in early February but have been reeled in by clubs around me and promotion is looking unlikely - I can't score enough goals and although my defence is excellent (only 19 goals conceded in league so far) there are far too many draws. McGoldrick is just back from injury and seems more effective than Harry Kane in the DLF position so hopefully this will allow for more goals to be scored - but I think it's lack of quality going forward that is costing me and I need to bring a couple of players in, in the summer - obviously if I scrape promotion that will help my budgets - although the Premiership with this squad could be very sobering!

Excellent stuff there fairsy. It's strange that so many people are struggling with Taylor. I'd have him as a winger attack on the right, as a shadow striker in the middle, or a Inside forward support on the left and it has worked quite well, not amazing, but solid.

[goosey3131]

Well, what a few seasons, season 1 and my new 41212 and 4141 combination led to a comfortable mid table position, it was a long season, no money to spend, but for some unknown reason Nottingham Forest decided to spend 1million on Paul Taylor, I could not say no.

My second season was said, by the majority of managers to be a season of over achieving, I spent the grand total of 1.5million on players, with 4million being received as Scott Loach and David McGoldrick got snapped up by premiership sides. My players coming in where

Allan Bain – Raith 200k

Jason Holt – Hearts 1m

Albeto – Tenerife 300k

Other players on frees included, Victor (Mallorca), Mauro Dos Santos Free, Cameron Stewart Free, Ross Turnbull free, Schmeichel free.

Despite only getting 4 points from my last 7 games we finished 2nd and promotion was achieved.

So we now move into the premiership, I can’t sign anyone, all cost to much, but acquired Steven N’Zoni from a relegated Stoke, and Darren Bent on a free transfer at the third attempt, wanted 42k wages to start, settled at 21k.

Only won a single game so far as we strive to avoid relegation, and that was a win at Liverpool who had a man sent off.

My Current 11

Kasper Schmeichel (GK)

Elliot Hewitt (FB-s)

Luke Chambers (CD-d)

Tommy Smith (CD-d)

Aaron Creswell (CWB-a)

Steve N’Zonzi (HB-d)

Luke Hyam (CM-s)

Cole Skuse (DLP-d)

Jason Holt (T-a)

Darren Bent (AF-a)

Victor (DLF-s)

That's excellent Owen, glad you have got the hang of it! care to take a screenshot of the tactics you settled with?

How are you doing now? In my first season it was a long hard struggle before finishing 15th.

I'm now in the Champions League with Ipswich (2 or 3 seasons ahead of where I last reported to you guys).

[goosey3131]

As always I have started my Ipswich save, only started on the demo 2 days ago, got the full game today, in January currently. I hate how the wage budget is lower than the current team budget, anyway I'm second in the league and looking decent. First thing I did was set up a parent club which turned out to be Arsenal!

Players In:

H.Emphriam-loan

J.Flanagan-loan

Players Out:

P.Taylor-Loan to Millwall

D.Gerken-Loan to Chelsea, they wanted him as a key player!!!!

J.Marriott-Loan to Exeter Why oh why is Marriott's potential so low

M.Timlin-Loan

D.October-Loan

T.Bishop-Loan

My top scorers so far is McGoldrick and Nouble(I think its because he's so quick)

My Lineup is a flat 4-4-2 or 4-4-1-1 when playing away or a top table clash. Both on Control and balanced with Hassle opponents, Retain Possession and play out of defense

--------------Loach-------------

Flanagan---Berra--Smith---Cresswell

Anderson--Hyam--Skuse---Wordsworth

--------McGoldrick----Nouble---------

Murphy is absolutely awful for me and doesn't get in the side

Hewitt is just as good and I normally rotate

Chambers is just as good as well, but performs slightly worse

Edwards is too old

Hoping that IRL we can put a run together to get a play-off finish, we can all dream COYB

Has signing Flanagan stunted the growth of Hewitt? Hewitt is now my first choice right back in the Champions League, worth £7 odd million with the likes of Chelsea snooping for him.

The players in the wide areas are so poor for Ipswich this season, though it's akin to real life I must say.

It is a toss up between Chambers and Berra at the beginning, with Smith claiming the LCB role.

Interesting that Nouble is doing well for you, I preferred the cash.

[goosey3131]

So...

Season 3

So the last time I spoke to you guys I was heading towards the relegation zone at around February. I ended up finishing 15th in season two, going on a 4 game winning streak from week 28 really helped and was secure from then on.

My Transfers looked like this:

Season 4

I couldn't have dreamt of having such a good season. With the money gained from being in the Premiership I bought some signings were I was punching above my weight:

It saw me clinch the 4th and final Champions League spot with Fletcher and Shearer being a great partnership upfront. Shearer, who cost 70k in season 2 from Rochdale, is great to watch in 3D because his goal celebration seems to be like the real life Shearer!

Season 5

I'm now in season 5, just approaching the end of the summer transfer window and I have gone for a lot of youngsters who are now regens. It's too early to tell how I will get on by my signings for this window are:

My first team squad I haven't quite finalised but it looks something like:

A lot of my regens are looking they could be class, it's a shame that 3 of them are regens.

Key Players:

I still find it difficult signings players with any great deal of value unless they are on in form or indispensable, whilst I seem to pay over the odds for players. This leads me to just signing regens for cheap. I then play them and they turn into stars (Shearer and Pecci for example).

How does everyone sell there players? I tend to just offer them out, or leave my ass man to do it for me.

[keepersam1]

Has signing Flanagan stunted the growth of Hewitt? Hewitt is now my first choice right back in the Champions League, worth £7 odd million with the likes of Chelsea snooping for him.

The players in the wide areas are so poor for Ipswich this season, though it's akin to real life I must say.

It is a toss up between Chambers and Berra at the beginning, with Smith claiming the LCB role.

Interesting that Nouble is doing well for you, I preferred the cash.

I'm not to sure, although Hewitt has gained the right back role now, i signed Flanagan to add competition. I was unsure with Nouble at the beginning mainly based on his dross in real life but I gave him a chance and he's scored 17 in 28.

Also, what do you expect IRL, with Tunnicliffe playing wide left when even he said he doesn't posses a left foot?!

[fairsy]

Excellent stuff there fairsy. It's strange that so many people are struggling with Taylor. I'd have him as a winger attack on the right, as a shadow striker in the middle, or a Inside forward support on the left and it has worked quite well, not amazing, but solid.

I switched my tactics around a bit and managed to start scoring more goals throughout the rest of the season and was fairly solid at the top of the league. A few poor results and Wigan having loads of games in hand meant that they took top spot off me and I was battling for 2nd place with Reading and Burnley. In the penultimate game of the season, a last minute winner from Dean Marney meant that Burnley and Reading leapfrogged me and ensured I could only go up if they drew (they were playing each other) and I won. I did my part of the bargain but unfortunately Reading won so it was the play offs for me.

I faced Brighton in the play offs and lost 3-2 at the Amex - was 3-0 down before a late comeback gave me hope ahead of the return leg. But despite dominating this I couldn't score and lost 1-0 so have been consigned to another season of Championship football!

I received a few bids for players at the end of the season, none met their value except Watford's bid for Jay Tabb so I've sold him - I allowed Anderson to join Burnley on a free transfer as have no use for him. One of the main struggles for was that when Wordsworth picked up an injury, I had to play Byron Lawrence in my creative midfield position and while he had some good games he wasn't in Wordy's class, especially with set pieces. In hindsight I should've broken the bank to pull in a loanee to cover this spell. I also needed a better back up RB, Kyle Hammond struggled when stepping in for Elliott Hewitt who was often tired due to the high intensity full back game played.

I have had the fortune of having the best youth prospect I've seen in a while, Luke Brown - he's dubbed "The new John Terry" and made a number of sub appearances at back end of the season, breaking Connor Wickham's youngest player record and generally looking decent.

I know which areas I need to sort out, so may look to sell Cressy to raise some funds for a promotion push, now that I have got the wage bill low.

[Owen Garven]

Goosey and anyone else who knows? How do you find the regens?