As you may have by now worked out, we here at Some People Are On The Pitch never take Football too seriously, so when the chance comes along to have a bit of fun, we welcome it with open arms.
To prove our point, it gives us great pleasure to invite you to the very first official SPAOTP Fantasy League competition!
If you'd like to take part, here's what to do. First, visit the FA Premier League's Fantasy League site and register yourself as a competitor. Once that's done, you need to create a team, give it a name and pick some players for it.
The premise, of course, is that the players you pick will receive points if they score goals in an FA Premier League match or stop goals from being conceded. They can even get bonus points if their overall performance is particularly noteworthy.
The thing is, each player you pick for your squad has a pre-determined hypothetical value in millions of Pounds Sterling. Your job will be to select a set of players who are good enough to earn lots of points while still being valued at £100 million or less in total. Oh, and you can't have more than three players from any one Premier League club either.
It’s a tricky business, managing a team of burgeoning talent and reputation to be better than all the others in the league while keeping one eye on your budgetary constraints, but that is the challenge you must face. In your favour at least will be the fact that you're allowed one free transfer every week, so you can at least replace one individual who isn't pulling his weight. You can make more transfers each week if you so desire, but that'll knock four points off your total score for each extra one you make.
It's a game of tactics, luck, skill and above all fun, so why not join us for a season of Fantasy Football frivolity? The FA Premier League's site is now open for 2007/08 with all the latest up-to-date player information and team line-ups, so once you've got your team selected, all you need to do is affiliate yourself with our SPAOTP.com 'Private League'. To do that, click on the 'Manage Leagues' link and choose the option to 'Join a Private League'. When prompted, enter our special entry code: 5204-2417.
When you've done that, you'll be all set for a season of emotional highs and lows as you strive to become our first SPAOTP Fantasy League champion! Full information about how to play the game is available on the Rules page of the FA Premier League Fantasy League website (http://fantasy.premierleague.com/) and remember, once you've picked your team, you can make as many changes to the player line-up as you like before the season starts without losing any points.
Good luck to all those of you who decide to enter, and may the best man or woman win!
Friday, 6 July 2007
The Friday List of Little or No Consequence #19
Steady Teddy
9 Stopping-Off Points In The Career of Teddy Sheringham
1. Millwall
(Signed on as apprentice in January 1984, aged 17. Appearances: 244, Goals: 111.)
2. Aldershot
(On loan, February 1985, aged 18. Appearances: 5, Goals: 0.)
3. Nottingham Forest
(Bought for £2 million in July 1991, aged 25. Appearances: 62, Goals: 23.)
4. Tottenham Hotspur
(Bought for £2.1 million in August 1992, aged 26. Appearances: 194, Goals: 99.)
5. Manchester United
(Bought for £3.5 million in June 1997, aged 31. Appearances: 104, Goals: 47.)
6. Tottenham Hotspur
(Free transfer, May 2001, aged 35. Appearances: 76, Goals: 26.)
7. Portsmouth
(Free transfer, June 2003, aged 37. Appearances: 30, Goals: 10.)
8. West Ham United
(Free transfer, July 2004, aged 38. Appearances: 49, Goals: 30.)
9. Colchester United
(Free transfer, July 2007, aged 41.)
Overall career statistics:
Total transfer value: £7.6 million; Appearances: 624; Goals: 346.
(Oh, and he played 51 times for England, scoring 11 goals too...)
9 Stopping-Off Points In The Career of Teddy Sheringham
1. Millwall
(Signed on as apprentice in January 1984, aged 17. Appearances: 244, Goals: 111.)
2. Aldershot
(On loan, February 1985, aged 18. Appearances: 5, Goals: 0.)
3. Nottingham Forest
(Bought for £2 million in July 1991, aged 25. Appearances: 62, Goals: 23.)
4. Tottenham Hotspur
(Bought for £2.1 million in August 1992, aged 26. Appearances: 194, Goals: 99.)
5. Manchester United
(Bought for £3.5 million in June 1997, aged 31. Appearances: 104, Goals: 47.)
6. Tottenham Hotspur
(Free transfer, May 2001, aged 35. Appearances: 76, Goals: 26.)
7. Portsmouth
(Free transfer, June 2003, aged 37. Appearances: 30, Goals: 10.)
8. West Ham United
(Free transfer, July 2004, aged 38. Appearances: 49, Goals: 30.)
9. Colchester United
(Free transfer, July 2007, aged 41.)
Overall career statistics:
Total transfer value: £7.6 million; Appearances: 624; Goals: 346.
(Oh, and he played 51 times for England, scoring 11 goals too...)
Thursday, 5 July 2007
European League Round-Up (Part 3)
We're back once again exploring all four footballing corners of Europe, asking various countries the simple question "How did it go last season?" If we get the answer back "We haven't finished yet", we follow up with the secondary question "How's it going this season?"
Here's a round-up of our findings...
ROMANIA
Champions of Romania 2007 are Dinamo Bucharest who finished six points ahead of previous title holders Steaua Bucharest. Both teams won 14 out of their 17 home games, but Steaua were less convincing away from home so they enter next season's Champions League in the second qualifying round while Dinamo join the action a round later.
Rapid Bucharest won the Romanian Cup for a second successive year after a 1-0 win in the Final against Politehnica Timişoara. The win, along with a fourth place finish in the league, gains them entry to the UEFA Cup next season along with CFR Cluj who finished third.
Oţelul Galaţi and Gloria Bistriţa (finishing fifth and sixth respectively) earned their place in the Intertoto Cup and will be in action this Saturday when the Second Round of the competition takes place. Both teams travel away for the first leg of their ties - Gloria taking on a tough Maccabi Haifa side while Oţelul go to Bosnia & Herzegovina to play Slavija.
At the other end of the achievement scale are Ceahlăul Piatra Neamţ, Argeş, Naţional and Jiul Petroşani who all finished in the bottom four of Liga I and are duly relegated. Taking their place will be Delta Tulcea and Gloria Buzău - Liga II winners and runners-up respectively.
Top goalscorer in the Romanian top flight this season was Claudiu Niculescu of Dinamo Bucharest with 18 goals. He finished two goals ahead of Ionel Ganea of Rapid Steaua Bucharest on 16.
SWEDEN
Things kicked off in the land of the Volvo back in April as far as the 2007 season's concerned, and leading the way so far are Kalmar, level on points with last season's champions Elfsborg but two goals ahead on goal difference. Elfsborg, however, have a game in hand on the leaders.
The chasing pack aren't far away and are lead by Halmstads in third on 21 points, followed by Djurgardens on 20, Malmo on 19 and Hammarby on 18 points. Bringing up the rear are Brommapojkarna with nine points from a possible 36.
Kalmar's next opponents are Hammarby at home next Wednesday while Elfsborg have an easier tie away to 10th-place AIK on Monday. Malmo travel to Djurgardens in a battle of 5th versus 4th on Saturday while Halmstads travel to struggling Orebro the following day.
Last year's Swedish Cup winners Helsingborgs were knocked out of the 2007 edition last week when they suffered a shock 2-1 home defeat to 2nd-tier Landskrona in Round 4. That leaves the smart money to go on Kalmar or Halmstads as the biggest teams remaining when the last eight do battle next month.
Finally, at the top of the goalscoring tree back in the Allsvenskan is Marcus Berg of Gothenburg on eight goals, closely followed by Anders Svensson of Elfsborg and Kalmar's Brazilian César Sántin, both of whom have six goals.
SWITZERLAND
You've gotta love Switzerland. They're a harmless little country whose top football division contains just ten teams - none of whom have made an impact recently on the international stage - and they call it the 'Super League'. How's that for ambition!
And who was the superest of all that's super in the Super League this season? Why that's Zurich of course, edging out Basel by a single point. Sion were third, a full fourteen points further behind on 60 with Young Boys taking fourth on 59.
Zurich's prize is a place in the second qualifying round of the Champions League 2007/08 while Basel and Sion have the consolation of playing in next season's UEFA Cup. Young Boys take their place in the first qualifying round of the same competition.
At the bottom, Schaffhausen were relegated with 25 points, one less than Aarau who entered a play-off with Bellinzona who finished second in the Challenge League behind champions Neuchatel Xamax. After a two-legged match, Aarau kept their place in the Super League thanks to a 5-2 aggregate victory.
Top goalscorer this season was Mladen Petrić with 19 for Swiss Cup winners Basel, three ahead of St. Gallen's Argentinian star Francisco Aguirre who in turn was two goals ahead of Brazilian Rafael of Zurich.
Here's a round-up of our findings...
ROMANIA
Champions of Romania 2007 are Dinamo Bucharest who finished six points ahead of previous title holders Steaua Bucharest. Both teams won 14 out of their 17 home games, but Steaua were less convincing away from home so they enter next season's Champions League in the second qualifying round while Dinamo join the action a round later.
Rapid Bucharest won the Romanian Cup for a second successive year after a 1-0 win in the Final against Politehnica Timişoara. The win, along with a fourth place finish in the league, gains them entry to the UEFA Cup next season along with CFR Cluj who finished third.
Oţelul Galaţi and Gloria Bistriţa (finishing fifth and sixth respectively) earned their place in the Intertoto Cup and will be in action this Saturday when the Second Round of the competition takes place. Both teams travel away for the first leg of their ties - Gloria taking on a tough Maccabi Haifa side while Oţelul go to Bosnia & Herzegovina to play Slavija.
At the other end of the achievement scale are Ceahlăul Piatra Neamţ, Argeş, Naţional and Jiul Petroşani who all finished in the bottom four of Liga I and are duly relegated. Taking their place will be Delta Tulcea and Gloria Buzău - Liga II winners and runners-up respectively.
Top goalscorer in the Romanian top flight this season was Claudiu Niculescu of Dinamo Bucharest with 18 goals. He finished two goals ahead of Ionel Ganea of Rapid Steaua Bucharest on 16.
SWEDEN
Things kicked off in the land of the Volvo back in April as far as the 2007 season's concerned, and leading the way so far are Kalmar, level on points with last season's champions Elfsborg but two goals ahead on goal difference. Elfsborg, however, have a game in hand on the leaders.
The chasing pack aren't far away and are lead by Halmstads in third on 21 points, followed by Djurgardens on 20, Malmo on 19 and Hammarby on 18 points. Bringing up the rear are Brommapojkarna with nine points from a possible 36.
Kalmar's next opponents are Hammarby at home next Wednesday while Elfsborg have an easier tie away to 10th-place AIK on Monday. Malmo travel to Djurgardens in a battle of 5th versus 4th on Saturday while Halmstads travel to struggling Orebro the following day.
Last year's Swedish Cup winners Helsingborgs were knocked out of the 2007 edition last week when they suffered a shock 2-1 home defeat to 2nd-tier Landskrona in Round 4. That leaves the smart money to go on Kalmar or Halmstads as the biggest teams remaining when the last eight do battle next month.
Finally, at the top of the goalscoring tree back in the Allsvenskan is Marcus Berg of Gothenburg on eight goals, closely followed by Anders Svensson of Elfsborg and Kalmar's Brazilian César Sántin, both of whom have six goals.
SWITZERLAND
You've gotta love Switzerland. They're a harmless little country whose top football division contains just ten teams - none of whom have made an impact recently on the international stage - and they call it the 'Super League'. How's that for ambition!
And who was the superest of all that's super in the Super League this season? Why that's Zurich of course, edging out Basel by a single point. Sion were third, a full fourteen points further behind on 60 with Young Boys taking fourth on 59.
Zurich's prize is a place in the second qualifying round of the Champions League 2007/08 while Basel and Sion have the consolation of playing in next season's UEFA Cup. Young Boys take their place in the first qualifying round of the same competition.
At the bottom, Schaffhausen were relegated with 25 points, one less than Aarau who entered a play-off with Bellinzona who finished second in the Challenge League behind champions Neuchatel Xamax. After a two-legged match, Aarau kept their place in the Super League thanks to a 5-2 aggregate victory.
Top goalscorer this season was Mladen Petrić with 19 for Swiss Cup winners Basel, three ahead of St. Gallen's Argentinian star Francisco Aguirre who in turn was two goals ahead of Brazilian Rafael of Zurich.
Tuesday, 3 July 2007
The Premier League - 'County-style'...
So many things spring to mind when thinking of a traditional Summer's day in England. A village green, lush and neatly clipped - the perfect playing surface for a game of Cricket between local men attired in their whites... nearby trestle tables bedecked with plates of neatly cut sandwiches prepared by the local womenfolk... the delicate chirrup of a song thrush perched proudly in an Oak tree beyond the boundary, and the deafening rumble of thunder as torrential rain drenches everything in sight for a fifth consecutive day. Bloody English weather.
Yet for all that, Cricket is still as popular a sport as ever, relying solely on the fact that over a long weekend, very little actually happens - the perfect spectator sport as there's not much to distract you from sitting around drinking lager interminably.
It's rather curious how Cricket has retained it's league structure over such a long time. From its origins well over a hundred years ago, teams were formed that represented the counties of England and Wales. These were the old historic counties - none of your Greater Londons or Greater Manchesters here, oh no. The best players from each county would be called up to represent the area where they were born, so if your place of birth was Southampton and could be relied upon to regularly smash the ball for six, chances are you'd end up playing for Hampshire. Fast bowler from the Huddersfield area? Have a place in the Yorkshire team. So it would go on...
What transpired then was a two-tier system where the better teams were awarded first-class status while the smaller and weaker teams formed what is now known as the Minor Counties setup. The big teams played for the glory of winning the County Championship while the Minor Counties played for the glory of one day being in the County Championship.
It's funny though, really - Cricket never quite turned into a game between towns and cities like Football did. Can you imagine Football in England being based around county teams rather than towns and cities?!? No? Don't worry - we have.
If you've been wondering why there's been little in the way of substantial writing on this site over the last week or two, it's because we've been busy beavering away trying to make real a world where the Premier League's star talent play for their county of birth, not for the team with the biggest wallet.
Our initial idea was to take the results from last season's Premier League and calculate a final table to see who the top county would have been. This proved hugely problematic.
Instead we thought we'd see which county teams would be the most exciting, the most likely to prevail over their opponents and the most likely to get a team together at all.
So let's start off at the top. Which county do we think is likely to top a regional Premier League? Answer: Lancashire. Using the old historic counties of England and Wales, Lancashire would almost certainly have the biggest list of star talent to call upon, covering as it does cities such as Liverpool, Manchester, Blackburn, Bolton and Wigan. A Lancashire team would boast a defence containing Phil and Gary Neville, Jamie Carragher and Wes Brown, a midfield featuring Steven Gerrard, Paul Scholes, Kevin Nolan and Joey Barton, and up front, how about Wayne Rooney and James Beattie as a strike partnership? Should any substitutions be required, Lancashire could make use of Stephen Clemence, Alan Stubbs, Leighton Baines, Leon Osman and Nicky Butt.
Quite a range of top names to choose from there, but who would be Lancashire's biggest rivals in a league such as this? We think Essex.
(Now at this point, we need to mention that because London wasn't one of the original historic counties of England, we've had to use artistic licence to give certain players a county to play for. If they were born in north-east London, we made them a member of the Essex team. South-east London would assimilate to Kent, north London would be Middlesex and so on. Just so you know.)
And so back to the Essex team. Once again, they'd have a fine selection of players to choose from. In defence you'd see John Terry standing alongside Sol Campbell, Ashley Cole and Paul Konchesky, In midfield, expect to see Frank Lampard, Jimmy Bullard, Joe Cole and Lee Bowyer and up front there's the useful partnership of Jermaine Defoe and Bobby Zamora. They'd also have subs to spare - to wit Linvoy Primus, Nicky Shorey, Ledley King and Mark Noble.
One thing you may have noticed is that we haven't mentioned any goalkeepers so far. That's because there simply aren't that many English-born top flight 'keepers around, and when you do find one he's probably part what would be a very small team indeed. Liverpool's Scott Carson was born in Whitehaven, which means he'd be the only player of note in a Cumberland team. Wigan's Chris Kirkland would be a member of the Leicstershire team, but apart from Emile Heskey, they'd be about the only players you'd have ever heard of.
Somewhat perversely, some counties would have more than one goalkeeper to choose from. The Yorkshire team have Tottenham's Paul Robinson and Man. City's Nicky Weaver in their ranks, while the minor county of Hertfordshire could be caught in the dilemma of whether to pick Portsmouth's David James or Bolton's Ian Walker. Some would say neither, but no matter...
Apart from Lancashire and Essex, most other counties would struggle to even find eleven decent players to put together in a side - perhaps an indication of just how many foreign players currently ply their trade in today's Premier League. Some counties can find seven or eight like that great cricketing behemoth, Yorkshire. Apart from their two goalkeepers, they'd also have Kevin Davies, Alan Smith, James Milner and Aaron Lennon in their ranks.
In the Midlands, Warwickshire would have a slightly weak team featuring Everton's Joleon Lescott, Man. City's Darius Vassell and Gabriel Agbonlahor of Aston Villa. Kent's team would be strongly as their 'virtual squad' would contain Glen Johnson, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Kieran Richardson (all born in Greenwich) along with Aston Villa's Liam Ridgewell, Anton Ferdinand of West Ham and Tottenham's Wayne Routledge.
One curiosity which comes from looking down the team lists is that the Surrey team seems to be dominated by West Ham players. Carlton Cole and Nigel Reo-Coker were born in Croydon, goalkeeper Robert Green was born in Chertsey and Scott Parker was born in Lambeth.
But what of the Premier League's big name stars - which county would you expect them to play for? Tottenham's new signing, Darren Bent, was formerly associated with another London club, Charlton, yet he'd be the only top name in a Cambridgeshire team. Michael Owen and Peter Crouch both have strong links with Liverpool, but they wouldn't be in the Lancashire team - they'd be representatives of Cheshire. Craig Bellamy and Ryan Giggs are both Welsh, so you'd expect them to represent a historic county of Wales and you'd be right - they'd be in the Glamorgan side.
Some Welsh-born players, though, can consider themselves unlucky to have been born in a county where not even a Minor Counties side plays. Robbie Savage would play for a Denbighshire team if it ever were to exist and West Ham's defensive duo James Collins and Danny Gabbidon would represent Monmouthshire. As for veteran Gary Speed, has anyone ever heard of Flintshire? No, neither have we...
On reflection then, it's perhaps just as well that the Premier League doesn't force players to represent their counties of birth. From what we can see, there'd be some interesting combinations of players and some definite regional strongholds here and there, but perhaps the strength in depth from team to team would be found wanting. And let's not forget we're talking about a top division in England where no foreign players would be involved. Now that IS a bizarre concept...
(BONUS DOWNLOAD! If you're feeling particularly nosey, you can see the full list of top-name players and the counties they'd play for by clicking here. Enjoy...)
Yet for all that, Cricket is still as popular a sport as ever, relying solely on the fact that over a long weekend, very little actually happens - the perfect spectator sport as there's not much to distract you from sitting around drinking lager interminably.
It's rather curious how Cricket has retained it's league structure over such a long time. From its origins well over a hundred years ago, teams were formed that represented the counties of England and Wales. These were the old historic counties - none of your Greater Londons or Greater Manchesters here, oh no. The best players from each county would be called up to represent the area where they were born, so if your place of birth was Southampton and could be relied upon to regularly smash the ball for six, chances are you'd end up playing for Hampshire. Fast bowler from the Huddersfield area? Have a place in the Yorkshire team. So it would go on...
What transpired then was a two-tier system where the better teams were awarded first-class status while the smaller and weaker teams formed what is now known as the Minor Counties setup. The big teams played for the glory of winning the County Championship while the Minor Counties played for the glory of one day being in the County Championship.
It's funny though, really - Cricket never quite turned into a game between towns and cities like Football did. Can you imagine Football in England being based around county teams rather than towns and cities?!? No? Don't worry - we have.
If you've been wondering why there's been little in the way of substantial writing on this site over the last week or two, it's because we've been busy beavering away trying to make real a world where the Premier League's star talent play for their county of birth, not for the team with the biggest wallet.
Our initial idea was to take the results from last season's Premier League and calculate a final table to see who the top county would have been. This proved hugely problematic.
Instead we thought we'd see which county teams would be the most exciting, the most likely to prevail over their opponents and the most likely to get a team together at all.
So let's start off at the top. Which county do we think is likely to top a regional Premier League? Answer: Lancashire. Using the old historic counties of England and Wales, Lancashire would almost certainly have the biggest list of star talent to call upon, covering as it does cities such as Liverpool, Manchester, Blackburn, Bolton and Wigan. A Lancashire team would boast a defence containing Phil and Gary Neville, Jamie Carragher and Wes Brown, a midfield featuring Steven Gerrard, Paul Scholes, Kevin Nolan and Joey Barton, and up front, how about Wayne Rooney and James Beattie as a strike partnership? Should any substitutions be required, Lancashire could make use of Stephen Clemence, Alan Stubbs, Leighton Baines, Leon Osman and Nicky Butt.
Quite a range of top names to choose from there, but who would be Lancashire's biggest rivals in a league such as this? We think Essex.
(Now at this point, we need to mention that because London wasn't one of the original historic counties of England, we've had to use artistic licence to give certain players a county to play for. If they were born in north-east London, we made them a member of the Essex team. South-east London would assimilate to Kent, north London would be Middlesex and so on. Just so you know.)
And so back to the Essex team. Once again, they'd have a fine selection of players to choose from. In defence you'd see John Terry standing alongside Sol Campbell, Ashley Cole and Paul Konchesky, In midfield, expect to see Frank Lampard, Jimmy Bullard, Joe Cole and Lee Bowyer and up front there's the useful partnership of Jermaine Defoe and Bobby Zamora. They'd also have subs to spare - to wit Linvoy Primus, Nicky Shorey, Ledley King and Mark Noble.
One thing you may have noticed is that we haven't mentioned any goalkeepers so far. That's because there simply aren't that many English-born top flight 'keepers around, and when you do find one he's probably part what would be a very small team indeed. Liverpool's Scott Carson was born in Whitehaven, which means he'd be the only player of note in a Cumberland team. Wigan's Chris Kirkland would be a member of the Leicstershire team, but apart from Emile Heskey, they'd be about the only players you'd have ever heard of.
Somewhat perversely, some counties would have more than one goalkeeper to choose from. The Yorkshire team have Tottenham's Paul Robinson and Man. City's Nicky Weaver in their ranks, while the minor county of Hertfordshire could be caught in the dilemma of whether to pick Portsmouth's David James or Bolton's Ian Walker. Some would say neither, but no matter...
Apart from Lancashire and Essex, most other counties would struggle to even find eleven decent players to put together in a side - perhaps an indication of just how many foreign players currently ply their trade in today's Premier League. Some counties can find seven or eight like that great cricketing behemoth, Yorkshire. Apart from their two goalkeepers, they'd also have Kevin Davies, Alan Smith, James Milner and Aaron Lennon in their ranks.
In the Midlands, Warwickshire would have a slightly weak team featuring Everton's Joleon Lescott, Man. City's Darius Vassell and Gabriel Agbonlahor of Aston Villa. Kent's team would be strongly as their 'virtual squad' would contain Glen Johnson, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Kieran Richardson (all born in Greenwich) along with Aston Villa's Liam Ridgewell, Anton Ferdinand of West Ham and Tottenham's Wayne Routledge.
One curiosity which comes from looking down the team lists is that the Surrey team seems to be dominated by West Ham players. Carlton Cole and Nigel Reo-Coker were born in Croydon, goalkeeper Robert Green was born in Chertsey and Scott Parker was born in Lambeth.
But what of the Premier League's big name stars - which county would you expect them to play for? Tottenham's new signing, Darren Bent, was formerly associated with another London club, Charlton, yet he'd be the only top name in a Cambridgeshire team. Michael Owen and Peter Crouch both have strong links with Liverpool, but they wouldn't be in the Lancashire team - they'd be representatives of Cheshire. Craig Bellamy and Ryan Giggs are both Welsh, so you'd expect them to represent a historic county of Wales and you'd be right - they'd be in the Glamorgan side.
Some Welsh-born players, though, can consider themselves unlucky to have been born in a county where not even a Minor Counties side plays. Robbie Savage would play for a Denbighshire team if it ever were to exist and West Ham's defensive duo James Collins and Danny Gabbidon would represent Monmouthshire. As for veteran Gary Speed, has anyone ever heard of Flintshire? No, neither have we...
On reflection then, it's perhaps just as well that the Premier League doesn't force players to represent their counties of birth. From what we can see, there'd be some interesting combinations of players and some definite regional strongholds here and there, but perhaps the strength in depth from team to team would be found wanting. And let's not forget we're talking about a top division in England where no foreign players would be involved. Now that IS a bizarre concept...
(BONUS DOWNLOAD! If you're feeling particularly nosey, you can see the full list of top-name players and the counties they'd play for by clicking here. Enjoy...)
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