The Tractor Boys - An Ipswich Town Adventure

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The Tractor Boys - An Ipswich Town Adventure

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Background

Founded in 1878, Ipswich Town are a Professional Football Club who currently find themselves in the second tier of English Football, a division they've been stranded in since their relegation from the Premier League back in 2001/02. But it hasn't always been gloomy for the 'Tractor Boys', a club who enjoyed great success under Sir Bobby Robson between 1969-1982, a period that saw them win two major trophies while enjoying several seasons in the top flight of English Football. However, upon Robson's departure the East-Anglian Club began to slip in performances which led to the departure of many key players such as Frans Thijssen, John Wark and many others, departures which could only soften the impact that the construction of a new stand had on the budget at the club.

In 1985-86, Ipswich Town were finally relegated from the top flight of English Football, something that had been on the horizon for a couple of years but soon returned to the top in time for the 1992-93 Premier League debut under John Lyall. Despite a positive start to the new season that saw Ipswich in 4th place at the turn of the year, a collapse in form saw the Tractor Boys finish in 16th place, narrowly avoiding relegation. This poor form continued into the new season and saw Manager John Lyall removed from his poisition, only to be replaced by George Burley.

While Burley was unable to prevent relegation, he led the Club to three consecutive Promotion Play-Offs, sadly ending in defeat in the Semi-Finals on all 3 occasions. This curse was finally lifted in 2000 when Ipswich came from behind to beat Barnsley 4-2 at Wembley, Ipswich were returning to the top flight once again!

The first season brought back the good memories, Ipswich finished 5th place, narrowly missing out on Champions League qualification to a Liverpool side on the final day of the season, with Town qualifying for the UEFA Cup and Burley winning Manager of the Year. This stint in the top flight only lasted two seasons with Town being barraged by financial woes before entering administration resulting in relegation from the Premier League. A poor start to the 2002 season saw Burley sacked after 8 years at the club.

Since 2002, Ipswich have failed to return to the top-flight, losing in the play-offs on 3 occasions, and this is where I come in. My aim is to get Ipswich back into the Barclays Premier League, and to re-taste the success that Sir Bobby Robson brought to Portman Road.

The New Manager
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My name is Niall Spinks and as of July 1st, 2015, I will be Ipswich Town's new Manager.
 
The Facilities.

The Tractor Boys - An Ipswich Town Adventure

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The Facilities

Being a team that have played in the top two divisions of Football for the past 60 years or so, you would expect Ipswich Town to have a fairly high level set of facilities available, and you'd be right. Ipswich have proven to have been very responsible when planning for the future and over time have developed a fine stadium, as well as an excellent training facility to help bring the best out of their players. But let's take a closer look at what we have to hand.

First of all, the stadium; Portman Road.

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Portman Road is a 30,311 capacity stadium that has been home to Ipswich Town Football since 1884, although it was previously rebuilt back in 2002 when a new stand was added, causing much of the financial difficulties at the club. Costing £112,000 in rent every year is nothing when you consider that the stadium is a regular sell-out and around 14,000 season tickets being sold each season, which easily pays the bills for the use of the fine ground. Unless Ipswich become a big player in the Premier League, and possibly even Europe, it's hard to see home Football being played anywhere else anytime soon, although the stadium could be renovated should the capacity need to be extended.

The Training Facilities; Playford Road.

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Playford Road has been home of Ipswich's training centre for many years, with the club forking out money to provide 3G pitches and maintenance of the facility, as well as providing the equipment and personnel necessary to take the club forwards.

You can see from the inside that the facility is that of a very high standard and exceeds the expectation for a training center of a Championship side, with facilities like this available to the Club, I don't see why we can't bring in top prospects with a view to developing them to be big players for us in the future.

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I'm sure plenty of time will be spent on the training ground as we look to keep our players at the top of their game, it's not just about what goes on on the pitch, it's about what goes on off of it.

Having taken a look around the facilities, I'm very pleased with what I have at my disposal. We have very strong foundations to build on and with the right players and the right coaches, promotion could be a goal within the next few seasons.
 
Looking forward to following this and see what you can do with Ispwich
 
Upon Arrival...

The Tractor Boys - An Ipswich Town Adventure

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Upon Arrival

Having been hired at Ipswich Town, I took it upon myself to see what was awaiting me at the club. Initially I found myself being pleased with the outlook of the squad; there's a lot of current ability and a lot of potential for players to grow. With the right additions and the right tactics, I don't see why we can't push on and exceed our media predicted finish of 11th place.

First-Team

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Daryl Murphy, David McGoldrick and Christophe Berra currently head the wage bill at the club but this is to be expected, they're key players after all. Currently, our squad contains 23 players, although some of these will be sent out on loan or possibly sold to pave way for replacements who can offer more to the team.

Players I'm looking at moving on include Adam Webster, Cameron Stewart, Luke Varney and Giles Coke although some of these players have only recently arrived at the club, meaning we might not be able to shift them until January, but I don't see these players being utilised in the system I'm looking to deploy.

The financial position of the club currently means that we'd be required to sell players before we can bring any in. A club debt of £62m means we've only been allocated a small transfer budget of £500,000. Nowhere near enough to bring in high quality players at this level, meaning player sales are even more important than before. Keeping our big name players will be difficult with the club currently lying in the financial position that it's in.

If possible, I'd be looking to strengthen the left-side of our field. A back-up left-back and a starting wide midfielder will be areas that need improvement ahead of the new season.

Hot-Prospects


Being a Manager who likes to utilise the youth and develop players for the future, I was delighted to arrive at Portman Road and see that the club had plenty of prospects who could one day play a large part at the club.

While Ben Morris, Luke Woolfenden and Conor McKendry have potential, there are two players who I am interested in developing more than any other. The first of these being:

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Myles Kenlock; the young English left-back currently possesses 1 1/2* current ability with a view to going on to be a regular first-team player in a Premier League team. His physicals for a player so young are very consistent and with some off-the-field tutoring and emphasis on training I'm sure he'll be able to make his way into our squad in the future. With a back-up left-back being on the agenda, Myles may even find his way onto the pitch during our opening campaign.

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A player you may be more familiar with would be Andre Dozzell; son of Ipswich Town icon James Dozzell. Technically and mentally, Andre seems to be well above what I'd expect from a 16 year old although his physical side is slacking to a great degree, but that's something we can work on during our time at the club. I'd expect a lot of clubs to be circling for Andre throughout this season, if not next season at the latest, but I'm hoping that his affiliation to the club through his Father will make him want to stay and be a part of the team.

Side Notes

(The quality of images isn't what I have in mind (too small), but as I haven't posted on this profile much I am currently unable to upload many links, or URL images, once I am amble to do this I'm hoping the quality of the thread will improve.)
 
Looking forward to following this and see what you can do with Ispwich

Thanks Saddler, I'm still trying to find the best way to format this thread but hopefully all will be okay and it'll be an enjoyable read. :)
 
A small taster.

The Tractor Boys - An Ipswich Town Adventure

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A taste of things to come...

Having given the squad a brief overview and getting to grips with the roles of the players, we were quickly thrown into a development match against our Under 21s side, a good chance for some of my players to impress early on and a match that also gives us a chance to observe the quality of the youngsters.

A problem I identified in the squad early on is that we're really lacking in the left-wing position, Varney is an aging player and will not be able to perform in 46+ matches this season. Although, we're relatively stacked with quality in the central areas. With that in mind I developed a formation that is somewhat of a 4-3-3 but with one of the front-men playing out wide in Freddie Sears. This means it'll be up to Knudsen to provide the width down the left-hand side as we look to balance the formation by exploiting certain areas of the pitch. With a limited budget it's going to be a case of getting the best out of the current players, as opposed to bringing in players to "fit the system", so to speak.

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A fairly strong team for the fixture, I wanted to be able to judge first-hand who was capable of holding a place in the squad and where we looked a bit on the weak side. Sears, McGoldrick and Murphy will be influential in any promotion/play-off hopes this year so I was hoping to see a positive start from the offense minded players.

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Ultimately it proved to be fairly easy for us, the front three combination of MMS chipping in with four goals between them in the first 45 minutes. The Under 21s had glimpses of quality but didn't really do anything to test our defensive line, something I was hoping would be put to the test along with our attacking lines. No tactical instructions were used for this game as I wanted to see the quality of the players with a freedom to perform as they please, although the rest of the pre-season will see tweaks being made here and there to get the best out of the team.

With two or three signings on the horizon, I'm very interested to see how the rest of pre-season will pan out, but I'm impressed with what I've seen early on.
 
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Thanks Saddler, I'm still trying to find the best way to format this thread but hopefully all will be okay and it'll be an enjoyable read. :)

The layout is looking great at the moment. What are you using to get screenshots? I find using PikPic (or something like that) then double clicking and setting to full size works best. I've done a save with Ipswich before and didn't do too well so looking forward to seeing where I went wrong
 
The layout is looking great at the moment. What are you using to get screenshots? I find using PikPic (or something like that) then double clicking and setting to full size works best. I've done a save with Ipswich before and didn't do too well so looking forward to seeing where I went wrong

I use a program called Lightshot, I'm fine with uploading images but there's a limit to how many URL's you can post which you may be familiar with! After I make a few updates I should be able to post images in my usual way. It's interesting so far, finding the transfer side a bit tricky!
 
I use a program called Lightshot, I'm fine with uploading images but there's a limit to how many URL's you can post which you may be familiar with! After I make a few updates I should be able to post images in my usual way. It's interesting so far, finding the transfer side a bit tricky!

Yeah I had that problem at first, once you've posted 20 times and on different sections (try going into the tactics page and posting a few replies in there) it stops, something to do with a spam filter. And I struggled with transfers for Ipswich, ended up playing 4-3-1-2 with Sears behind 2 strikers cause I couldn't find a left winger to balance it out
 
The Tractor Boys - An Ipswich Town Adventure

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Pre-Season Recap

With the first game of the season against Aston Villa coming up, I'm going to show you what's been happening at the club since the fixture against our Under 21s back in July.

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An on/off pre-season, results wise we managed to pick up a few victories with only a single defeat coming in a 5-4 goal frenzy against Celtic. Attacking wise we've looked sharp, Murphy, McGoldrick and Pitman all picking up goals as they look to be a promising strike-force ahead of the new season.

Defensively there have been some woes, the Celtic game in particular, we look very weak from wide positions and I'm certainly going to be looking to tweak the tactic a bit to try and cut out these sorts of goals.

Transfers - Out

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Not many outgoing transfers, loan spells for Fowler, Coke and Webster, none of which feature in my first-team plans, but the main transfer is that of Teddy Bishop. The young English midfielder leaves the club for a staggering £5m to Everton, a bid we couldn't reject in terms of the quality of the player, and the amount of debt at the club. We're also very well stacked in midfield so I'm confident we can hold our own in that position and won't miss the influence Teddy had in the team.

Transfers - In

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With £5m being generated in sales the board only supplied us with an extra £750,000 meaning we had a grand transfer budget of £1.25m to strengthen our squad.

The first of the arrivals was Stephen Ward from Burnley, an experienced left-back at this level, he will provide back-up for Jonas Knudsen, something we lacked prior to this signing.

Secondly, DeAndre Yedlin joins us on a season long loan deal from Tottenham Hotspur, having played for Sunderland last season I'm hoping he can bring some positive energy to the club with his pace, crossing ability and prowess down the right wing, something that may be needed when we're looking for a breakthrough goal.

Finally, we replace Teddy Bishop with the signing of Louis Reed from Sheffield United for £725,000. The 17 year old is a great young prospect, and a player who I'm hoping can provide excellent back-up during his first few seasons. We have a lot of quality in the middle, so there is no pressure on the young man.

Up Next...

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Having concluded our pre-season, we will be kicking off our 2016/17 season at Home to recently relegated Aston Villa. It's going to be a tough game against the expected title contenders, but I'm hopeful we can hold our own and kick the season off in a strong manner.

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Will it be a successful season for The Tractor Boy faithful? Let us know your predictions!


 
Wow I'm loving it keep up the good work! Also keep an eye on George Fowler he is a decent prospect!
 
The Championship Campaign Begins!

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Opening Day Victory for New Manager



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Newly appointed Ipswich Town Manager Niall Spinks got off to a dream start as his side battled their way to a 3-1 victory over promotion favourites Aston Villa at Portman Road on Saturday afternoon. An opening day attendance of 23,844 were in the stands to watch The Tractor Boys pick up their first three points of the season in a game where the away side were the media favourites.

The opening 25 minutes of the game saw both teams battling for possession before Ipswich Town striker Daryl Murphy thumped home DeAndre Yedlin's cross from 10 yards out in the 27th minute. Luke Hyam made it 2 for the home side shortly before the interval in what could be seen as a perfect half of Football for the East Anglian side.
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His social media activity has made him somewhat of a Villain in the Midlands, but Joleon Lescott's image sunk even further when the former Manchester City centre-back put the ball past his own keeper just after the hour mark, a goal that put the game out of sight for Villa who could only muster up a consolation goal through Jack Grealish in injury time.

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A brilliant performance, and an unexpected victory to kick-start our Championship campaign. Our next fixture see's us taking on League Two side Barnet in the Capital One Cup before heading to Griffin park to take on Brentford Town.

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Next updates will be released after the Barnet match, and then at the end of the calendar month (in game).


 
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Capital One Cup 2nd Round.

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Barnet Eliminated as The Tractor Boys Progress

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Tuesday night saw League Two side Barnet provide little competition to an Ipswich Town side recently on a high following their 3-1 victory over Aston Villa. Daryl Murphy, Piotr Malarczyk and David McGoldrick provided the goals in what proved to be a very one-sided affair. With expectations of reaching the 3rd Round, Manager Niall Spinks will be delighted with the progression into the 2nd Round of the Capital One Cup.
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It is here in the 2nd Round where Ipswich Town will face newly promoted Wigan Athletic at Portman Road, the fixture will be played at 19:45 on Tuesday 25th August, 2015.

Victory in this match will see the Manager achieve the expectation set by the board with a view to progressing further into the competition, but no doubt they will be pleased to have survived the risk of a cup upset at the hands of lowly Barnet.


 
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August 2015/16

The Tractor Boys - An Ipswich Town Adventure

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Season 1: August (2015/16)

August 2015 would be my first full month in charge of Ipswich Town, a month in which we would play five league matches as well as a possible two League Cup matches. 7 Matches in 4 weeks? That's very heavy, but it'll be a true test of our character!

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The month of August has proven to be a successful but frustrating period of time for us. Picking up 9/15 points due to two wins and three draws could be seen as a promising start to the season, and it is, but the amount of goals we're conceding is becoming a worry. Too many of these goals come from the wide positions and despite my best efforts we still seem to be leaking goals in this department, although the three games since the Brentford match have been much more promising and I'm hoping once the team settles down we'll be more defensively sound.

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The result so far leave us in 9th position after five matches and have given us a very strong platform to build on, I'm hoping that the goalscoring can continue while we tighten up at the back. If that can be achieved, I have no doubts that we can compete at the top.



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Having beaten Barnet 3-0 in the 2nd Round of the Capital One Cup, we proceeded into the 3rd Round where we took on newly promoted Wigan Athletic at Portman Road. A lot was riding on this game with defeat seeing us failing to meet the objective set by the board for this competition.

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However, a loan goal from Freddie Sears ensured that we met the board expectations by advancing into the 3rd Round of the Capital One Cup, a round where we will face off against League Two side Stevenage. I fancy our chances of making the 4th Round but we know we have to be alert with Stevenage looking to cause a Cup upset, they've managed to make it to the 3rd Round after all.



Emergency Loan!

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Brett Pitman suffered a knee injury very early in the season meaning he's going to be sidelined for a good 2-3 months, something that leaves us short in the attacking department. With that in mind we've secured a 3 month loan deal for Manchester United striker Will Keane, who will join the club with immediate effect.

Will Keane enjoyed a successful loan spell with Sheffield Wednesday last season and I'm hoping he'll be able to use the experience from that move to provide goals for us when he is called upon.




Player of the Month: Daryl Murphy

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Having picked up 3 goals in 5 league matches, Daryl Murphy is our very own 'Player of the Month' for August, a delightful sight for a man who will be so influential for us this coming season. If this sort of form is maintained, Murphy could easily be looking at a 25+ tally come the end of May and I'm delighted that hes started off so strongly.



September Preview
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6 more matches await us in September with trips to Craven Cottage, the Cardiff City Stadium and the New York Stadium while taking on Brighton and Wolves back at Portman Road. Having secured 9 points in the opening 5 matches, I'm keen to see how we can build on our promising start, while hopefully progressing in the League Cup competition as well.
 
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Mwuahahaa, that's definitely me standing up to the right with the scarf!
Ipswich Norwich 2015/16 season I think it was

The Tractor Boys - An Ipswich Town Adventure

1073196d1471449879-tractor-boys-ipswich-town-adventure-667.png


Pre-Season Recap

With the first game of the season against Aston Villa coming up, I'm going to show you what's been happening at the club since the fixture against our Under 21s back in July.

View attachment 1073236

An on/off pre-season, results wise we managed to pick up a few victories with only a single defeat coming in a 5-4 goal frenzy against Celtic. Attacking wise we've looked sharp, Murphy, McGoldrick and Pitman all picking up goals as they look to be a promising strike-force ahead of the new season.

Defensively there have been some woes, the Celtic game in particular, we look very weak from wide positions and I'm certainly going to be looking to tweak the tactic a bit to try and cut out these sorts of goals.

Transfers - Out

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Not many outgoing transfers, loan spells for Fowler, Coke and Webster, none of which feature in my first-team plans, but the main transfer is that of Teddy Bishop. The young English midfielder leaves the club for a staggering £5m to Everton, a bid we couldn't reject in terms of the quality of the player, and the amount of debt at the club. We're also very well stacked in midfield so I'm confident we can hold our own in that position and won't miss the influence Teddy had in the team.

Transfers - In

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With £5m being generated in sales the board only supplied us with an extra £750,000 meaning we had a grand transfer budget of £1.25m to strengthen our squad.

The first of the arrivals was Stephen Ward from Burnley, an experienced left-back at this level, he will provide back-up for Jonas Knudsen, something we lacked prior to this signing.

Secondly, DeAndre Yedlin joins us on a season long loan deal from Tottenham Hotspur, having played for Sunderland last season I'm hoping he can bring some positive energy to the club with his pace, crossing ability and prowess down the right wing, something that may be needed when we're looking for a breakthrough goal.

Finally, we replace Teddy Bishop with the signing of Louis Reed from Sheffield United for £725,000. The 17 year old is a great young prospect, and a player who I'm hoping can provide excellent back-up during his first few seasons. We have a lot of quality in the middle, so there is no pressure on the young man.

Up Next...

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Having concluded our pre-season, we will be kicking off our 2016/17 season at Home to recently relegated Aston Villa. It's going to be a tough game against the expected title contenders, but I'm hopeful we can hold our own and kick the season off in a strong manner.

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Will it be a successful season for The Tractor Boy faithful? Let us know your predictions!


 
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