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.
“Twas the night before the Christmas…”
When all through the house, not a creature was stirring – except for managers checking on Bukayo Saka’s (£10.5m) hamstring. The FPL squad stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that green arrows soon would be there.
The build-up to last weekend had seen many go Amad about £5.3m Manchester United midfielder Diallo, some did a spot of last-minute Fulham shopping and others wondered what fate awaited Matheus Cunha (£7.1m) on the naughty list. It turns out he had one last present to give.
When it came to the weekend’s action, those who benched Morgan Rogers (£5.3m) will be feeling very Scrooge-like, whilst the ones who owned or even captained Alexander Isak (£8.9m) will be feeling like a star at the top of the tree.
As for Mohamed Salah (£13.5m), well, you are as stuffed as a festive Turkey if you didn’t captain him.
OVERALL PERFORMANCE
There were three wise men this week because Mark Sutherns, Tom Freeman and Geraint Owen all scored centuries.
Mark led the way with 106 points – his highest tally of the season – pushing him beyond 1,000 points and up to a campaign-best 266,922th rank. Of course, he had Rogers and Cunha but it’s his Newcastle United triple-up with Isak, Lewis Hall (£4.6m) and Anthony Gordon (£7.2m) that has propelled him up the charts.
The strength of the Magpies’ upcoming fixtures is up for debate. However, you would fancy goals to continue flowing against leaky Aston Villa, Man United and Tottenham Hotspur.
Tom’s century makes it three consecutive green arrows, gaining almost a million places in that time. The usual suspects were again in place, plus Matz Sels (£4.7m) – a goalkeeper whose latest clean sheet continues to make those who hold onto Mark Flekken (£4.5m), this writer included, feel a bit foolish.
Rogers was obviously within his squad and it’s worth remembering that Tom was one of the strongest voices picking him out during pre-season.
The final hundred came from Geraint. He qualified from the feeder mini-league and is showing no regard for reputation, as he moves into second place behind only Pras, who grabs our prestigious Christmas number one. Well done, Pras!
TRANSFERS
Harry has clearly been at the festive sherry because he took an eight-point hit. The only one to remove Cunha, at least his replacement Isak didn’t do too badly. Although his sales of Rogers and Antoine Semenyo (£5.6m) were less joyful.
His purchase of the suspended Daniel Munoz (£4.7m) perhaps confused us mere mortals but we forget that Harry is playing 4D chess, as this meant Vitalii Mykolenko (£4.3m) filled in with seven points.
Meanwhile, Rayan Ait-Nouri (£4.8m) was sold in droves, with Antonee Robinson (£4.9m) top of the pops as his successor, Geraint picked the wrong moment to buy Saka and Andy North’s anti-Midas transfer touch continued as he sold Dominic Solanke (£7.5m) for the benched Raul Jimenez (£5.6m).
THE GREAT AND THE GOOD TEMPLATE
Like the usual present of Lynx deodorant and a chocolate selection box from my Aunt Sheila, nothing much changes in this week’s template.
Everton’s Mykolenko comes in for the recently-suspended Ait-Nouri but that’s as anticlimactic as things could possibly get.
I suspect many of The Great and The Good will be mulling over Saka replacements as they devour too many mince pies. A whopping 17 own the playmaker – my personal recommendation is Son Heung-min (£9.8m).
Flekken (44.4%), Fabianski (44.4%)
Gabriel (94.4%), Hall (61.1%), Alexander-Arnold (44.4%), Greaves (38.9%), Mykolenko (33.3%)
Palmer (100%), Salah (100%), Saka (94.4%), Rogers (61.1%), Mbeumo (44.4%)
Joao Pedro (66.7%), Cunha (55.6%), Isak (50%)
TOP OF THE TREE
Now let’s look at The Great and The Good’s feeder leagues to see who leads the charts.
The Next Great and The Good
In the open-to-all contest, Aiden Freeman sets the pace. Sitting just outside the top worldwide thousand, much of his success is owed to a very successful Gameweek 8 Wildcard. He gained an average of 21 points over a five-week period which put him above all of the current The Great and The Good’s activations.
His captaincy scores also blow away the current class with 382. Only Ben Crellin’s 396 can compete with that.
The Ville Ronka Invitational
As for the invitational, this is being dominated by the current Fantasy Football Scout Live Hall of Fame leader Tom Dollimore. Sitting 1,530th worldwide, his track record is phenomenal. In a small six-year FPL career, he has four top 5k finishes and two in the top 1k.
Like my in-laws, he’s not just invited himself to The Great and The Good festivities but has already walked in, sat on the sofa, put repeats of Only Fools and Horses on the TV and polished off half a bottle of my nice port. Your seat for next year is reserved, Tom.
CONCLUSION
Amongst all of this intense upcoming FPL action, do make sure you enjoy some time away from the game. Whether that be celebrating with friends and family or just watching Die Hard boxsets. Thanks, as always, for reading along for another year and please have a Merry Christmas.
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.
