Who are you? Who are you? Fantasy manager profiles Part 12
Here at FF247 towers we’ve often wondered what driving forces hide behind a comment or a rate my team reply, do we really know the mindset and the persona of the people we are conversing with?! To find the answers to these questions we have lured some regulars from out of their caves and got them to endure a simple Q&A session.
Hopefully this will help us to uncover whether each member can be viewed as a ‘fellow sports enthusiast’, ‘colleague’, ‘fantasy friend’, ‘internet troll’ or indeed ‘sociopath’! Let’s take a look inside the minds of our latest two ‘victims’ then and see whether, hiding behind the cute monkey gravatars, lurks a sadistic, megalomaniacal, psychotic keyboard warrior. Or just a normal guy or gal who likes to play fantasy football…
We will add a disclaimer here – we have resolved to not edit what is sent in at all. What you see is what you (we) get. FPL ranks were correct at the time of sending as well so may be much worse by now! Or better…
Next up to the examination table are the swirly and Horse.
the swirly
THE BASICS
Members name:…… theswirly
Real name:…… Nick Sturdy
Occupation:……. Graphic Designer
Age:……….. 29
Country of residence:…… UK
Best finish in The Barclays Premier League Fantasy Football game:…….. 14,613 (last season)
Current position for the season………. 3,231
Planned finish (at the start of the season)for the BPL FF game in 2014/2015:…… Top 10,000
Expected finish for the BPL FF game in 2014/2015:…… Top 10,000
Tell us about yourself in less than 50 words:…… I live and work in Worcester; currently engaged and getting married in November 2015. Support Aston Villa (for my sins) and I’m also a season ticket holder at rugby union side Worcester Warriors. I enjoy travelling, photography and going out for a drink or two.
FAVOURITES
Food:….. Chicken cobbler
Drink:….. Guinness
Band/Type of music:….. I’m in to too many types of music to pick a specific one!
TV Programme:…… Again, too many to count – comedy is my favourite genre though
Films:…… Bourne trilogy
Book/Author:…… Alan Partridge: Let’s Talk About Alan
Joke…………. I’ve decided to sell my Hoover … well, it was just collecting dust
Country visited (and state why!):…… Iceland – stunning scenery. Want to go there again!
Country would most like to visit (and state why!)……… USA
SPORTING FAVOURITES
Sport:…… Football
Sporting Team:……. Aston Villa
Sporting Personality:……. Jamie Redknapp
Sporting moment on TV:…… England winning the Rugby World Cup
Sporting moment witnessed live:……. Barcelona beating Real Sociedad 4-1 at Camp Nou last year
Sporting venue you’d most like to visit:……. Wembley (I’ve still not been there since it was rebuilt!)
Do you have any personal sporting achievements you’d like to boast about………… I got a silver medal in a swimming race when I was seven!
RANDOMS
Your celebrity look-alike is/are……………. I have been likened to Robin Van Persie. Can’t see it myself!
Which 6 celebrities dead or alive would u have at a dinner party:…… Winston Churchill, Jeff Stelling, Chris Kamara, Robert Winston, Professor Iain Stewart, Guy Martin
Which 3 items would u take to a desert island (no humans allowed!):……. Phone/iPod for the music (if you could charge it anywhere, ha), Kindle and…er… a fully stocked bar perhaps?!
If you won £100 000 what would u do with it:……… Decorate house we’re buying, round the world holiday for the two of us, Audi A3
The perfect afternoon would be spent:…….. Hot tub in an alpine resort (after a day of skiing), with football on a big screen and plenty of beers.
My Epitaph would read:…… Always did what he could to keep people happy
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Horse
THE BASICS
Members name: Horse
Real name Harry Vernon
Occupation I run a business tutoring maths and English, which is funny considering my poor spelling
Age: 48
Country of residence: Isle of Wight, England
Best finish in The Barclays Premier League Fantasy Football game: 18k
Current position for the season: 86k
Planned finish (at the start of the season) for the BPL FF game in 2014/2015: Top 10k
Expected finish for the BPL FF game in 2014/2015: I would be disappointed if I don’t make the Top 1%
Tell us about yourself in less than 50 words: Well travelled Pompey fan living on Isle of Wight. Got into sailing this year and race whenever I can. Done loads of trekking and scuba diving. Had season ticket for Pompey for 9 years, been to over 60 grounds.
FAVOURITES
Food: Curry
Drink: Green tea
Band/Type of music: REM Faithless Muse. Two tone/ska music and blues music.
TV Programme: Big fan of The Bridge, Match of the Day
Films: I am into Zhang Yimou at the moment so Hero, The Road Home, Ju Dou. Also like Shawshank Redemption, Tokyo Story, The Usual Suspects and Se7en.
Book/Author: The Alchemist (Pablo Coelho) Amsterdam (Ian McEwan) China Road (Rob Gifford) The Firm (John Grisham)
Joke: An Englishman, Irishman, Scotsman and Welshman were on holiday together in Spain boasting about the pubs back home. The Englishman speaks first. “In London there’s this rather nice pub where you can buy a pint of lager and get a complimentary gin and tonic.”
Taffy pipes up “In the valleys there’s a pub where you can a pint of Brains bitter and you get a shot of Welsh whisky for free.”
Jock was having none of it. “In Glasgow there’s this pub where you can buy a pint of heavy and you get the finest double malt Scottish whisky completely free”
Finally Paddy spoke, “In Dublin, there’s this pub where you buy a pint of Guinness and you get another for free. Then you get another pint of Guinness completely free. Then another pint of Guinness completely free. Then you get a fine Irish double malt whiskey completely free. Then you go outside and you get shagged.”
“That sounds like a cracking pub, Paddy. Have you been there?”
“No, I’ve not been there myself but my sister has.”
(Courtesy of Harry Redknapp)
Country visited (and state why!): I have been to many amazing places in Asia, Europe and Latin America but the Galapagos Islands were simply stunning.
Country would most like to visit (and state why!) I have never been to Africa and would love to travel to Ghana as they are really cool people and I love their music.
SPORTING FAVOURITES
Sport: Football
Sporting Team: Portsmouth
Sporting Personality: Brian Clough.
Sporting moment on TV: Man Utd 0 Pompey 1 FA Cup QF 2008
This was the year we won the FA Cup but for me this was the Cup Final, an unbelievable defensive performance and our first victory at Old Trafford for 50 years.
Sporting moment witnessed live: There has been many but perhaps bizarrely Pompey 1 Arsenal 5 FA Cup QF 2004. In my years of watching football including 8 years in the Premiership this was the most awe inspiring display of football I have been privileged to witness. The Invincibles were simply majestic. As were the Pompey fans and magnanimous too. The noise was absolutely deafening. Each time we conceded a goal we sang twice as loud. ‘Can we play you every week?’ at 5 down was just class.
Sporting venue you’d most like to visit: Maracana.
Do you have any personal sporting achievements you’d like to boast about: I climbed a 6000m mountain in the Bolivian Andes (Huanya Potosi)
RANDOMS
Your celebrity look-alike is/are: Arjen Robbin
Which 6 celebrities dead or alive would u have at a dinner party. Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Ghandi and Daisaku Ikeda. Four would be plenty.
Which 3 items would u take to a desert island? (no humans allowed!):
Well, I live on an island already. So a boat, a fishing rod and a decent internet connection.
If you won £100 000 what would u do with it?:
Give up my job and go travelling. Africa beckons.
The perfect afternoon would be spent: Out on the water. Force 4-5. Nice bit of sunshine. Then a pub roast with my girlfriend.
Why are you called Horse?
When I was younger I used to have a Mohican. When my hair wasn’t spiked up it looked like horse’s hair.
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Many thanks to both the swirly and Horse for being so candid! We hope you know your two fellow ‘fantasy friends’ a little better now.
If you feel that you would like to expose your inner self then please feel free to mail us at contact@fantasyfootball247.co.uk and we shall have peakydave interrogate you! If you have already submitted one, which many have, we are publishing them in the order received and hopefully yours will be along soon.
Thanks to The Swirly and Horse for our latest manager profiles and thanks of course to Peaky for arranging all of these!
And Innit for collating and publishing them all! I will never get bored of reading these!!
well that killed everything!!!
Haha I must be the only 1 who thinks that way!! 😉
Cheers, Peaky! Had forgotten most of what I’d said, so was interesting to read in a funny kind of way!
PRMT
ospina(krul)
jones-clichy-dummett (wisdom-hutton)
sanchez-downing-fabregas-siggy (boyd)
costa-austin-kane
0FT and 8.6 mil ITB. Jan wildcard remaining.
1. Any change in the lineup?
2. Shall i use my WC or hold? if use- which players to replace?
3. Captain choice please.
Please share your analysis. Thank you
Hi lampard, that’s a healthy bank! Assuming that’s Aguero money for next week? I’d probably play Wisdom ahead of Clichy this week. Elsewhere West Ham and QPR haven’t got the best fixtures this week so maybe look at replacing one of those 2 but then again Downing may be very motivated to do well at Liverpool as will Carroll you’d imagine. Captain wise, almost certainly Sanchez of those this week.
Thank you inittowinit for feedback.
Dummett is injured
And i am thinking of playing WC next week, anything you want to add? Thank you.
Maybe replace him with one of the Southampton full backs or PVA then as those two look the most likely of anyone to get a CS this week?
Here’s my current WC team. Still a work in progress and any thoughts would be gratefully received. Considering Puncheon for either Siggy or Johnson to allow a 2nd playing keeper.
Init, would you not consider Baird instead of Wasshrejdfjdfkddjfrski ? Puncheon seems a must for you, my preference would be to lose Siggy as can see Monk’s inexperience coupled with Bony’s departure giving the Swans a very tough 2H of the season.
Would easily give you the cash for a 2nd keeper and prob also allow you to upgrade Cahill to Pikey.
Thanks Cookie, Baird would be preferable. I guess I could then switch both keepers. Yeah would want Pikey ideally. How’s that looking now…
Init, I like that team a lot mate particularly due to the reason that I have the exact same team on the Cards! ok not exactly the same but close enough
How are you going to rotate them mate cause that is worrying me? This weekend for example Sunderland Palace and Saints all have good fixtures?
I like it Init – think I’d have Kane over Defoe though – especially as you have AJ in there….
…hang on, what’s happened to Foster?
Not dissimilar to mine Innit!!
Hey Init good team Defoe could work out , not sure Bellerin & Ella will keep there places when teams are fully fit. Keep an eye on Sun where quite solid find goals hard to come by if they are playing more attacking now might effect them big time. I assume Pun , Ella & Johnson rotate well all got points in them. Im tinkering with the idea of either Oscar or Cazorla in for San or Haz free up valuable cash good to go
Hey init. Quite a few differentials in there, eh? It’s not a squad that i personally would go with, but it’s good. I’ve had a look at the rotations and they ain’t half bad at all. What’s the plan with Bellerin should he be left out? Plenty of backup there but no-one needs a dead squad member. Especially one who has been WC’d in.
Decent team but too much Sunderland. Id not have two attackers from Sunderland. Crouch/Bojan could work well due to fixtures, or maybe just go with Kane.
Cookie, I reckon Init should keep Siggy considering the price he’s got him for. Siggy is still getting forward, rattled the bar with a shot against Chelsea I think I read. Better to get rid of Johnson and have 0.3m less cash for strengthening. I’ve just posted about Costa and Aguero, but I know Init wants both so I’d suggest raising more cash by downgrading one of those top midfielder to a “poor man’s” alternative: either Hazard to Oscar/Fabregas or (deep breath…) Sanchez to Cazorla.
GKW, I disagree, which is good as it would be dull if we all thought alike!! To me Siggy stinks of a half season wonder – you’re right he did hit the bar vs Chelsea and I may be very wrong on this, but I just feel their season will peter out. I’m sure Siggy will still contribute to some extent, I just think sometimes people get a bit hung up about what they paid for players and the POTENTIAL cost if they ever wanted to buy them back. May never happen.
On the d’grading I agree with you, but I just don’t know which one to d’grade. Oscar is ok for now, but will struggle when CL starts up again as he struggles to play many games in a short space of time. Cazorla probably looking the man now, but you just now Alexis will strike you the week you sell him!!
Cookie, I agree Swansea’s season looks like petering out but looking at Siggy’s history I reckon he should still be good for 4 pts/game which is good value for a sub-7m player and especially for Init who’d only get 6.3m for selling him.
Johnson, Elia & Defoe all risky punts but will see you climb if they do well. I’d be tempted to do Johnson for Puncheon mainly because you already have Defoe up front and if Sunderland blank which is not that unlikely then you’ll suffer. That is if Johnson will be a starter for you, which one would be your 5th mid?
Just hope they don’t do badly at either end if your tripling up on them!
Thanks Shadow, yeah they’re a bit punty but I’ve had a template team all year and it’s not doing me much good! Nothing wrong with the old team other than just not getting the captaincy right I suppose.
On the 5th mid it’d be a case of rotating each week based purely on which has the preferable fixture. Originally I had done the analysis on AJ, Siggy and Puncheon and they rotated ok but I’m yet to look at the new combo which now includes Southampton.
Yeh same here really, I suppose it comes to a point where your not going to catch up with people and league leaders by having template teams that they will most likely have. Risks have to be took!
Init please see 4, reply failed to your post 😉
Init – I’d rather pick another big hitter in midfield (ADM/Silva…) and downgrade one of the three midpriced to a cheapie. Unless you want to have a benching headache each week, which is good sometimes but can also lead us to leave in the bench the Kanes and Wisdoms of this FPL life!
Also Defoe could be a nice shout but seeing how Sunderland have been struggling to score I would wait.
Thanks Albertini, I’m not sure that even putting say Siggy down to the cheapest mid and upgrading say AJ stretches as far as ADM money wise in all honesty but yes I get your point totally. I think I’m liking the idea of a bit more flexibility in that area as well. Defoe is just a real punt that could be fun if it pays off! Interesting that Poyet said last week they had actively changed their system to suit Defoe’s play. He also said it hadn’t worked! He did suggest that it was a work in progress and so they will continue with it.
Innit, poyet also said that Defoe hadnt started a game since October so maybe some fitness issues there at the mo.I’d deffo ditch Siggy,dont know why people are so hung up on him and probably ditch Johnson too.Like the Elia punt though,he’s on my radar
This is true Brooky but I wouldn’t have thought he’d be too far away next gameweek,he played 74 mins at the weekend.
Hey guys how are we all more red arrows just outside top 10k Cap choices been killing me & will have problem nk GW as City play Che
Thanks Silverback, like many I had Kane as captain and I don’t have Costa but somehow my drama queens still broke into the top 2k – late goals from Eriksen and Downing had a lot to do with it. So not one of my great GWs but still satisfactory.
That’s great stuff gwk what are your plans are you going to bring Kun in or wait for Bony to come in
Silverback, I’m waiting till GW24 to play my WC. For next week I’ll just upgrade a player with a good fixture to try to get a few extra points (maybe Ospina, as my goalies are both playing away). I did have Aguero for a couple of GWs so I’m not dead against signing him again, but yeah Bony may be almost as good and if I get him instead I’m sure the extra 4m cash wouldn’t go to waste
Yup, I guess the dead teams with Costa (C) did the most damage. I still managed a green arrow though, partially because of the WCs played in the Top 10K where Costa was sold.
The question is: WC or Not?
I am satisfied with all the players except Adrian, Wisdom and Siggy. Ivan is in the grey area, but i think he does have that attacking potential.
If I dont WC, I think Adrian>DDG would be the best use of my FT since the Jones bandwagon has started and I dont want to miss out on a potential cleanie there (could be the only clean sheet I get this GW)
Could also do Siggy>AJ, but then my defense would look shit this GW.
Thoughts and help ?
Sigurdsson -> Johnson/Puncheon/SOTON mid, is what i would do here, B. Your defence looks okay to me.
Thanks NIN. AJ is tempting at the moment.
Yep, he’s a good option. I have him myself and am hopeful of some good scores over the next month or so.
Do not WC and pray for the best. :dance:
Supporting DDG for a clean sheet then?