"Very Small Rocks" Draft Thread

[1800-WorldCup]

Same here...... just this very moment.....

[Ingromius]

Hi folks,

Obviously much to cover... First and most importantly, apologies to all of you for my absence over the weekend; I was moving into a flat which I found in an unoccupiable state early Sat, and had to devote the entire weekend to that task. I'm sure you all understand my priority decision and would have made the same one yourselves (hmmm... fantasy of computer soccer or reality of a place to live....?) Secondly and equally importantly, I'd like to thank Hal for doing an excellent job of trying to get inside my head and make picks for me. Smith in particular was a nice surprise: I had him for my next pick and he was ALMOST my last blue chip planned -- so well done Hal.

So again, sorry I made you guys wait. But now that the story's out, I'll accept apologies for the Ignoramius comments any time....

Now... since some choices were made without my authority (my fault I admit), I think it's fair that I now proceed to make changes involving available, unclaimed players. Since none of you guys chose these players I'm just going to go ahead and claim them and will let you know.... Any objections, I'll wait a few hours until I finalize them. But bear in mind, you all had 15 rounds to claim these guys, so I consider them mine for the taking and will need some compelling rhetoric to be convinced otherwise.

Promise, guys, I'm an entirely reliable fantasy soccer player as I think my performance over the past few years in our leagues has shown. Please forgive the absence this weekend. Considering circumstances I hope you'll all agree that it was regrettable but understandable.

Jonathan

[Ingromius]

With repeated thanks to Hal for trying to see inside my muddled mind, here are the changes I've made to my roster, followed by an updated, final roster of my team. I was careful to read through the draft and make sure that none of these players were claimed (even read through all 26 pages of this thread to be sure), but please correct me if I've claimed any already spoken-for players. The last thing I'd want to do is start a salary bidding war, we've all seen what happened in Italy...


TRADES:

Dabizas (Newcs, 6.0) for Ferrer (CHE, 3.5)
Aliadiere (ARS, 4.0) for Cole, Carlton (CHE, 4.0)
Geremi (MID, 7.0) for Pires (ARS, 9.0)
Gravesen (EVE, 6.0) for Veron (MUN, 8.0)


FINAL ROSTER:

GK:
DUDEK, Liv: 7.0
VAESEN, Birm: 4.0

DEF:
COLE, Ars: 8.0
TRAORE, Liv: 6.0
RADEBE, Lee: 4.5
WARHURST, Bolton: 4.5
FERRER, Chels: 3.5

MID:
KEWELL, Lee: 9.0
BERNARBIA, City: 7.5
INAMOTO, Fulham: 5.0
PIRES, Ars: 9.0
VERON, MUN: 8.0

STRIKER:
VAN NISTELROOY, MUN: 11.0
SMITH, Lee: 8.5
COLE, Che: 4.0

That leaves me with a whopping 0.5 of cap room, slightly different from the 2.0 that Hal left me with. My strategy is to play a 4-4-2 until Pires is back, then go with a 3-5-2. So, the way I see it, if I'm in contact by mid October when Pires is expected back, then look out. It's a bit of a risk, I admit, but where does one get without taking risks? It seemed too good to be true that Veron was actually available at this point... I felt as though his feelings were hurt so I took him on board. Was looking at Okocha... who at CYKI was responsible for making him more expensive than Veron, for the love of God?!?!?!

I've entered this as my team at CYKI, so please, if you have any reasonable complaints about how I've put together my team after missing 8 rounds of "A-list" players over the weekend, please reply by the end of the day so I can change if necessary. As stated before, though, I think this is a pretty fair way for you all to have drafted your team and for mine still to work for the tactics I had chosen for the season.

Jon

[1800-WorldCup]

I hope the share price of Pires doesn't go down too much for you :)

[Ingromius]

Here's some financial wisdom to ignore from a man whose finances are in such disarray that he can't even afford a temporary cell phone.... buy low, sell even lower.

We at London St Germain stand by Pires; we are appalled that other managers so coldly ruled him out of their side due to a temporary injury. And while his value may plummet for a while when he's not playing... once he is, I've got him and you can't have him....

[kopiteinkc]

Jon:

I think this is very fair.

We were all worried you'd be mad at us for continuing without you and you come on and ask if it is ok for you to pick players we ignored. LOL. :)

Glad we left you some choice picks (doh!)

Nice risky pick with Pires, I thought long and hard about him over 15 rounds. I could regret it.

Good luck to you and all the rest of you. We are underway tomorrow! Finally.

Mark

[1800-WorldCup]

I was hoping you might drop Smithie ;)

[Ingromius]

NEVER!!!

But I think I just saw a comment from another thread suggesting that Hal picked up Ferrer. dang. Lucky he's a scrub, he'll be easy to replace -- but I must be off to run cross country practice in the rain now. Joy.

[Ingromius]

OK I think this last little tinker should take care of it. Since Hal so selfishly went and picked Ferrer ahead of me (the nerve) I've opted for Brown of Charlton instead. I am confident that his native talent and his work ethic will make him just the man to fetch water for the guys who actually play. You should have seen the tryout.

[Clan]

If you look at my last change of roster on the CYKI site you will see i employed the exact same strategy by picking Ljungberg, even though currently injured.

He will however be back now in two weeksd they are saying.

I have 5 midfielders and am playing a 3-4-3 so i had one siting anyway and not earning points, might as well be him eh?

And when he comes bach i'll have a formidable addition to my team and may even go with the 3-5-2 myself, depending on how the points ratio is doing between my front and rear lines.

[1800-WorldCup]

Of course, the crocks might not find last season's form.... or get injured again ;)

[Clan]

Originally posted by 1800-WorldCup
Of course, the crocks might not find last season's form.... or get injured again ;)

MMmmmm, methinks ole Freddie will do ok, how 'bout you ;)

BTW.
I made another roster change.
On the league board.

[Ingromius]

Ljunberg is OK and all... but he's no ROBERT PIRES!!!!!

[Clan]

Originally posted by Ingromius
Ljunberg is OK and all... but he's no ROBERT PIRES!!!!!

Exactly why i chose him ;)

[Hal]

Dropped Scholes and Rooney and picked up Nemeth and Geremi of Middlesbrough.

Also, had a fleeting moment trying to have Malbranque replace Scholes, but after he failed the physical I took Geremi instead.

[Clan]

That the pre-season points do count afterall.
Both myself and kopite are still showing points from the third and fourth week.

Will these go away after this round of fixtures is complete or will we have to make and adjustment all thru the season?

[kopiteinkc]

Originally posted by Clanblue
That the pre-season points do count afterall.
Both myself and kopite are still showing points from the third and fourth week.

Will these go away after this round of fixtures is complete or will we have to make and adjustment all thru the season?

The drop down menu reveals the Sepember scores and that is the one that counts.

[Clan]

I just read the messages on the League board and it would seem we have 6 rounds of pre-season to complete.

[Ingromius]

Hal, well done not to choose Malbranque... I expect that Legwinski will reveal himself as the better of those 2 at Fulham this year anyway; he was better than Mal. when they were both in France and I think he'll regain his form for the Cottagers this year.

[kopiteinkc]

Originally posted by Clanblue
I just read the messages on the League board and it would seem we have 6 rounds of pre-season to complete.

Originally they had it as four weeks, when they crashed the site and reloaded it over the weekend it suddenly had a six week preseason.

Not sure why they are doing this. The site seems to be functioning ok. September 21 is the new start date.