Friday, 7 February 2020

2001/2002 - Newsletter 1 (13 August 2001)

IT’S THE NEW LEATHER THING

Well, I think the balls are plastic these days, but I’ll claim artistic licence to use a Mark E Smith lyric to welcome you all to the new WSFFL Fantasy Football Season! Yup, after the briefest (but personally most hectic) of Summers, the season is upon us again. We start this coming Saturday, 18th August; the fixtures for this coming weekend and the provisional fixture dates for the remainder of the full 2001/02 season (I’m prepared, me!) are attached to this newsletter.

Can I ask you all to call or e-mail me, with a new team line-up for the start of the season please? The reason for this is twofold; firstly, I’m sure you’ll all want to include your new signings in your starting line-up, and secondly, I no longer have the last line-ups from the end of last season. So I couldn’t tell you who was in your team anyway!

By the way, for those who’ve been vacationing on Mars all Summer, I’ve changed address since the end of last season 


MET MY BABY AT BABY GAP

Thanks to everyone who came along to the WSFFL AGM and Auction at the Dunbar Club on 5 August. Judging by the feedback I’ve received from various managers, you all felt it was a pretty successful and fun evening, so a good start to the season then!

Not a great deal was actually decided or confirmed at the AGM, but I’ll run through the salient points here;

  • I was confirmed as the ongoing WSFFL co-ordinator, having initially been appointed to this position on an interim basis until the end of last season. Thanks for your support people and I’ll try to keep the game running as smoothly as it has been, and try to keep it as fun and inclusive as possible.
  • To ensure fairness following my recent change of address (again, for the Martian vacationers, I’m now living with Prettier Than You boss Rachel), Rachel will also be phoning her team through to our unofficial “auditor”, Mr. David Bevan, before every weekend’s fixtures, in much the same way as I currently phone the Boston Rock FC line-up through to him.
  • My hastily calculated budget and forecast expenditure figures were agreed, and subsequently this years Subs were agreed as £10 for the season. Thanks to Steve, Paul Garratt, Ady, Fred (via Ady), Ryan, Rachel and Rich Timms (and myself) who paid up on the night. All other managers – can you let me have your tenners sooner rather than later, peeps. Thanks.
  • No new rule changes were voted upon, although a debate on trying to add value to the midfielder position was conducted, with managers agreeing to try to define some proposals to increase midfielders’ value in our game, for consideration at the next AGM.
  • Fred phoned in from the States and casually broke the WSFFL transfer record, spending a whopping £20 million on Ruud Van Nistelrooy.


SHE’S ACTUAL SIZE BUT SHE SEEMS MUCH BIGGER TO ME

Following a bit of recent debate, I’ve asked the Executive Committee for a clarification on the 27 players squad size rule.

The rule is, simply, that managers are allowed a maximum of 27 players in their squad. However, managers have interpreted this as meaning that they have to have a maximum of 27 players at the start of any given Fantasy weekend, but are then allowed to buy as many players as they like between fixtures (either out of the pool, or under the 48 hour rule), so long as they get back to 27 by the start of the next Fantasy fixture list. This was however seen as unfair to the game, and mitigating the free flow of players in the pool, which was one of the reasons of having a squad limit in the first place.

The clarification to this rule, therefore, is that managers should have a maximum of 27 players in their squad at any time. The way this would work for pool purchases, new signings from other managers, etc., is that the manager would advise the co-ordinator (myself) of the transfer, and then state which player is going into the pool to make way for the new signing. Similarly, if a manager bids for a new player under the 48 hour rule or pool “cooling off” rule, then the manager would tell me “my bid for player X is X million, and if my bid is successful, I wish to dump player Y into the pool”. This would keep the flow of players going, make the pool more dynamic and might stop managers “stockpiling” players following purchases until the last minute (a practice I am happy to admit I've been guilty of myself).

Please note that this clarification applies from the start of this season, so managers who have more than 27 players right now, following the auction, (you know who you are, guys) have until then to shed their surplus.



TRANSFER NEWS


In addition to the auction, the following transfers were completed at or since the AGM;

Player                                     From                                       To                               Fee


Paul Gascoigne                       Pool                                         Willy Shakey              £500,000
Igor Biscan                              22 Legged Groove Machine   Pool                             £1,375,000
Lomano Tresor Lua Lua         22 Legged Groove Machine   Pool                             £2,000,000
David May                              Viola’s Pier                             Pool                             £250,000
Andrew Impey                                    Viola’s Pier                             Pool                             £750,000
Tim Flowers                           YKY Boston Rock FC            Pool                             £1,250,000
Simon Royce                           YKY Boston Rock FC            Pool                             £250,000
Tim Flowers                           Pool                                         Kylie Bumcheeks        £500,000
Igor Biscan                              Pool                                         Short Straw Rovers     £500,000
John Robinson            Willy Shakey                          Pool                             £750,000
Jo Tessem                               YKY Boston Rock FC            Prettier Than You       £350,000
Paul Okon                              Real Muppets                          Pool                             £700,000
Pegguy Arphexad                   Pool                                         Real Muppets              £500,000
Gary Croft                             Prettier Than You                   Pool                             £250,000
Joseph Desire Job                   Pool                                         Prettier Than You       £500,000
Kit Symons                             Pool                                         Mega Buck Bandits    £500,000
Keith Gillespie                        Pool                                         Mega Buck Bandits    £500,000
Andrejs Stolcers                      Pool                                         Mega Buck Bandits    £500,000
Simo Valakari                       Mega Buck Bandits                Pool                             £250,000
Bjorn Otto Bragstad             Mega Buck Bandits                Pool                             £900,000
Paul Ince                                 Pool                                         York’s Returning Glory  £500,000
Robert Lee                              Pool                                         York’s Returning Glory  £500,000
Nathan Blake                          Pool                                         York’s Returning Glory  £500,000
Martin Taylor                          Pool                                         YKY Boston Rock FC   £500,000
Nabil Abidallah                     YKY Boston Rock FC            Pool                             £250,000
Wayne Quinn            YKY Boston Rock FC            Pool                             £1,000,000

Don’t forget that 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 20 August, after which time they go into the pool proper and are readily available.


THE FF£75,000 QUESTION


Yup, this is back too. An interesting one to start this season off with;

Which famous footballing Dutch twins both had children of the same age, and lived in the same house which was divided in two?

You know the form, people. One entry per person as usual please, to me 

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