Opening again mid-August 2010.
But so much to say and do before then... (What, you thought we'd just pack it in on holiday?)
Good luck today. Lots of places to be decided yet. We'll want to hear all about who you picked and where you ended up.
Then, of course, there will be the cliched 'end-of-season' awards. Best Fantasy Two-Gamer. Bargain of the Year. Fantasy Player of the Seaon. etc. Nominations are being accepted in comments.
And it's going to be a big summer. There's the World Cup 2010 which we'll be watching and covering from a fantasy perspective. And surely we're in for a doozy of a transfer window. In fact, the ins and outs at just Manchester City may demand of blog of their own!
As Neal mentioned the other day, it's Mother's Day so we're going to be 'off the grid' for the games. Therefore, I'll say it again now, GOOD LUCK. It's been one hell of a season and we look forward to looking back, and then looking foward again, with all of you!
Bargain of the year: Bale
ReplyDeletePlayer of the year: Drogba obviously
Two-gamer of the year: Etherington???
Well, I guess I don't have to write that post after all!
ReplyDelete;-)
JDV1 - Well said.
ReplyDeleteJeremy, can we provide alternative awards?
Biggest double (or in his case, triple) week let down - Rodallega
Biggest fall in class between last season and this - Tie between Gerrard and Arshavin.
Surprise of the year: nominees are
ReplyDelete- Malouda
- Adam Johnson
- Carlos Tevez
- John Carew
Comeback of the year
Damien Duff
Shiv: well said also. H-Rod and Arsh really let us down. I had less problems with Gerrard, but he did have a miserable season by his standards.
^ gerrard wasn't already performing any well since last season(hence i mentioned about selling gerrard somewhere here or at Am's around mid of the season~i think).
ReplyDeleteBest midfielder of the season must frankly belong to- Lampard. ;)
~Newbie
108.5 pts this week, not too bad a finish!
ReplyDeleteBargain of the year I agree with all the above: BALE.
ReplyDeleteFantasy Player of the Year? Can be Bale again, if you can accept he didn't start from week 1! He not only got you points consistently but his originally cheap price allowed you to upgrade at other areas. Bale is the reason new names broke the overall top 10 or stayed in it. Having him or not having him probably determined whether you went up or down in the standings.
Drogba can win if you just count overall fantasy points though.
2 gamer of the year? If not Eth then Milner perhaps?
Biggest letdown for me was Defoe, due to the fact of his 5 goal haul, and sporadic goals, he always teased you. Then there were matches where he should've gotten big points but hardly got any.
Most Fantasy Points Forgone (Players who could've scored a lot but messed up somehow...the What-If award). Berbatov springs to mind since his shenanigans are fresh.
-HC
118 points this week without Drogba...very happy with that return. Finished up 2,351 overall after a very shaky first half of the season (around 12,500 overall at the halfway point).
ReplyDeleteI think people are forgetting the early season contenders for bargain of the year. Bale definitely deserves to be up there, but I'm surprised Drogba and Verm aren't getting more mentions there.
Two-gamer of the year for me is Stephen Hunt.
Fantasy player of the year is obviously Drogba, though I think RvP would have given him a good run had he been fit the whole season.
Maybe we could do a Fantasy team of the season? My nominations:
Given
Verm Bale Dunne
Lampard Cesc Arteta Milner
Drogba Rooney Tevez
i had dempsey, in my lineup for 4 clings on the woodwork. so he must have had the most almost goals.
ReplyDeletei disagree about the best midfielder, lampard had fantasy worth late in the year, but malouda, was far more important to chelsea, but neither was in the same class as cesc and modric. cesc personally kept the tattered rags of arsenal's "starting 11" into and winning many, many games. his injury right at the end, spelled death for arsenal's chance for 1st place. they realistically shouldn't have won it with all of the different players needed because of injury and a coach reluctant to spend any of the $30 million, he had available.
modric was singlehandedly got tottenham into champions league next season. he just powers the talented midfield into constantly playing up to there high abilities. modric is the pass before the pass, kind of guy, if he played in MLS he might have beat Carlos Valderama's 33 assists.
worst accesorizer is mancini and that damn blue city scarf. i wish someone, like david moyes, had smacked it off of him.
worst friend and teammate is john terry, for obvious reasons, let's hope it boils up and keeps england from advancing out of the first round. then let's watch the people's reaction to terry. remember how everyone vilified beckham for his red card on Diego Simeone.
best goal is bent's goal off of the beach ball to beat liverpool
lowest paid goalscorer, scored the second most goals for manure, but will never see a cent. the dreaded own goal. amazingly none came off frank sinclair.
worst boots are definitely bendtner's pink ones. hard to say you are the best striker in the world and show up in pink.
best phantom producer for defense is roger johnson
for midfield milner, duff or giggs
for upfront none
Bargain of the year part 2nd place nomination(for one double week worth of play): Begovic. $1 = 29.5 pts.
ReplyDeletePOY - Diddy Droogs
ReplyDeleteMost Improved / Best Bargain - Bale
2-gamer - Eth or Dempsey
Sleeper award - N'Zog
Best Newcomer - Verm
Dead to me awards - Defoe, Gerrard, Berba, Arsh, Torres, the entire keeper position.
Biggest tease - RVP
Florent Robert Award(kinda crappy IRL player, fantasy gold) - Michel Salgado
Jummy Award(for general awesomeness) - Jummy
I finished 1504th. I was top 500 last year, and top 1000 the year before, so kind of a down year. I'm not sure if things have gotten more competitive or I've just dropped off. I definitely missed too many barn doors, and made too many bad calls when I did make them. I was fine at picking the obvious studs most of the time, but fell down on my mid-level picks in the 8-14 unit range, and failed to turn up out-of-nowhere picks to get that extra 10-15pts a week. I think losing my discounts on Bale and Drogba in January was pretty key too, but I'm not totally sure of that.
Well I'd just like to add the following...
ReplyDeleteBlooper of the year goes to = Beach Ball goal
Goal of the season = Maynor Figueroa (halfway line goal)
Best fantom points for forward = Diamanti.
Honduran- Saul
Oh, and all own goals in favor of Manchester United are up for the blooper of the year award...oh how sweet they were.
ReplyDelete-Honduran-Saul
honduran saul
ReplyDeletei agree with the diamanti as a phantom player, but i was burnt by him several times. i picked him 4 times for 2 no-shows and 2 appearances of the bench for a total of -1 points for 4 games. pretty tuff stuff. one of those was a double week.
finished in 441th
ReplyDeletewith a haul of 3,927.50 points
wierd season this, I finished just outside top 1500, compared to just outside top 100 a couple of seasons ago, but my overall points for the season seem to be more than I usually get, around 3800 this year.
ReplyDeleteAdditional financial cloud over EPL:
ReplyDelete"To make matters worse, it has emerged that a new £15 million claim for unpaid taxes issued by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs involves payments for image rights rather than player salaries, a dangerous precedent that could have widespread ramifications for the entire Premier League."
"Image rights have traditionally been protected from substantial PAYE payments with special concessions and Andronikou said: "This sends out a definite warning sign to a number of larger clubs employing international players. If they are successful against Portsmouth, it will have a significant knock-on effect."
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/feature?id=784584&sec=england&cc=4716
wonder if they are successful will they go after ManU for CRon7's image fee? 80m don't seemed so much now, does it?
*and of course other clubs as well(including Liverpool)
~Newbie
lampard-22 goals/17 assists
ReplyDeletescorer of 4 goals against villa without breaking a sweat.
Lampard become the FIRST midfielder to reach 20 league goals in the history of the Premier League.
even lamppost was rank 1st in actim!
and no, i am not talking about fantasy worth. i am talking about real world worth. even in fantasy worth , lampard's average per game should be higher(can't check now since list removed)
^
ReplyDelete~Newbie
Gotta include Baird on deals of the season. Not quite Bale at 2, but put him in at the start and he generated points game after game all season.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteryan nelsen for me was a bargain, i bought at 4.88 and had him from dec. to feb.
ReplyDeleteThis is my first year of following EPL. What an awesome sport. I was last place in my league of friends until I picked up Gareth Bale at $2.65!!! He ended up at $18+ and I won my league. Not to mention help from some well time pick-ups, solid BFFF goalie material, and Rooney's 45 point week! :-D I love this blog and will follow it always!
ReplyDelete