2020/21 Co-Ord Round-up Part One - Transfer Dealings

(As usual I should warn that these figures might be wrong. But they won't be wrong by much. Hardly at all in fact.)

I might be the only one that thinks this might be interesting but this year might be really interesting. Especially the income figures. Are we starting to see the challenge of the Covid and post-Covid football transfer world?

Expenditure

Coming in just short of FF£780m it's the second most we've spent between us in a season. Three teams spent less than £20m and a further six less than £35m. At the other end of the scale two teams spent over £100m and four more over £60m to really drive the figure upwards.

Income

The amount our teams received in transfer money was down to around £325m, less than half last year's total and the lowest since 2013/14.

Only one team brought in more than £35m and five teams were in the single-figure millions.

Overall

Between us we turned in a massive loss of over £450m. That's the most since I've been doing this, by just over £200m, from the previous record holder 2007/8 - the first season I have figures for.

Two teams lost over £90m each, the two biggest single-season team losses ever. Three teams made a profit but only to the tune of around £6m between them.

(Since 2007/8 we're running at more than FF£2bn in deficit transfers-wise.)

Will we be tightening our purse-strings from here or was this season a one-off. Time will tell.

Week 30 Results - Artisans claim runner-up spot

Aardvark Abacus 2 v 2 Markian United

Cheese Makers 1 v 5 Real Muppets

Claymore Athletic FC 4 v 3 The Cow-Faced Juniors

Fred West Landscape Gardening XI 3 v 0 YTFIB

Mega Buck Bandits 0 v 1 The Wateringhole Society

Stanley Athletic FC 1 v 0 Nil Satis Nisi Optimum

The Fabulous Artisans 1 v 0 San Dimas High School

Wheel Madrid 2 v 2 Trusted By Millions

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	Pts
1	Fred West Landscape Gardening XI	30	16	11	3	77	51	26	59
2	The Fabulous Artisans	30	16	6	8	63	52	11	54
3	Trusted By Millions	30	15	7	8	59	47	12	52
4	Aardvark Abacus	30	14	8	8	63	53	10	50
5	The Cow-Faced Juniors	30	15	4	11	71	51	20	49
6	The Wateringhole Society	30	13	5	12	79	58	21	44
7	Real Muppets	30	13	5	12	68	53	15	44
8	Stanley Athletic FC	30	13	5	12	46	58	-12	44
9	Cheese Makers	30	12	5	13	51	60	-9	41
10	Mega Buck Bandits	30	11	6	13	54	52	2	39
11	Nil Satis Nisi Optimum	30	12	2	16	46	49	-3	38
12	YTFIB	30	9	8	13	49	56	-7	35
13	San Dimas High School	30	10	5	15	33	55	-22	35
14	Wheel Madrid	30	9	6	15	63	75	-12	33
15	Claymore Athletic FC	30	8	6	16	45	62	-17	30
16	Markian United	30	7	5	18	45	80	-35	26

Fred finished with a win so on top of winning the title he also broke the league record for fewest defeats in a season. Seeing as he lost his first game 9-0 to the Wateringhole Society it’s been quite a performance since. The Gardeners finished with a 3-0 win over YTFIB. Pepe has been very much on the fringes for the champions but two goals when given his chance this week proves that this’ll be a strong line-up again next term

It wasn’t quite such a strong season for Julian as 2019/20 but he still comfortably avoided the bottom spot that he'd almost made his own.

The Artisans secured the runner-up spot for the second time with a 1-0 win over San Dimas. Seeing as he lost his second game 9-2 to the Wateringhole Society it’s been a decent recovery since. Kyle Walker got the clean against his old side to give Ben the points this week. 

After finishing seventh or eighth for the last five seasons my team turned in their worst showing for 11 years. I’ll be in the market for attacking options next year.

Third place went to last season’s champions Trusted. Beef’s team made a slow start before having a great run in the second half of the season. This week early goals from Gabriel Jesus and another from Joe Willock were equalised by two Jamie Vardy penalties.

Wheel Madrid have probably been a bit unlucky with the counters against this season but they’ve finished in the bottom three for the third time under Paul’s stewardship. A deeper squad is needed to survive injuries to key players.

The Aardvarks faded to fourth after briefly looking like possible champions a month or so ago. They finished with a 2-2 draw against Markian. Gylfi Sigurdsson missed a penalty to put Ian ahead but his team were still two up at the break thanks to goals from Player of the Year Harry Kane and a first by Kalvin Phillips. Ady pulled one back from Declan Rice with four minutes left and then equalised with a Kieran Tierney clean. 

While staying bottom of the league it was a massive improvement this season for Ian, who, for a few brief minutes, looked like overtaking Claymore.

Speaking of Claymore, Clive’s team finished with a good 4-3 win against the CFJs. They were a bit unlucky perhaps but the bare facts are that they collapsed from third last year to a worst ever 15th place. Clive said farewell to WSFFL legend Sergio Aguero and the Argentinian signed off with two goals. Gareth Bale got two of his own to put the CFJs 3-2 up but Claymore landed the win with cleans from Fernandez and Cresswell.

After two seasons outside the top ten the Cows were back at the sharp end. Like a lot of teams they still have issues to address up front before they can think about getting over the line.

The Wateringhole Society were the league’s highest scorers and deservedly earned a top half spot with a 1-0 win at Mega Bucks. Ruben Dias, a fantastic signing for Kiran, got the clean that won the game and gave the Society their second-best finish. All without Raul Jimenez too.

Dave finishes tenth which is his second best effort in 13 seasons. The team’s stars, Antonio, Zaha, Aubameyang, need back-up.

The Muppets saw off top-half rivals Cheese Makers with a dominant 5-1 win. A brilliant Kevin De Bruyne goal gave Ryan the lead, Sadio Mane scored twice either side of an Anwar El Ghazi penalty (Emerson had save an earlier one) for Matthew and Phil Foden was also on target. Surely this Muppets side is too good to keep falling short of the big prize.

Ninth is an improvement from Matthew on last year but he’d have loved a third top half finish under his tenure. There is a decent squad developing at Le Stade de Fromage.

Stanley Athletic took eighth spot with a 1-0 win at Nil Satis. Ben Chilwell’s late goal was the decider. A bit of difficult second season syndrome for Aaron whose investment in Havertz and Werner hasn’t paid off. Yet.

Eleventh place for Nil Satis represents Paul’s second best in 11 years. An excellent season for Dominic Calvert-Lewin couldn’t cover up from a decline in defensive performance.

Week 29 Results - a fourth title for Fred

Aardvark Abacus 1 v 3 The Fabulous Artisans

Markian United 0 v 1 Cheese Makers

Nil Satis Nisi Optimum 2 v 3 The Cow-Faced Juniors

Real Muppets 2 v 1 Wheel Madrid

San Dimas High School 2 v 4 Mega Buck Bandits

Stanley Athletic FC 0 v 2 Fred West Landscape Gardening XI

The Wateringhole Society 2 v 5 Trusted By Millions

YTFIB 1 v 0 Claymore Athletic FC

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	Diff	Pts
1	Fred West Landscape Gardening XI	29	15	11	3	74	51	23	56
2	Trusted By Millions	29	15	6	8	57	45	12	51
3	The Fabulous Artisans	29	15	6	8	62	52	10	51
4	The Cow-Faced Juniors	29	15	4	10	68	47	21	49
5	Aardvark Abacus	29	14	7	8	61	51	10	49
6	The Wateringhole Society	29	12	5	12	78	58	20	41
7	Real Muppets	29	12	5	12	63	52	11	41
8	Cheese Makers	29	12	5	12	50	55	-5	41
9	Stanley Athletic FC	29	12	5	12	45	58	-13	41
10	Mega Buck Bandits	29	11	6	12	54	51	3	39
11	Nil Satis Nisi Optimum	29	12	2	15	46	48	-2	38
12	YTFIB	29	9	8	12	49	53	-4	35
13	San Dimas High School	29	10	5	14	33	54	-21	35
14	Wheel Madrid	29	9	5	15	61	73	-12	32
15	Claymore Athletic FC	29	7	6	16	41	59	-18	27
16	Markian United	29	7	4	18	43	78	-35	25

It looked like we might go to the last game before the title was decided as Stanley Athletic v Fred was locked at 0-0 after ninety minutes. Sixty seconds later Gabriel Martinelli had got on to the end of a teasing cross and bundled Fred in front. Recent signing Paul Dummett added a clean to make the points safe and the title celebrations could begin. 

The battle for the runner-up place is very much on with four teams still in with a shout. Outgoing champions Trusted currently hold that spot after a 5-2 win at the Wateringhole Society. A spectacular Sergio Reguilon own goal put Beef in front on 20 minutes but Matheus Pereira equalised seven minutes later. Beef’s team took the game away from Kiran with three goals in five minutes around half-time. Joe Willock carried on his scoring run and Richarlison and Leandro Trossard were also on the scoresheet. The Artisans are on the same points but two goals worse off. Ben’s team beat rivals the Aardvarks 3-1. Level at the break, Patrick Bamford’s goal and Lucas Digne’s clean gave the Artisans the points. The result drops Ady to fifth. The CFJs are two points further back after a 3-2 win at Nil Satis. A stunning Edison Cavani goal (that shouldn’t have counted!) got the Cows off and running, Soucek and Burn got the other goals which were enough to hold off the Nil Satis clean sheet fightback.

The three final top half places could go to any of six teams. The Wateringhole Society, Real Muppets and Cheese Makers currently hold those positions, Stanley Athletic are on the same points total, Mega Bucks and Nil Satis could yet nick in.  We’ve already mentioned TWS so onto the Muppets who edged Wheel Madrid 2-1, Phil Foden and Kelechi Iheanacho getting Ryan’s goals. Cheese Makers are in the shake-up after beating Markian 1-0. Andy Robertson’s clean was the only score of the game. An action-packed last few minutes saw Mega Bucks beat San Dimas 4-2. I was one up until the 88th minute when Michail Antonio and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain scored in quick succession. Tyler Roberts grabbed his first WSFFL goal deep into injury time to level things but the Bandits took the points with cleans from Alisson and Ayling.

Bottom of the table still isn’t quite settled after Clive’s 1-0 to loss to YTFIB. Ilkay Gundogan’s second minute goal proving the winner for Julian. If Clive gets a point against the CFJs then Ian will need to win his game by 18 goals so he’ll be looking for a win and a Claymore loss on Sunday.