Is anybody else wishing they could dispose of their Wildcard? While I’d have snatched at the opportunity to rinse out my Fantasy Premier League squad a couple of months ago, this morning I’m pondering the prospect and wondering how I’ll put it to use.
It’s akin to the missus tipping me the wink just as the first bars of Match of the Day pipe up. Someone in my situation can’t turn down such rare and golden opportunities but the timing is just so bloody awful. Thoughts turn to Gary’s protruding ears as I dim the lights.
You see, I think I’ve got my house in order over Christmas. Six green arrows in seven tell me that I’m on the right path, that finally I’ve managed to slot a few effective transfers in around the staple template performers – Luis Suarez, Eden Hazard and Seamus Coleman.
Don’t get me wrong, nestling around the 600k mark, I’m hardly pulling up trees but the trend is at least positive. This Wildcard could threaten that.
Having managed to make a few good decisions over the past seven Gameweeks, I’m suddenly asking myself to get another dozen or so choices spot on, or risk disrupting the foundations of my recent recovery.
Even today, having been forced to oust my precious Theo – a player I’ve long earmarked as crucial to my season plans – I’m still feeling optimistic. Granville’s been treading water and has had the Walcott and Wayne Rooney problems to contend with. My rival has now spent 20 points on transfers in the last eight Gameweeks and I might just go into today’s deadline with a few handy differentials that could yet help me bridge the gap.
I can’t really call it a comeback just yet, but the deluded optimism I’ve maintained throughout this torrid campaign is at last being fuelled by a rise up the ranks.
Then there’s this Wildcard. Looming over me, offering me all kinds of possibilities, but presenting the very real possibility that, with so much freedom, I’ll go and wreck my recent progress.
For now it’s shelved, with the hope that, in the next fortnight, some clear options emerge that offer assured improvements on what I’ve already built. At the same time, I’ll have to hope that Granville falls victim of his own relative success and gets a little reckless.
It’s not beyond the realms of possibility. I’ll remain positive about my Fantasy prospects and, at the same time, hope that I’ll be forced to watch the Sunday morning repeat of Match of the Day.

