Seasonal Round-Up

So, we draw close to the end of the season and without an International Summer tournament most fantasy players will get a prolonged break from the weekly agonies of picking the "perfect" team. But it is not all done and dusted just yet, we still have a few more games left to enjoy and sneak a few more places up the ranking table.

Top Players - David James the Comeback Kid
Ronaldo surely takes the top prize as the fantasy mangers MVP of the season. His consistency, attacking attributes and clinical finishes may have been lacking in the European Cup but he has certainly delivered in style for the Premiership. He has been a thorn in the side of most Premiership defenders and managers will have him labelled in as next years first draft pick into their squads. Moving away from, perhaps, the overrated we come to the underrated players of this season. In the goalkeeping department I have been very impressed with resurgence of David James. The Portsmouth keeper has possibly had one of his best seasons this year (probably due to not having the pressure of playing for England) and has looked mature and comfortable at his new home on the South coast. Another player that I have admired between the sticks this season is Readings Hahnemann. The American, who loves to collect rifles, has been pretty good as shot stopper himself this season. He has racked up the most amount of saves for a keeper this season (161 so far) and when you look at Reading's high position in the league table it is obvious to assume that Hahnemann is their best defender. In other areas I have enjoyed picking Matthew Taylor (POR) and Nicky Shorey (REA) in defence, David Bentley (BLA) and Cesc Fabregas (ARS) in midfield and Dimitar Berbatov (TOT) in attack.

My performance - fantasy mediocrity?
Using these players this year has been a mixed bag for me fantasy football wise. I am doing well in the Daily Mail game (top 200) after a fairly decent run; I am also in the top 100 of the SkySports fantasy game, I actually notched up the highest score for one game week which I am pleased about. Over in the Premierleague.com game I have currently accrued a respectable 1791pts, which was not good enough to disturb the top players but has helped me to lead my private league for most of the season. Finally Yahoo. Oh Yahoo, how I love to hate thee... In my opinion it is by far one of the most intense, skilful and fun games on the market but it still suffers from many flaws and I have made some cardinal sins this year. On no less than FIVE, yes FIVE, occasions I have missed the lockdown time with an illegible team. This has lead to a mediocre season for myself this year. I know, schoolboy error but sometimes you just can't help being stuck up a mountain at 10am on a Saturday without WiFi. Yahoo should seriously look into remedying this setup as I feel it happens to many players and once it does happen, your interest tends to wane in the competition. Saying that though I still somehow managed to scrap into the top 97%.

The Ugly - Fantasy Tripe
There are a few games that I have not enjoyed this season, one is the Sportinglife/Silent Manager fantasy game. The prize money is negligible, £10k, compared to say The Daily Mail's £60k and you have to pay for all transfers bar four, again in The Daily Mail you get five free every quarter. The simplistic scoring system, lack of transfers and long waits for points updates certainly makes this one of the bogey games of the season.

The future - Man City Champions of Europe????
What about my performance? Well, I have tried my best this season to publish as many weekly line-up reviews as possible but it certainly has become a time strain. I have identified five different articles that I hope to make permanent fixtures for next season: EPL Preview (Saturday AM/Friday PM), EPL Review (Tuesday AM), General Weekly Fantasy Article (Wednesday) and finally a Team of the Week/Pick of the Week (Friday).

I hope everyone has had good fortune so far!