A very, very happy New Year to our readers, from myself and everyone at Fantasy Football Scout.

Lateriser has already written an excellent article for us this morning about his own Fantasy Premier League (FPL) takeaways from the last 12 months.

There’ll be plenty of retrospectives to come in the next few weeks, too, with only two Gameweek deadlines in January and plenty of time to take stock of what we have seen in the first half of 2023/24.

But here, we simply want to wish you a healthy and happy 2024.

Whether you’re in Houston or Hobart, you’ll now be in a new (Gregorian) calendar year.

We get users from all over the globe visiting Fantasy Football Scout; a quick view of the site analytics from December alone reveals that we’ve had clicks from Gambia, Moldova, South Sudan, Laos, the Bahamas and 145 other nations.

It’s not just geography that makes the site such a broad church.

From newbie casuals to 14-year veterans, from the risk-averse to the maverick, and from Rainy’s daily price changes to The Knights Template’s unwavering commitment to medieval speak, the comments section is a glorious hotpotch.

What I like about it the most is that it is a far cry from the echo chambers elsewhere, with ‘expert’ opinions/the template/our own articles routinely challenged – as they should be.

If I or someone else has written a piece that garners praise, I know it’s well earned. If we’ve produced cliched, clickbait or, gulp, sponsored content, I know that it’ll be pounced on.

So here’s to you, the discerning Fantasy Football Scout audience. Thank you again for making Scout what it is today, for your continued support of the site and for keeping us on our toes. All the very best to you and your families in 2024.

A big thanks, too, to the writers, tech staff, mods and colleagues who have put in the hard yards behind the scenes over the last dozen months.

My personal resolution for the upcoming year: never trust the Darren Anderton-style sicknotes to stay fit. Ooh, look, Ben Chilwell’s back in training…