Fantasy Football Scout community writer Greyhead continues with his series of articles analysing the Fantasy Premier League (FPL) transfers and strategies of some noted Fantasy managers, from serial top 10k finishers to well-known faces.
The Great and The Good this season are the BlackBox pair of Mark Sutherns and Az, Scouts Joe Lepper, Tom Freeman, Neale Rigg, Geoff Dance, Pro Pundits Pras, Zophar and FPL Harry, FPL “celebrities” Magnus Carlsen, FPL General, LTFPL Andy, Ben Crellin, from the Hall of Fame, Fabio Borges, FPL Matthew, Finn Sollie and Tom Stephenson and of course last year’s mini-league winner and overall no.2 Suvansh.
“So goodbye yellow brick road”
And just like that another season ends, with a click of ruby red arrows for some, a welcome return from the Harry Kane wizard for several and just relief for many that this wicked witch of a campaign is over.
Before I let The Great and the Good munchkins return home, it’s time to do the end of season review and assign which of them showed a Scarecrow’s brains, the Tin Man’s heart or the bravery of a Lion, or in other words who made the best transfers and captaincy decisions.
OVERALL PERFORMANCE
The winner is….
FPL Harry – yes, in his debut season as part of this mini-league of make-believe, Harry showed that at least this content creator knows a thing or two about this fantasy lark. He finished 50 points clear of his nearest rival Ben Crellin, ending up at 510 overall and thereby securing his third top 5,000 finish in a row. Not bad young Padawan, not bad.
Harry was not the highest scorer on the final Sunday though, that honour goes to Az who won the Blackbox derby by a single point over Mark thanks to his score of 71. Despite their average ranks, by their standards at least, it was this duo that created all the excitement in Gameweek 38.
Mark started six points ahead, Az then gave him a further point advantage straightaway with a hit, then it was down to three points at half-time before the much-maligned Pedro Porro scored to surely earn himself a framed picture on Az’s Blackbox wall.
Elsewhere, FPL Matthew also had a happy ending with his 70 points meaning he moved up into the top 100,000, which is now the equivalent of a 10,000 finish thanks to the Stormzy-led invasion of the masses.
He is not alone, as 12 of the 18 managers came away with a five-digit rank, so well done to all those and indeed everyone for concluding a challenging season.
Finally, we had Magnus Carlsen who had a disrupted season due to technical issues after the restart, therefore playing fast and loose in the second half. He had one last roll of the dice this weekend playing his Free Hit – it was not one to remember but he will be back, hopefully.
TRANSFER TITAN
Now a look at who was the artful dodger of the transfer market over the season, with the below table showing the immediate points gained from their moves.
The winner in this category was Mark Sutherns, who we may need to rename VeryLateRiser as it was in the last few weeks that his transfers in finally clicked with Callum Wilson, Kane, Julian Alvarez and of course Pervis Estupinan all paying off big-time in the final run-in. I am sure he will note that this is one metric he beat his old pal Az in.
Skipping back to this weekend, it was surprising to see so many hits on the final week, no doubt the result of a team leak deluge with every man and his dog apparently knowing someone who knew someone’s uncle who had seen Erling buy a bench cushion down in Tesco’s.
Perhaps reflective of a season where groupthink seemed to be a highly effective tactic, the final move of choice was Kane being drafted in with Eberechi Eze or Martin Odegaard the popular substitute for Karou Mitoma’s disappearance.
Nice to see at least Geoff and Neale were sentimental with their Roberto Firmino pick.
The full list of transfers is below:
Az – Kane, Eze (Mitoma, Haaland)
LTFPL Andy – Kane, Odegaard (Haaland, Mitoma)
Ben Crellin – Kane, Odegaard (Grealish, Haaland)
Fabio Borges – Kane, Odegaard (Mitoma, Haaland)
Finn Sollie – Eze, Kane (Mitoma, Haaland)
FPL Harry – Eze, Alvarez, Kane (Mitoma, Solanke, Haaland)
Joe Lepper – Watkins, Eze (Isak, Grealish)
Geoff Dance – Firmino (Isak)
FPL General – Maddison, Kane (Mitoma, Haaland)
Magnus Carlsen – Free Hit
Mark Sutherns – Kane (Haaland)
FPL Matthew – Kane (Haaland)
Neale Rigg – Son, Firmino (Haaland, Grealish)
Pras – Jesus, Kane (Isak, Haaland)
Suvansh – no Transfers
Tom Freeman – Watkins, Foden (Haaland, Mitoma)
Tom Stephenson – Kane, Gabriel (Dias, Haaland)
Zophar – Kane, Eze (Mitoma, Haaland)
CAPTAINCY
You would’ve thought the captaincy calls this season should be easy with Erling Haaland the default option. He was selected 48% of the time over the season by The Great and The Good.
Yet, there was still room for a differential or two and FPL Matthew led the way with a score of 712. He was an early adopter of the Norwegian meat shield and also took advantage of the Wilson swing in Gameweek 36.
He also successfully picked the right armband this week joining the Kane train. It was a tight call amongst the managers this week with Mohamed Salah the other popular pick, surprisingly only walking away with an assist in an eight-goal thriller.
Last year’s king of the captains was Magnus, but he ended up bottom this year, thanks to a more radical approach.
VALUE
Who was the biggest banker? Well, Harry won this one as well with a team value of 104.6m, some 4.2m more than Neale Rigg. Although, value doesn’t matter, right?
CHIPS
Everyone seemed to follow the same chip pattern this campaign, it’s just some did it better than others. The below table shows the success or otherwise of each chip played by The Great and The Good.
The best Free Hit came from Suvansh who scored 89 points in Gameweek 32, a highlight in a disappointing season for last year’s no.2. There were joint winners in the Bench Boost prize with Neale and Fabio sharing honours with a creditable 33 points off the woodwork and as for the Triple Captain chip well that was anyone who put it on Rashford in Gameweek 22.
SECOND HALF
There were a significant number of late surges in this year of two halves, so I’ve delved into their positions in the Second Chance league.
Not shocking to see Harry top again, but it does show how far those experienced managers of Mark and FPL General were able to shoot up the rankings. The YouTuber must just be pleased they didn’t get off to a good start.
THE NEXT GREAT AND THE GOOD
Before I go, a look forward to next year as we will be welcoming Marko Miseric to The Great and The Good as he won the feeder league this year with a very impressive rank of 122. If you are reading Marko and could get in touch via Twitter or in the comments that would be very much appreciated.
You will see above the top five finishers and some truly impressive managers out there, so watch out for August when I launch it all over again.
There will be some other new faces to the league next and exits as well. One confirmed reluctant addition will be FPL Mode, who ended a very creditable 37,000 and won his place after a misjudged bet.
However, to soften the blow he has also promised me if he doesn’t win in his debut season then he will indeed wear that fancy dress costume come the end of the next campaign.
CONCLUSION
So, that’s it. An end to another year of FPL. Whilst some have had a stinker, including yours truly, others have flourished but what is evident is there is much more competition out there. The FPL secret club is no longer a secret club, in fact, it’s becoming so mainstream I fully expect Fabio to headline Glastonbury next year.
Yet I believe we should embrace the popularity, the more the merrier although I think us old timers can excuse ourselves the occasional moan of xG wasn’t like that in our day.
Time now for the soppy bit as I try to express the genuine gratitude to Scout first of all for publishing my wittering’s, particularly Neale, Tom and Marc for polishing the proverbial of an article each week.
Secondly, a massive thanks to The Great and The Good, they never asked to be invited to this mini-league, so it’s on an involuntary basis that they have submitted to this gentle fun poking at their fortunes over the season. So, thank you for allowing me to make you the stars of the show without resorting to a restraining order.
Finally, it has to be a massive thank you to those of you who read along. I enjoy writing these silly little updates and it’s always great (and indeed good, sorry it’s contractual) to know that a few of you seem to get some enjoyment out of them.
Anyway, enough of me, go on get outside, talk to your family, forget about xG and enjoy the summer. We will all be back again in July to do it all again, but for now and for one last time please remember to not have FPL nightmares. For those affected by any of the topics raised in the above article then you can find me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/Greyhead19
