Fantasy Football Scout community writer Greyhead returns for the 2024/25 season with his series of The Great and the Good articles, analysing the transfers and strategies of some well-known Fantasy Premier League (FPL) managers.

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“It’s coming home, football’s coming home”

Sadly, football didn’t come home, well unless you are Spanish in which case “El regreso a casa, el fútbol vuelve a casa”.

Yes, after that brief European distraction and an inordinate amount of talk about ball recoveries we are back, with our phones filled of endless FPL team screenshots entitled ‘No Mo’, ‘No Haaland’ and “Are you Crazy?’.

Yet this is not the same FPL, things have changed. We can roll more transfers, the bonus points have been tweaked, there is a mystery chip – insert a crowd oooing noise – and the new FPL intern has actually done a brilliant job on the pricing.

I’ll leave others to give more intelligent analysis on the changes, however, overall I think they are good, but are they Great and Good? We shall see…

But I am being rude. Some of you may have stumbled across these articles for the first time, so allow me to make the introductions*.

* note if you have read along for the last seven years feel free to skip the next paragraph, and well done for demonstrating such high levels of tolerance for my whimsical FPL scribbles.

WHAT IS THE GREAT AND THE GOOD?

The Cliffs Notes version is that every season I track the moves and progress of a group of hand-picked FPL managers to see what can be learnt from their moves, strategies and occasional mistakes – hello, soon to be £3.9m Valentin Barco!

It also allows you as the reader to feel good about yourself if you beat any of them or blame variance/insider team leaks if you don’t. Alongside the stats I poke a little fun at them, add a dollop of ill-judged puns and Dad humour, before occasionally, just occasionally providing a useful piece of analysis.

The Great and The Good are the Marvel Avengers of FPL, combining prominent FPL managers and quieter types with track records to make you drool, should you be into that sort of thing.

Over time, there has developed some rivalry between them as they try to win this fictitious Fantasy league and lay claim to being the greatest of The Great and The Good. Previous winners include Fabio Borges, Mark Sutherns, FPL Harry, Ville Ronka and Ben Crellin.

In other news, the more dedicated types can receive the Great and the Good Deadline Day email and dossier direct to their inbox courtesy of Mini League Mate. Special thanks here to Top Marx for making this happen.

Click here and under ‘Join an existing league ‘enter your name and email together with league code MLM0001. It’s all free!

Anyway, let’s introduce the stars of our show.

THE GREAT AND THE GOOD: CLASS OF 24/25

Mark Sutherns

And on the 8th day, Mark Sutherns created FPL. Well, obviously he didn’t, but he was and is one of the leading figures in the FPL Universe, a brilliant commentator on the game and not a bad track record with 10 top 10,000 finishes. Yes, really.

Az

Wherever you find Mark, you will also find Az, locked in their FPL Blackbox cupboard bickering about technical issues and £4.5m defenders. Sure, Mark may have had the best of it last season, however, Az knows his way around an FPL team sheet finishing in the top 1,000 back in 2017/18. He’s also a Brighton fan, so surprising not to see Joao Pedro (£5.5m) in his team and the less said about Barco’s non-appearance the better.

Fabio Borges

Fabio Borges, the man, the legend and to many an FPL enthusiast, the greatest of all time. The Cristiano Ronaldo of this Fantasy world, without the prima donna tendencies. From 2015 to 2022, he had seven top 5,000 finishes in a row with six of those in the top 2,000. Finishing 27,000 last year would be considered a success for most of us, but perhaps below his lofty standards. Twice winning The Great and The Good – is this the hat-trick year?

Markku Ojala

A new face now from a familiar geographical breeding ground of FPL talent, as we welcome our new Finnish superstar, Markku Ojala. In the last nine seasons, he has six top 10,000 finishes, two finishes in the top 1,000 and finished last year 4th in the Hall of Fame. That’s a lot of good finishes for this Finn. One to watch, then, which is handy as we will be.

FPL General

Never likely to be taken off in the 59th minute, one of the leading lights in FPL who famously had three top 500 ranks in four seasons. A wise head in this saturated world of FPL content creators.

Pras

Just like that kid from Sixth Sense if it was remade as a film about fantasy football, he sees FPL strategy where others don’t. You know you are doing well when your chip plans coincide with his.

Zophar

The constant in FPL and a voice of patience and reason in this world of instant hit gratification. He built his reputation on being able to navigate these turbulent waters with a clear head and his eight top 10,000 finishes demonstrate it’s an approach that works.

Lateriser

Not one, not two but three FPL Wire managers as Lateriser returns from his self-imposed sabbatical. When others duck, he dives, when they bob, he weaves, bringing instinct and a willingness to take a risk to The Great and The Good. When it works, it works big time. Did someone just mic-drop his 30th and 77th-placed finishes?

Luke Williams

A new addition but a familiar face to those who have watched his appearances on FPL Blackbox and various other podcasts. Considered a maverick for many years, he appears to have become more restrained in recent times and it’s paid off as he ended up just outside the top 3,000 last time round. Also, has an uncanny knack to predict Pep, which earns him a place on its own.

Geraint Owen

The winner of last year’s open to all feeder league, Geraint hit a career-best 21st overall. Yes, really 21st in the world, out of 10 million managers. I just hoped he has picked himself off the floor in time for this season and is ready to play with the big boys of The Great and The Good. Pob Iwc!

FPL Fran

A relative newcomer to the world of FPL with only seven campaigns under his belt, Fran soared in the last two to a 10,000 finish followed by a top 500 rank. One of those YouTuber types, so smash those likes and subscriptions, he won the invitational last year, is a rising star and therefore a worthy inclusion this time round.

Joe Lepper

Goals Imminent Goliath, Price Points Prince and in the early days referred to Trent Alexander-Arnold (£7.0m) as Terrence Trent D’Arby or a Magic Bean. For those of you not reminiscing at those references, then all you need to know is that he is a very good manager. If FPL was a parable then he would be the tortoise who frequently wins the race.

Tom Freeman

Tricky this one as he wields the red pen over these articles as he edits them into something readable. Lucky then, that he is a great manager with an eye for a differential and a lovely chap to boot. He’s also fiercely intelligent, debonair and incredibly good looking (yes Tom, I think that’s enough of the editing).

Seb Wassell

A very good manager who plays it cool, claiming to have made only one draft in pre-season and not one of those hammering the F5 on opening day. Therefore he has an FPL ID of over 4.7m. He’s stepped back from the Scoutcast pack this time, presumably in a huff as Leeds didn’t come up or a worry that Andy North might give away his bank details live on air, speaking of which…

Andy North

Andy, Andy, Andy, what I can say about Mr North? Genius, maverick, technically competent. He is none of these. However, he did finish a respectable mid-table in The Great and The Good last season and is one of the nicest guys in the FPL Community. He knows his FPL, if not how to work Zoom. Now the main anchor of the Scoutcast, yes I said anchor.

FPL Harry

One of those rare things, an FPL YouTuber with an enviable rank history, with four top 10,000 finishes in the last four seasons. He won The Great and The Good in his debut season and came second last time around, so he’s like pretty good at this game.

Jan Kepski

Analytics FC fan favourite, let me list out these rank finishes 936, 100, 234… any further questions as to why he’s in The Great and The Good? No, good.

Ben Crellin

Some say he’s a time-travelling FPL robot sent from the future to make us feel insecure about our FPL achievements, others just say he is an outstanding Fantasy manager. He won The Great and The Good last campaign.

OVERALL PERFORMANCE

So, who has the early advantage in the battle for Great and Good glory? Well, Jan Kepski has laid down the gauntlet with 88 points and a spot already in the top 100,000. 

He was the only one to go really big at the back deploying a 4-4-2 formation. He doubled up on the Arsenal defence alongside Pedro Porro (£5.5m), Trent Alexander-Arnold and Ederson (£5.5m).

Jan was also one of the few to go with Mohamed Salah (£12.5m) and actually captain him. Mark Sutherns might want to take note as whilst he was Team Mo he forgot to put the armband on him. 

Seb Wassell was the other Salah supporter and the only one to go 3-5-2, giving him a strong start tucked in at second place, whilst Pras is the only manager to have both Salah and Erling Haaland (£15.0m).

The captaincy vote was a unanimous win for Alexander Isak (£8.5m), which quickly went south when Newcastle went down to red. Andy North was one to go against the majority with a plucky pick of an up-and-coming Norwegian called Erling, suspect more will be in that camp next week.

TEMPLATE

Here is your template for The Great and The Good.

Isak was the only one to get 100% support from all managers, with Bukayo Saka (£10.0m) only absent from Pras’s team due to his double-up on Mo and Erling.

Looking at the squad right now I fear for Barco and Jarell Quansah (£4.5m), who both had reduced minutes although I suspect most will roll their transfer this week.

The template is below with the number of managers who own the player in brackets.

Henderson (13), Valdimarrson (6)
Porro (14), Alexander-Arnold (14), Gabriel (7), Quansah (6), Hall/Barco (4)
Saka (17), Nkunku (12), Fernandes (9), Eze (8), Jota (8)
Isak (18), Haaland (15), Solanke (8)

STICKING WITH THE PACK

The sage wisdom at the start of a season is to stay with the pack and keep your picks relatively template. Plus, normally it’s the case that the template is the template for a reason, as it has the best players so the majority of the more engaged FPL managers will pick from a relatively small pool.

However, as mentioned due to some intelligent pricing that pool has increased. In addition, the push to stray from the herd has been exacerbated by calls to be more aggressive at the start of this season with many advocating an early Wildcard. 

The uncertainty of the transfer window is still rampant and players being eased back in after international competition means that Gameweek 4 will be a popular time to play the chip.

So, how have The Great and The Good reacted? The data below pulled from LiveFPL gives a % rating of how template the managers have been. A full explanation of how this is calculated can be found here, courtesy of Ragabolly.

The majority, all but those rebels Seb Wassell and Jan Kepski, are viewed as moderately template – so far so predictable.

Yet, compared to last year, there has been a shift with the majority in 23/24 classed as “very template” i.e. a rating of 85% or upwards.

The average this year is 77% compared to 84% last time round, so the template is still there but it’s creaking under the strain of the new FPL pricing.

CONCLUSION

There you have it, the first week is gone and the advantage is with the Salah owners right now. However, up next for Man City is Ipswich so all eyes on what Haaland can do to respond.

It should be an exciting season with a lot more variety in the teams, so who do you think will be this year’s greatest of The Great and The Good?

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

For those affected by any of the topics raised above, you can find me here on Twitter.

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