And that’s it, another season is over. I can’t help feeling like this season went out with a bit of a whimper. Was it that Man City were so dominant? Was it that Jamie Stewart (1st) was so dominant? Was it the unreliability of captain scores, or was it the lack of big scores in the double gameweeks? My season certainly went out with a bit of a whimper, I lost £30 bets to both Neil Stewart (10th) and Chris Galloway (24th), whilst Daz Russell (65th) and Matt Cox (3rd) took the Conts and Best GW Score titles from me respectively. This meant I come away from this season with runner up in Best GW Score, 3rd place in the Conts League, and 42nd in the FFUK league. Incidentally, my overall rank this season was 175,576 #shoulddobetter. Still, I’m not sniffing at the cash prizes I will get, and to be honest with myself, I barely deserve them after playing like an arse for the start of the season, insistently going against the grain when I should have played safe, and playing safe when I should have gambled. But hey, that’s FPL. As a wise man, once said, it’s a funny old game of a funny old game, and that it is.
What’s funny is that this season was about the same score-wise, as it was last season (did it feel different to anyone else?) JDS won the league with 2388 points compared to Nick John’s 2424 in 2016/17. That’s just 36 points less. My own score of 2179 for 42nd compares to 2137 for Kieran Webb in the same position in 2016/17, so that’s exactly 42 points up this season. So 1st place is down 36, 42nd place is up 42 points 0 what does this mean? It means the scores were about the same as last season, despite it feeling a little less predictable.
So where should we start. I think that’s obvious, we should start with Number 1, and number 1 is Jamie Stewart.
JDS took the FFUK league by storm this season, rising to the top of the league way back in GW??? Dan McBrearty (2nd) gave him a scare back in GW35 but ultimately JDS, as it were, bossed it. Looking at his work today (I feel like I lived through it with him) I see that the FFUK League was 1 of 10 leagues he won, 8 standard leagues and 2x H2Hs as well (including our own H2H league which I’ll get back to). I wonder how many of the other leagues Jamie was in were cash leagues. He gets £400 for winning our league, just imagine if he won that much for all the others!!!
MANAGER OF THE MONTH
And that’s not to mention the other prizes either. One reason the scores will have been quite so good is due to the massive month of December, where Kane scored 2 hat tricks in a row, and generally speaking everyone we expected to do ok did ok. Jamie scored 494 points in December. The winner of Manager of the Month last season was Robert Simpson with 401 in April, and that included double gameweeks too. Nuff said. Jamie wins £100 for his trouble there too.
H2H
And it doesn’t end there as Jamie Stewart takes a treble by winning the FFUK H2H league to boot. The H2H league started two seasons ago as an idea from Tim McEwan (13th) and for 19 FFUK Contributors is a way to play with each other all season long (for an extra £5 in). If you want to get involved you are more than welcome, first become an FFUK Agent or get involved in writing articles, come to FFUK Nights Out, organise competitions, join the whatsapp group, join the Facebook group whatever you like. Relegations will be happening and new players will come on board. However, Jamie won’t need to worry about all that, as he regularly contributes articles, and is also the reigning champion. Add another £60 to his prize pot for his H2H triumph!
Jamie walks away with £560 in total!!! There I said it. Seriously well done Jamie, no one can take anything away from your excellent season, a round of applause.
I’m not going to spend too long looking at the Top 10, as Chris already covered it in his EPIC GW38 REVIEW – THE IMPOSSIBLE DREAM, but I will raise my glass to Dan McBrearty (2nd). If anyone deserved to do well this season it was you, and you did more than enough to win the FFUK League, finishing with an overall rank of 2,407 is commendable. Like Jamie, I hope you were able to walk away with some of your mate’s cash in your other leagues, and if not, well enjoy your £300 FFUK Winnings. Dan was runner up in Best GW Score last season, but came 15th in the league, both pointing to potential success this season. However, not all of this season’s Top 10 did well last time around, and other than Jamie, only Coolers (9th) and Lester Deeble (7th) returned.
BEST GW SCORE
Coxy (3rd) was 41st last time round, which is in no way indicative of success, but Matt has form, a previous FFUK Winner all the way back in 2011. Apparently Coxy has help, no one knows what that help is, or who from, but James Page-Chatton (117th) suspects he pays someone like Ronaldinho for tips. Said fpl tips are then translated by someone else, probably a monk in a cave, who then sends the information to Coxy in the Isle of Man by carrier pigeon. Anyway, as well as £200 for 3rd place Coxy takes the Best GW Score prize of £100 for his 125 points in GW37. Note this score was well under the heights of last season, especially for a double gameweek, but of course we are used to our dgw captains scoring 5 goals. Not so this season, so Matt’s 125 looks comparatively tame against Lester Deeble’s 2016/17 score of 192.
But talking of Lester Deeble (7th) he got into the Top 10 for the third season in a row. This line dancer extraordinaire is the butt of many a good joke, and for good reason too. Lester also came 3rd place in the FFUK H2H League this season but, on speaking to the chairman Tim McEwan today, I must confirm that Lester will receive no prize for 3rd place. Unlucky Lester. He finished 7th in the FFUK League anyway so gets £60 – better than a slap in the face, which he’ll be able to confirm when I see him, and slap him.
Also well done to Coolers (9th) last season’s runner up, who really showed us his quality this season with a 2nd consecutive Top 10 finish. And to Neil Stewart (10th), an old FFUKer. Oh Neil you little minx. Elsewhere well done to John Harper (4th), James Amar (5th), and Mark Leathem (8th). Congratulations on finishing Top 10, no easy feat, and worth it for the kudos alone.
CHALLENGE CUP
Which brings me to the final member of this season’s Top 10, Sam Breen (6th) an FFUK newbie and a Watford fan. Other than a bench fling with Kiko, Sam only bothered with Richarlison of Watford’s squad, getting all his decent points and then permanently ditching in GW22. Sam’s now my one to watch, so to do him justice I’m writing this outside his house, in my car, under a blanket, one eye just peeping through, so that I can see if he goes out and then follow him.
Sam was one of only 4 players to take multiple FFUK prizes, also winning the Challenge Cup. Impressive stuff. Sam won his semi-final by just 1 point so will have felt relieved to take Sean Galsworthy (29th) by a safe(ish) 28 points in the FFUK Cup Final. Sam recieves £150 for his Challenge Cup win and £75 for his league position, not bad for a season’s work.
FFUK CUP
Paul Browne (11th) may feel disappointed about missing out on the FFUK League Top 10 places on transfers made. He drew on 2272 points with the aforementioned Neil Stewart (10th) but as we know, that 10th place prize is decided very simply on overall rank. However, Paul was the clear winner in the FFUK Cup, and after knocking out Jamie Stewart in the semi-final, he saw off Tom Shepherd (49th) in the final for the win. Well done Paul, decent winnings of £200 coming your way.
Which leaves just one prize. The Conts League, but Chris sort of covered that didn’t he? Just like the FFUK H2H this involves an extra £5 in at the start of the season and proved to be an absolutely riot, with the lowest scoring player each gameweek being relegated. Daron Russell (65th) won the inaugural Conts League, and carries the title into next season. Well done to Mark Turnbull (18th) for getting the Runner Up too.
And I think that’s everyone just about covered. If you won a prize get your bank details to Chris and he’ll transfer the winnings soon. If I haven’t mentioned you directly, then all prizes are listed in full below the Chelsea winners pic.
Finally I will just take a moment to thank said Chairman of the League, who puts a tremendous amount of work into this League that we all love playing. Without it, the league, the community, and frankly the fun, just wouldn’t happen. Thank you Chris.
Until next season then! Have a great Summer everyone, World Cup is just around the corner, and remember, don’t sleep, FFUK.
Pete
The FFUK League 2017/18
1st Jamie Stewart £400
2nd Dan McBrearty £300
3rd Matthew Cox £200
4th John Harper £150
5th James Amar £100
6th Sam Breen £75
7th Lester Deeble £60
8th Mark Leathem £50
9th Sean Colohan £40
10th Neil Stewart £30
FFUK Cup
Winner Paul Browne £200
Runner Up Tom Shepherd £100
Challenge Cup
Winner Sam Breen £150
Runner Up Sean Galsworthy £75
Manager of the Month
Winner Jamie Stewart £100
Runner Up Danny Burgess £50
Best GW Score
Winner Matthew Cox £100
Runner Up Pete Cronin £60
3rd Place Alex Kassner £20
Conts League
1st Daron Russell £100
2nd Mark Turnbull £60
3rd Pete Cronin £30
H2H League
1st Jamie Stewart £60
2nd Sam Blake £30
FFUK 