Sunday 9 May 2010

Week 34 - 09/10 Season Final Team

Fulop

       Bale   Smalling  Mancienne

Walcott   Malouda   Nani   A.Young

   Kalou   Van Persie   Anichibe

...and so we face the final curtain. It's always sad when the Premier League season ends - the thought of having to wait over 3 months for the new season to start fills me with dread, but at least that will be tempered slightly by the World Cup this summer. 

Anyway, the above is what I settled on for Week 34. The ultimate cheap keeper & defence, with Fulop, Bale, Mancienne & Smalling costing me a grand total of £11m, which means I had the money to splash out on my 7 attacking players.

I wanted an Arsenal midfielder so decided on Theo Walcott at home to Fulham, who should should start out on the right wing & get forward plenty enough. As some of the guys on the chat room this morning will know, I toyed with the idea of spending £23m on Lampard but I had to field two sub-6 players to do it, so stuck with Malouda. I'm sure Lamps will top 20 points nonetheless but I think it was the sensible choice. 

I'm paying full price for Nani, but at home to Stoke he should have a field day & Ashley Young is a real hunch...it's his last chance to grab a World Cup squad place so I expect he'll look to take players on & shoot from everywhere.

RvP was the 2nd name on my team sheet after Bale as I think he's in for a huge game today, Kalou will continue in an attacking role for Chelsea & Anichibe is my other hunch for Everton. It's a bit of a mismatched strikeforce but its one I feel could do pretty well.

That's it! I quite like my team & hope it could be good enough to finish in the Top 300 (if everyone plays), but we shall see. Players who almost made it include Lamps, Arsh, Babel & Rodwell, so expect a hattrick from all 4. Please let me know what you settled on for Week 34 (obviously I don't have to ask you for any barndoor ideas!) & good luck to Alex & Stephane as they battled it out for The Blog Cup prize!

Finally - Back in June 2009 I started writing the blog anonymously as "Assistant Manager" mainly to save face in-case it failed miserably (and so my mates in my private group wouldn't know it was me!), but the whole "AM" thing actually worked well. However, as it's the end of my first season I thought it would be a good time to reveal a bit more about myself!

My name is Nik Argiropoulos (my Dad is from Greece - I was born in England, have lived here all my life & don't speak a word of Greek!), I'm 27 & I live in Woking in Surrey (45 minutes outside London). However, I'll continue to be AM for the purposes of the blog :)

Thanks for reading, thanks for contributing, good luck for the final week!

Cheers,
AM
 ;)

Please remember to join the Facebook Group if you haven't already. You'll get notifications whenever I post something new on the blog, including plans for a new prediction league next season (http://iknowthescore.premierleague.com/) plus I'll be able to alert you about new cup competitions planned for next season & it's also nice for me to put some faces to names...we've passed 600 members - join us!

55 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanx for the blog AM

Naning said...

Thanks for this year AM. I will be back next season, for sure. Awesome job, really. And have a nice summer :)

Anonymous said...

Million thanks for your effort! Cheers!

Ban said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ban said...

Thanks for AM's blog for this whole season^^
I had improved my rank from 10,000++ to 4,000++
(Missed Week 1)
AM helped me and all of us much and more^^
Thank You again from me - Ban^^

Good luck AM! and the others! same, and me too^^

Fulop
Bale Smalling Mancienne
Malouda Arteta Nani Walcott
Kalou RVP


See you next season!

-Smile is simple, Ban-

Anonymous said...

Thanx a lot AM for this good season.. now @ 1184 rankings & i'm playing for top 1000 today, hopefully i can make it.. c ya next season (or if u can make the same thing for WC)..!! ;)

areg

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much dude (Though i should hate you; I'm a gooner)

Bojan said...

You are a YFF legend after just one season... and Spurs are 4th... Next year they will EPL

Bojan said...

if they buy messi,c ronaldo and drogba + 3-5 more great players ;-)

Anonymous said...

Thank a lot AM for this good season. I will be back next season, for sure.

KirageNation said...

My team this week

Fulop
Bale , Zabaleta , Foley
A.J , Malouda , Valencia , Walcott
Bellamy , Carew , Anelka

Hope could make it less than 1500 overall this
season
Anyway hope u'll be an assistance nex season too .. ^_^

Shiv said...

Good luck next season Nik. Nah, I prefer AM :)
Hope we'll have a get together for Fantasy World Cup.
Take care buddy. You've been a huge help

Lee B said...

Thanks AM, you and your fellow bloggers have propelled me from 25k, up to 6k. Next year aiming for a top 500 finish.

Good luck all for.

Sorry to all Chelsea fans , I really hope you drop points, UP MAN UTD.
Lee B

Anonymous said...

Thanx AM for this amazing blog. I actually only started following your blog about mid season like December or January and was at 10th place in my private league. I am now in 1st place just because of this very blog and also the usual comments at this blog.

Thanx a big bunch everyone.

Dennis.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the Blog AM :D

richy 'liverpool' said...

thanks for the blog, its been a great read all year, makes the game, and following the matches, that much more fun! have a great summer!

Birty said...

No Barndoor work this week - can't believe its over :(

Guess I'll have to sit back and watch Victor Moses run riot over Chelski and then move on to my Fantasy Baseball (a complete shot in the dark for me) and my Fantasy Cricket team - Go Ashwell Prince!

As for the team - I'm on a hiding to nothing in both of my private leagues - I can't catch the guy above me and it would take a disaster to be caught by the lass below me - so I just picked a safe-ish team.

Howard
Knight, Bale, OShea, Campbell
A-Jo, Arteta, Walcott
Davies, Anichebe, Agbonlahor

Ian Sanderson said...

Final team

Fülöp Sell at 1.59(market price 3.03)

Bale Sell at 2.84 (market price 18.01)
Jagielka Sell at 5.85 (market price 12.61)
Evra Sell at 11.06 (market price 12.57)

Arteta Sell at 13.93(market price 19.01)
Adam Johnson Sell at 8.88(market price 9.93)
Joe Cole Sell at 6.14 (market price 6.16)
Modric Sell at 7.82 (market price 7.82)

Tuncay Sell at 1.00(market price 4.60)
Defoe Sell at 13.84 (market price 13.90)
Drogba Sell at 24.65 (market price 25.34)

Was going to bring Walcott in but he seemsa very popular pick, looking to get in the top 1500 after today's games.

kit said...

Thanks AM for your wonderful posts.

If not for his blog, I would have missed out on a lot of bargains (e.g. Bale) which gave me an advantage in my private leagues.

Anonymous said...

Hey Nik!:))

I'm suprised you didn't go with modric for your final team, considering your team's name is Modric is god:)))

my team:
fulop
mancienne,oshea,smalling
nani,arsh,malouda,walcott
berba,kalou,anleka

GL everyone!
Cheers!!
Mrljo

Mr D said...

Well done Nik, you proved people wrong. Keep up the great work.

Rukkie said...

I read AM post about his real name, but some people like Mr D above was like "well done Nik"... I was trying to find Nik's post in the comment list. And yes well done indeed, AM :p.

Louisss said...

Excellent job AM.
I started reading your blog about a month ago and i was 10,000th.
After hearing your suggestions, i am now 7,000th.
Im hoping for a better finish next season and your wise words have been a hugh help.

Ta
Louisss

Bradley said...

Thanks AM for the blog, the chat room, the cup competitions, and the community you've created here.

I'm currently 531st, so hopefully I can finish today in the top 500. Regardless, I've done pretty well for my first season, in no small measure due to this blog (I'm looking at you, Gareth Bale).

Hey AM, your neighborhood club Woking FC can secure promotion to the Conference Premier League in the playoff final today. :) In other good news, the PL has dropped that idiotic 39th match idea.

My final team:

Fülöp
Bale / Jagielka / Elokobi
Malouda / Nani / Walcott / D Jones
Crouch / RvP / Kalou

Sadly, I didn't manage to BD RvP or Nani, hence Jones.

Anonymous said...

Excellent blog, wonderful selections every week, great work AM.

I've been following you for 5 mths and it helped me climbing up on my local group and fans of liverpool group in overall.

My team this week:

Fulop
Bale/Elokobi/Smalling
Nani/Malouda/Walcott/Pedersen
Crouch/Carew/Bellamy

Another gambling, nobody take pedersen, but its fun to be slightly different from others and taking some risk!

Well. that's from me. Hope to see y'all again for World cup!

Cheers,
DarkZero

Anonymous said...

Oke mine is:
fabianski
bale mancienne robinson
arshavin modric downing cahill
rvp carew kuyt

Good luck everyone!
-Cuy

Doctor Teeth said...

Cheers, AM! As I said before, I feel like it was just yesterday that I was constructing the debut line-up of the season on the beach last August ("Hmmmm," I said to myself, "Drogba at 10.66 is pretty tempting even though he was sh*t last year.") I stumbled across this great blog by virtue of a simple Google search...its discovery has enriched my enjoyment of the EPL and YFF beyond belief and I am already counting the days until the initial player values are listed for '10-11 in late July (raise your hand if you'll be buying Bale at 14.8 million?).

Final team of the season:

Fulop
Bale Mancienne Smalling
Nani Malouda Wilshere Arshavin
Kalou Van Persie Defoe

I had expensive defenders (Evra and Terry) alongside Bale all week but in the end decided to spend my money up front like many of the other devotees of this blog. Biggest "risks" are Arshavin (long ago dead to me and runs contrary to my anti-zombie player selection policy) and Defoe (whose potency has nosedived in the last 2-3 months but I just had to believe that he will bag a brace at Turf Moor as the curtain falls on Spurs' finest season in 50 years).

My picks for top eight memorable moments of the season:

-Defoe goes for 5 against the woeful Latics
-Bridge skips Terry's hand at Stamford Bridge
-Owen's EXTRA-time goal against Citeh
-Adebayor incites the traveling Gunners crowd
-Jummy's impression of Phil Brown's HT lecture
-Pompey's improbable run to the FA Cup final
-Danny Rose's screamer against Arsenal
and of course....
-Crouch sends Spurs to finish 4th (3rd?)

COYS!!!!

DT

Guy said...

Thanks for the blog, AM. You've managed to write interesting and informative articles throughout the year and despite sharing most of your team ideas, you're still well up the leaderboard. Just behind me as it happens but I am not optimistic about today - there are a lot of different players selected across the teams I've looked at so some of us are going to be happy and others not! My team, fwiw:
Fulop
Bale, Terry, Campbell, O'Shea,
Walcott, Rodwell, Scholes,
RVP, Anichebe, Drogba

I can't believe I've picked Scholes although at least he's playing (but O'Shea isn't)!
(On with the motley Crewe)

Anonymous said...

AM
Love reading your blog, i've been an avid reader since the start of the season and have really enjoyed seeing it evolve over the season. You've done a great job and you should be proud.

FC UnitedAlbionRovers

rwlwhite said...

"Bojan said...
You are a YFF legend after just one season... and Spurs are 4th... Next year they will EPL"

Bojan, does EPL in this sense mean Exit Premier League because they will get relegated next season? I hope so! He he...

CFCBOSS said...

well i think lamps to take penalty was good decision, cause now it's for sure, today is a BLUE DAY! :)
drog doesn't seem to be happy player today, i think he will score anyway and maybe a penalty, if it comes. can't see wigan doing something brilliant to come back in the game.
congratulations to all chelsea fans!
BLUE IS THE COLOR!

DeviLxDeviL said...

Well, thanks to AM and the rest for helping me in this addicted game!

Lets hope there will be one Y fantasy WC.

I love Bale this season ! anyone love ROdallega? Haha.

Damn you chelshit !

Bradley said...

Bath City 1-0 Woking. No Conference Premier League love for the Cardinals.

Rukkie said...

Just want to say thank you to AM once again and everyone else in this community for this excellent blog and the experiences i got from it this season. Hope to see you guys again for next one, but I think we will stick around during World Cup time anyway!

Anonymous said...

Thanks AM--you've been great. I'll sign you on for another year :)

Stato said...

Well done AM. Greatest blog.
Best wishes to everyone.
Going out on a high with goals in my final line up from A Cole, Bale, Lamps, Drogs and Davies and a couple of clean sheets to boot.
What we gonna do for the next few months??

Anonymous said...

Wow, the top 2 overall guys are CLOSE.
-HC

Anonymous said...

Well points are in, I got 83.50 pts.

Malouda is shit!!! How do you not get big points in an 8-0 thrashing??? Rooney clearly isn't match fit and can only hope for all you brits he gets back to form because the world cup is just around the corner. Anyways I'm mildly please with my YFF points but extremely unhappy about Chelsea winning the league.

I want to thank AM and this beautiful community and wish you guys the best summer ever!

-Saul

Anonymous said...

Would like to thanks AM for the blog and supports it has been a fantastic season.
Finished 1,592 overall rank all becoz of the help from this blog.

cheers,

JUANO

Bryce said...

AM(Nik), I started reading your blog midway through the season and I wish I started earlier!! This is my first complete YFF season and I finished 1900 overall. I'm pleased with this result and certainly hope that next season will be even better for me. See you in 3 months!

Bryce said...

No BD work apparently but this is my provisional team for the start of next season:

Buffon

Bale Pique Lucio

Arteta Nani C.Ronaldo Messi

Torres Drogs Benzema

JDV1 said...

Finished on a modest high making 109 points and finishing 858th overall. Just really screwed up three weeks running somewhere around the 15th round. Was 80th before that. Well have something to work towards next season.
I noticed that really there is a gap betweenpeople with lamps or drogs and those who didn't have him.

Crazylegs said...

59th in the Blog league..Considering I had nearly 2 months out at the beginning of the season isn't bad I think..
Hope to do better next season..

toshack said...

123 pts this week, moved to 800++ place
thanks u AM!!
be sure to write on world cup fantasy ( if there is one!)

AlexDarlo said...

Well, am relived its all over, my girlfriend finsihed 41st (though it became my team) and I finished 103rd and got 107 this week, so over to Stephane to see if he beat that, and am expecting him to.

Bit gutted with Unitended XI who were top 20 all season but blue it last day to go 41st.

To follow Nik's lead, I am 35 year old, support Darlingon and live inbteween Darlington and Middlesbrough and work for Orange.

And if any regulars are planning on coming to the north east next season for a match your more than welcome to meet up for a pint.

Alex

Anonymous said...

Wonderful blog AM and all contributors...only found this a couple of months back but have just won my private league (and £35) after having been in 3rd position when I found you. What I really like is the unbiassed nature of the contributors and the genuine sharing of info...looking forward to next season Nik.

Χίλια ευχαριστώ Nik. Προφθάστε επόμενη εποχή

SPutnik (Sputnik's Warhorses)

Anonymous said...

Well Alex, this is quite unbelievable, I've got 107.5! I kinda wish we were tied and have a tie-breaker in the world cup.

In the big picture you are the better team, 103 overall for my 364, respect.

Cahill (Tim) was a no-show, I should have anticipated that with Moyes sending its youth squad and Cahill's place already secured for Australia in the WC. I was expecting Smalling to come up with a few blocks, but nada. Drogba came big but made me sweat for over 1 hour until the first shot on goal and ensuing 3 goals.

Looking forward to next season already.

Stephane

greginho said...

cheers AM and all the rest, was a fun year. i did the opposite route of AM, i fell from 750 to lows of 5000+ and have been resurrected up to top 3000. am a little jealous of all the people who do so well, but i can not give as much time to watching every game and being on the computer for every single barn door, that is required to finish that high. i hope that next year van persie and chamakh get 20 goals each, cesc gets 30 assists and arsenal leads the league in shutouts.

Maxer said...

thanks AM and the regulars posters.. with your help, this has been a great season for me.. see u all again next season.. peace.

Maxer
Sabah, Malaysia

Raul said...

Big thanks to AM !!!

It has been really wonderful season with so many surprises. Title was decided at the last day and battle for the last champion's league place was amazing.

In fantasy wise, it was best season for me. My final rank was 688. It has been magical outcome, because i started following your blog in mid December and then i was ranked round 9000. The second half of the season has been exceptional and finished 186th in second half of the seasons overall.
I am looking forward to next season and then try to improve my game even more.

All the credits to Assistant Manager and to blog regulars, who has made the blog to be fantasist dream land.

markygoods said...

Big thanks to AM and all the blog regulars who helped me finish 434 overall and won my private league by 200 points, looking for a good world cup fantasy footy at the mo, best of luck everyone and roll on next season.....COYS

Anonymous said...

Thanks AM, great blog work. Won my private league with your help!

Gasper said...

AM, thanks for your work through the season. I finished 1029 overall in my first season of YFF.

Next year's goal is top 500 finish. And Arsenal wining the Premiership :)

Hinrik said...

I ended in position 1398. It has been much joy to read your blog and this is a good game. This blog adds so much depth to this. Just imagine if the only blog you could read was from that bloke on Yahoo. :)Best regards from Iceland.

Anonymous said...

thanks for a great final post AM. confirmed my thoughts and gave me a dominant ass-kicking finale ..with 117+ top score in my pvt lge to confirm my top place, and to break the 3800+ barrier ( i.e. average 100 per week for each of 38 lge games ).. just outside the top 1000.

BTW, can never understand why the players lists in yahoo disappear after the final day, 'cos we can't check ( easily) who ended up overall top pt's scorer , or top defender etc. obv indiv player stats are still available when clicking on players names etc.

see you all in August.
S.P.

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