Februarys Manager of the Month prize goes to, well, me!! I got 283 points, closely followed by Dan Marshall 273 and Joanne Sheen 259.

Februarys Highest Climber prize goes to Leigh Styles who climbed 32 places with Matt Jones just missing out up 31 and Richard Spokes up 29.

Elise Rafferty also picks up £1 for finishing the month on a perfect 100. (900)

The top 20 is chopping and changing faster than Lady Gaga’s outfits, with yet another new number 1, this time in the form of Joanne Sheen whilst we also see a bunch of new entries into the top 20 in the form of Dave Millington, Dave Thomas, Cameron Bowes and Ksenia Shirokova.

I’m off on holiday now for 2 weeks, so next update upon my return.

Remember there is still a lot of the season left and for those of you with transfers left, it could be all you need to climb into those money-spots.

It’s closer than Han Solo is to his Wookie…

www.thisisfantasyfootball.com

Before anything else, I just wanted to ask the 75 of you who chose the now injured Owen, whether these words mean anything to you…

Eggs? Basket? All Yours? In One?

Not working for you? How about a pictorial representation…

Anyway the month ended with some drama, as I managed to get exactly zero points during the week, which means that Anna goes top, Luan second, Joanna climbs into 5th, whilst Carys and Faye take 6th and 7th. In fact you could say the ladies are seriously bossing it this year. Great skills.

In terms of the first set of monthly prizes, that means that Anna takes the highest points prize (£5). Normally there would be a highest position climed prize aswell but we never do that in the first month as it’s always the same person. The third regular set of prizes is what I call “The Zero Zero Bonus” – basically anyone who finishes a month on a points total that is an exact hundred gets a quid. So this month, Michael J Davey, Gerard Crispie and Mathew James all grab £1 for finishing the month on an even 300 points. The fourth prize each month is at my discretion, it could be a fun quiz competition, it could be a lucky dip or it could be a prize awarded for special effort or skills. Anyway this month, the prize goes to Sam Brown as he was the only manager to choose a team that contains the three top scoring players, namely Rooney, Drogba and Torres. Well done to everyone – who knows, maybe I’ll even throw in some more prizes…

All the transfers I have received will come into effect before this weekends games.

Stay frosty.

www.thisisfantasyfootball.com

On Monday I started writing an analysis of the weekends football action but I deemed it too contraversial to release. However apparently at 3am this morning, senior advisers woke the President to debrief him on the study, which he promptly ordered classified. A spokesperson for the Pentagon has declined to confirm reports that more than 90 per cent o f the U.S. nuclear arsenal has been aimed at the Cardiff Bay area for the past 8 hours.

So since I can’t talk about the fact that the Croatian Football Association are accusing UK clubs of a conspriacy to “take out” their players, and since I’ve been sworn to secrecy over the Arsenal allegations that Man U used “anti-football tactics” during their weekend win, and since I have now been handed a gagging order on devulging details of how the “diving” trend highlighted by Eduardo threatens to consume the entire league, I’m just going to keep to the boring stuff…

People have been asking for more details on the prizes, and I’m thinking something like this:
End of season prizes will go from 1st place (£100) to 20th place (£5) and there will be an 4 prizes every month – highest points climb (£5), highest position climb (£5), and two others that I’m just tweaking the details to, but which will give the Portsmouths and Boltons of this world a chance to win a few dollars.

People have also been asking about this years transfer rules. These will be as follows:
Everyone will get 1 transfer at the end of September – this is to help with any early season injuries etc – if you don’t use it though, you cant carry it over to a later time.
Everyone will get 2 transfers in January – exact date will tie in with the end of the real-life transfer window.
Everyone will get 2 transfers at the end of Easter – again the exact date will tie in with the end of the real-life transfer window.

Also for those people struggling with the Excel macro file, you can now see a very simple full league display by clicking on “League File” and then “Simple” in the top website menu. Otherwise just go for “Normal” by the same route.

Have some…
www.thisisfantasyfootball.com

I realised three important things over the holidays:

1) There is no limit to the amount of turkey you can eat – you just need to understand the importance of comfortable clothing and how to push through the meat sweats
2) Santa does exist but he works for Amazon and is an Express Delivery legend
3) Depsite doing nothing more energetic than lifting a pint glass for two weeks – you just never feel refreshed when you come back to work in January

Anyway on to the more serious matter of the December update – which with 6 players now having broken through the 1000 points mark is a bit of a humdinger let me tell you. As mentioned before, December ran up until the 4th Jan and includes both League and Cup games. It is perhaps best summed up though this months prizes…

:: Most Points Prize goes to Andrew Ford with 290 points. He was closely followed by Stu Farr (283) and Jo Garcia (275).
:: Most Positions Prize was shared by Alun Prytherch and Stu Farr, up 42 places each. Again Jo came in next on 37 places.
:: Fun Comp 1 Winner was Neil Quirk who had the closest guess with 200.2 pounds. Yes – I’m carrying a little holiday weight.
:: Fun Comp 2 Winner was Lee Kokbun who was chosen from all the correct riddle answers. Only Wizbit is better.
:: Pot Lucker League 1 was Stacey Brean
:: Pot Lucker League 2 was Stefan Griffiths
:: Pot Lucker League 3 was Chris Lloyd
:: Biggest Faller prize was shared by Dave Heylings and Chris Rawlings, both down 40 places each this month

Transfers will go in before the next update – although there were surprisingly few – I guess everyone’s waiting to see how the “real life” transfer window pans out.

The next update will also include two new fun competitions.

Smooth.
www.thisisfantasyfootball.com

With a beast of a £810 prize purse, this is how it’s going to be split this year…

>> Monthly Prizes

:: Highest Points Climber – £10
:: Highest Position Climber – £10
:: Biggest Position Faller – £2

:: Fun Contest 1 Winner – £5
:: Fun Contest 2 Winner – £5

:: Lucky Dip Winner (1st League – top 54 places) – £5
:: Lucky Dip Winner (2nd League – 55th to 108th places) – £4
:: Lucky Dip Winner (3rd League – 109th to 162nd places) – £3

>> End of Season Prizes

:: 1st place – £150
:: 2nd place – £80
:: 3rd place – £50
:: 4th place – £35
:: 5th place – £25
:: 6th place – £20
:: 7th place – £15
:: 8th place – £10
:: 9th place – £5
:: 10th place – £2

:: Highest placed female – £10
:: 2nd highest placed female – £5

:: Best Team Name – £10
:: 2nd best Team Name – £5

So for those of you good at maths, will have noticed that there will be some other bits and pieces added on during the season…

Details of the first two fun contests before the end of the week but expect things like “add a caption”, “spot the ball” etc…

www.thisisfantasyfootball.com

(subject to small changes)

>> Monthly Prizes

:: Highest Points Climber – £10
:: Highest Position Climber – £10
:: Biggest Position Faller – £2

:: Fun Contest 1 Winner – £5
:: Fun Contest 2 Winner – £5

:: Lucky Dip Winner (1st League – top 54 places) – £5
:: Lucky Dip Winner (2nd League – 55th to 108th places) – £4
:: Lucky Dip Winner (3rd League – 109th to 162nd places) – £3

>> End of Season Prizes

:: 1st place – £150
:: 2nd place – £80
:: 3rd place – £50
:: 4th place – £35
:: 5th place – £25
:: 6th place – £20
:: 7th place – £15
:: 8th place – £10
:: 9th place – £5
:: 10th place – £2

- NOT DONE IN THE END -
:: Highest placed female – £10
:: 2nd highest placed female – £5

:: Best Team Name – £10
:: 2nd best Team Name – £5

(subject to small changes)

It doesn’t matter if you came first or last in the previous season or whether you don’t know the boot size of Crouch or the type of fake tan Ronaldo uses – this game is really only 1% about football, 50% about luck and 100% about fun. So make sure all your team are involved, invite your friends and get in on the action.

There will be more monthly prizes than ever before for people up and down the table – with the normal cheeky helping of non-sensical banter.

To begin with, we just need to get the teams in so please fill out the attached form and send back in the usual manner.

Rules as normal and below.

———————————————————————————–
RULES

- Entry will be £5 per team.

- Your team’s value cannot exceed £50million.
- You must pick no more than two players from any one Premiership side.
- Your team must have one keeper, four defenders, three or four midfielders, and two or three forwards.

- Please complete the attached team sheet by typing in the code for each player selected and send back to me.

- Details on transfer rules soon.

- First game is Saturday August 16th so all entries need to be submitted before then – and money will be collected during the first month.

- Please pass on to anyone else who is interested.

Good luck – let the mind games begin…