Build a match-a-day string for a trip — one that keeps moving forward across cities and countries and never doubles back. Click grounds to chain them; the board rewards a coherent onward run, new grounds, and Champions League nights, and flags only when the route bounces back on itself.
🚬 Basecamp: The Cumberland, bags down, then a Pret and a slow cut across Hyde Park — see you and Todd in the Cigar Room at the Bulgari.
① Pick your window — the trip starts here
Choose the week first; everything downstream flows from it. Each window is anchored on a Champions League matchday and screened against your rules — Todd's tax season (mid-Jan → Apr 15), Thanksgiving, and Badger home Saturdays. The number on each card is the potential Match/Grounds Score you'd attain across that span. Pick the richest window you can actually take.
② Candidate strings for the week — best first
EPL→Champions League→Championship→Europa League→League One
The engine builds a few concrete day-by-day strings for the chosen week, each filled with specific grounds by the ladder above, and ranks them by Match/Grounds Score — highest first. ★ marks a remaining PL target. Pick the route you like and click Load into the string builder to drop its grounds into ③ below. Every window now runs on the real 2026-27 fixtures, cross-checked on premierleague.com — home/away is known per matchweek; midweek rounds are day-locked, weekend days resolve at TV selection. Champions League dates follow the UEFA calendar; pairings & host cities are set at the Aug 27 draw (verify on uefa.com once drawn).
EnglandItalyGermanySpainNew only
③ Your string — loaded from a candidate, or hand-built
🚆 hop a short same-country leg · → onward a sensible crossing into the next country · ↩ backtrack returning to a country you already left — the one thing to avoid. ◆ CL-capable · ★ PL target · ○ new · ✓ banked.
The rulebook. Two trips/year · never before Apr 15 (Todd, CPA) · a match every single day — no idle days, fill arrival to departure · keep the trip moving forward — cross countries if the map flows, just never double back · any division counts (Championship, League One) · always try to land a Champions League midweek · complete the PL 20. The unit is the ground — only a target's home dates count; an away fixture is noise.
The fill ladder. Every day, take the highest rung available: EPL → Champions League → Championship → Europa League → League One. If you can't get an EPL ground, drop to a CL night; if not the Championship, drop to Europa — whatever the route puts in front of you that day.
Window rules (autumn).One Saturday per trip — you're in a country for a single set of matches, so no back-to-back weekends · no travel the weekend before Thanksgiving — going after the holiday is fine, just never required · block Wisconsin home-game Saturdays · prefer the Dec-2 + CL shape — a new midweek ground plus the Dec 8–9 Champions League close.
Windows: early May (run-in) · late Nov–early Dec (midweek-rich, two CL matchdays).