Fantasy Football

I am giving the Fantasy footie a big go this year for the first time in several years, mainly due to being in a works league for the first time in 5 years. Also because it is much cheaper this season.
About 5-6 years ago it cost £6 a team, although if you managed to find a promotion code you could sometimes get them for half price.
This season you got a free team plus it was 12 teams for £14.99 at the start, then 10 for the same price once the season started.

So I've ended up with 35 teams dotted around various leagues :)
3 in the works league, 2 in the Fiso forum, 2 in the Footy challenge league, 1 in the Facebook league, 1 in the Google league, and the remaining 26 set up into my own league.

Having this many teams means a mad rush every match day trying to find out who is injured and likely starting line-ups, and trying to balance the season long 30 transfers limit against short term gains.
The strikers positions have been a bit of a nightmare early on as the obvious picks at the start were probably Rooney, Aguero and Torres as Van Persie was a non playing Arsenal player.
Rooney and Aguero were both injured early on meaning RVP came in with Jelavic, Jelevic didn't do too well and then got injured meaning a switch to Berbatov who has now also got injured costing another transfer to Fletcher. I would have gone back to Jelavic but the early reports were that he wouldn't start :(
Suarez is usually a risky pick as his really good weeks are balanced out by many bad ones, Peter Crouch is a safe option for regular points but rarely has those exceptional weeks, Demba Ba has started well as he did last year but he dropped away badly last season and I have to remember that there is another African Nations cup next year and I've got Toure in most teams.

So far it's been good with all the teams in the top third out of around 250,000 entrants, 6 teams are in the top 1,000 with a best of 52nd, my league is 16th after a high of 12th, and I'm 1st, 2nd and 4th in the Works league :)
Today won't be good as Villa and West Brom players aren't really in my thinking at the moment, and Monday's Hammers v QPR game is only good from a fantasy game point of view if Nolan scores ...a hat-trick :)

R.I.P John Bond

Former Hammer John Bond sadly passed away at the age of 79 today :(
Probably remembered better these days as the manager of Norwich and Man City in the 70's and 80's he had made over 400 appearances for the Hammers in the 50's and 60's.
Part of our 'B' team in the glory years in the mid sixties with Brown, Brabrook, Byrne, Burkett, Boyce, Bovington, Bobby Moore and Brian Dear :)

Premier Predictions (Week 6)

Week number six already, games on Saturday, Sunday and Monday (hope Green plays).

Arsenal v Chelsea
Everton v Southampton
Fulham v Man City
Norwich v Liverpool
Reading v Newcastle
Stoke v Swansea
Sunderland v Wigan
Man Utd v Tottenham

Aston Villa v West Brom

QPR v West Ham

Premier Predictions (Week 5)

After week 4's dramatic ending let's do it all again :)
Saturday and Sunday games only this week, and some hard games to call considering possible European hangovers for many of the teams.

Swansea v Everton
Chelsea    v Stoke
Southampton v Aston Villa
West Brom v Reading
West Ham v Sunderland
Wigan v Fulham
       
Liverpool v Man Utd
Newcastle v Norwich
Man City v Arsenal
Tottenham v QPR

World Cup 2014 Day 2

England 1 Ukraine 1
Can't really comment or rate this game as I fell asleep during the first half and woke up just in time to see us get the penalty near the end :(

England v Ukraine

Game 2 kicks off in a few hours as England hope to build on last weeks great start.
Terry and Walcott are injured and have been replaced by Livermore, Lallana and Sterling.
Adam Lallana was a bit of a surprise but the other two proved the old adage that if you're English and play for Liverpool or Tottenham you will play for England.
That said Raheem Sterling does look like he has the makings of a star, he looked the biz last year when he scored 5 goals against my local club Southend in the Youth cup.


Not yet 18 he has 2 kids, plays in the Premier league and has an England call up. Could be a great story or a tragic one, we shall find out soon?

Premier Predictions (Week 4)

Here's this weekends games ... predict away :)

Norwich v West Ham
QPR v Chelsea
Stoke v Man City
Man Utd v Wigan
Arsenal v Southampton
Fulham v West Brom
Aston Villa v Swansea
Sunderland v Liverpool
       
Reading v Tottenham
       
Everton  v Newcastle

World Cup 2014 Day 1

A good start for England with a 5-0 hammering of Moldova :)
They played well but didn't need to be at the top of their game against a really poor side.
Sometimes in these type of games it gets scrappy if you don't score early but we were helped out in the 3rd minute by the Dutch ref giving a penalty for handball which a lot of refs wouldn't have?
Lampard banged it in and it was all plain sailing from then on :)
Lampard scored again and Defoe made it 3-0 at half time.
The second half was pretty dull as we seemed happy to hang on to the 3-0 but after bringing on Walcott and Welbeck we livened up and Milner finished off a great move to make it 4-0, for some reason Milner didn't seem too happy at scoring his first goal for England in 32 games probably realising he was once again lucky to be on the pitch after another poor performance, Baines got the 5th with a massive deflection from his free kick and the only downside was Terry's late injury.
My Ratings - Hart 6, Johnson 7, Baines 8, Lescott 7, Terry 8, Gerrard 4, Milner 5, Lampard 9, Cleverley 8, Oxlade-Chamberlain 8, Defoe 7, Subs - Carrick 5, Walcott 6, Welbeck 6 + England Fans 10

James Collins made sure he was fit for the Hammers next game by getting sent off for Wales against Belgium, they would have struggled with 11 men so no surprise that the Belgians won 2-0.
Northern Ireland were unlucky against Capello's Russia losing 2-0 including a dubious penalty.
The Republic left it very late against Kazakhstan with Keane and Doyle scoring in the last 2 minutes to give them a 2-1 win.
Looking around the other games some of the big names didn't have it easy, Germany only scored 3 against the Faroe Islands, France beat Finland 1-0, Portugal only managed a 2-1 win against Luxembourg, Italy drew with Bulgaria, Norway lost to Iceland.
Bosnia had the best result of the night with an 8-1 away win in Liechtenstein with Man City's Dzeko getting a hat trick.

World Cup 2014

The World cup is here again and we kick off tonight away to Moldova.

The England squad
G - Hart, Butland, Ruddy
D - Terry, Johnson, Lescott, Jagielka, Cahill, Baines, Walker, Bertrand
M - Gerrard, Lampard, Milner, Carrick, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Cleverley
F - Defoe, Walcott, Wellbeck, Sturridge


Injured - Cole, Carroll, Rooney, Young, Jones, Parker
Dropped - Kelly, Henderson, Downing, Green

World Cup Fixtures
07/09/12 A Moldova
11/09/12 H Ukraine
12/10/12 H San Marino
16/10/12 A Poland
22/03/13 A San Marino
26/03/12 A Montenegro
06/09/13 H Moldova
10/09/13 A Ukraine
11/10/13 H Montenegro
15/10/13 H Poland

Friendlies
14/11/12 A Sweden
14/08/12 H Scotland

Redknapped

So Harry boy has gone back to Bournemouth as an advisor!!
didn't realise they were rich enough to need Swiss bank accounts?

Comment

The decision to moderate comments was made so I could weed out the downright nasty stuff that some bloggers get, but so far I've just been inundated with dozens of adverts for short term loans and slimming aids?
This one made me laugh as it was from an American company but seems to have been translated from a foreign language using an online translator -
"The transaction terms are very short for instant loans and ranges at the hands of 10 to thirty one days. 
The very loan provides the actual cash in quick and in easy way without each and every personal treasures. 
Not upfront charges are unquestionably levied from you have" ????

West Ham 3 Fulham 0

Comfortable win against a poor Fulham team, Andy Carroll was causing the Fulham defence problems which left gaps for everyone else.
An early Nolan goal was followed by a Winston Reid header and Matt Taylor banging one in.
The second half was fairly even and Jaaskelainen had the chance to show he's not that bad with a few decent saves.
The Hammers midfield was solid, Nolan catches the eye but Diame was excellent and Noble hardly puts a foot wrong.

Slight worry was injuries to Carroll, James Collins and Demel after Matt Jarvis missed the game through injury, hopefully all will be fit after the International break.
Fulham were poor and even with Berbatov coming on in the second half showed very little.

Going Down?

Poll Result - Just 13 votes in the "who will get relegated" poll, so if you are right this will be the bottom of the table in May.

13 Arsenal
14 Aston Villa
15 West Ham
16 Norwich
17 Southampton
-----------------
18 Reading
19 Wigan
20 QPR

Personally think Wigan and Reading wil survive, but the people have spoken :)

Deadline Day Again

It's that time again when all the clubs go panic buying, despite having 3 months to finalise this seasons teams a lot of managers leave it to the last minute?
So we've got about 5 hours left of hurried medicals and brinkmanship over wages and transfer fees, then interviews with endless foreigners saying "it's always been my dream to play in England".

Chances are that Chelsea won't be doing any last minute deals this year as they should have other things on their mind with their Super cup game against Athletico Madrid, although Colombian striker Falcao might be jumping on the bus home?
So far we've had quite a few deals including Andy Carroll's move to Upton Park on loan which I really didn't think would happen after he dismissed us before.
Berbatov for £4 million!! why didn't we make a bid? also I wonder if we can get Brad Friedel or Rob Green on loan :)

Here are the deadline day deals (I will update this if I remember) :)

Done Deals
Dimitar Berbatov - Man Utd to Fulham
Maicon - Inter Milan to Man City
Rafael Van der Vaart - Tottenham to Hamburg
Nigel De Jong - Man City to AC Milan
Scott Sinclair - Swansea to Man City
Charlie Adam - Liverpool to Stoke
Andy Carroll - Liverpool to West Ham
Kieran Richardson - Sunderland to Fulham
Danny Rose - Tottenham to Sunderland
Park Chu Young - Arsenal to Celta Vigo
Giovani Dos Santos - Tottenham to Mallorca
Gael Kakuta - Chelsea to Vitesse Arnhem
Maya Yoshida - Venio to Southampton
Jay Spearing - Liverpool to Bolton
Nicklas Bendtner - Arsenal to Juventus
Moussa Dembele - Fulham to Tottenham
Jordan Rhodes - Huddersfield to Blackburn
Bryan Oviedo - FC Copenhagen to Everton
Pablo Hernandez - Valencia to Swansea
Richard Wright - Dole Queue to Man City
Esteban Granero - Real Madrid to QPR
Nicky Maynard - West Ham to Cardiff
Julio Cesar - Inter Milan to QPR
Jordan Bowery - Chesterfield to Aston Villa
Maurice Edu - Rangers to Stoke
Thorgan Hazard - Chelsea to Zulte Waregem
Hugo Lloris - Lyon to Tottenham
Stephane Mbia - Marseille to QPR
Michael Essien - Chelsea to Real Madrid
Yossi Benayoun - Chelsea to West Ham
Stefan Savic - Man City to Fiorentina
Matija Nastasic - Fiorentina to Man City
Javi Garcia - Benfica to Man City
Roque Santa Cruz - Man City to Malaga
Gaston Ramirez - Bologna to Southampton
Joey Barton - QPR to Marseille
Clint Dempsey - Fulham to Tottenham
Christian Benteke - Genk to Aston Villa
Steven N'Zonzi - Blackburn to Stoke
Ashkan Dejagah - Wolfsburg to Fulham
Ashley Westwood - Crewe to Aston Villa
Goran Popov - Dynamo Kiev to West Brom
Matthew Kennedy - Kilmarnock to Everton
Cody Cropper - America? to Southampton

Possibles
Kenwyne Jones - Stoke to Marseille
Michael Owen - Man Utd to Anywhere??

Gutted about Dempsey, gone for only £6 million and to Tottenham just to make it worse :(
We end up with Benny back after 5 years away, not sure where he fits anymore but a useful back up :)

Europa League Draw

Group A - Liverpool, Udinese, Young Boys, Anzhi Makhachkala
Group B - Athletico Madrid, Hapoel Tel Aviv, Plzen, Académica
Group C - Marseille, Fenerbahce, Borussia Monchengladbach, AEL Limassol
Group D - Newcastle, Bordeaux, Club Bruges, Maritimo
Group E - VFB Stuttgart, FC Copenhagen, Steaua Bucharest, Molde
Group F - PSV Eindhoven, Napoli, Dnipro, AIK Solna
Group G - Sporting Lisbon, FC Basel, Genk, Videoton Fehervar
Group H - Inter Milan, Rubin Kazan, Partizan Belgrade, Neftchi
Group I - Lyon, Athletic Bilbao, Sparta Prague, Hapoel Kiryat Shmona
Group J - Tottenham, Panathinaikos, Lazio, NK Maribor
Group K - Bayer Leverkusen, Metalist Kharkiv, Rosenborg, Rapid Vienna
Group L - FC Twente, Hannover 96, Levante, Helsingborgs

Champions League Draw

Champions League Draw

Group A - Paris St Germain, FC Porto, Dynamo Kiev, Dinamo Zagreb
Group B - Arsenal, Schalke 04, Olympiakos, Montpellier
Group C - AC Milan, Zenit St Petersburg, Anderlecht, Malaga
Group D - Real Madrid, Man City, Ajax, Borussia Dortmund
Group E - Chelsea, Juventus, Shakhtar Donetsk, FC Nordsjaelland
Group F - Bayern Munich, Valencia, Lille, Bate Borisov
Group G - Barcelona, Celtic, Benfica, Spartak Moscow
Group H - Man Utd, Sporting Braga, Galatasaray, CFR Cluj

Tough draw for Man City with the champions of England, Spain, Germany and Holland all drawn together!!
Celtic get Barcelona and 2 other hard teams.
The others look to have easier groups Man Utd and Arsenal should be really happy.
Chelsea have got Juventus and Shakhtar but should be good enough to go through.

Fantasy Football

Due to being back in a works league for the first time in 5 years, I'm into Fantasy Football big time this year.
The fact that the price has dropped also helped :)
It used to be £6 a team but this season it was 12 teams for £14.99, the top prize has dropped from £50,000 down to £30,000 but I wasn't going to win that anyway.

Currently in the top 50 overall which considering there are 238,000 teams isn't too bad, and my superleague is in the top 20.

Sadly this will be as good as it gets as I went big time with Chelsea player due to the extra game, my top team has 7 Chelsea players who won't be adding any points this week :(
All I can hope for is that all the games get postponed this weekend for some reason?

Also tried my hand at Sun dream team for the first time ever, but not doing so well at that, it seems to be more luck than skill as you have to pick 11 at the start and can't change them till their imaginary transfer window.
So if you're stuck with Aguero, Rooney and Terry who are all injured like me you're screwed :(

Premier Predictions (Week 3)

Just nine games this weekend, due to Chelsea going to Monaco on Friday to play Athletico Madrid for the European "Super" cup.

West Ham will need to win against much improved Fulham to show they are capable of competing in this division.
Everton have looked good so far but face a test against another much improved team West Brom.
AVB will be under pressure again if the Spuds don't beat Norwich.
Swansea will have the chance to go top if they beat big spending Sunderland, and if they play as well as they already have this season they should manage it.
Man City are due a big result and owe QPR for last season's near nightmare.
On Sunday 0-0 specialists Arsenal go to Anfield looking for another 0-0
Man Utd go to Southampton hopefully with a kit they can see :)
.. and finally Newcastle take on this seasons worst team so far Villa.

West Ham v Fulham
West Brom v Everton
Tottenham v Norwich
Wigan v Stoke
Swansea v Sunderland
Man City v QPR
       
Liverpool v Arsenal
Southampton v Man Utd
Newcastle v Aston Villa

Rangers v Rangers

People have been saying for years that Rangers and Celtic should be playing in the English league, well today Rangers got the chance of playing a league game across the border.
Berwick are the only English club in the Scottish league and they certainly didn't roll over today, holding the Gers to a 1-1 draw.
Not sure what the future holds for Rangers, they have not made a good start to this league and the remaining players are starting to leave and despite the massive support it is going to be hard to attract anyone to play in the fourth tier of Scottish football.
I'm trying hard not to be happy about Rangers problems as I've never been a fan of theirs.
I have various Scottish relatives who are big Celtic and Aberdeen fans who both hate Rangers with a passion, but personally I always liked Dundee United?

Welcome

Great to see that Matt Jarvis has finally signed :)
 It is the first signing we have made in several years that I've been excited about, I've actually heard of him, he's not past it and from what I've seen he could be the first tricky left winger who can beat people we have seen at Upton Park since the days of Alan Devonshire.
£10.75 million is a lot of cash for West Ham but when you consider Chelsea have blown over £80 million this season already, and we were prepared to pay £17 million for the pony tail maybe it's really good business.