LET’S GET TOGETHER AND DO IT AGAIN
Congratulations to Claymore Athletic FC, the 2004/2005 WSFFL Fantasy League Champions! In the end, Clive’s team were the only ones up to the task of winning when it counted, beating Fred 2-1 in the last game of the season. Both Aardvark Abacus, leaders going into the last day, and Boston Rock, leaders for practically the whole season, lost their last-day games to let Claymore in. Claymore Athletic FC therefore become the first team to retain the title – a notable achievement!
More last-day info and season summary later in this newsletter – read on!
STAY, NEVER LEAVE ME, DON’T LET ME DOWN
It’s that time of year again. Please let me know ASAP please, preferably by return of e-mail, whether you want to continue as a WSFFL Manager next season! As before, if any of you want to quit WSFFL, I want to be as fair as possible to any prospective new managers by giving them the Summer to learn the rules and bone up on this great game of ours. So let me know your intentions, all of you! And don’t think that just because you’ve played for the last million years, that I’m going to assume you want to carry on – I still want to know for sure!!!
Could you also all please let me know whether you wish to retain any of your relegated players (i.e. players from Southampton, Crystal Palace and Norwich City), or players released by their Premiership teams, plus any retained players you already have, in your squads NEXT SEASON?
As usual, I’ll keep a list of the players who are relegated/ released and “not required” by managers, and if any of them are signed by Premiership clubs before the transfer deadline at the end of August 2005, the manager who previously owned them will get first refusal on buying them back for the compensation received. So no need to hang onto your Southampton players in the hope that they’ll all sign for other Prem teams. I reckon that if they weren’t good enough to keep Southampton up, why would Jose, Sir Alex et al want to sign them???
As per last season, I’m not chasing managers up about this, so if I don’t hear otherwise from you by the end of May, I will assume you DO NOT want to keep your relegated and retained players, and will instead compensate you the cash. Capice?
IF YOU CAN’T SAY ANYTHING, DON’T SAY ANYTHING GOOD
As per usual, if any of you have any suggestions for rule changes to be adopted for next season, I’m happy to receive them and discuss them with my Executive Committee colleagues (Saleh, Timms and Bevan Jr.) for eligibility prior to putting them to a vote at the AGM. Remember that they must meet the following criteria;
- Will it enhance the game and make it more realistic and/or fun, and
- Will it have no impact upon your hard-worked co-ordinator (that’s me), or, preferably, save him time?
If the answer to both is yes, then go for it! If not, don’t bother!!
NEED A CRYSTAL BALL TO SEE HER IN THE MORNING
Well, not even the most optimistic of soothsayers could have predicted the drama of the last day of WSFFL. Whilst the Premiership was worrying about secondary issues like who would go down, the WSFFL had the drama of a 3-way shoot-out for the title!
In the end, it went to Claymore Athletic FC, who by beating Fred West LGXI 2-1 became the first ever team to retain the title. Despite topping the table for the first 3 weeks and the last day only, Claymore proved to be worthy champions, winning more games and scoring more goals than their title rivals (which doesn’t always happen). With the ludicrously copious partnership of Rooney and Henry, plus more team-building threatened in the Summer, who’s to bet against Clive making it 3 in a row next season?
Aardvark Abacus had their fate in their own hands on the last day but blew it big-time, losing 4-1 to the Dead Parrots, but holding on to 2nd place by virtue of goals scored. The best and strongest squad in the WSFFL therefore ends the season potless, a runners-up plaque scant reward for Ady’s season-long efforts, and team investment last Summer.
You Know Your Boston Rock FC threatened to steamroller the title for much of the season, but a late-season collapse as dramatic as the early-season dominance cost them dear. A 3-2 defeat to Mega Buck Bandits saw them drop to 3rd on the last day of the season. Boston Rock boss Sheriff had always maintained that results had flattered them, and his team were by no means the finished article, definitely a striker short. If this can be rectified this Summer, a more sustained title challenge may emerge from the “Sky Heroes” next season.
One serious tip for top honours next season is San Dimas High School, who finished the season strongly (much like Boston Rock did last season!!), imperiously sweeping the eventual champions aside in a one-sided FA Cup Final. A 1-0 last day win over Prettier Than You consolidated a 4th place finish, and a serious threat of more to come from Peej.
Fred West Landscape Gardening XI kept pace with the leaders until the final third of the season, until lack of strength in depth saw them fade away. More investment in a bigger squad is needed to maintain this position – it’s crazy to think Fred only has 5 midfielders on his books! Drogba and Van Nistelrooy can’t do it all on their own, Fred…
My title tips Trusted By Millions finished 6th, losing to Thommo’s Titans on the last day of the season. Beef was undeniably hurt by Michael Owen’s transfer to Real Madrid on the eve of the season, and his previously potent and varied strike force struggled to hit the net, Juan Pablo Angel particularly shot-shy. Surely Beef can’t have 2 disappointing seasons in a row?
The Dead Parrots improved on their 8th place last year by one, finishing 7th, and whopping title challengers Aardvark 4-1 on the last day. A name change seemed to ultimately revive Deans fortunes, although of course Dean’s major achievement is continuing to participate in this game from Australia. Good on you, mate!
Final Fantasy XI beat the 22 Legged Groove Machine 3-2, to sneak into 8th on the last day, the Big Man finishing 9th. These 2 teams seemed locked together in mid-table for much of the season. Ceri relied heavily on Andrew Johnson’s goals and must be praying another Prem team snaps him up in the close season, or “The Robins” may struggle next term. The Big Man needs Luis Saha to become a more regular fixture at Old Trafford to enable him to challenge more strongly next season.
Julian got more involved this year, and York’s Returning Glory pushed on to an encouraging 10th place finish, losing to Real Muppets on the last day of the season but still finishing one place above them, the Muppets ending up 11th. Julian has achieved a lot on slim resources, even climbing as high as 7th near the end of the season, and must be happy key man Zoltan Gera escaped relegation. Ryan’s Muppets, however, remain a mystifying band of strugglers given their talent. Ryan can put out a first XI as talented and dangerous as anyone in the league, but still puzzlingly floundered in lower mid-table for most of the season.
Thommo’s Titans finished 12th, ending the season on a flourish by beating Trusted 4-3. Pete is another manager making small resources stretch further than expected, and with talented youngsters like the Wright-Phillips boys and Van Persie on board, can look to more progress ahead. Prettier Than You lost 1-0 to San Dimas on the last day but finished 13th, one higher than last year. Rachel was hit by injuries to Davies and Vassell, and by the Craig Bellamy saga. However, she now has a strong midfield, and with youngsters Aliadiere, Vaughan and Luke Moore, the future looks rosy (pardon the pun – Rachel is of course going to become Mrs. Rose later this year!). Should Bellamy join Blackburn as expected this Summer, the addition of a couple of defenders could see PTY take a hefty stride forward.
Mega Buck Bandits put Boston Rock’s title challenge to the sword, beating them 3-2 to win the last-day POTW £100,000 and lift themselves up to 14th place in the process. The mid-season addition of Emile Heskey surprisingly revived goal-shy Mega Bucks’ form, but they still need some major surgery before they can consider repeating their past successes.
A team which should be looking up, despite their 15th place finish, is Nil Satis Nisi Optimum. They benefitted from Everton’s run to the Champion’s league, and have talent in abundance. Paul, if you changed your team more often than twice a season, you’d be a top half team, I have no doubt about it! Kylie Bumcheeks, champions two season ago, beat Nil Satis 2-1 on the last day of the season, but nevertheless finished bottom, their vaunted strikeforce of Shearer and Beattie firing blanks for most of the season. Rich needs an urgent rebuild job, particularly in defence, if he wants to finish higher up next season.
I hope the above doesn’t offend anyone – they’re just my random thoughts…!
I’LL NEVER KNOW WHICH WAY TO FLOW, SET A COURSE THAT I DON’T KNOW
Apologies about the proliferation of Teenage Fanclub lyrics this issue, just saw them last night… anyway, just to give you a very early heads-up, the WSFFL 2005 AGM will be held on Sunday 7th August 2005. Put a date in your diary now!
What I’ve not decided yet is the venue. Evan is staying with us later on in the Summer this year than last, so he won’t be down with us on AGM weekend. So there’s no real need to have it around our place, as there was last season. So if anyone has any bright ideas for venues, please let me know, and I’ll give them some thought in conjunction with the Exec Committee. A pub back-room? Someone’s gaff? All suggestions considered! Watch this space throughout the Summer for more AGM info!
TRANSFER NEWS
Anyone prepared to speculate to accumulate on Crespo?
Player From To Fee
Sun Jihai (D) Pool YKY Boston Rock FC £500K
Kleberson (M) Pool Thommo’s Titans £500K
Hernan Crespo (A) Claymore Athletic FC Pool £10.8m
Zat Knight (D) Pool Cooling Down Trusted By Millions £3.1m
Gary Doherty (D) Trusted By Millions Pool £1.2m
Don’t forget that the players highlighted are now subject to the pool “cooling off” period, Any managers interested in buying them can bid until close of play Saturday 21 May 2005, after which time they go into the pool proper and are readily available. All bids to me please.
Anyone else dumped into the pool between now and the AGM itself (as opposed to anyone who is released as part of the Summer dump rule) goes into a “Summer Pool” list. These players are auctioned off at the AGM before the main auction. OK?
THE FF£100,000 ANSWER!
Dateline: the weekend of 25th November 2000. Aardvark Abacus boss Ady Bevan made a late team change to put a non-playing midfielder into his line-up to ensure the goal his sub midfielder had already scored that weekend would count. The player in question? Chelsea’s Sam Dalla Bonna. This tactic incensed Aardvark’s opponent, Rich Timms of the 22 Legged Groove Machine, so much he filed a formal protest. The results of that weekend were delayed, and the issue was discussed and voted on at a Social Evening shortly thereafter. The thing was, Ady won the game 4-1, so really had no need to dodge Dalla Bonna’s goal in. He was just being greedy!!!
Amazingly, no correct answers to this final question of the season. In fact, I only got one guess, from Clive, the co-ordinator at the time, who took a wild stab in the dark at Milan Baros. So, as it was such a great question and I outfoxed everyone, I think I’m going to keep the hundred grand myself this time. So there!
SHORTS
· Despite May being ridiculously short – only 2 games, there were only 2 teams who achieved 100% records. So the joint May 2005 Managers of the Month are Clive Fenwick of Claymore Athletic FC, and Paul Garratt of San Dimas High School. The 2 FA Cup finalists finished the season strongly, Peej consolidating a strong 4th place finish, and Clive of course snatching the title from under the noses of Aardvark and Boston Rock. 250,000 goes to both managers – well done chaps!
· I saw this circular e-mail at work this week which made me feel a little upset; “Trustful Lamps It was nice to see amidst the party atmosphere at Chelsea that Frank Lampard was still in an honest frame of mind. At 90 minutes in the Chelsea-Charlton game on 7 May, Claude Makelele had been shoved forward ahead of normal penalty-taker Lampard after an erroneous spot-kick decision, fluffing his shot but slicing home the rebound to score his first goal since 2001. When asked if he had suggested Makelele be given the honour, Lampard answered in the negative. “I wanted to take it”, said Lampard. “I wanted to win and I don't trust him [Makelele] with penalties.” Quite right.” The problem with this was, if Lampard had indeed taken and scored that spot-kick, I would have won instead of drawn my game against Fred last week, and despite my reverse this weekend, Boston Rock would have won the title on goal difference. On such decisions are Championships won and lost…
WSFFL RESULTS;
Week 30, Sunday 15 May 2005
Claymore Athletic FC 2-1 Fred West Landscape Gardening XI
Carsley (1) Van Nistelrooy
Malbranque 52,326
The Dead Parrots 4-1 Aardvark Abacus
Neill Hasselbaink
Edman
Kevin Davies
Konchesky 47,221
Final Fantasy XI 3-2 22 Legged Groove Machine
Andrew Johnson Mokoena
Jonathan Fortune Giannakopoulos
Bergkamp 32,066
Kylie Bumcheeks 2-1 Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
Van Der Sar Cahill
O’Shea OG 27,701
Prettier Than You 0-1 San Dimas High School
Goma 29,302
Trusted By Millions 3-4 Thommo’s Titans
Schwarzer Bocanegra
Barry Musampa
Andrew Cole McBride 2 35,797
York’s Returning Glory 1-2 Real Muppets
Todd Cisse 2 27,751
You Know Your Boston Rock FC 2-3 Mega Buck Bandits
Richardson (2) Nelson
Lampard Clement
Heskey 43,406
Performance of the Week: Mega Buck Bandits
THE FINAL WSFFL LEAGUE TABLE!
| ||||||||||
Season 2004/05
| ||||||||||
Team
|
P
|
W
|
D
|
L
|
F
|
A
|
Diff
|
Pts
| ||
1
|
Claymore Athletic FC
|
30
|
20
|
3
|
7
|
91
|
48
|
43
|
63
| |
2
|
Aardvark Abacus
|
30
|
19
|
4
|
7
|
85
|
42
|
43
|
61
| |
3
|
You Know Your Boston Rock FC
|
30
|
19
|
4
|
7
|
82
|
39
|
43
|
61
| |
4
|
San Dimas High School
|
30
|
17
|
3
|
10
|
60
|
52
|
8
|
54
| |
5
|
Fred West Landscape Gardening XI
|
30
|
14
|
5
|
11
|
61
|
49
|
12
|
47
| |
6
|
Trusted By Millions
|
30
|
13
|
5
|
12
|
60
|
49
|
11
|
44
| |
7
|
The Dead Parrots
|
30
|
14
|
2
|
14
|
52
|
47
|
5
|
44
| |
8
|
Final Fantasy XI
|
30
|
13
|
3
|
14
|
54
|
55
|
-1
|
42
| |
9
|
22 Legged Groove Machine
|
30
|
13
|
3
|
14
|
53
|
59
|
-6
|
42
| |
10
|
York's Returning Glory
|
30
|
11
|
4
|
15
|
43
|
54
|
-11
|
37
| |
11
|
Real Muppets
|
30
|
10
|
6
|
14
|
34
|
58
|
-24
|
36
| |
12
|
Thommo's Titans
|
30
|
10
|
6
|
14
|
41
|
69
|
-28
|
36
| |
13
|
Prettier Than You
|
30
|
10
|
2
|
18
|
34
|
56
|
-22
|
32
| |
14
|
Mega Buck Bandits
|
30
|
8
|
7
|
15
|
29
|
46
|
-17
|
31
| |
15
|
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
|
30
|
8
|
5
|
17
|
36
|
55
|
-19
|
29
| |
16
|
Kylie Bumcheeks
|
30
|
8
|
4
|
18
|
28
|
65
|
-37
|
28
| |
TOTAL
|
480
|
207
|
66
|
207
|
843
|
843
|
0
|
687
| ||
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