Posts

Fresh Air, FA Cups & Fantasy Points

Image
  Lessons from my father, Manchester United, and the long game of FPL. Dad and I, on the rare occasion of a steam engine in our backyard - where the journey really began, family, football and Manchester United. It’s 1976. I’m eight years old, sitting at a family wedding in a hotel ballroom filled with laughter and clinking glasses. The air is thick with the smell of roasts, potatoes, and rich stews — that unmistakable scent of cooking meat and onions that clings to every curtain. The aroma of whiskey and stout drifts through the room, heavier than the conversation, as uncles prop up the bar and aunties nurse port glasses. My dad leans over the table and announces — to no one in particular — that I’m not feeling well and need to get some fresh air. I protest immediately. “I’m fine,” I say. But then comes the sharp kick under the table. Dad drops his voice and whispers, “Say you don’t feel well.” Next thing I know, we’re slipping out of the reception. I half expect a walk outside...
Post a Comment
Read more

Armageddon Days

Image
“The calendar on your wall was ticking the days off” Those eagle-eyed music buffs will have noticed the quoted lyrics do not match the song title above and probably wonder at the connection. “This is the Day” is one of my all-time favourite songs which brings back memories of a transition from late teenage years in the hedonistic student life on campus at ULA. Johnson’s hypnotic voice and thought-provoking lyrics has been etched in the hard-drive in my brain and occasionally surface to remind me and remind me of certain passages in my life. The backdrop to current Geo-political affairs are the catalyst for the Mind Bomb album surfacing to the forefront of my thoughts and yet the pre-planning for FPL is more what drives the notion of this Armageddon Days post. ⚽ New FPL Challenges ⚽ The FPL game now in its 20 th season has evolved in terms of style of play and number of players. When it began in the 2002-03 season it had less than 76,000 teams and yet last year 9,167,407 team...
Post a Comment
Read more

Subterfuge

Image
“Surrealism is destructive but it destroys only what it considers to be shackles limiting our vision.” From my vantage point, just behind the Mont des Alouettes , I look out over the plains of the Vendée and my mind drifts to the pending start of this season’s FPL. The evening sun still radiating some heat, which attenuates the positive spirits, as I sip on a glass of Ventoux and sample some local appetizers.   My pre-season thoughts centre around conquering my FPL Achilles heel i.e. the slow start . Battling back from the brink of 20/21 FPL obscurity to a final position of 13,620 was hard work, a real slog and one I do not wish to repeat. This season I am determined to get out of the blocks early and in doing so I decided to take a different perspective to my perennial initial team structure selection bias. Thoughts abound primarily to Bruno or BrunNO? , BB in GW1 or hold steady?, a new stratagem is required to outwit my perpetual tribulations of the opening weeks. Adopt...
Post a Comment
Read more

An FPL Eclipse Now

Image
  “You know my Suffragette City, Is outta sight she's all right” The Horror, The Horror………the final words of Colonel Kurtz reverberate around my head as GW4 comes to a close and I am staring into the abyss with an OR of 4,363,336 . After yo-yoing around the 4m OR mark for the first 7 weeks, it was time to make some decisions and adjustments to my game. How am I going to get my self out of this dark cavern of FPL madness? As a veteran FPL player with 12 seasons under my belt this was a scenario, I was not used to dealing with in the past. Regular readers will recognize the play on the glam rock Bowie song from his The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars   album in the quote above. If I didn’t act with some conviction then my goal of 50k would be well and truly out of sight. As it turns my change in game plan resulted in a final OR of 13,620 and although this season has ended I thought it might benefit new and more experienced players for the com...
Post a Comment
Read more

Guerrilla FPL

Image
“If you can find ways without any obstacles, it probably leads nowhere.” Guerrilla Warfare , Guerrilla Theatre , Guerrilla Marketing all terms pervasive in various walks of life and corners of our globe today. So, can we add a new definition of Guerrilla FPL to that list. The very definition of Fantasy Football  (or FPL if you are playing the game based on the English Premier League) is a game in which participants assemble an imaginary team of real life  footballers  and score points based on those players' actual  statistical  performance or their perceived contribution on the field of play. The FPL landscape is traditional, well known, ordered in a normal season. Many FPL players will have duly planned ahead of the recent BGW18 and DGW19 , carefully moving pieces of their jigsaw into position, fine tuning their decisions and squads in anticipation of leapfrogging those players who utilize the chips early in the season. The combination of a BGW and DG...
Post a Comment
Read more