Chief's Projected 13/14 Premier League Table (1st-10th)

1st Chelsea (+2):

The Special One is back and will literally inspire Chelsea back to the top.  Well, it's not that simple.  This will be the most open title race in Premier League history which means that experience matters greatly.  Mourinho has a knack of winning top-flight titles, including the Premier League more than once.  A Rooneyesque striker in their ranks would seal the title for them; but so would a matured Lukaku leading the attack and filling the Drogba role.  I don't underestimate Mourinho and his collection of top-flight titles, which is why I think he will do it again in 2014.

2nd Man City (+0):

New manager and an abundance of new players.  Sometimes this is a cocktail for gradual transition or dramatic setbacks.  I don't believe either is the case for Pellegrini and his men.  He inherited a team that won the PL the year before and has simply supplemented it with classy signings such as Navas and Negredo.  I think City will push Chelsea hard for the title, but perhaps they need time to gel as a prerequisite to reviving their fortunes.

3rd Tottenham (+2):

Bale saga and instability you say? Far from it.  Spurs have been wheeling and dealing tactically over the summer.  Purchasing Paulinho, Chadli and Soldado is indicative of their intent.  I personally think Bale will stay on for one more season.  Even if he goes, Spurs are now a decent offensive unit who should be able to challenge for a Champions League spot once again.  Not only that, I think they may even by capable of truly overshadowing their North London neighbours Arsenal for the first time in a very long time.

4th Manchester United (-3):

Hold on, didn't they win the Premier League in May? Yes they did.  But that was with Sir Alex Ferguson at the helm and his trophy-laden CV.  Moyes has only won one trophy in his career and that was this season's Community Shield!  You can't expect him to defend United's title with that sort of experience.  He needs time to adapt and learn the ropes of such a massive club.  RVP will help him out no doubt.  As will the up-and-coming United youngsters, who could make a name for themselves.  A good cup run is likely, but don't expect the league title back in their hands.

5th Arsenal (-1):

I am a fan of the "Wenger school of thought", i.e. financial stability, cultured atmosphere, patience and investing/using youth academy players.  But for some time now, that hasn't worked for Arsenal.  I believe even Wenger realises that (the Arshavin signing a few years back was a watershed moment).  Thus the pursuit of Suarez showed his desire of signing a proven goal poacher who would naturally fit into Arsenal's style of play.  Alas, they didn't sign him or anyone of his quality.  Yes, the midfield is fantastic, but Giroud is no RVP.  If only they bought Villa or Soldado...

6th Liverpool (+1):

The Barca Lite experiment continues under Brendan Rodgers.  Coutinho and Sturridge were decent purchases last season and Aspas during this off-season may do well from August onwards.  But will an unsettled Suarez lead the line in the same way as he did last season?  I doubt it.  Liverpool have enough quality to score goals without Suarez, but that quality is still short of Champions League standard in my opinion.  Expect the same Liverpool as last season albeit with a bit more bite.

7th Swansea (+2):

Laudrup's League Cup champions defied many last season.  Not bad for a team of average defenders and strikers.  But Swansea's midfield (including Michu) is formidable; one of the best in the league.  It has now been supplemented by a a decent player to lead the attack in Bony who is capable of scoring 20+ Premier League goals.  Swansea could be distracted with their foray in Europe, but I think they will focus on the League and do better than last season.

8th Southampton (+6):

Some may think it a shock that I would place them so highly.  After all, I slated them for relegation last season.  but I see them in a similar vein to Swansea.  I think a matured Clyne and Shaw will bolster their defence, as will the shrewd defensive midfield addition of Wanayama.  Pochettino is no novice.  He has now settled into PL life and his team should do better than last year, even if their main striker (Lambert) is aged over 30.

9th West Ham (+1):

They had a decent start last season, before getting a bit lost in the middle and semi-recovering in the end.  West Ham have made some new signings over the summer, including the purchase of last season's loan signing Carroll.  Sure Allardyce's style of football may not be pretty, but they will get the job done with some clean sheets to boot.  They will build on last season, but don't expect a Europa League spot in their grasp.

10th Fulham (+2):

Jol's squad on paper will hardly warrant universal mentions of a team that could easily finish in the Top 10 (their away form last season was abhorrent!).  The new owner's arrival may also add a level of uncertainty to the direction of the club in the upcoming season.  But they have Berbatov! A proven PL goalscorer - who arguably has one more 15+ PL goals season left in him.  Moreover, they have also acquired Stekelenburg (the Dutch goalie at the 2010 World Cup final) and the mercurial Taarabt on loan.  I think they will improve their away form and maintain their home form level to slip into the PL's Top 10.

Stay tuned for Chief's Projected 13/14 Premier League Table (11th-20th)...

The Rooney Saga - From the eyes of a Man United fan

Wayne Rooney was a Man United hero that may have turned into a pantomime villain in the space of a few months. Rooney has been a great servant to Manchester United football club, creating more than 100 assists, and is almost Man United’s all time highest goalscorer with 197 goals to his name. He had the potential of being a United legend, until in 2010 (because of a ‘lack of quality signings’), Rooney tarnished his reputation by handing in a transfer request. Some still haven’t forgiven him for that…however Sir Alex performed a Houdini act and made him perform the biggest transfer U-turn of all time – an act which saved face and made many United fans forgive Rooney for wanting out. 

From 2010-2013, Rooney has had a roller-coaster ride, being mediocre at times for a player of his class and talent. Until May 2013, many United fans were still supportive of Wayne Rooney despite inconsistent form.  But the moment Sir Alex said that Wayne Rooney handed in a transfer request again (in one his last interviews as United manager) – that for me was the point of no return. I felt that was the earth-shattering moment for Rooney’s Man United career.  I believe that even the most loyal of Rooney fans would struggle to ever see him in the same vain ever again. One transfer request was hard to stomach, but a supposedly second transfer request felt like a real killer blow to United supporters.

I know it’s just speculation that he indeed handed in another transfer request, but if you see his final performances of the 2012/3 season, it was quite obvious that something was not right. He was playing without that vigor, enthusiasm we all know he is capable of.  For me it was evident that is heart is not with Man United anymore. Of course it’s not impossible that he will perform another U-turn of epic proportions and be happy at Old Trafford. However, ever since the end of the 2012/3 season, Rooney hasn’t said a word – the silence speaks volumes in my opinion. Bale is a very similar case.  He remains deadly silent after an alleged Real Madrid world record £85m bid.  Rooney could quite easily speak to the press, like Cesc Fabregas, and reaffirm his love for the club and quash transfer rumours.  Or be like Suarez and say he wants to leave full stop.  However the silence suggests Wayne Rooney is playing it safe for me.  So if he wasn’t sold he’d just about manage to handle another season playing at Old Trafford without losing face further.

If one did a survey among United fans and asked how many think Rooney wants to leave, I think an overwhelming majority would say he wants out. With top quality strikers being sold this summer (i.e. Cavani, Falcao, Neymar, etc.) there does not seem to be many world class strikers that MUFC could buy to replace Rooney. This therefore means that selling him would be a mistake unless he can be replaced at short notice.  In my eyes there is only one man that can replace Wayne Rooney and that is ex-United hero Cristiano Ronaldo. Of course it would take a gigantic effort to reel him in from Real.  But if we have the “Unlimited budget” like Moyes claimed, a return home for CR7 may not be too far-fetched an idea. 

Many players leave Man United and remain United legends i.e Beckham, Ronaldo etc however this prolonged saga is continuously frustrating United fans and I fear that Rooney whatever he does will not be considered a United legend after this farce of a saga. The irony is that Wayne wanted to leave in 2010 due to a lack of quality signings.  In 2013 he is being overshadowed by United's quality signing - Robin Van Persie. Many fans may say they want to keep Rooney at OT but I think that is more out of desperation to keep a world class player rather than keep a player they still love and admire.

I personally think Rooney has to go. I think we must not sell to Chelsea though, because I strongly feel selling Rooney to a title-chasing rival like Chelsea is selling the title to them for £30-40m. We have first-hand evidence in the form of Robin Van Persie what happens when a Premier League club sells to another competitor – that transfer was the transfer that bagged the 20^th League title for Manchester United. Hence we must sell abroad, i.e. Real Madrid need a striker after selling Higuain and Callejon, Dortmund are going to sell Lewandowski and may need a striker etc. We have to wait for a big European team to come in for Rooney. I’d rather we sell to a foreign team for £25m than to Chelsea for £40m. If a foreign team doesn’t come in for Rooney then I guess we may have to try and keep an unhappy player at the club for another year. The only way I personally think we would sell Rooney to Chelsea is if a massive marquee signing i.e. Ronaldo / Bale was purchased by United.

 

Many United fans dread seeing this in the upcoming season.

The main issue for the United officials in my view is to consider this question; Is it worth keeping an unhappy player to prevent possibly selling the title to a PL rival? If Rooney was sold to Chelsea and no major signing was made, I think Man United would struggle to win the 2013/14 PL title and find it hard to make it to the latter knockout stages of the Champions League. If Rooney was sold abroad then I think United would still have a great chance to win the Premier League. If United keep Rooney and make signings on top of that, I think United will win the 2013/14 PL title and more than compete in the CL. If a marquee player was signed I think we could win multiple trophies despite selling Wayne Rooney.

It’s safe to say that the possible permutations and possibilities are endless depending on how this Rooney saga will culminate. The fact there are so many things that could happen conditional to the Rooney Saga means that this is a very important transfer saga.  The way this saga ends will determine Man United’s fate for the upcoming season in my eyes. It is one of most crucial transfer sagas in the last decade for Manchester United fans and one which needs to be resolved amicably.

Hesham Bilal-Hafiz
@hesham786

6 (Un)conventional "Wisdoms" on How to Finish in Top 100 in FPL - part 6

So, it has finally come down to this – the final chapter of the series. The 6 (Un)conventional “wisdoms”, as I call them, chapter 6.

In the first 5 chapters I have shared with you all of the “technical savvy” and tricks I have in my arsenal that have enabled me to finish last season as 15^th player overall in the FPL. And, I have to admit; I have had so much fun writing these posts, that I even neglected my own team for the new season in order to prepare the posts in time (errrrr, my team is still in total disarray at the moment). And, boy oh boy, was I blown away by the buzz the series generated on Twitter and the enormous number of people flocking to the official FPL Hints blog to read my ramblings. Thank you for this, it really means a lot. [wipes away tears of joy, sobs] Moving on.

To be completely honest, I already kind of started my vacation this week, while the previous week I had home office (really HOME office, back in Slovenia) for the entire week and hanging out with family and friends in the evening. You can imagine that my schedule didn’t really leave much time for writing. But, I need to do it now. As of today, I am off to the Croatian coast where I have no guarantee of internet access (which worries me as, because as said, I don’t really have my GW1 team put together AT ALL!). But, we’ll worry about that when sh** hits the fan, as the Americans like to put it. It’s not like GW1 is the most important GW of the season. Ahem, ahem.   [sarcasm off]

As of today, we are T-9 days until kickoff and I assume most of you reading this blog have already assembled your respective teams, took them apart completely, tried to squeeze in both RVP and Bale (which is borderline impossible if you want to have a strong TEAM), contemplated whether Baines is worth the investment this year (while I have NEVER EVER had him in my team, I had actually read a really cool article on FFPundits regarding this conundrum that had me thinking – no final decision made yet - link), let out a scream of enthusiasm when the news of Bale asking for a transfer to Real Madrid came out, tried to be smart about newcomers like Soldado, Bony, RvW and others, somehow built the team again, read a different opinion on one of the TOP20 FPL sites that Walt from #fplhintsteam put together, completely changed your mind, cursed, cursed again, turned to gods for help, started screaming, lashed out on your computer and started inconsolably crying because you just can’t fill your team with ALL the players you would want...and then went back to the drawing board. Too bad you cannot take a loan on FPL money, something like 20M GBP would probably do the trick, huh?

You see, the (Un)conventional wisdom #6 touches exactly that and MUCH more. However stupid, simple and straightforward this last wisdom might seem, it is actually my TOP recommendation for all FPL players out there.

Huh? Has he gone mad? What kind of a dumb*** lame advice is this? I bet these are some of the thoughts currently running through your mind, coupled with the annoying feeling that you have just lost 2 minutes and 13 seconds of your life that you will JUST never again get back.

Relax. Let me elaborate on my advice.  It has three distinctive parts:

PART I – Really, just have FUN

For me, there is nothing like the Saturday morning. First off all, you know you still have today AND tomorrow before you need to go back to work. Second of all, you already know that in a couple of hours there will be the first game of the week and you sense the adrenaline rush building up. The siren goes off. No more transfers. It’s just you and your team right now. You check the points for the current GW for the very first time. The game is still being updated. Sigh. You wait for the starting lineups to be published on your Twitter feed. Ka-ching. First 2 points registered. You made the right choice fielding the differential midfielder just for this week. Then the first game starts and every time the player you have on your team gets the ball you observe with anticipation if there is a possibility he can smack one down the middle and score a goal from 70 yards down. Sadly it does not happen. But hey, you can always hope for some bonus points as the game ended in a draw. You refresh your score for the GW and quickly check the guys in your private league if someone actually had the guys who scored or assisted on their teams. When you find one, you think to yourself “You lucky son of a gun…PURE LUCK!” 

Before you know it, the rest of the games start. You pick one to watch, but always keep an eye on the game where your captain is playing, hoping he will score at least three goals and have five assists. With all the reservation you possess you limit yourself to refreshing the data on your smartphone of choice only every 5 minutes.  Every time you hit refresh button you hold your breath and pray to god that it will show a massive improvement over the score total you had before. As the games move into the second parts of second halves, you already cash in the 4 points for defenders with clean sheets and nervously cough every time the opponent makes it over to their half of the field. And god forbid your defenders concede a goal in the waning moments of the game – you really feel cheated about those 4 points. And so on and so forth. This, for me at least, is by far THE BEST PART – this is what I mean by having fun. Enjoy it. Even if you don’t do well, the sheer anticipation of what happens every GW is enough to keep your juices flowing. Don’t berate yourself or congratulate yourself too much either, just enjoy it. Repeat after me: 

PART II. – Don’t overthink and/or overcomplicate

You see, this is one advice I would like to put out there that does not only come in handy when playing FPL, but also in real life.  Too much information leads to overcomplicating and causes confusion. My advice – LIMIT THE AMOUNT OF FPL INFORMATION you soak in. For me it means no more than 3-4 dedicated FPL sites. No more. I have my sites, I trust their judgment and advice and apart from looking for a replacement for one of my favorite sites (Never CaptainNicky Butt – you will be sorely missed!), I have no intention of adding new ones. Thanks to Walt’s list of Top20 FPL sites, I should have no issues finding a replacement.

PART III. – Don’t be too smart for your own good

I have seen this over and over again – people who know a whole lot about Premier League tend to, and I will use the same word again, overcomplicate and fill their teams with differentials. Play it smart, but not too smart. Have you fair share of “players who everyone has”, “must-haves”, jump on one or two bandwagons a year, just because it really makes sense. You do not have to reinvent the wheel… (feel free to re-read my differentials chapter to learn more about this).

After last year, I can see myself going in that direction as well – looking for non-obvious players choices, having too many differentials in my team vs. the proven, more obvious ones, and I realize I need to wipe my slate clean and start from scratch. It’s a new season. Anyone can win it, just like Matt has last year (btw, have you read his story?). Will it be you this year?

I have already started implementing all of my wisdoms (especially the last one) in my team for the upcoming season and I must admit – it is harder than last year. But the more challenging it gets, the more fun it will be during the season, right? All the best to all of you and make sure you come back during the season, I will continue to write for FPL Hints blog all season.

And that’s it, folks! The last of my wisdoms for you. I hope you make use of all of them and they will make your season a memorable one!

And, as always, looking forward to your comments – reach me on Twitter (@matejp23).

In case you have somehow missed the (un)conventional “wisdoms” from #1 to #5, make sure you read them before the start of the season!

Wisdom #1 – “Spend all your money”

Wisdom #2 – “Buy only 1 mid/high tier goalkeeper – no alternating”

Wisdom #3 – “Invest in a disproportionately strong midfield”

Wisdom #4 – “Avoid bandwagons as much as possible”

Wisdom #5 – “Be smart about how you play the differentials”

Walt's Premier League of Pundits: The Top 20 Wrap-up

(Image courtesy of @matejp23)

The Top 20 Wrap-up

I have had a lot of fun with this article series and I hope you've found value in having a list of 22 go-to sites for all of your FPL needs.  Whether you're just about to enter your first season or have been around for awhile and just need some extra information and/or reinforcement of your already strong management skills, there is something here for just about everyone.

To close things out I thought it would be great to summarize the entire Premier League of Pundits and give you a one-stop shop list that will allow you to visit any and all of these top sites from a single place.

Special thanks to each and every site on this list for the gargantuan amount of time and effort you each have put in to help make the FPL community such a great place for shared knowledge, enthusiasm, and camaraderie.  More than anything, this entire series has been a tribute to you and the efforts you make to help all of us further enjoy the game we love and just can't get enough of. Thanks for all you do for so many; it is so greatly appreciated.

Here you go: Walt's Premier League of Pundits (via @fplhints):

  Fantasy Football Scout

Fantasy Football Cheat

  Fantasy Football Pundits

  Fantasy Yirma

  FPL Addicts

  FPL Dugout

  FPL Hints

  Inside Fantasy PL

  Fantasy Football Geek

  Shots on Target

  FISO

  Football Ultra

  PL Fantasy

  Fantasy EPL Scout

  FPL Aaron

  FPL Strategist

  FPL Advice

  EPL Feeds

  Football Glamour

  FPL Fiend's Blogspot

  FPL Price Changes

  Physio Room

 Thanks for following this series. Have a great FPL season everyone!

See you on the boards.....

Walt aka @EPLFanForLife

P.S. Isn't that graphic made by @matejp23 awesome!?!