Early Early Doors

Happier times for Paterson and Burnley fans of all ages.

Too much news to wait until tomorrow, so here we go, extra early.

Last Rites

Getting the band back together. For fantasy at least.

Okay, so "Last Rites" is a terrible title for this post.  It's just some quick thoughts on a Friday night/Saturday morning.  I wanted something that played off "Early Doors" and well, it's getting late so I'm not as creative as I'd like to be.  Best to get on with the post then, but please feel free to help me name this post properly.

• Late injury news - Schwarzer a doubt
• An intra-blog disagreement.  Neal says,
  

  "No certainty of O'Hara playing for Pompey - I like the thought of him as a cheap option but I'm not willing to go too far out on a limb until I know how (and if) they intend to deploy him regularly.  More a BD option than something for this week if you ask me (and you sort of did by being here to read this column)." 
  

  I think O'Hara will be a direct replacement for Krancjar who moved to Spurs while O'Hara moved the other way on loan.  He seems to agree, telling www.portsmouthfc.co.uk that, "he has been recruited as an attacking midfielder to create and score goals...."The manager sees me as an attacking midfielder who can link up with the strikers."  I think Hart is going to put him right out against Bolton, and I'm putting him right into my fantasy team.  Hopefully I can get out ahead of the mob on this one.
  
• Speaking of bargains, we've all been talking up Tuncay.  I think it's a great pick for Stoke and a big chance for fantasy managers.  However, I'm not on the bandwagon this week.  I wanted to be, believe me.  Thinking Tuncay at forward to get Glen Johnson at the back.  But in the end, I just can't do it.  I'm going to stick with Gael Givet who to this point has been getting points to spite me for not picking him.  I'm going to use that money to go back to Darren Bent.  He disappointed me last when I had him in the team week 2 (against Rovers no less, with Givet scoring) when KWynneJ took all the points.  But I can't get over my "bet against Hull" idea for this season, and especially with Hull replacing Turner with Sonko, I'm going back to the well.

Good luck to everyone and I'll see you on the other side of the weekend for the Monday Morning Manager.

Bargains Galore

Tuncay signs for Stoke City

The Yahoo! Fantasy Football world is abuzz... Tuncay Sanli has been relisted in the game at 1! He's listed as a forward, which isn't ideal because to my mind, he'll play in midfield as he often did for Boro. As I wrote in the Monday Morning Manager:

It will be very interesting to see how they incorporate Tuncay into the squad. But as a striker priced at 1!!... well, that in itself is quite apeallilng. He came on for Fuller at the weekend, but I think it will be Etherington who is most at threat.

Stoke have a pretty rough schedule upcoming - Chelsea, @Bolton, Manchester United, @Everton, West Ham and @Spurs - so you're likely to get what you pay for with Tuncay. However, it may be worth it if you can upgrade another position or two to cover what you think you might lose in that 2nd or 3rd striker spot. For instance, I was looking to get rid of Rodallega as he and Wigan have failed to reproduce their opening day form. I can go to Tuncay and be fairly confident of replicating HRod's 3 points a game but for 6 less. Now I can (with a combination of other cost saving moves which we'll touch on below) move from Givet to Glen Johnson. And while Neal thinks it would be buying GJohn at the top of the market, he's a good bet going into Liverpool's upcoming matches home to Burnley, @West Ham, and Hull.

Other possible bargains exist, but come with real negatives.  Namely cheap players who will now be likely starters on really lousy teams.  Case in point, Jamie O'Hara moves on loan from Spurs to Pompey.  He'll likely take the left-midfield role that Krancjar, um... left to move the other way.  O'Hara is 4.23 and has shown in the past that he can take kicks and get in amongst the fantasy points.  The down side, of course, is that Pompey are terrible but O'Hara may be the best of the bunch and could get 'kick-taker on a bad team' points.

We've bemoaned the lack of quality, cheap defenders in the game.  Sonko is at least cheap.  He's 3.32, one of only two defenders priced below 4.  And now that he's moved to Hull City to replace the Sunderland-bound Michael Turner he'll get on the field.  Of course, as we wrote on yesterday, "you might have been happier had he stayed in Stoke's reserves." But then again, Turner has been averaging 8 points a match almost entirely from defensive work - passes intercepted, blocked shots, tackles, etc. So if Sonko can even get half of that, he'll end up being a good investment.