Learning from the Great and the Good 19/20 – The Alumni

“Hello from the other side. I must’ve called a thousand times. To tell you I’m sorry for everything that I’ve done but when I call you never seem to be home”

Whilst contemplating the boredom of the international break and resisting the urge to wildcard I returned to memories of last year’s The Great and The Good.

It seems a million years ago that it all started with ten famous-ish faces of FPL land and my desire to improve my own performance by observing and learning from them.

A couple of names were moved on at the start of the season but as always when you take a foolish minus four regrets soon follow.

I hate to turn up out of the blue uninvited but I thought it of interest to see how some of The Great and The Good alumni are getting on in what is proving a challenging start to the season.

So I’ve made a few calls and asked for forgiveness in order to search out our old friends Jay Egersdorff, Niemi, Torres Magic and of course Granville.

OVERALL PERFORMANCE

They all appear to be in rude health, and some are thriving outside the spotlight of the weekly examination. You can see below a performance table with former members of The Great and The Good highlighted to see how they are faring against the current squad: –

JAY EGERSDORFF

After a difficult season last year Jay is setting fire to the rain and would top The Great and The Good alongside Neale if still part of the first team.

He sits at 74,138 and was as high as 14,545 after the first 3 weeks thanks to his decision to go early on Pukki after game week 1 reaping the benefits of his hat-trick against Newcastle.

He started big at the back but in this last week has come off that strategy sacrificing Robertson for the lure of De Bruyne.

Going forward he has the challenge of an injured Laporte and a misfiring Perez to address but it looks as though last season’s blip may be just that in his illustrious FPL career.

GRANVILLE

Granville is another to benefit from some hometown glory and has had a good start. He played his wildcard in game week 4 with great impact moving him up to 163,383 and scoring him 75 points in a dire week for most.

He now has a triple City attack with Sterling, De Bruyne and Aguero, the latter he captained to earn him 32 points. It’s a bold strategy although the lack of Salah or Mane would cause concern for this writer at least.

In terms of captain choice Granville would in fact lead the way over the current The Great and The Good with an impressive 21 point average, very much based on his Aguero armband choice in game week 4.

NIEMI

The Eliteserien king and founder of the Wormgoor fan club Niemi continues to be bold in his approach having already made six transfers and taken 3 hits, more than any of the current squad.

He sits around the 720,000 mark although looks well set for future progression managing to fit De Bruyne, Sterling and Salah in his squad along with a couple of the form mid-price strikers Pukki and Haller.

He didn’t let the sky fall and is another one to have gone quickly for De Bruyne but was initially hindered like many due to the disappointing Jota and a Bournemouth triple up.

TORRES MAGIC

Rumour has it that Torres Magic is yet to get firing on all cylinders, he is another to take the bold strategy of a City triple attack but in this case has Mane to provide the comfort of a Liverpool forward.

He played his wildcard early in game week 3 but like many fell for the annual Kane trap as he bought him in and captained the forward against Newcastle.

With a typical decisive approach he responded quickly to the initial disappointment of his wildcard and brought in Aguero and Mount for a hit which saw him on 60 pts in GW4.

The Magician has an enviable track record and has been in the top 10k seven times over his 11 year history, the fact his current rank is north of 1 million should give us all comfort that there is no need to panic as I am sure there will at least a couple of digits knocked off that by the end of the season.

CONCLUSION

There are very few with ranks to shout about at this early stage with many rolling in the deep but even a casual glance at the points difference in the ranks would suggest it’s foolish to have too much concern at this stage.

The gap between 500,000 and top spot is only 116 points and the current leader has succumbed to premature chip usage. More encouragingly there are only 24 points between 500,000 and 50,000 which means a differential brace could see an FPL manager shoot up the rankings.

So maybe we should reflect on Adele’s advice and not give up and keep on chasing those FPL pavements.

Anyway, that’s all from me for now and remember don’t have nightmares.