It’s been a while since we last spoke. Life does tend to get in the way of pouring one’s heart out to people online, lamenting the fact you’ve brought in Muamer Tankovic for a fourth time this season yet, still, somehow managed to dodge all of his goals, bagging just a solitary Fantasy assist.
Moving on from Double Gameweek 21 feels a lot like waking up after an all-night bender with the lads: my head is all sore and I find myself in the awkward position of having to make a cup of coffee to not one but three (!) Varberg attackers. As we engage in stilted conversations about just what happened the night before, in the end we all agree it’s best we part ways sooner rather than later.
The Wildcard beckons. I find I can live with Astrit Selmani as a temporary flatmate as long as he’s willing to put in the bare minimum in terms of effort: clean up after himself and try not to disturb the rest of my squad too much, as we gather what’s left of a cohesive strategy and attempt to put the shattered parts to good use. Junes Barny gets to stay this week as well but is relegated to bench duty, the equivalent of just staying out of my sight unless I specifically request his presence to make up for the untimely absence of a player I actually like.
Robin Book, however, had to go. The term “three’s a crowd” has never been more apt and I’m not even sad to see him leave. Rather like most late-night mistakes, I want to wipe the slate clean and pretend it never happened. He booked himself a ticket straight out of town and we parted ways unceremoniously: no waving from the window or tears shed as we both agreed things didn’t really pan out as either of us wanted.
In a foul mood I rang up an old buddy of mine and he agreed he would show up on short notice to try to provide some comfort to me and my ailing squad. I reminded Nahir Besara to not let me down, pointing to the elusive green arrows and asking him to please bring me at the very least one of them before the flash flood of the Wildcard was upon us. He replied that the reception was dreadful and he didn’t manage to hear a word, but he promised to come right over and bring a pizza and my old comfort blanket. At this stage I was happy enough with that.
The Double Gameweek does tend to have a lot in common with a night out on the town. It’s almost always a nice prospect, yet ultimately it tends to disappoint. Perhaps we set out with an unreasonable ambition and paint a glorious picture of the events about to unfold, or perhaps it’s more of a case of being able to pick the right mates, the right location, and, crucially, the right amount of pints to consume. A night out (and a DGW) can turn into a memory you’ll never forget and, equally, it can easily become a night that you don’t want to talk too much about: admitting that it was indeed at times fun, but in no way worth the hassle.
Enter Gameweek 22. Malmö are still in the Europa League qualifiers while Djurgården joined Hammarby and Göteborg in bowing out, it remains the one and only question mark that could hinder them from just walking away with the title it seems. They have the squad depth to cope yet, as we’ve seen this season, they’ve been nowhere near as dominant as they should have been given their superior first XI and bench players.
AIK looks to have turned a corner and I’m very much targeting them on my imminent Wildcard, where the perennially backed Nabil Bahoui will have to look like a deflated tube man to be able to avoid getting sucked into this mess that I like to call my team. In the meantime, I leave it to the likes of Moses Ogbu and Tim Rönning to try to prove it was more than just a Double Gameweek fling.
As always, if you want to chat about fantasy football either comment here below – or follow me @FF_Meltens on Twitter!
