British fantasy football league

@3 Lions: Is it possible for you to mail the excel sheet with the list of players. Cant access the link you have given at work !

3 Lions
Joliet Jake
Sin
Hazza
Jimbo
Superschnucks
Bluedave
HelterSkelter
Expat Mat
Komland
Yorkie
Crawlie
flashmac
Sharpe
TheDevilHimself
WeeMun
Kaiserf
Crowes

Up to 18 now (450€), Still plenty of time to sign up. Get me your teams by Saturdays KO.

2 more days to go now, I'm going to send off reminder emails to those who havent yet entered their teams. Still time for everyone else to join in.

is there an organization for the opening week? Watching the games while drinking couple of beers, etc...

Interactive Team Picker

Still time for people to enter if they want.

I'm filling out the excel sheet now and still need to get teams from the following people -

Bluedave
Yorkie
Komland
Crawlie
Kaiserf

I have just completed my team. It is a thing of beauty.

I thought it'd be interesting to list the team(s) you actually support as well.

3 Lions - Oldham Athletic
Joliet Jake - Oldham Athletic (Sorry Mate, but if I follow Da Bears, then you follow Da Latics!)
Sin - Man Utd
Hazza - ?
Jimbo - Tottenham Hotspur
Superschnucks - ?
Bluedave - Man City
HelterSkelter - ?
Expat Mat - Man Utd
Komland - ?
Yorkie - Leeds Utd (Should I start you off with a -15pt penalty as well this year?)
Crawlie - Liverpool
flashmac - ?
Sharpe - Middlesboro
TheDevilHimself - Man Utd
WeeMun - Newcastle Utd
Swift - Portsmouth FC
Kaiserf - Man City
Crowes - Ipswich Town

I´d like to join in with my team "The Solettes".
How do I register my team and how will I pay you up?

Boro for me

OK, thats 19 now, so I'm paying out for the following this year -

Champions
2nd Place
3rd Place
-----------
9 Manager of the month prizes
-----------
Last Place - In previous years I've always entered a team that I made sure would finish dead last. This year I am not doing that and there will be a spot prize for having the dubious honour of finishing last.

Ok, i'm in and already changed my team after 10 mins of thinking. Extremely unsure of it though

@All - You can change your line ups as much as you want between now and KO tomorrow.

Mr Lions,
I have PM'ed my team to you, and I would like to think that the TTFFL Management is nowhere near as vindictive, vicious and plain immoral as the Football League.
God help any team who actually breaks any rules, instant relegation, well except if you are West Ham of course!
And an appeal to all the teams in the Football League is doomed to failure when 23 of the 71 are actually in your division and would quite appreciate a 15 point start in the relegation battle.
And beware, the Taxman is now looking to destroy Football in Britain, I hope none of your teams are next, and there will be others!
Owners going to Prison for Human Rights violations, Murdered my their Home Country's Mafia over Oil and Gas rights, imprisoned by the SEC over numerous dodgy accounting practices.
As the UK National Lottery used to say, It Could be You!

@Sin, I'm seriously looking forward to the battle this year, remember don't peak too early! 4th gets you, or me, nothing this year...

Ken, I e-mailed you my team - don't start without me!

My team has been sent to you too! Better late than never I suppose

So we have 19 teams in now. We would have 20, but Komland hasnt sent me a team?

Still a couple of hours left for any last minute entries. I had a request to print everyones teams, but seeing as the excel sheet is on my PC at work, I cant send it out. Though if you want to put your teams here, then by all means do so.

I'll start I suppose -

Goal - Tim Howard

Def - Steve Finnan
Def - Daniel Agger
Def - Leighton Baines (injured this weekend I think)
Def - Pascal chimbonda

Mid - Cristiano Ronaldo (At last time of checking, 12 out of 14 teams had picked him)
Mid - Steve Gerrard
Mid - M Pedesron
Mid - Kevin Nolan

Str - Wayne Rooney
Str - Alan Smith

Ok, here's mine with one of my strikers picked from my heart, not my brain.

E van der Sar MUN

A Cole CHE

L Primus POR

M Richards MAN

P Senderos ARS

F Lampard CHE

S Gerrard LIV

C Ronaldo MUN

M Etherington WHM

R Bianchi MAN

D Drogba CHE

Blueeeeee Moooooooon !

Excellent, we are a even 20 now, so that 500€ in the prize pot.

Here's my team:

J Reina LIV

P Evra MUN
T Ben Haim CHE
C Samba BLA
S Campbell POR

C Ronaldo MUN
C Fabregas ARS
F Malouda CHE
M Pedersen BLA

W Rooney MUN
R van Persie ARS

The Windy City Waterboys* are starting with:

P Cech CHE

R Carvalho CHE
D Agger LIV
J Yobo EVE
I Ingimarsson REA

C Ronaldo MUN
M Pedersen BLAh
M Arteta EVE
M Taylor POR

D Berbatov TOT
G Agbonlahor AVL

Just got back and logged in. Sin City FC's opening gambit is:

J Reina LIV £3,9
R Carvalho CHE £4,6
P Evra MUN £3,7
J Lescott EVE £3,4
C Ronaldo MUN £6,0
MG Pedersen BLA £4,2
M Arteta EVE £4,1
M Taylor POR £3,7
C Tevez MUN £6,1
D Bent TOT £6,5
M Chopra SUN £3,8

Fingers crossed.

Which of course means that my entire midfield is now doomed to injury Thanks Sin.

You're welcome JJ

I shall be working harder to pace myself. Now stick your starting eleven up so's I know what I'm up against.

You're out of the blocks quickly Sin. Chopra with a late goal for Sunderland to put down Spurs.

Well, as the old sayin' goes, it's a bit early to go suckin' each other's dicks just yet. There ain't any extra points having the player who bangs in the first goal of the season, and I'm still waiting to discover everybody else's starting elevens (the one's we don't have as yet). I'm sure more than just little old me went for Chopra.

Bluedave must be over the moon. Bianchi scored and City are lookin pretty good !

Did anybody pick Blackburn's Bennie McCarthy? Looks like a nasty injury.

Happy enough for the opening day

Just checed my PM's, I have a 21st team that was entered before te cut off. So 525€ now!!

@Sin - Have not checked the mails at work yet, but as far as I know, no one has one for McCarthy. Oh and someone else went for Chopra too, cannot remember who though?

So who exactly are the 21 managers and what are their team names?

Personally, I thought Chopra was a bloody good bet.

Here is my team:

Ihsan's Shade

Code Name Team EM
G 1 1001 Cech Chelsea 4
D 2 2006 Toure Arsenal 4.5
D 3 2040 Lescott Everton 3.4
D 4 2005 Ferdinand Man Un. 4.6
D 5 2002 Carragher Liverpool 4.8
M 6 3008 Arteta Everton 4.1
M 7 3009 Downing Boro 4.1
M 8 3022 Barton Man C. 3.8
F 9 4094 Tuncay Boro 5.2
F 10 4003 Drogba Chelsea 7.6
F 11 4107 Chopra Sunder. 3.8

Ah! So you're the other manager with Chopra. Boy did well today.

i got him in the last minute because i was out of money and i could afford him . Downing also scored for Boro but that was not enough

Barton Man C.

OK, Augustiner United starting squad this year:

P Cech

S Distin
S Campbell
J Lescott

C Ronaldo
F Lampard
M Pedersen
M Arteta
A Lennon
O Hargreaves

W Rooney

If I had had another 0.5m I would have got Mr. MVP Gerrard, but this is TTFF and not some Fantasy...

This may be the first 3-5-1 line-up we've seen HelterSkelter.

Any other team line-ups from the quite managers?

actually it is 3-6-1. i thought we could select 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 only.

edit: sorry just saw the first page

should be Newcastle obviously, sorry

See, I knew I couldn't count first thing on a Sunday morning (need more coffee).

If you go to the first post of this thread you will see how Mr. Lions has adapted The Telegraph's rules to make something special for the Toytown Fantasy Football League. This was all worked out just after the 2005/6 season closed, when it was felt that with 30 transfers, either a 4-4-2 or a 4-3-3 formation and unlimited players from any Premiership team led to the teams being pretty much homogenised by the end of the season. The 2006/7 TTFFL season was the first with the added formation options, limited transfers and max. 3 players from a Premiership team and it led to a right old humdinger of a season.

The formations you can have are:

4-4-2
4-3-3
4-5-1
3-4-3
3-5-2
3-6-1
5-4-1
5-3-2

I like the 3-4-3 personally.

i feel like, fewer defence players is better as well

OK. Expat 2nd XI;

G Friedel BLK 3,8

D Campbell POR 3,5
D Distin POR 3,6
D Shorey Read 3,6

M Harper Reading 3,4
M Ronaldo MUN 6,0
M S Hunt Read 3,5
M Pedderson BLK 4,2
M taylor Por 3,7

F Tevez MUN 6,1 (probably on bench)
F Rooney MUN 8,0

Have also changed my formation from last seasons debut from 4-4-2 to 3-5-2.

Interesting, mate. Any more for any more?

Arsenal just scraped a win in last minute and Chelsea struggling to put Brum away at 2-2

what the hell is this C(z)ech doing?

Lehmans howler against Fulham was absolutely hilarious Le Arse were very very lucky to win today though !!

Incredible strike by Essien !

Wonder if Hazza went for Essien again this season.

Oh dear. My first weekend is turning out pants.

NOTE: Chelsea's defence looks well fragile.

What happens if your defender plays as a midfielder. Does he still get points for keeping a clean sheet, or the other way around, does he get points deducted for conceding a goal?

@TDh - If the player is listed as a defender, then he stays as one and will score as his team defence does, even if he plays up front or in midfield. It doesnt work the other way, if for example Peter crouch were put in to defence, he would not score points for a clean sheet.