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
[divider_1px]
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.
[divider_1px]
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 for the interview article Horse, Swirls and of course Peaky Dave. The interviews have been a good addition to the site and i’m looking forward to the next two :thumbup:
What would you do? I have a few of options here that i can see..
1. Hold FT, and for GW24 sell Debuchy/Di Maria for whoever and Aguero.
2. Sell Debuchy this GW for Van Aanholt/other budget defender.
3. Take a hit this GW and sell both Debuchy and Rooney for budget defender and Aguero.
Currently i’m leaning toward option 2. Ta.
Bah, option one should be Debuchy/Rooney.
NIN – option 2 for me mate with PVA, good cover in case Cameron stays out again.
Definitely not option 3 when Rooney has LEI at home and Kun CHE at Stamford Bridge!
Option 1 for me Nin.
If Debuchy is not falling in value before next GW then probably 1. An extra FT would come handy next GW mainly because all of your 4 defenders have a decent fixture this and the next GW, so you dont really need Debuchy’s replacement in the short term.
Thanks fellas. Much appreciated :thumbup:
NIN, option 2 as it stands. This is assuming Cameron misses out again which is likely. It’s the same a doing option 1 really only doing it over 2 weeks and PVA has a decent enough fixture this week. Got to keep Rooney at home to LEI this week really. This is all a assuming you can still afford the Rooney to Kun move next week.
Thanks for your input above on mine. I did chuckle as I posted it and thought ‘NIN’s gonna hate this!’
I could actually swap in Chadli for Siggy which seems to make sense too?
Re my lot, i’ve got 1.5m in the kitty, which is 0.3m short for Rooney -> Aguero, hence having to stick to a budget type defender. Bellerin is one who tempts me also, but with a FT already planned for GW24 + Wasi as back up i think i’m better off going with Van Aanholt. Could even bench Kane for him and play 4-4-2. Don’t really fancy Spurs vs WBA. Pulis factor.
Changed a bit again since earlier NIN! AJ’s walked the plank…
Yep, that looks a cracking team. Nice balance of differentials and premiums/essentials. Three mid’s pick up some very nice fixtures over the next 8 GW’s too. Have you been using the rotator thingy on FFF? It’s an excellent addition to their site.
Cheers NIN, no I’ve not used that yet, I’ll check it out. Just been using our own trackers and Mitos rotation thing along with a good old fashioned pen and paper!
Yes NIN, I have and it’s really a nice tool.
Haha, the old reliable!
It is a very good tool though. I used it as well as the tracker and Mito’s h/a rotator when my WC was active, mainly for defence, but there is an attacking one too which could be a help to you, or anyone else not going with 3+ premium mid’s.
Yo Alberto. Good tool eh? One of the many on there, to be fair. I particularly like the ‘Gameweek Live’ tool as it has the projected BPS as they change. It’s a lot better than going through each match to check how our players are doing, refreshing every 2 minutes etc.
Yes, I always try to follow the games with that one open, they only fail and by a large margin on the projected ranks!
Also their stats center with ownership inside the top 1k for every player is a good one.
Great looking team Init. I like this draft best with Johnson out and Chadli in and the WBA keepers. No need for 3 Sunderland players imo. You’ve got some nice differentials in there too, I particularly like Puncheon. He’s s streaky player and got on a nice roll either last season or the season before, I remember I had him and he did really well for me then.
Albertini – Are the projected ranks still way off for you? The first few GW’s it was running, mine were ridiculously wrong but recently it has beeen almost 100%. It’s usually just a couple 100 out for me. Sometimes even less. A couple of GW’s ago it was less than 100 spots away from perfect.
NIN – You could be right, maybe it’s not more than that but even now is giving me a projected rank 114 places higher than the real one.
Thanks Red, yeah Defoe’s a real punt and I never thought when I was picking him in MLS not so long back that he’d be in my Jan WC! Anyway if it doesn’t work in a month or so I’ll just sell him and probably call him something very similar.
I’m probably more comfortable with this latest version than I have been with the last 90…. Could always go Kane and AJ actually and do it the other way round which would be cheaper. Hmmm…..
Hey Guys, I havent logged in for a while now but i’ve been reading most if not everything….
Plz i do need a lot of help with the team below. I have my Jan WC available(if I should WC) or i have 1ft if needed. Plus 6.6m available.
Heaton
Clyne-Terry- Hutton
Hazard-Silva-Erikson-Downing
Costa-Austin-Kane
Elliot Boyd-Taylor-Duff
Grenadier – I would keep it simple and do one of Hutton/Taylor -> van Aanholt and leave it at that. No need to WC just yet.
Thx NIN, maybe i should get rid of Hutton..
Villa have a poor run ahead Grenadier so I think that move would be wise.
Grenadier – I’d hold the WC till next week and would do Duff to Koscielny, imo the best bet for a CS this week.
Thx guys, ill hold off on the WC, i believe Koscielny or Mert woud give me a greater chance for a cleanie…
Yep that’s probably the best shout, overlooked Arsenal there for some reason!
During this painful 2 week break from Fantasy Football, I thought I’d occupy my time by taking a look back at the success of my captain choices since week 1, which made for grim reading…
Turns out I’ve only selected the correct captain 4 times out of 22 weeks so far. I deem success to be choosing the player in my team who scored the highest that week (subs included).
Anyone else care to share their stats?
Mastermind FC – Google ‘Gargatron’ and download it. Once you’ve done that go to your GW22 team sheet in FPL and an icon for the Gargatron will appear in your search bar (it does for me anyway), click it and run it and it will give you your exact (c) stats. It’s painful reading
It will also tell you how far ahead/behind you are in relation to global rank, ie, distance from 100K, distance behind 100th etc. Also, you can run it on anyones team by going to their last GW team sheet on FPL and repeating the process. (c) picks are wrong more often than not. A LOT more! If i had of gotten mine 100% correct i’d be the current global leader, with a lead of well over 100 points! Impossible to achieve.
That’s a great programme! Saves me a lot of time. Cheers.
:thumbup:
Hey MMFC – 2. Yup 2. With some especially painful ones along the way.
Thank you Swirly and Horse for two excellent interviews. These are great fun to read while we wait for the next game week to hurry up and get here. Nice job Peaky, thanks!
Not really wise to double up on Spurs attackers is it? Which would you take if you were to have one? Eriksen looks to be improving so much but when Kane is so cheap….
Also, which Chelsea attackers are must haves in your opinion?
I reckon it’s ok to double up on Spurs attackers. They’re kinda fixture-proof – their poor home form led me to leave Kane on the bench against Chelsea… It’s Spurs defenders I’d avoid – I wouldn’t even “single” up on them
I dud the exact same haha!
I sort of want to take the punt..although trying to get the Costa and Aguero is proving difficult.
I could leave out Costa but his recent two assists are making me fear a strong chemistry he has built up with them!
Eriksen tends to get a goal (usually a late one) roughly every 3 games on average. He’s a steady if not spectacular player, but you can be sure he’ll be one of Spurs’ highest point scorers come the end of the season. Kane on the other hand is on a hot streak at the moment, and is still on form in my book… I thought he was unlucky not to score against Sunderland. Bit early to tell how consistent he’ll be in the long run, but in terms of value I’d go with Kane for now.
Or maybe I’m just bitter that I got rid of Eriksen last week…
Chadli is very unpredictable. Hoping him and Kane to put in a performance against West Brom!
Thanks Mastermind, I’ll think about it. Brought Kane in at 5,2m anyway so chucking him would be a shame!