Fantasy Football Scout community writer Greyhead analyses the transfers and strategies of some well-known Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers in his series of The Great and the Good articles.
This season’s names are the BlackBox pair of Mark Sutherns and Az, Scouts Joe Lepper, Tom Freeman and Andy North, Pro Pundits FPL General, Pras, Zophar, FPL Harry and Lateriser, FPL ‘celebrities’ Ben Crellin, Luke Williams and FPL Fran, Hall of Famers Fabio Borges, Jan Kepski, Markku Olaja and Seb Wassell, plus last year’s qualifying mini-league winner Geraint Owen.
“He’s making a squad and checking it twice (for late team leaks), gonna find out who’s naughty and nice, festive FPL is comin’ to town”
Whilst some are busying themselves with putting up trees, buying far too much food and wrapping presents, we FPL managers are more concerned with navigating the festive fixture list and maybe, just maybe, finding a green arrow in our stocking.
As an early present, FPL Towers gave us an Assistant Manager chip to use from Gameweek 24 onwards, although this is proving more difficult to decipher than playing charades with your nan at Christmas. Watching her act out ’50 Shades of Gray’ after too many sherries still brings PTSD.
We had the weekly dose of ‘will we, won’t he?’ with Gabriel Magalhaes (£6.1m) as there were again starting doubts. Mikel Arteta said yes but then KSI paid £500 to say no. Don’t worry, I don’t know who KSI is either.
Elsewhere, Southampton and Wolverhampton Wanderers said “bah humbug” by sacking Russell Martin and Gary O’Neil. Plus there was a spate of post-match red cards, with Rayan Ait-Nouri (£4.8m) and Marc Cucurella (£5.2m) getting some time off over the holidays, while Matheus Cunha (£7.1m) will get in trouble for his face-claw-come-finger-poke towards one of the Ipswich Town staff.
OVERALL PERFORMANCE
Geraint Owen may not have his own FPL podcast or YouTube channel but he’s having a strong season and this week scored 85 points.
Remember, he’s here because of last year’s open-to-all qualification mini-league and is outperforming pretty much everyone else who has been promoted via the same route in previous campaigns.
Yes, he had Lewis Hall (£4.6m) but he also owns Son Heung-min (£9.8m) and, at 5.1% ownership, the Spurs attacker’s brace helped Geraint to a Gameweek rank of 12,000.
FPL Fran and Mark Sutherns also had Christmas greens thanks to Hall. However, they also had the extra boost from Cunha. Charged by the FA, we’ll wait in anticipation to see how soon he needs to move on.
Meanwhile, the battle to be Christmas number one rages on, with Ben Crellin the current star at the top of the tree. Pras, FPL General and FPL Harry are the three wise men following his trial.
TRANSFERS
In the transfer market, the big news was that Luke finally moved out Erling Haaland (£14.9m), leaving Lateriser as the only member of The Great and The Good to still own Manchester City’s robot.
Additionally, Luke was one of two managers to bring in a hauling Hall, joining the man with the Midas touch, Ben Crellin.
THE GREAT AND THE GOOD TEMPLATE
Man City have been purged from the template with Rico Lewis (£4.6m) kicked out for Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.0m).
We also saw Alexander Isak (£8.7m) replace Dominic Solanke (£7.5m) and celebrate with a brace of attacking returns, whilst Bryan Mbeumo (£7.6m) took his exit personally with another double-digit haul to punish sellers.
Flekken (44.4%), Fabianski (44.4%)
Gabriel (94.4%), Hall (55.6%), Ait-Nouri (50%), Alexander-Arnold (50%), Greaves (38.9%)
Palmer (100%), Salah (100%), Saka (88.9%), Rogers (72.2%), Semenyo (44.4%)
Joao Pedro (66.7%), Cunha (61.1%), Isak (44.4%)
WHEELER DEALER
Now, a look at who has been the shrewdest in the FPL transfer market. Below is a table showing the immediate points gained from making moves. This is the data up to Gameweek 15.
Of course, FPL GOAT Fabio Borges is top of this metric on a whopping 107 points, shown in the massive jump he has made since Gameweek 10, aided by a very smart Wildcard.
Although not at the table’s summit, Seb Wassell has made some impressive gains from his trades with 84 immediate points. Whereas Andy North should probably just stop fiddling.
It’s interesting to observe that the instant points gained barely correlates with rank, suggesting that a transfer isn’t just for Christmas – it should be judged on long-term impact. Especially this season, when getting the call right on Mohamed Salah (£13.4m) over Haaland has had a huge influence.
CONCLUSION
Right, back to the wrapping and the desperate hunt for something to keep Mrs Greyhead happy. Whatever stops her from complaining about me checking my phone throughout Boxing Day.
Anyway, that’s all from me for now and remember: don’t have FPL nightmares.
Those affected by any of the topics raised in the above article can find me here on Twitter or BlueSky.
