A recent social media trend has seen football fans naming their club’s best possible team using one player from each of the last 11 seasons. STUART WATSON undertook the task for Ipswich Town.
AN EXPLAINER
Let me start by saying I am going to do this in the spirit of the game.
By that I mean picking players based on their form in that particular season and in the position they played.
Got it? Good.
Rather than do this in order of seasons, I’m going to start with the first names on the team sheet and then fill in some troublesome blanks.
Hopefully you’ll see the working as I go along...
2014/15
Let’s start with Town’s highest finish of the last 11 seasons.
Mick McCarthy’s men finished sixth in the Championship and, while the campaign may have ultimately ended with play-off heartbreak against rivals Norwich, there were so many highs along the way.
Long-serving duo Luke Chambers and Cole Skuse were at their peak, while rock-solid centre-backs Christophe Berra and Tommy Smith regularly scored.
It was the breakthrough season for twinkle-toed Teddy Bishop, left-back Tyrone Mings got an £8m move to Bournemouth off the back of it, Paul Anderson and Jay Tabb were reliable contributors out wide, while David McGoldrick was often sublime.
There can only be one man selected though, can’t there?
No, not Conor Sammon.
Powerful number nine DARYL MURPHY – with his 27 league goals – was so often unplayable. The Irishman takes the single striker spot in my 4-2-3-1 formation.
2013/14
He’s had a mention already – it's that man DAVID MCGOLDRICK.
The silky smooth forward was an absolute joy to watch when fit, so he has to be in this team.
Murphy prevents him getting picked for 2014/15. Instead he gets in on the strength of his 16 goals the previous campaign.
That was his first full season as a Blues player and led to owner Marcus Evans rebuffing an £8m bid from Premier League club Leicester City.
The two forward slots are taken.
2012/13
Right, back to the very start of this 11 year journey we go. Why? Because I want AARON CRESSWELL as my left-back.
With the 2013/14 pick gone (the campaign which earned Cresswell his move to West Ham), the Liverpudlian instead gets in for 2012/13.
That’s fair. He provided four goals (including a screamer in the 3-0 home win against Crystal Palace) and five assists that season.
A reminder that this was the year that Mick McCarthy replaced Paul Jewell in the hot-seat before steering the team away from the relegation zone.
My apologies to DJ Campbell, whose 10 goals were vital to escaping danger.
2022/23
Okay, onto the League One promotion season just passed.
McGoldrick’s taken 29-goal Conor Chaplin’s spot. Sorry Conor.
Cresswell’s taken assist machine Leif Davis’ spot. Sorry Leif.
Golden Glove winner Christian Walton has, spoiler alert, a three-times Player of the Year in his way. Sorry Christian.
That’s okay though. My Player of the Year for 22/23 is still available – and that’s skipper SAM MORSY.
If you know your (recent) Town history, you’ll know that there isn’t going to be a plethora of centre-midfield choices from the other campaigns.
So Super Samy's in.
2015/16
Nathan Broadhead would have been a contender for the left-sided attacking slot had my 2022/23 pick still been available.
Instead, it a toss-up between two borrowed players – RYAN FRASER or Tom Lawrence.
Leicester loanee Lawrence started more games (34) and scored more goals (11) in 2016/17 than Bournemouth loanee Fraser did in 2015/16 (15 starts, six goals).
But I’ve gone with my heart here. There was just something eminently more likeable about ‘Wee Man’.
Fraser's dynamic wing play was a revelation after the workmanlike shifts of Anderson and Tabb the previous season.
It’s been no surprise to me to see him become an established top-flight player over recent years.
2016/17
It’s about time I got a centre-back in the team.
Let’s go with someone else who’s currently doing the business in the Premier League – ADAM WEBSTER.
It was clear the Blues had an absolute Rolls Royce of a defender after he arrived from League Two club Portsmouth as a part of a swap deal involving Matt Clarke.
He started 21 league games in 2016/17 as Town finished 16th.
Selling him to Mark Ashton’s Bristol City in the summer of 2018 (when he wasn't, by all accounts, itching to leave) was arguably the biggest of Paul Hurst’s many mistakes.
Now knocking on the door of the England squad with his displays for high-flying Brighton.
2017/18
By now you should have worked out who the keeper in this team is going to be.
BARTOSZ BIALKOWSKI was named Supporters’ Player of the Year for 2016, 2017 and 2018.
Picks for two of those seasons have gone, so the big Pole in the goal gets in for his displays during the 12th place finish of 2017/18.
He made a string of jaw-dropping stops that season, the highlight being a ridiculous double save against Nottingham Forest, and went to the World Cup as a result.
Millwall man now has more than 300 Championship appearances to his name.
Martyn Waghorn is unfortunate to miss out having scored 16 goals that season.
2019/20
Town’s first season down in the third-tier got off to a flyer before falling apart ahead of the Covid curtailment.
James Norwood and Kayden Jackson formed a strong strike partnership in the early stages of the campaign, but I don’t need a forward.
Luke Garbutt, on loan from Everton, provided plenty of assists and a set-piece threat. But he tailed off (and I don’t need a left-back).
New signing Kane Vincent-Young produced some marauding displays from right-back, but an injury soon cut that short.
Luke Woolfenden, just back from a loan spell at Swindon, was soon being linked with a £3m move to Sheffield United in his breakthrough season at Town. He was under serious consideration.
But it’s a different homegrown player who gets the nod from 2019/20. FLYNN DOWNES, at just 19, played like a man, combining aggression with control.
It was obvious he was destined for big things.
After a messy, drawn-out exit he shone in the Championship for Swansea before getting a move to West Ham. Those two seem like a perfect fit.
2021/22
Nineteen summer signings, Paul Cook soon sacked and signs that Kieran McKenna was getting his ideas across as Town finished 11th.
Macauley Bonne would have been a romantic choice for a fairytale goalscoring spell for his beloved Blues.
The correct call, however, is to go for WES BURNS.
The Welshman was so good that Town built their asymmetric system around him.
Swept the board when it came to end of season awards after finishing as top scorer with 13 goals.
2020/21
Now we’re getting down to the nitty-gritty.
I’ve got the two worst seasons left to pick from – Championship relegation in 18/19 and the miserable behind-closed-doors campaign of 20/21 - and a centre-back and right-back to select.
I've got two ‘best of a bad bunch’ Player of the Year winners to pick between at centre-back - Luke Chambers (2019) and James Wilson (2021) - but neither get in for those respective seasons.
Why? Because of the troublesome right-back issue.
I can’t have Jordan Spence, Josh Emmanuel or James Bree from 18/19.
So that leaves LUKE CHAMBERS from 20/21. Town’s long-serving skipper showed, once again, he could do a solid enough job at right-back that season. Remember that outside of the boot goal he scored at Blackpool?
It feels a fitting way to get the long-serving ex-skipper - who was a regular in nine of the 11 seasons being picked from - into this team.
2018/19
Someone has to get in from the season Town finished bottom of the Championship with just five wins.
You know by now that I’ve got to pick a centre-back and that Chambers can't be it.
Picking Trevoh Chalobah here would be cheating. He may have gone on to become a Premier League defender with Chelsea, but he was a talented (but raw) central midfielder during his time on loan at Town.
So the player I’m left with is... MATTHEW PENNINGTON.
I thought the youngster could hold his head relatively high following that bruising season on loan from Everton.
RECAP
My team is as follows:
Bialkowski (17/18); Chambers (20/21), Pennington (18/19), Webster (16/17) Cresswell (12/13); Morsy (22/23), Downes (19/20); Burns (21/22), McGoldrick (13/14), Fraser (15/16); Murphy (14/15).
This is harder than it looks. Every decision has a knock-on effect. Every rejig sees a good player left out.
Not being able to find a way to get Christophe Berra in my side hurt the most.
Overall though I’m happy. I wanted this to be a team that, hypothetically, could function together and I think there’s a good mix of grit, guile, pace, power and leadership in there.
Give it a go and let me know your XI!
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