The season so far….

As we approach the New Year, a look at the Barclays Premier League shows an extremely tight competition with Bolton in 11^th and Stoke in 19^th only three points apart.  There have been a number of surprise results this season and a few unexpected successes. 

 

Who would have thought that Hull Citywould have a good run at the start of the season and that clubs such as Blackburn, Tottenham and Newcastle would be struggling for points?  And how many people would have put Ireland, Cisse or Turner (Hull) in their first choice eleven?

 

Having been asked for my ‘Trick’s Picks’ at the start of the season, I have to say that I pinned great expectations on Spurs and have been somewhat let down…unless Harry can turn things around, my Picks will be far worse than last year!

 

A look at our Fantasy Football League Table shows that there are a number of teams with a possible claim to the title. It could be a close-run contest, almost as close as the Premiership itself.

 

Top of the Lambert Chapman Premiership at the moment is ‘Real Cool Beanz’, managed by Lewis Sharp, with a total of 882 points. He has now been top for six weeks and looks to have a strong team. However, there are a few teams below him that cannot be ruled out – Ainsley Bowyer has 863 points and Andy Stride has 852 points. Below them in 5^thplace is Tom Drysdale, last year’s winner, with 807 points and he will be keen to retain the trophy.

 

Also deserving of a mention is ‘I’m forever…ah!’ in 10^thplace – Mike Carabine always submits a ‘theme team’ into the competition – this time, he has chosen players who have all been involved at West Ham at some point, either a permanent signing, loan signing or those who played whilst in the youth squad.  Given his strong position, it remains to be seen whether he sticks to the theme or forgoes it for a stronger squad with an eye on winning!

 

It should not be forgotten that, each month, we promote the top three teams in each league and relegate the bottom three teams.  Therefore, teams in Division 5 can still get promoted each month and get into the Premiership by the end of April, leaving them in with a chance of the trophy.

 

This is good news for the likes of Gary Luckman (858 points), Ruth Lewis (849) and Louise Jessup (827) who could all be in this position at the end of the season.

 

This brings home the importance of the transfer window to all those Managers wanting to succeed in the competition.  Once the real window has closed at the end of January 2009, we shall open our own, taking into account all transfers to that point in time.  Making the right transfers could mean the difference between success and failure – do ensure that you keep an eye on the website and make changes to your team when required.

The Premiership hots up….

As an ardent Ipswich Town fan, I would have to admit that my attentions so far this season have been focused more on the Premiership. This is partly due to the fact that Town seem to be making very little impact and are struggling to get into the play-off places; however, it is also partly due to the fact that the Premiership, in my mind, is a lot more exciting this year than normal.

 

Usually, by this stage, there are several distinct groups of teams – two or three teams vying for the Premiership title, a small band of teams aiming to climb the table from midway to a European place and several Clubs trying to avoid relegation.  

 

It seemed to me that, in previous seasons, the top teams kept winning and the bottom teams kept losing, creating a gulf which lessened the excitement of watching Match of the Day as it was clear who would win and who would lose.

 

However, this season’s Premiership table makes better reading – there are perhaps only three teams in with a shout at the title although, given Arsenal’s win, they may be back in the frame. After all, who would have thought that the top four would all fail to win a match, let alone score a goal? Just five points separate Aston Villa in fifth place and Bolton in ninth.  A further five points below Bolton are Sunderland in eighteenth.

 

Last year, the thought of watching Hull v Middlesbrough would mean that I end up neglecting to watch Match of the Day with a severe lack of interest. However, this Saturday I will be wondering whether Hull will win and possibly go into the top five (possibly sending Middlesbrough into the bottom six) or whether ‘Boro will win and go up from twelfth to seventh.

 

Only a few weeks ago, Spurs were bottom with Newcastle just ahead of them – now they are out of the relegation zone at the expense of Blackburn and Sunderland who seemed clear of trouble.

 

Who knows what next week will bring….??

ITFC – Under-achieving again…

As an avid Ipswich Town fan, I was quietly confident at the start of the season and had hoped for automatic promotion or, failing that, a play-off place.

 

Having looked at the teams in the Championship, I thought that there were a few that would be pushing for promotion come May (Birmingham, Wolves, Reading) and a few more that could be in with a shout for a play-off place (Crystal Palace, Sheffield United, Cardiff).  However, I was certain that we would be included somewhere amongst these teams and would have a good chance of going up.

 

As we are now coming up to Christmas and almost half-way through the season, my confidence in the earlier prediction has now disappeared.

 

Ipswich Town are now in 11^th position, having only won six matches out of the seventeen played.  Although they are only four points away from the play-off places, they are also four points away from Coventry in 18^th place.

 

Although we have had some good wins this season, beating Burnley and Reading amongst others, we have also had some pretty bad results too. The worst of these came on Saturday – a sure-fire win against lowly Doncaster had to come.  After all, they had only won one match at home, scoring only two goals in eight home games and had gone thirteen without a win.

 

However, yet again, Ipswich failed to make an impact and come away without a point. 

 

What do I find noticeable about this season?  When looking at the results and the way in which the matches had been played, there are six matches where we have been ahead and then either let in an equaliser or, even worse, come away with nothing.

 

This has happened too many times already for me to see Ipswich as a potential promotion candidate and I sadly envisage yet another season in the Championship. This is particularly sad when I recall that, only seven years ago, we finished fifth behind Manchester United, Arsenal, Liverpool and Leeds in the Premiership.

 

Come on Ipswich – it is time to show more fight and more desire, put games away beyond doubt and come away with three points – unless this happens soon, another Championship season beckons….

A great performance….but not many saw it!

In my opinion, the England football team gave a great performance on Wednesday night, their best match for a very long time.  Remembering the fact that Croatia had never lost a home fixture since their independence (35 games ago), and that we played so poorly against them (home and away) in the European Championship qualifiers, this makes the result even better than at first glance.

 

It was one of those matches where everyone seemed to be playing to a high level – Heskey held the ball up well, Rooney was back to his best (having previously been criticised for only scoring two international goals since Euro 2004) and Theo Walcott showed that he has got what it takes to be an England striker, after being introduced on to the international scene too soon during the last World Cup – I just hope that our Nation’s hopes aren’t put onto his shoulders at such an early stage in his career.

 

All four goals showed that we do have the necessary skills and abilities when required and there was some great link-up play between the attacking players.  The best moment of the match for me was Lampard’s goal (prior to realising it had been disallowed) – it was great to see such flowing, one-touch football from someone other than the usual continental/South American teams. After some thought, I now favour Fat Frank to Stevie Gerrard…..for the time being at least.

 

It was only a pity that we scraped a nervy win against Andorra a matter of days before an altogether improved match. Presumably, we rose to the occasion when necessary and did not need to do this against such a weaker team.

 

Whilst writing this blog I should point out that I, unfortunately, only managed to see the second half of the match, as it took me about an hour to get find a local pub that has Setanta!  It is an appalling situation when, due to the greed of broadcasting companies, the majority of the nation are unable to watch the match or even get half an hour of highlights – surely international matches (at the very least) should be shown live on terrestrial TV.

How can it be that less than 3 million people saw our best game for years???!!!

 

 

 

 

 

Fantasy football – 2008/09 bargains???

Having studied the List of Players long and hard and finally getting my team sorted for this year, I began to wonder whether it is worth including the top end players or whether it is best to stick to 11 mid-range players who give value for money.

Ronaldo, this year, costs £9.5m, which is almost one-fifth of the team value. Players such as Lampard, Gerrard, Ferdinand (Rio of course, not Anton) and Fabregas are all popular choices each season.

But is it worth putting one or two of these players in and ending up with a Hull City defender and a Stoke City goalie worth less than Ronaldo’s left foot (or right foot – doesn’t matter which – he is equally as good with either)?

In my opinion, it is well worth looking at the less expensive players to see whether there is a potential bargain – for example, Darren Bent costs £2.5m but has scored 13 pre season goals. Admittedly, some of these were against worst opposition, but is he worth a punt?

Looking at the final scores for last year, there are a number of players, each worth around £3m or so who all scored 100 points. It may be worth including them to ensure consistency.

Then, if you pick a bargain player that not many people fancy who happens to performs well, you could find yourself climbing the divisions straight away, whilst others have to wait until the next window to catch up…

The forthcoming football season

I am greatly looking forward to the new season as I think it will be a close affair. I was glad that Manchester United won the title last season, having had two seasons where Roman’s money counted for a lot.  A number of players performed well last year (Ronaldo, for example) and I look forward to seeing whether such players will continue their run of good form.

There were a number of transfers over the close season (with a few more to come probably) with a few new additions to the Premiership (such as Deco, Modric and Bosingwa ) and the transfer of a number of established players, like Robbie Keane, Brad Friedel and Paul Robinson.

It will be interesting to see how the new players adjust to life in the fast lane and also to see whether established players (like Robbie Keane) link up well with their new colleagues.

I personally believe that Manchester United will retain the title and that Tottenham’s new signings will help them to overtake Arsenal and claim fourth place at the end of the season; I think that Fernando Torres will be the top scorer in the league, ably assisted by the resurgent Liverpool squad.

I cannot see any way in which the three clubs that were promoted (West Brom, Hull City and Stoke) will stay up, particularly if they are still relying on older players that may lose the battle for fitness as we approach the traditional relegation battle around Easter!!

I would be interested in your comments after doing our first poll of the season – do you agree or not?