Tuesday 28 July 2009

Top Two clash in Week Two

The 2009/10 WSFFL fixture list is released today and last season's top two, Aardvark Abacus and Boston Rock, have been pitched together as early as the second week.

That's the highlight of an extremely tough opening for both of last year's trophy winners.

Sheriff's 'Sky Heroes' play four members of last season's top six in the first four weeks and meet the Groovers in week seven.

Ady's champions have a little more respite but will also play the Muppets, Trusted and the CFJs in the first six weeks of the campaign before meeting Rich's side in week nine.

Both managers will need their squads in tip-top shape and will not want to give any ground to the other contenders too early in the season.

Sunday 26 July 2009

Fact Corner with Rafael Benitez - Auctions

Hello to all managers except Alex Ferguson.

Fact - The co-ordinator is busy finalising the fixture list.

Fact - He's asked me to take some time off from worrying about whether Liverpool will have a midfield next season to write a blog post for him.

Fact - So I thought I'd write one about facts. Here are the headline auction details from the last couple of seasons.

2007/8

August 2007

New Players for auction - 134
New Players purchased - 66
Straight to pool - 68
Purchased for £10m plus - 10 players
Purchased for £500k - 23 players
Most Expensive - David Nugent £18m to Boston Rock

September 2007
(Wage bill rule introduced before this auction)

New Players for auction - 37
New Players purchased - 19
Straight to pool - 18
Purchased for £10m plus - 3 players
Purchased for £500k - 9 players
Most Expensive - Kenwyne Jones £15m to The Dead Parrots

February 2008

New Players for auction - 48
New Players purchased - 27
Straight to pool - 21
Purchased for £10m plus - 3 players
Purchased for £500k - 9 players
Most Expensive - Afonso Alves £13m to Claymore Athletic

2008/9

August 2008

New Players for auction - 116
New Players purchased - 52
Straight to pool - 64
Purchased for £10m plus - 5 players
Purchased for £500k - 21 players
Most Expensive - Jose Bosingwa £18m to Claymore Athletic

September 2008

New Players for auction - 40
New Players purchased - 20
Straight to pool - 20
Purchased for £10m plus - 4 players
Purchased for £500k - 7 players
Most Expensive - Robinho £16m to Trusted and Roman Pavlyuchenko £16m to the Groove Machine (although Boston Rock did pay £17m for summer dump Shaun Wright-Phillips)

February 2009

New Players for auction - 26
New Players purchased - 15
Straight to pool - 11
Purchased for £10m plus - 1 player
Purchased for £500k - 2 players
Most Expensive - Andrei Arshavin £13m to Final Fantasy

So 16 players sold for £10m plus in 2007/8 but only 10 last season. Is interesting, must be conspiracy between FA and Scotsman.

Your friend in facts.

Rafa

Saturday 11 July 2009

Sheriff's Full English

Boston Rock have released reserve keeper Jason Brown to the summer pool.

Not a huge deal you might think, the Welshman joining from Claymore last August for £2m and not making an impression, but it now means that Sheriff has his long-awaited all-English WSFFL squad.

I think we know where he may be focusing his efforts in the transfer market ahead of the new season!

And one question...Does the Boston in You Know Your Boston Rock FC now mean Boston in Lincolnshire?

Thursday 9 July 2009

Fixture List Update

Bah! Another one of my best laid plans going agley!

No sooner had I started work on the fixture list than I discover that three matches in the first midweek of the season have been postponed. (Darn European football.)

It seems daft putting one of our fixture weeks on when three games including the likes of Arsenal, Man City, Villa and Everton aren't being played is only going to lead to postponements so we'll knock that on the head and ry and play on FA Cup quarter-final weekend (6 March) instead.

To whet your appetite though the fixture computer has coughed up these opening day games...

Claymore Athletic FC v Mega Buck Bandits
Dynamo Kev v Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
Final Fantasy XI v Real Muppets
San Dimas High School v 22-Legged Groove Machine
The Dead Parrots v Aardvark Abacus
The Fabulous Artisans v Fred West Landscape Gardening XI
York’s Returning Glory v Trusted By Millions
You Know Your Boston Rock FC v The Cow-Faced Juniors

The champs have a long trip down under to face the Parrots while runners-up Boston Rock face a repeat of last season's Cup Final.