How do you follow a 114-point Gameweek? You don’t. You just hope that you can muster a reasonable tally the week after and avoid an anti-climatic red arrow. Such is the roller-coaster of a Fantasy season.
Realistically, my moment in the sun will have passed within the next hour. I’ll probably never hit that kind of haul again outside of the double Gameweek and it’s feasible that my rank will never trouble the top 500 once as , almost inevitably, I slip out of that exclusive club this evening.
Why so negative? I think it’s because, having gone for broke by laying down the Wildcard in Gameweek 7, I’ve since regressed into my shell and blown an opportunity – I’ve failed to “grasp the nettle”.
If you listened to this week’s ScoutCast, you’ll know that an opportunity to jettison Diego Costa came up, with the option to buy the coveted Graziano Pelle in his place, whilst welcoming the luxurious brilliance of Eden Hazard into my dressing room for the hot-and-cold Gylfi Sigurdsson.
My heart said that this was the right move – bold and decisive: a set of trades that would promise immediate rewards from Gameweek 9. Sadly, my head said “show caution” – wait for Jose Mourinho’s words and hold on to Costa just another 24 hours. Listening to that guarded mantra meant that the prices shifted out of line, blocking off the option. I let the opportunity slip and I think I’m going to regret that. This season’s Fantasy Premier League (FPL) winner will have gone for it.
This morning I’m optimistic that Costa will be on the pitch at some point at Old Trafford but not confident that he’ll come away with points to compensate for what Pelle and Hazard would have offered me. I can only hope that Gylfi decides to carve open the Foxes at the Liberty to bridge the gap. I’m not convinced.
This continual shifting of opportunities and the crossroads they create as we approach Saturday’s deadline are, in essence, what can make the FPL game so compelling.
There was talk criticising the price change mechanic in the game and, while I acknowledge that it’s been tempered (a good thing to my mind), it’s still a factor that can cruelly remove transfer scenarios from you like a thief in the night. That sinking feeling in the morning when you realise that your hesitancy has cost you is not pleasant but I have respect for it: I curse my own failings, not those of the game.
Now I haven’t a clue what to do next. I’ve two free transfers and no obvious route to take – plus the potential of watching Pelle and Hazard rain on my Gameweek 8 parade. It offers a timely reminder: last week is gone, you’re only as good as the current Gameweek.
