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Learning from the Great and the Good 20/21 – Gameweek 24 The 100th Edition

“There’s a party goin’ on right here

A celebration to last throughout the years

So bring your good times and your laughter too

We gonna celebrate your party with you”

100! The Great and The Good articles have reached the century mark, older but definitely not wiser, I have spent far more time than it is healthy scribbling down the fortunes of the more well-known members of the ever-growing FPL Community.

If you have just stumbled upon these articles for the first time looking for insight, then can I redirect you to Tom Freeman, Simon March and Lateriser who are particularly good. Then again, if you are a repeat reader then congratulations you are clearly made of stern stuff and I can only apologize for the puns and questionable references.

Speaking of which, whilst we are reminiscing, the themes I have crowbarred into these bulletins have ranged from James Bond to Monty Python, Apocalypse Now to Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, Alice Cooper to Kylie and of course probably once too often on the lyrical genius of Britney Spears. They have been nothing but diverse.

learning-from-the-great-and-the-good-20-21-gameweek-24-the-100th-edition 3

Right for the 100th time and as pictured above in another of FPL Doodles masterpieces, The Great and The Good this year are Neale Rigg and Joe Lepper, Pro Pundits (Mark SuthernsAzLateriserFabio Borges and Tom Freeman ), FPL “celebrities”, FPL GeneralMagnus Carlsen and finally from the Hall of Fame we have Ville RonkaMatthew Jones and Sean Tobin

However, they have also been  David Munday, Geoff Dance, LTFPL Andy, Jay Egersdorff, Granville, Torres Magic and Niemi from the class of 2018/19, Jules Breach from the 2019/20 generation and also Sam Bonfield, Zophar, FPL Hints, Luke Williams, Darren Wiles, Simon March and Holly Shand who have guest-starred as part of the broader network over the last two and half years of these articles.

OVERALL PERFORMANCE

I am feeling bold this week so will be using this article to answer the ultimate question, who is The Greatest of The Great and The Good. Pause for dramatic effect or affect, I am never sure which one it is. More of that later…

However, to build a little tension and as custom dictates, we should look at this week’s performance. FPL General and Joe got into the party spirit both hitting 100, I am sure in honour of these articles, with captain Gundogan and the inspired transfer of Lowton taking them to the ton.

I should also highlight that some of the wider network of The Great and The Good also achieved a century this week with Jules Breach and Zophar on 111.

learning-from-the-great-and-the-good-20-21-gameweek-24-the-100th-edition 2

They say never captain a defender so goodness knows what they say about captaining a goalkeeper, whoever they may be, but Sean Tobin ripped up the rule book and put the armband on Pope.

The Burnley keeper ended up outscoring the poor Sterling captainers, Lateriser, Ville, Tom and Magnus who would certainly have expected more from Raheem.

TRANSFERS

Let’s check in on this week’s transfers. This is a summary of the transfers for this week:

Az – Rashford (Son)

Fabio Borges – Digne (Maguire)

Joe Lepper – Lowton (Justin)

FPL General – Bamford, Lowton (Calvert-Lewin, Robertson)

Lateriser – Sterling, Tarkowski (Dias, Son)

Magnus Carlsen – Cavani (Calvert-Lewin)

Mark Sutherns – Tarkowski (Justin)

Matthew Jones – Dallas, Pope (Justin, Johnstone)

Neale Rigg – Mee (Justin)

Sean Tobin – None

Tom Freeman – Sterling, Mee, Pope (Salah, Dias, Johnstone)

Ville Ronka – Rodriguez (Son)

*transfers out are in brackets

Star performers in the transfer market were Joe and FPL General for their Lowton pick. Tom and Lateriser can consider themselves unfortunate that their hit for Sterling didn’t pay off and Magnus must be wondering what happened to Cavani this week after his anonymous attacking display against West Brom.

TEMPLATE

The template for The Great and The Good is as follows with the number in brackets showing how many teams in which they appear:-

Pope (6), Martinez (5)

Cancelo (9), Coufal (8), Stones (7), Dias (6), Dallas (5)

Bruno Fernandes (12), Salah (9), Gundogan (9), Soucek (8), Son/Grealish (5)

Bamford (12), Antonio (10), Calvert-Lewin (7)

A small tweak to the template this week with Dallas coming into the squad at Andy Robertson expense with preparation for Double Gameweek 25 in mind, I suspect we may see Raphina and Ings join soon enough.

SEASON STATS

The table below shows the season stats with Lateriser sticking to his proactive approach with 12 hits so far this season, going back into the history books he is now just five behind Mark who took 17 in the first season of The Great and The Good back in 18/19.

learning-from-the-great-and-the-good-20-21-gameweek-24-the-100th-edition 1

Magnus is the richest in terms of team value at 106 million, but he will have to go some to beat Geoff Dance, the Canadian Kingpin himself, who accumulated 106.8 at one stage last season.

FPL General leads the way in captain points with an average of 15.8 per Gameweek, again he will have to improve to beat Mark who averaged 17.5 in 18/19.

Although The Great and The Good mini-league looks relatively settled it’s worth noting that Ville Ronka, Lateriser and Tom Freeman have all their chips in hand. Looking back into the archives, they will hope they can replicate some of the chip scores of yesteryears.

All of the top chip scores were achieved in 18/19 as Torres Magic managed 113 points from his Free Hit, Niemi scored 57 from an Aguero triple captain in the same season and Az bench boosted his way to an extra 38 points with Deulofeu the hero, remember him?

WHO IS THE GREATEST?

The topic of who is The Greatest of The Great and The Good is a tricky one. We have had two winners, Mark Sutherns in 2018/19 and Ville Ronka, my mysterious muse, in 2019/20 are surely contenders.

Yet, I thought the fairest way was to dust off the old spreadsheets and compare the ranks and points of the competitors over the century of write-ups.

learning-from-the-great-and-the-good-20-21-gameweek-24-the-100th-edition

Looking at the total points over the seasons sees Fabio Borges at the top of The Great and The Good tree accumulating 6,542 over the last two and half seasons. He is one of four to achieve a double-digit rank during that time with Magnus, Lateriser and Sean Tobin the others to hit those dizzying heights.

Before you write in to complain, I appreciate this method is flawed as this season is yet to end but ultimately this is a bit of fun and if nothing else causes a bit of good-natured debate, it also allows Fabio to claim bragging rights until next time I dig out the stats.

CONCLUSION

The 100th bulletin from The Great and The Good has brought further drama with injuries reducing Gundogan, Dias and Mee to just a single appearance, showing the need to be cautious before going all-in on double Gameweek players – how many of us will trust Danny Ings fragile hamstring to manage two games in quick succession?

Looking back over the last couple of years also highlights the power of the chips so if you have them still at your disposable be comforted in the fact that you may yet see more green than red before the end of the season.

Seems appropriate now to thank all those at Scout, especially Geoff for allowing me to publish my random thoughts, FPL Blackbox duo Mark and Az for sharing on their excellent show and of course to all of The Great and The Good, past and present for not taking out a restraining order as I’ve tracked their progress and for being such good sports.

The final piece of gratitude and public apology should go to Rotation’s Alter Ego, who has had to suffer editing this drivel but I hope in some way I have helped in his knowledge of pop culture and defunct 80s bands.

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

For those affected by any of the topics raised in the above article then you can find me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Greyhead19

10 Comments Post a Comment
  1. Rotation's Alter Ego
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • Has Moderation Rights
    • 12 Years
    3 years, 29 days ago

    100 not out - can not thank you enough for all you've done over the last 2 and a bit years Greyhead, been a complete pleasure reading through your weekly instalments.

    Frankly, your education has had more real-world relevancy than anything University has taught me in the same time. I'm not your agent, but I think that entitles you to charge 5 figure sums? 😉

    1. Greyhead
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      3 years, 28 days ago

      Thanks RAE - congratulations on graduating The Great and The Good school of puns and dad jokes

  2. FPL Virgin
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 7 Years
    3 years, 29 days ago

    Congratulations on hitting the big one oh oh!

    Love that collage of all the faces. Absolutely brilliant, well done.

    1. Fred54
      • 9 Years
      3 years, 29 days ago

      Wrong chat window?

    2. Greyhead
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      3 years, 28 days ago

      Thanks Virg

  3. Lateriser 12
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 12 Years
    3 years, 29 days ago

    Congratulations Greyhead and thanks for these brilliant articles!

    1. Greyhead
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      3 years, 28 days ago

      Cheers LR

  4. Pied Mee Ince Silva
    • Fantasy Football Scout Member
    • 10 Years
    3 years, 28 days ago

    Read and appreciated all 100 of them mate. I'm a copywriter so I know you put in a lot of time to write such high-quality articles!

    Looking forward to 101 and beyond. 🙂

    1. Greyhead
      • Fantasy Football Scout Member
      • 5 Years
      3 years, 28 days ago

      Thanks - glad you’ve enjoyed the journey!