Wake up you footy fans!!!

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Wed Jul 21, 2004 6:17 pm

Come on, you dark horses! Who needs Drugboy with the awesome combination of an on-form Ruud Van Shergar and Saha? Ruud needs to keep up the form he displayed in Portugal, and we're away. He was even seen tobe running round the pitch tackling in one game, so hungry was he for the ball. Our main worries at the start of the season are defensive, with Rio still out and Heinze and O'Shea probably injured.

verbal gymnastics · Post by **verbal gymnastics** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 7:55 am

Anyone doing the Telegraph Fantasy Football League again this season?

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 9:18 am

Jackson Monk wrote:I'm not convinced about Drogba. One swallow does not make a summer etc....certainly does not make him worth 25 million! From what I've seen Cisse signing for Liverpool is a better piece of business.

You may be right. From the clips I've seen, Drogba looks quality. Can score with both feet, good pace (though not in Cisse's class), and very powerful in the air. Still, that's a lot to pay, given his record. My prediction - Kezman will be the better value for the money. Then again, I thought Mutu would do the business and he was awful in the second half of last season.

One nice thing about Drogba is the opportunity his name presents for headline writers and new chants at the Bridge.

"Who let the Drogs out?"
"The Drog's Bollocks"
"Droggies" (cf "A Clockwork Orange")
"Drog's dinner (or breakfast)" - I hope we don't see that one

The possibilities are endless. Any others you can think of?

I'm off next week to see a few games of this Champions World tour. AC Milan- Man United at Giants Stadium, then Chelsea-AC Milan in Philly. Should be interesting.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 1:57 pm

verbal gymnastics wrote:Anyone doing the Telegraph Fantasy Football League again this season?

Nah, let's all sign up for the official Premiership online one. I'll be doing it anyway, but you can enter your team in as many leagues as possible. I volunteer to set the league up for people to sign up for, but we'll need a few takers. 10 ideally. OK, 8? First prize: everyone has to send the winner a CD!

Jackson Monk · Post by **Jackson Monk** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 2:14 pm

Sounds great...I'm in!

so lacklustre · Post by **so lacklustre** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 2:19 pm

Count me in although I'll be doing the Telegraph one as well.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 2:35 pm

Cool! Two recruits already. It's dead good. You get £100m for your squad of 15. One transfer a week allowed without deductions, points deducted for more than one. You can change your line-up and ca[ptain each week, and captain carries double points. Last season ended up with some 300,000 people on it, though people were signing up all season long (I suspect some people were creating different teams each month), and they come from everywhere. my glory moment was in February. I had Forsell in as captain that week as Birmingham had two fixtures, and he scored in both. I was 182nd out of, at the time, c. 200,000 as a result for the whole of Feb.

All the regulars here to sign up:

POP
LC
WSS?
VG
GB
John
KH

and how about it BWAP, if you're here for longer!!!

Season starts Aug 15 (MU v Chelsea, I'll see you, WSS?!), so probably around Aug 10, once transfers have been sorted, is the time to sign up. I'm here until then, so will let you all know. (Hope I can get internet access from rural French campsites later that month... )

PlaythingOrPet · Post by **PlaythingOrPet** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 4:12 pm

Room for a small'un? I'm rubbish at these things, tho.

laughingcrow · Post by **laughingcrow** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 5:16 pm

Yeah I'm in....give me a reason to watch the Prem this year

, as well as the Championship. (Why oh why oh why did they change the names again? It must be really confusing to someone not versed in the english footy leagues to see a Premiership, a Championship and a League One. Madness!)

Maybe I can sign more players than the Wolves have so far...

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 5:23 pm

5 and rising. Game on. Being rubbish often doesn't matter. A colleague was busy having a baby and yet still maintained a sterling performance for a good while. It helps if you keep an eye on injuries and maybe vary the team according to fixtures, but there's a good deal of luck involved.

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Thu Jul 22, 2004 10:38 pm

Count me in. I've given up on my fantasy baseball this year, so I'll concentrate on this instead.

invisible Pole · Post by **invisible Pole** » Fri Jul 23, 2004 5:06 pm

I'm in if somebody is kind enough to explain the rules.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Fri Jul 23, 2004 5:43 pm

Yo, IP is in the league! Dudek for your goalie! Rules are on the relevant site, but I can give you extra help if needed.

And WSS? I was counting on you. You can have a max of 3 or 4 from one club, which will break your heart!

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Fri Jul 23, 2004 9:06 pm

Otis Westinghouse wrote:And WSS? I was counting on you. You can have a max of 3 or 4 from one club, which will break your heart!

There are plenty of Chelsea players out on season-long loan. Shouldn't be a problem to put together a starting XI!

invisible Pole · Post by **invisible Pole** » Wed Jul 28, 2004 4:43 pm

Otis, any news on FFL ? Have you set up the league for us lot ?
Next week I'm off to the beautifully cold Polish seaside, so I'd have to enter my team by then.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Wed Jul 28, 2004 6:54 pm

Indeed, it is up and running now, so we can start to register. Will do it tomorrow evening, honest. Was at the wonderful Spiderman 2 this evening... You're going to love it.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Thu Jul 29, 2004 6:20 pm

OK, well the idea is that you have £100m to buy a squad of 15 players, who then score you points according to their real performances throughout the season - goals scored, clean sheets, that kind of thing. It's easy to enter, you just register, choose a name and strip for your team and start buying.

You don't have to pay to register. As mentioned, it would be fun to reward the winner with a CD. A compilation, copy of a rarity or whatever. Let's do that if others agree.

Site address is <http://fantasy.premierleague.com> - more detailed description of rules etc. here.

To register: <http://fantasy.premierleague.com/M/register.mc>

Once you have registered and selected your team (using the pop-up for categories, which have default settings based on last year's Premiership performance, so you won't see newcomers to the league, e.g. Kluivert, Robben, unless you search for them), you can join private leagues.

Our league is called 'Costellobsessives'. You need to enter this code to register:

57712-11488

You will see my other name there: James Dingle (the one I use when not here!). You can set up your own league with mates if you then wish. As per last season, I'll be in a league with colleagues, hence the non-Otis factor!

57,000+ already signed up and rising fast. You have until two weeks from Saturday morning (11.30 UK time is the usual deadline) to sign up.

Do read the rules carefully, but post any queries here. Let's stick to this thread for this, as I hope all its regular visitors will participate.

Happy shopping!

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Thu Jul 29, 2004 10:25 pm

OK, Otis. Game on. I'm all signed up.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 2:15 am

OK, Matthew Blue Balls, nice one. I bet you have your full Chelsea quota of Chelskinho players.

By the way, you don't need to sign up using your real name, and if we all do, we'll have to remember who's who, though that's not so hard, and quite fun in a way! I just did for continuity in my work league.

PlaythingOrPet · Post by **PlaythingOrPet** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 5:01 am

I'm in 'cos I've got nothing better to do today! Yay!

Made some dodgy choices, tho.

Who Shot Sam? · Post by **Who Shot Sam?** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 6:54 am

Otis Westinghouse wrote:OK, Matthew Blue Balls, nice one. I bet you have your full Chelsea quota of Chelskinho players.

By the way, you don't need to sign up using your real name, and if we all do, we'll have to remember who's who, though that's not so hard, and quite fun in a way! I just did for continuity in my work league.

I selected a few, I must admit. It's tough putting a good squad together under budget.

laughingcrow · Post by **laughingcrow** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 7:22 am

I'm signed in now... Glagow Flappers for the league!

verbal gymnastics · Post by **verbal gymnastics** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 10:38 am

Fake Madrid have made an appearance.

I hope they're not a bunch of Loos-ers.

invisible Pole · Post by **invisible Pole** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 11:16 am

Hooray, I made it !!!
My team is FC Elvis United.

Otis Westinghouse · Post by **Otis Westinghouse** » Fri Jul 30, 2004 6:26 pm

Splendido. Well done to one and all. 6 and rising. You can fiddle around with your team as much as you want in terms of transfers and selection up until the 14 Aug 11.30 UK deadline, and then once the season is underway, the 'player a week without penalty and lose 4 points for every additional one' rule kicks in. Fun that the 'real name' thing is being adhered to by everyone. Laughing Crow sounds pretty Scottish, as you'd expect, but he's been outScottished!