As our keen podcast listeners will have heard, I’m planning to take on a couple of writers for next season to help me out here on the site. This is being prompted by a couple of things – firstly my life situation has changed somewhat, which has meant I’ve had to reassess how I allocate my time here. Secondly, I’m anticipating another significant increase in traffic in late July/early August prior to next season which will put increased demand on more site content. That means I’m going to need some help, in more ways than one, to keep things ticking over and the standards high…
Right now I’m looking for volunteers – keen would-be writers who want to contribute to a site which will hopefully continue to grow in the next couple of years. Long term, it’s difficult to say where this will lead for those who get involved, but if things do progress then there’s no reason why arrangements with contributors couldn’t get more formal. Who knows? We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it…
Writing experience isn’t necessary although it’s an advantage. A passion and knowledge for football and of course, fantasy football, certainly is important though. If you’re interested then drop me a line at mark@fantasyfootballscout.co.uk. Tell me a bit about yourself and I’ll get back to you to take things from there.
I’ve already had plenty of emails as a result of the podcast a few weeks back, so for those who haven’t heard back from me – you will do. At this point I plan to get at least a couple of people on board by then end of June at the latest, so those interested should hear from me by the middle of the month at the latest.
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Good idea – I’d be happy to do something. If nothing else you could do a rotation of the forecasts, and reviews.
Hey Mark. It’s nice you’re back.
Have you thought anything about moderators/log-ins/etc? A huge increase in traffic is what you should anticipate and inevitably more malicious visitors, spammers and trolls. The spirit of this site is great and I ‘d like it to continue like this. Friendly, helpful and good hearted. Though I don’t have many doubts it will.
Yep – registrations will be introduced and those who come on board as contributors will be moderators, chat room hosts, podcasts guests and anything else they want to get involved with.
Great stuff! I am looking forward to the new season.
Thanks Mark…..would love to help you out a bit but I have been quite busy recently. But anyway I could help like being a chat room host would be fine!
Yes Mark is looking for The Apprentice.
The program has already started Granville – you watch it too on the BBC or on the iplayer?
watch it Fran..im a big fan…popping out now, don’t want any spoilers here when I come home later to watch it.
Don’t worry Mark I won’t tell you which persons left the program today……..
Is there going to be a review of the season podcast Mark and Granville?
I’m waiting for that as mentioned in the previous thread
Yep, Granville is planning his joke(s) as we speak. We’ll be recording Monday I imagine.
2 monkeys are in the bath.
One says “Ooh ooh ahh ahh”
So the other one says “Well put some more cold in then”
You’re fired!
Mark, make sure if you start employing people on your website they need to be responsible with integity as they would be in charge of sensitive information like email addresses etc.
They should be CRB checked too and sign a document that they keep things confidential at all times in respect to other users here.
Mark, you have done a superb job here, especially on how you treat others like me or people like dirty tackler but others just can’t be trusted as they are not mature enough!
Yes – All moderators should be forced to wear FFS branded flat caps too, and special uniforms whilst moderating…..
Hmmm………FFS merchandising…………..Now there’s a thought!
haha anorak. special fantasy superman cape with the letters ffs instead of s
merchandise is a great idea…
1. Fantasyfootballscout
2. Wife
3. Kids
hello all. how’s life without football
Empty. So very empty. And cold.
how did the pilot land like this! (click on my link)
I’ve just put myself forward as a contributer.. worst of luck to all those other people who applied
How are your planning to contribute Foch……by researching, interviewing, historical input or general tips of which players to get each week?
He’s building a Franginot Line to keep certain undesirables out!
Franginot Line — class!
You’ll have to wait and see Fran..
75M for Kaka – is he worth that amount? How much is Ronaldo and Messi worth? Which of the 3 players is worth the most anyway?
Is Kaka really worth 75M? How much does Ronaldo and Messi worth then?
He’s not a pinch on Messi or Ronaldo.
If Zidane was worth 40+ million however, 75 million is fantastically inflated.
Seems Sky made the entire thing up anyway.
Different kind of player – more in the Fabregas, Iniesta playmaker mould rather than all out attacking threat.
Kaka in the past maybe, but not kaka now. Chelsea always seem to want AC milan players that have lost their ……..va va voom?
Ribery would be a much more better buy if there was a premiership club interested. Fantasy league would profit from this aswell.
Great to hear Mark that you are back and planning lots of nice good changes. Bringing a few others onboard will be really useful to the site and to Mark.
Perhaps there could be a few polls to see what people think of new features, ideas, and plans on the site?
I think bringing a few of the regulars would be great thing for the site and the new season. I religiously read this site, and any more content to help us with future seasons will always get a thumbs up!
I hope the injury/speculation news thing you tested a couple of months back will feature next month, I thought it was a great feature.
Keep up the good work Mark.
Email on the way. Get the Aussie point of view !
I only want to email Mark when I sober up or not hungover so that’ll be Sunday probably. (Thank god for spell checker)
Just a reminder for people to join the Sportal FFS-2020 league.
http://cricket.sportalfantasy.com.au/fantasy/
Deadline tomorrow. Code to join – MWV2X4XNQ3
Thanks for this, just what I was after – cheers!
I’ve got no clue about Cricket but i’m in. Only a slight knowledge of each country, which could save me from being last, it’s a long shot though.
I’m in. I have barely read the rules but spotted an England double gameweek lol
Any cricket fans out here? You should try out Fantasy Cricket. Heard about some Graphical Fantasy Cricket portal – http://www.dream11.com
wow it’s like a job interview! nice to see a new thread alright, place is still going down its like being on your school holidays for summer, but saturdays suck with no football now, well Ireland this Sat so its not as bad, but still
Hai gice
Hmm.. good idea Mark.. already preparing my email..
A lot of Swansea City fans licking their wounds down in my neck of the woods today. Looks like the manager Roberto Martinez is off to Wigan with about £2m compensation being given to Swans.
Celtic also had him on the managerial short-list and it’s a surprise he has chosen Wigan given his hitherto emphasis on loyalty to the club etc. Looks like a few more quid and ready-made Premiership status were the unsurprising lure factors. I think he has got has work cut-out with a Wigan side who look rather ordinary having lost their best players and they make for very little management appeal on paper.
I for one naively thought that he had got a decent all-round team down at the Liberty and with a season’s Championship experience under their belt I thought he would stay to finish the job and attempt to get the club Premiership status….
I might come from a city 20 miles east of Swansea, but I do think it’s a shame for them that he’s left. I know of a few unhappy Swans today, as they’ll be very lucky to get a replacement as good as him.
He made his name as a player at Wigan, so you can see why he wanted to go back. I actually think it’ll do more good for him in the long run for him to get the next bit of experience before a really big job like Celtic. I think he’ll be better than Paul Ince or Tony Adams, and will be good for the Premiership.
And as for Swansea…one of their better players (Jordi Gomez) was only on loan this season, and their main striker Jason Scotland, good as he is, is the wrong side of 30. So even under Martinez, I think promotion next season would have been a bit much to ask, but they would surely have improved.
Man City look like they mean business. They’re in the market for Eto’o now.
I seriously doubt City will have the power to draw in any really big name summer signings. Gareth Barry and the like, may be, but, as Kaka proved during the winter break, it often takes more than money to make these switches happen.
We thought that about Robinho…
He was obviously unhappy at Madrid though. He would have moved to Burton Albion had they had the money.
Eto’o will almost certainly be leaving Barcelona this summer as he is going into the last 12 months of his contract and has been on the verge of leaving over the past couple of summers.
Don’t really see the difference between Robinho moving to Man City just for the money and Eto’o doing the same if they can blow everyone else out of the water with wages.
My application is in
Who do you guys think will grab 5th place next season?
I can see Man City spending big and battling it out with Everton for 5th place however i don’t see any serious challenge towards the “big four” as i can see Arsenal being a lot stronger next season after they have had a season to spot there weak points and improve upon them.
Unfortunetly for Everton, I don’t think they’ll be in the top 6. I think Moyes has done an amazing job there. He has spent very wisely and created a real ‘team’, not just a bunch of individuals with internal factions and in-out-in-out policy (what Man City will become – mark my words!). If Everton got took over then I’d expect them to be the first to break into the top 4. I agree with you, I reckon the big 4 will remain the same, but 5th in my opinion is Villa’s – I don’t see Barry as that big a loss. O’neil should go all out for Hangeland, a new Keeper (or give Guzan a chance), and obviously a replacement for Barry. I’ve got a lot of faith in O’Neil – Class act, and he is building that club up at a great pace and not trying to run before he can walk.
City could well suprise us all next season if they keep spending and can get these players to interact as a team (the big challenge). They don’t seem to be selling players as of yet so they will have one thing that most other teams don’t have and that is depth.
I see no reason why City can’t be competing for 4th place next season if everything goes to plan. They have some really good players now and that is before the millions they are about to spend
Good luck to them i say. Chelsea, UTD Pool and to an extent Arsenal spend massive amounts on top players so why shouldn’t City?. Annoys me when people say they buying success. Well maybe they are but so do the other top teams in any league
There’s just no other way for a club now to be able to break into the top 4 and start picking up Champions League money.
We have to accept that we either have the closed shop where the top 4 is the same every season, or one or two clubs get taken over by multi-billionaires and force their way in. No one can play their way in to Champions League qualification any more.
To be fair everton played their way into the champions league in 2005 when liverpool won the Champions league but i’d hazard that was something to do with Liverpool focusing less on the league and more on the CL.
It’s therefore possible, but improbable, and more likely down to one of the top four teams having a shocker of a season. You certainly couldn’t see united having one, Liverpool look like they are progressing and with a couple more decent players(silva?) they will push united again. Chelsea, if they splash the cash (they’ve been linked with loads of players including A.Young today) should be ok but it remains to be seen how Ancelloti settles in and If arsenal can bring in a couple more players to fill in the glaringly weak areas which we all (other than wenger) can see then their young squad is a year older and a year wiser.
Man City, if they bring in the Calibre of Eto’o and a decent, commanding centre half will certainly push the top four but i’d suggest they’ll be challenging your evertons and spurs of this world again next season. That said i’m certainly going to be looking to have some man city players in my team next year.
Yes, Everton were the last and that was 4 seasons ago in 04/05.
The last before that, and a surprise to me, was Newcastle in 01/02 and 02/03!
I’d certainly bet on Man City breaking into the top 4 before either Everton or Villa.
People talk about the big four as if its been around forever.. its not! its a relatively new invention which sprung up, in my opinion, when Mourinho won the league for chelsea. Before that its wasn’t really a term which came into general usage. In 2003/2004 chelsea finished 2nd to arsenal. This was the first year of the Abramovich millions. Liverpool finished 4th.. just. The following season liverpool finished 5th. There’s a case to argue that the big four didn’t start until 2005-06
It annoys me when people say “oooh my who’s going to break into the top four? no one ever will” its been around for about 4 or 5 years. footballs been around for 150 years. It goes in cycles.
Just a quick point, it could be argued that Newcastle and Leeds were part of the “big four” in preceding years… they both had champions league money to work with.. look whats happened to them.
Four is the relevant number now because of Champs League places. I remember around 2000 everyone would talk about the Big 2 (Man U and Arsenal), but then only the top 2 qualified automatically and fourth spot was UEFA Cup.
When there’s been the same clubs in the top 4 in the last 5 out of 6 seasons, then that’s enough to call it a top 4 because they’re getting regular Champs League money, rather than on-off as it was with Newcastle and Leeds (and Chelsea too at that time, they were in the same boat). Doesn’t really matter when it began, Newcastle and Leeds weren’t part of the “big 4″ as there wasn’t one. The real competition was below the top 2, as there is below the top 4 now.
I agree things go in cycles, but at no point in all that history has the top of the league been so stagnant. So other teams really do have to break in. It’s lazy and overused, but doesn’t make it any less true.
I’d love to help, and was going to apply, but by the sounds of it Mark has more than enough applications. I just fear anymore might defeat the purpose of cutting his workload.
If there’s anything else I could do, I’d be more than happy to lend a hand.
I’m sure whoever Mark picks will do a sterling effort. If anything it will be nice to reduce the 2k threads which take an age to load on my demented PC.
As a side note if i do get picked then i’m going to enforce the usage of “too many files on a USB pen” to ensure this enters into general everyday use. If anything MFaulkner you have already shown a commitment to this cause. Eggs + Basket is a bit too antiquated for my 21st century liking.
Good luck with your application Foch…….still waiting for the end of season podcast which should be coming on Monday.
MF, apply with “I AM MFAULKNER” in the subject, and if you don’t get a writing job and Akers does we can scream team discrimination.
Mark’s a bit of an Arsenal fan is he not?
i think you shud apply fran
So do I. I can see it now…
The FRANtasy Football Column: Everything you need to know about the second half of the season.
Fantasy World Cup Twenty20 deadline late this afternoon. To get you in the mood, here is footage from a recent game I went to. The video title is “Cricket ball kills a pigeon!”, need I say more?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q80wfAzeRKA
Also, later in the game a spectator ran onto the pitch and pretended to give it the kiss of life.
I watched Ashes 2005 Heros the other day to get me in the mood. Freddie’s Ashes.
Were you at that game? I saw the link on [The Guardian?] yesterday, as well as a drunk messi. Both very funny. However, i don’t think a bird getting hit by a ball is enough to entice me into cricket, i just can’t get into it.
With England playing tomorrow & wednesday though, and Confederations & U-21’s starting a week saturday – it will keep my scraping by on my football ‘hit’ until early July anyway.
Yeah I was at the game, can’t beat a bit of cricket in the sunshine. It was almost a sell-out aswell because it was on a Friday. Went to the Yorks-Notts game yesterday but it wasn’t as good because it was a bit nippy and nowhere near as full as the Lancs game. Just lucky sky cameras were at that game.
Akers, the cricket deadline is at 5.30 right? I will have to get my skates on come 5 then, I have no time to do it now.. And I’ll check out the pigeon death scene too.
As for football at present, did anyone see the interesting stat with regards to the potential fee for Kaka?
If it is to be £56million that breaks the world record transfer fee for pounds sterling.. But ZZ would still hold the wrorld record transfer fee in Euro’s. Bearing in mind ZZ cost £45mill give or take, that is quite incredible.
The best Heath Ledger artwork you will ever see?
http://www.artbypeople.co.uk/a.....rt_Picture
Is this shameless capitalist self promotion from our dear chairman?
I prefer this one myself though
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....r_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....mp;feature even…
How on earth is Jamie Carragher ahead of Vidic in Sky Sports’ defender of the year poll?
Did you give any thought Mark to peoples views as regards playing for money in the FFS league?
Think a fee of 5/10 has been suggested by most when this topic came up before.
I don’t think money should be involved personally.. a) its a logistical nightmare b) it would reduce the openess of the site to helping each other as people would become more competitative..
If it does get introduced I personally won’t be getting involved
Are the Ashes taken to Netherlands now?
no.. but england were pathetic after Bopara went out.. should have set a 180/190 total
don’t get me started on the fielding
Lol. It was the first whole cricket game I ever watched. It’s obvious my judgement may be totally wrong. But this Broad guy gives cricket a bad reputation, I think.
a bad reputation? what are you talking about?
He is useless
Harsh greek fan.. perhaps what you were trying to say was lost in translation..he’s a very good bowler but he should have got a wicket in the last over
I don’t think it’s the translation, but may be my little knowledge. The first time I saw him, he gave six 6 to Yuvraj Singh. Today it seemed to me like he couldn’t bowl, he couldn’t catch the ball, he couldn’t hit the wicket even from 1 yard. I don’t want to be harsh though.
Broad is a good bowler. To be given the final over in a twenty20 game is a massive indication at how a bowler is rated by his captain as it’s a massive responsibility.
Broad should’ve held on and taken the game to a bowl off but if you watch cricketers warm up, they place the stumps in a tiny net and they do throwing drills. I’m amazed, even at county level, how often they get it in the net. It must be about 95% hits so any cricketer would back themselves to hit the stumps.
Also in that over Broad was unlucky not to take 3 wickets, with his caught and bowled opportunity, the mighty close run out, and his shy at the stumps. Throwing and catching a wet ball with wet hands is difficult.
Hope you enjoyed your first whole cricket game.
Yes, I did enjoy the game. It was very interesting. I just meant that I expected that England’s final over bowler should be someone very good under any circumstances. I try to understand the game and the tactics and I might not be able to judge a bowl. But I think Broad wasted at least 3 or 4 runs. OK, the ball was slippery when it came straight back to his hands from the batter. Yes, it was hard to hit the wicket from an angle. But when he ran into the crease and dived to demolish the stumps just to drop the ball, it showed panic.
Glad you enjoyed it. What you saw was a good game and the reason the format exists as people who do not follow cricket can watch it easily.
Hopefully if this tournament intrigues you enough, you may tune in for the Ashes tests which are the pinnacle of the sport I believe. It’s learning the rules which puts people off. The LBW rules make the offside rule look like 2 + 2 = 4.
Broad screwed up 4 chances in 6 balls, any one of which would have won the match. Stupid Malfoy.
Broad did screw up but that doesn’t make him rubbish. Remember Luke Wright totally messing up against NZ in exactly the same situation, but he was our best player tonight. Swings and roundabouts.
I didn’t say he was rubbish, just that he fcked up.
Jonathan Agnew-
“The game would have been tied and gone to a golden over had Stuart Broad – who bowled a brilliant final over – not aimed a throw at the stumps off the final ball and given away an overthrow. It summed up England’s efforts.”
He knows a bit about cricket.
Who cares what he knows. A blind amoeba (like they are) would know that Broad did not bowl a brilliant final over, no matter whether it was an *accurate* over. Broad must play for Man Utd, I suppose.
May i interject by saying i thought Broad bowled a very good over but that his fielding was very poor
Broad had no right to take it to the final ball. 7 off 6 is childs play and Broad was very tight.
I hope I will Akers. I ‘ve been watching sporadically, due to my Australian friend, but as you said, test matches are way more difficult to watch and a bit tedious to me. Anyway, I respect every athlete and I admire their skills no matter the sports they play, I already regretted calling one a useless.
Notwithstanding that they folded like a pack of cards with their batting, England were useless in the field and captain Collingwood was reacting too slowly to what was going on…Hope Mark doesn’t mind the cricket having an airing on here…If you are in the Sportal Fantasy League you don’t see your points until the next transfer period on Monday. At least with the FPL it was updated as it went along…
Glad I captained Luke Wright
I had him in but didn’t captain him – sounds like an FPL quote from a Saturday evening…
Can’t believe he was only 150k. A bargain. Gutted I picked Sidebottom ahead of Anderson. Big error of judgement.
Wright is the man in form – cheap as chips as you say Akers – I stuck Bopara and Anderson in so not a bad start for me.
Yeah I have Bopara aswell. Picking openers seems like the best tactic I reckon. Guaranteed to face some deliveries.
Gutted Nannes didn’t get the return he deserved. Anyway, my team:
Batsmen
ENG Ravi Bopara $200,000
IND Suresh Raina $200,000
RSA AB Villiers $250,000
AUS David Warner $250,000
Allrounders
AUS Michael Clarke $500,000
NZ Daniel Vettori $400,000
ENG Luke Wright (C) $150,000
Wicketkeeper
IND MS Dhoni $450,000
Bowlers
RSA Yusuf Abdulla $115,000
HOL Dirk Nannes $250,000
ENG Ryan Sidebottom $350,000
12th Man
NZ Ross Taylor $350,000
I went for Anderson in my team but at the last minute changed from Wright to Swann what a bad mistake! Just hope he plays in the next match ahead of Rashid!
Snap Akers. I almost didn’t because of that price tag as well.
I had KP though, I had it in my head he was fit. I guess I let that bit of news slip through the net. Bopara didn’t do too badly though.
I had KP aswell, but found out before the deadline and shuffled the pack. That’s why my 12th man is so expensive.
Here’s my team, went for Gayle as captain so massive points there today.
Ravi Bopara
Herschelle Gibbs
Suresh Raina
David Warner
Chris Gayle
Martin Guptill
Jacob Oram
Brendon McCullum
Stuart Broad
Mitchell Johnson
Brett Lee
12th Man
William Porterfield
Hi Mark
Have you maybe thought of having a writer per club? ie Superfan?
I like this idea.
Logistic’s are a bit of a nightmare.. plus does anyone actually know any burnley fans?
If a useless cnut like Fran gets to contribute as a serious writer to this site that’s me gone. I can’t see Mark being that dumb though.
If I had a say, which I don’t, I’d go for MnL for comedy value. For info, I suppose a humourless but accurate geek like Akers would do, not that I’d take any advice from any new contributors anyway. I kind of know enough about football as it is.
Best of both worlds would be someone like Greeky or Fochy.
All excellent choices puffinboy
First, Mark’s not dumb but an intelligent and skilled programmer.
Second, Fran’s articles might meet specific needs of the site and football fantasy groups begging for entertainment, not just ‘Does my team look good this week’?
Thirdly, Akers is fine but a bit young and biased towards the other ‘Reds’ (not Arsenal or Liverpool). To write and contribute here Mark is looking for people with knowledge, research skills and an unbiased opinion. Any potenital offers?
No one said Mark was dumb, Fran. And, as amusing as you referring to yourself in the third person is, I’m not sure you’d satisfy the “fantasy football groups begging for entertainment”.
I’m all for extra content, Mark, and can appreciate the need for more hands on deck, (my mates and I struggle to run a far-inferior fantasy Aussie Rules site), but please don’t make Fran one of your under-studies. Please.
billy “biscuits” manchester is good value. Perfect host for the chat.
this is fantasy FOOTBALL scout not cricket so enough with all the cricket comments…
^^^^Hitler spotted.
well said mal
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