ALL THE FOLKS OF CAMBRIDGE JUST CAN’T BELIEVE THEIR EYES
Finally! A result in the 2000/2001 Fantasy FA Cup Final! And it’s still mine, all mine!!
Yup, You Know Your Boston Rock FC have defied league form and history by becoming the first ever WSFFL team to retain a trophy, by beating Trusted By Millions 1-0 in the FA Cup Final 2nd replay. Ultimately, Beef’s late decision to drop Richard Rufus and bring in Titus Bramble for the Cup game only, to join Hermann Hreidarsson in his defensive line-up and throw all his eggs in the Ipswich basket, proved costly, as Rufus’ goal then counted for Beef in his league game only. D’oh!!
Anyway, another full match report is attached to this newsletter. And I’ve tried not to gloat too much…
STILL THE SAME
5 teams still have a chance of winning the League Title, following this weekend’s league fixtures. Trusted By Millions gain some consolation for their Cup Final defeat by topping the table for the first time, following a 1-0 victory over Yorks. They’re joined on 62 points by Real Muppets, who emerged 3-1 winners over plucky Prettier Than You, after PTY’s Kevin Kilbane and Real’s Mark Viduka staged a private “Goal Of The Season” duel. My money’s on Kilbane’s astonishing overhead effort, personally.
Willy Shakey and Mega Buck draw 2-2, thanks to Martijn (what is the point of that “j”, I ask you?) Reuser’s sneaky effort, while Elland Road slip to 5th thanks to a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Viola’s Pier, a win which gives Steve’s team the £100,000 POTW award. However Dean’s team are still only 3 points off the pace.
Next week sees 4 of the 5 title protagonists in league action against each other, with the Big Boys hosting the Muppets, and Mega Buck squaring off against Trusted. I personally have a sneaky suspicion that MC will come through and make the inscriber’s job easier (“just put “ditto” on the League and Cup trophies, please, fine Sir!”). Or is this the same kiss of death I gave to Clive’s title aspirations? We’ll see!
And by the way, the Exec Committee £20 bet is looking good for my stumpy colleague. Not that I should be condoning such disgraceful behaviour, of course…
I NEVER GOT TO READ THE PLAN
Some advance warning of a couple of things I’m going to try and do this Summer regarding Fantasy League, to make things easier for myself leading up to the auction, but also hopefully to make things easier for managers as well;
1. Retained/ Relegated players: Managers have the choice of retaining relegated players in their squads, just in case they either come straight back up the following season, or get bought by other Premiership teams in the close season. What I intend to do at seasons end is to advise each manager of the players they are losing from their squads due to relegation, and asking them if there are any players they wish to retain into next season, in the event that they do not join other Prem teams in the Summer. Any other players will then be deleted from their squads and balances credited accordingly. However if any of those players then join Prem teams before the AGM, I will contact the manager in question and offer him the option of bringing the player back into their squad.
This sounds a bit convoluted, so let’s use a hypothetical example. I advise Julian that he’s losing Bradford’s Robbie Blake, and Julian decides not to retain him. I remove him from the Yorks’ squad, and credit Jools the appropriate £250K. Blake then joins Man United just before the WSFFL auction as cover for Van Nistelrooy, who gets a recurrence of his knee injury in a friendly (I said it was hypothetical!), so I then ask Julian whether he wants to bring him back into his squad. If he decides to do so, then he gets the player back and the £250K compensation is removed from Yorks’ balance.
This will only apply for relegated players, and only up until the AGM/ Auction. I want to do this primarily for avoid managers hanging on to all their relegated players up to the AGM/ Auction, then giving me a load of work to do the day before, as none of them have joined Prem teams. OK?
2. Summer Pool players: I’m trying to work out the best way of applying the pool “cooling off” period to any players dumped into the pool during the close season, given that I won’t be publishing Newsletters during this period, and I think the only way of doing it is to keep a list of any such players, then auctioning them off at the AGM/ Auction prior to the main Auction. If anyone has any suggestions of a different way to do this, then let me know, but bear in mind that the principle of the pool cooling off” period, is to make sure all managers know that a certain player is available.
3. AGM Auction: The order of the auction from last year, i.e. private auction, “Top 10” signings in terms of cash paid, new strikers, new midfielders, new defenders, new goalkeepers, 1st Div Champion players (in S/M/D/G order), 1st Div runners-up players (same order), 1st Div play-off winners (same order), seemed to work well, so I intend to broadly keep it, with 2 minor changes;
- 3.1 “Summer Pool” players will be auctioned off between the private auction and the “Top 10” list, and
- 3.2 The “Top 10” list will reflect the desirability of the players entering the Premiership, rather than the biggest transfer imports. E.g. Spanish international defender Josep Guardiola may be one of the most sought after players in the auction, especially if he joins Arsenal, but as he’s available on a “free” he wouldn’t be in the “Top 10” which makes a nonsense of it. Also Fulham’s free-scoring Luis Saha is likely to go for a shitload of cash in the auction, so he should be auctioned off earlier. I will discuss this with the Exec Committee and we’ll jointly come up with a list of the “Top 10” best/ most sought after players joining the Premiership this Summer, and these will be auctioned off first.
Please get in touch with me if you have any views or suggestions on any of the above. At the moment, they are just ideas, but they reflect what I’m likely to do unless anyone comes up with a better/ fairer/ easier/ less complicated/prettier way of doing it.
DECADENCE AND ANARCHY, HE SAID, HE SMILED
A couple of interesting suggestions as to what other sport (besides cricket) Mega Buck Bandit Phil Neville might be good at, from our down under colleague Dean, namely Trouser Ferret Racing (?!) or Gurning, as they are both popular Northern sports, allegedly. Neville certainly gets enough gurning practice, usually when he’s being skinned by Romanian wingers. However MC – his fantasy manager, let’s not forget – doesn’t have a clue as to what other sport he might be good at!
TRANSFER NEWS
Player From To Fee
Egil Ostenstad Trusted By Millions Manchester City £250,000
Matthew Le Tissier Southampton Trusted By Millions £500,000
Rob Lee Claymore Athletic FC Newcastle United £1,850,000
Davor Suker Claymore Athletic FC West Ham United £3,900,000
As usual, the players highlighted are subject to the pool “cooling off” period. Any managers interested in buying them can bid until 8 p.m. on Monday 7 May, after which time they go into the pool proper and are readily available.
THE FF£75,000 QUESTION
2000/2001 Premiership Champions Manchester United have headed the Premiership Table since 14 October 2000. Who did they knock off the top spot on that day?
One entry per person as usual please, to me by close of play on Sunday 6 May (and for the benefit of Ady, “close of play” means 8 p.m., as the Newsletter normally goes to print about then).
The Euro 2000 game that “delivered everything except full-frontal nudity” was the extraordinary Group C decider between Spain and Yugoslavia, which after 2 injury-time goals from Spain finished 4-3 in their favour, but nevertheless sent both protagonists through to the knockout stages. If you don’t remember this one then shame on you; it was a completely barmy see-saw game, featuring crazy sendings-off, superb goals, refereeing cock-ups, pitch invasions and general lunacy, as well as a lovely moment when Yugoslavia’s Dragan Stojkovic (described by The Guardian’s Harry Pearson at the time as a “pantomime villain”) tripped over Raul, as Raul ran past him celebrating Spain’s second equaliser. Lovely stuff.
Correct guesses from Dean and MC. I phoned MC up, tossed a coin, and Dave correctly called tails, so the £75,000 cash goes to Mega Buck Bandits. Well done MC; Money going to money as usual!
SHORTS
A couple of more looky-likes; watching the North-East derby, I couldn’t help noticing that Elland Road and Sunderland full-back Patrice Carteron looked like 3-times F1 world champion Nelson Piquet, and York’s and Newcastle defender Andy O’ Brien had similar angular features to Buffalo Tom mainman Bill Janovitz… Claymore Athletic FC boss Clive would like it known that his midfielders Luke Young and Slavisa Jokanovic are both available for transfer, at asking prices of £2,000,000 and £1,000,000 respectively. Contact Clive directly if you’re interested…
THE 2000/01 WSFFL FA CUP FINAL REPLAY
At The Millennium stadium, Cardiff, W/E 28 April 2001
YOU KNOW YOUR BOSTON ROCK FC 1
Ferdinand 90
VS
TRUSTED BY MILLIONS 0
Attendance: 73,500; 2 clean sheets cancelled off each team
Boston Rock FC: Flowers; Delaney, Ferdinand (capt.), Fish, Quinn; Bowyer, Kewell, Parker, Tessem; Pahars, Smith
Subs: Royce, Watson, Scholes, Ameobi
Trusted By Millions: Schwarzer; Barry, Bramble, Hreidarsson, Taggart (capt.); Burley, Eustace, Hutchinson, Taylor; Owen, Phillips
Subs: Bosnich, Matteo, Kinsella, Bothroyd
The 2000/2001 WSFFL FA Cup 2nd replay finally produced a result, with holders You Know Your Boston Rock FC grabbing a late winner to beat valiant Trusted By Millions by a 1-0 scoreline. The Sky Heroes therefore not only defy their league form and position against Championship chasing Trusted, but also become the first team in WSFFL history to retain a trophy.
Boston Rock manager Sheriff shuffled his pack again, bringing back fit-again Tim Flowers in goal, replacing the injured Lampard with promising youngster Scotty “too hotty” Parker, and also bringing back fiery predator Alan Smith. Trusted boss Beef did likewise, recalling Craig Burley to replace the suspended Steven Gerrard, but his late decision to drop Richard Rufus in favour of Titus Bramble may haunt him in years to come.
As befits 2 teams who by now know each other’s games inside out, the early exchanges were tentative with neither team willing to commit numbers forward. However Trusted midfielder John Eustace broke forward well as the game settled, and blazed a point-blank header over the bar following good overlap play by Hreidarsson. Boston Rock finished the first half well with Bowyer a constant threat, although Scott Parker was a 37th minute casualty following a collision with Schwarzer after a brave forward run.
Trusted began the 2nd half with renewed vigor, and Michael Owen gave Delaney the runaround, only to find the recalled Flowers in exemplary form. One save in particular from Owen proved that the Boston Rock custodian is back to his best. As time wore on, the Boston Rock defence, superbly marshaled by Boston Rock captain and Man of the Match Rio Ferdinand, slowly exerted control of the game, and it was fitting that the colossal Ferdinand should claim the late winner, which keeps the trophy with the Sky Heroes, after an epic series of encounters!
LEAGUE RESULTS 2000/01
League Week Number: 32, W/E 28 April 2001
Trusted by Millions 1-0 York's Returning Glory
Rufus (2) 36,096
You know your Boston Rock FC 2-0 22 Legged Groove Machine
Ferdinand (1)
Delaney 29,567
Willy Shakey 2-2 Mega Buck Bandits
Eranio (2) P Neville
Reuser Gardner 50,501
Short Straw Rovers 1-0 Pacer's Pacesetters
A Wright 20,043
Donkey Derby County 1-2 Claymore Athletic FC
Myers (1) Carr
Alexandersson 23,063
Real Muppets 3-1 Prettier Than You
Southgate (1) Kilbane
Viduka
Dabizas 34,417
Viola's Pier 2-0 Elland Road Big Boys
Staunton (1)
McAllister 39,253
Fred West Landscape Gardening XI 1-2 Aardvark Abacus
Beckham (2) Harte
Cort 34,256
Kylie Bumcheeks 1-3 Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
Hyypia (1) Dunne
Pires
Ferguson 33,737
No comments:
Post a Comment