Wednesday, 29 August 2012

SSPA 2012/13 - Week 1 Report


The 2012/13 season got underway on a hot and steamy August weekend but nothing much changed as far as league positions are concerned as John Terry’s All Gold begin this term in the same way as they ended the previous campaign by occupying the top spot.  And one of last year’s top three teams is also back in third place as the Smeggers make an impressive start to the season.  It isn’t all ‘same old same old’ though as league newcomers Wasteland United reside in second place.  Down at the bottom it’s been a tough return to fantasy league action for Keezer as his Inter Meringue team prop up the rest of the division.

Week 1 Wonders – John Terry’s All Gold
Carrying on from where he left off last year, Bugs Birney, with his new charges made up of seven Englishmen, a couple of boyos from Wales and six other Europeans scored 19 points to take up the top position in the SSPA.  Bunny invested £14M in the talents of the Belgian Eden Hazard and with two assists in the first week it’s looking like money well spent.  Englishmen Jermaine Defoe and Kevin Nolan provided the goals while Irishman Shane Long got All Gold’s other assist of the week.  Clean sheets came from Taylor, Collins and Hangeland while Patsy Clyne was the only blotch on the copy book with two minus points.

The Nearly Men – Wasteland United and Smegma United
Chummy Linski made a respectable start to his SSPA career by scoring 17 points to go second in the league.  Free signing Liam Ridgewell was Wasteland United’s top scorer with five points (a goal and an assist) while Foster, Williams, Sinclair and Dickie ‘Dickie’ Lambert all chipped in with three points each.  Meanwhile TAM TUFF was indebted to Wayne Routledge’s four points to cancel out the four points lost by John Ruddy who suffered after the Cottagers gave the Canaries a good stuffing.  Rangel, Terry, Jagielka, Hughes and Le Fondeler all helped the Smeggers cause with three points each while Lallana popped in with an assist.

Almost Pointless
It’s been a long time coming but the return of the famous Inter Meringue (well, they are sort of famous in a quiet corner of Sheffield where Ronseal varnish is manufactured) was welcomed by many in the game.  However, it isn’t the start club supremo Keezer (or Kaiser Willhelm IV to give him his full name) would have wanted.  It wasn’t looking too bad as Meringue were cushioned from the bottom by a couple of other new clubs but suddenly the blanket was pulled from beneath them at some point on Monday night during the Toffees’ clash with Man Ure.  Kevin Richardson scored Meringue’s only positive points with a clean sheet but a negative point each for Kompany and Kaboul let the side down.

Player of the Week – Mladen Petrić
Unathletico Jillbao manager Jillytub purchased Petrić for £0.25M at the auction and at a cost of £31,250 per point he is already looking like a sound investment.  The Croatian striker who has over 40 caps to his name played a major part in Halfbacon’s rout of Norwich at the Cottage with two goals and assist.

Chump of the Week – Rob Green
There were four players that scored four negative points this week but seeing as Green is the most expensive signing of the group at a cost of £1.50M to Scotty Dog of Wandering Dog and the fact that he was playing at home at Fortress Loftus Road he definitely deserves the accolade.

Bargain of the Season (so far) - Mladen Petrić
It’s early days yet but there are a few contenders for the bargain of the season, those being: Ridgewell (5pts for nowt) and Routledge (4pts for bugger all).  However, the lad Petrić is out there with a point to pound ratio of 32 points per £1M.  Not a bad investment in anyone’s book.

Expensive Mistake of the Season (so far) – Sergio Aguero
At a cost of £18M to Wandering Dog, Aguero is currently the second most expensive player in the SSPA.  The Argentinian was brutally hacked down by All Gold’s Patsy Clyne before he had a chance to make an impact and now looks to be ruled out for at least a month with a knee injury.

All we are saying is ‘Give us a goal’
Three SSPA teams are still awaiting their first netbuster.  Wandering Dog, Not So Athletic Athletic and Inter Meringue went the entire first week without a goal.  With Aguero out of action Scotty Dog will have to rely on Suarez for that first goal while The Landlord will be hoping his Queens Park Ranger boys Cisse and Taarabt can score at Saturday’s Clash of the Thrashed at Carrow Road.  With only two strikers in his squad Keezer’s chances of a goal are limited but seeing as those players are RVP and Jellybitch he must surely have a chance next week.

Tosspot League
With so many teams in this year’s SSPA eventually there will be many managers finding themselves immersed in mid-table mediocrity.  This is where the other competitions come in to give those managers hope.  The Tosspot League kicks off this week (points taken from 21st to 27th August count) and continues until the end of February as each team play each other once on a head to head basis.  With the stand out fixture being the current Tosspot League champions John Terry’s All Gold coming up against the SSPA’s bottom team, this week’s fixtures are as follows:

Wasteland United v Royal Somerset Fruitcakes
Smegma United v Duncity United
John Terry’s All Gold v Inter Meringue
Not So Athletic Athletic v Whiptail Lizards
Armitage Shankers v CNUT FC
Unathletico Jillbao v The Minstrels
Settle Sounders v Wandering Dog

No game: Taxbore Wanderers

Click here to see more details on the Tosspot League.

Auction
The first auction will be held on Friday 7 September at the Hobgoblin in Reading.  Blind bids to be opened at 8pm.  TAM TUFF is organising a fun bicycle ride the following day if anyone fancies some Wiggo action.

Premier League Transfers
Just two more transfers to add to the list since the last correspondence.  Some bloke called Robin Van Persie has moved from Arsenal to Manchester United meaning that Inter Meringue now have three Red Devils.  He will have to part with either RVP, Paul Scholes or Rafael if Keezer makes a transfer.  Alex Song went for a song at the auction costing Jillbao just £0.50M but Jillytub will have that amount refunded as soon as she transfers the ex-Arsenal player out of her squad.  The Cameroonian midfielder moved to Barcelona earlier this week.

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