As stated before, please get your transfers in  by next Saturday 15th March 12pm. I am not around in the morning so you’ll have to send me a text/email or get them to me some other way.

I will allow changes to be made next week too because it’s generally short notice, but just not retrospectively. So, changes will apply from when they are submitted.

24 players allowed over the season.  Here are the  number of players each team has left to make:

The second transfer window is now open, and will remain so until before the games on Jan 12th. The table below shows the number of transfers remaining for the rest of the season and the value of each team (£60m max), so it is a good guide to work off of.

You can find your current team of players HERE (in last weeks scores). All Player available for selection and their details can be found if you follow these links:

• Goalies
• Defenders
• Midfielders
• Strikers

To assist you when you are in those pages, you can sort the players according to value, points, alphabetical by clicking on the header on top of the lists. Also clicking on each player gives more detailed statistics of points scored in each game.

I’m going to allow one transfer after the transfer window, a bit like the Christmas transfer last time around, partly because I know that people will be screaming to allow a change, but also because the actual transfer premiership transfer window doesn’t end until the end of January … so some players like Lampard, Anelka or others may be moving abroad or to lower divisions where they can be guaranteed their game. But use the transfer wisely, there will be no second one.

I would also recommend getting rid of your African players that are heading off to the African Cup of Nations next week, and the final is scheduled for February 10th. Of course some players may be hole long before this if their countries do poorly. It’s up to you to decide whether to take a chance until they get back or not.

I’d be looking closely at the list of injured & suspended players which can be found HERE, HERE and HERE.

Don’t forget that there’s another transfer window in March, so use all your transfers now at your pearl …. like DJ last year when he bought Larsson in January, knowing full well that he was heading back to Sweden in March … and he left himself no remaining transfers … and down the table he dropped.

The usual rules apply:

• 1 goalie, 4 defenders, 3 midfielders, 3 strikers
• £60m max team value
• 3 players max from any one team (yes i will enforce it this time)

As I think of more (or as they happen to come into me), i will write them down here.

These are the one off transfers that have been made so far, since we have allowed one change for injuries over Christmas:

14/dec/07 Sonya: Rio Ferdinand for Carvalho

14/dec/07 Ola: Berbatov for Drogba

15/dec/07 Don: J A Riise for Carvalho

16/dec/07 Dermot Mc: Vidic for Bale (2pm before the utd ‘pool game)

22/dec/07 1:45pm: DJ: Van Persie for Drogba

22/dec/07 am: Shaybee: Paul Scharner for Olivier Kapo

25/dec/07 Dan Mc: Giggs forNani

27/dec/07 Mike: Christiano Ronaldo for Frank Lampard

Well the voting has finished, with 10 of the 14 participants voting on the resolution to “Allow one transfer per team from now until the end of the current Inter-Transfer window (Jan 2nd)”.

And the results are: Yea – 7 ; Nay 3

This is an overwhelming majority by any standards, thus the change will be made so. In fact as soon as I sent out the text on the vote, I had half a dozen replies, so thanks guys & gals. These are the rules:

• One player transfer ONLY.
• It is NOT an extra free transfer. It will be counted as one of the 12 allowed during the season.
• It is an OPTION of a transfer, so you may or may not use it. It is up to your own personal discretion whether to transfer a player or not
• You may request the transfer at any time between now and Jan 2nd. The transfer will apply from when the request is made. Transfers made during matches will come into effect after that match has finished.
• Normal game rules will apply. So please don’t make the usual mistakes (ye know who ye are):

• stay under £60m
• max of 3 players from any one team …
• 4-3-3 formation

And before anyone comes and says this was done to suit me, well that’s hardly the case because the current injury crisis is suiting me to the ground as it’s helping me to catch the leaders week on week. C’est la vie. I’m really just a facilitator here.

Due to current injury crisis / severe lack or form / or out of favour amongst our players, a proposal has come from the floor to allow one player transfer to be made from now until the start of the next inter-transfer window (Jan 3rd). This would not be an extra free transfer, but would be counted as one of the 12 than can be made through the season. Now, it is only a proposal an it will be put to a democratic vote, so it can be either be voted for or against.

To change the rules, I will have to insist on an outright majority for those in favour (YEA). A vote not cast will not be counted either way.

A text has been sent out to everyone this morning. The votes will be counted and the result posted here tomorrow morning (Thursday 13th December).

I’m putting it to a vote because I know that views are divided on the matter, and I don’t want to take any personal responsibility. (You can hear me saying cluck, cluck, cluck…..)

Below is a list of the numbers of players affected on each team, So I don’t think that anyone is going to lose out if it goes through.

Some of ye have already been asking about the timing of the second transfer window, concerned about the availability of players that are departing for the African Nations Cup 2008 (Jan 20th – Feb 10th).

Transfer Window #2 will be from Jan 3rd to Jan 12th (12pm) 2008

So basically you don’t have to get rid of your African players this transfer window unless you really want to … but I would clear them out of my team come next January.

As I said before, the transfer window is open from October 28th until November 3rd 12:30pm. as usual to change your team, you can either send me a text, email, slip of paper, phone me, comment on this blog. But get your changes in … and well, you can change the team before the transfer window too if you will be away (Der & Mairead). Sensible rules as usual apply … as from the start http://tullig.blogspot.com/2007/08/were-back.html
15 13 transfers over the season, as many as you like in each transfer window (sorry, I previously said 15, and I was asked about it … but it was a mistake on my part)
stay under £60m
No three players from the one team
Ahhhh, just ask and I’ll make up the rules as I go along!!!

Oh by the way, who hasn’t paid yet??? Hmmm, I don’t accept credit cards … but I will accept brown paper envelopes. In fact, DJ is in charge of the money again this year.

Howdy folks, the new season has started and it’s about time to get the Fantasy Football competition underway again. The same as last year … but there might be a few rule changes!

I’ve held back the start date in order to give people a chance to see what players are actually playing on their teams, so everyone can pick a half decent team.

The rules will be based on the YouTheManager site we will be getting our scores from:
http://www.youthemanager.co.uk/CleverTV/en/tmg/dm990/15719/clienthowtoplay.do

How to Play
Study the player list carefully and select your 11 players using the following rules:

1. Select teams in a 1-4-3-3 formation (1 Goalkeeper, 4 Defenders, 3 Midfielders and 3 Strikers).

2. Players must be selected in the positions attributed to them in the official You The Manager player lists. A player can only be selected in a team once – player duplication is not permitted.

3. The combined value of your 11 players must not exceed £60m.

4. There is a limit of 3 players that you can select from any one team [*NEW*]- and you must stay within the budget of £60m. If a player moves to another Premier League club during the course of the season they will remain with their original club for the purposes of You The Manager. Players involved in transfer speculation such as Carlos Tevez, Gabriel Heinze and Leighton Baines will be added in to the game as soon as any transfer has been confirmed. If no transfer happens they will be added to the game nearer to the start of the season. Remember the transfer amnesty is in place until 12.30pm on Saturday August 11th.

5. Our season starts on August 25th, and thus the scoring will start from there. Points will be taken from the YouTheManager.co.uk site at the following pages:
Goalkeepers:http://youthemanager.co.uk/CleverTV/en/tmg/dm990/15719/clientplayerlist.do?index=0&code=Y
Defenders:http://youthemanager.co.uk/CleverTV/en/tmg/dm990/15719/clientplayerlist.do?index=1&code=Y
Midfielders:http://youthemanager.co.uk/CleverTV/en/tmg/dm990/15719/clientplayerlist.do?index=2&code=Y
Strikers:http://youthemanager.co.uk/CleverTV/en/tmg/dm990/15719/clientplayerlist.do?index=3&code=Y

6. You can enter as many teams as you like.

7. To enter a team, contact me on 086- 3644208, or email me at farmercash[at]gmail[dot]com. or just give it to me or DJ on paper before matches start on August 25th.

8. Entry fee: like last year, the entry fee is €20. there is no cost for transfers. There is no administration fee either. (i’m doing it for the good of my own health).

9. All decisions made by the management are final … as opposed the mullocking around that happened last year!

Transfers

I am open to suggestions about the transfer windows. There is the option of no transfer windows … that’s the way that YouTheManager is doing it this year …. or we can have week long transfer windows like last year. I think that the transfer windows are a better job for everyone, because it’s impossible to be scrutinizing your team all year long. Of course it’s a friendly game, and we’re going to be flexible as ever.

In a change to YTM 07/08, there will be NO TRANSFER WINDOWS. Each team will be able to use up to 15 transfers throughout the course of the competition. You can start to make transfers during the season on the 4th September 2007. Transfers operate on a weekly basis with one cut-off / team freeze at 12.30pm on Saturdays.

Weekly Scoring Notifications: hmmm, with the increased number of teams expected this year, whoever i can send an email to instead of a text, well that would be appreciated … because i’m running out of free texts to send … because of foreign influences!!

Happy playing, and i hope to talk to ye all soon.

One final note … is that the rules may be tweaked as the season goes on. Just to keep things as interesting as possible.

I’ve just found more administrative cock-ups … on Donal Murphy’s team again this time!!! Again the error occured when entering in the transfer data. It all now seems very clear: I remember the “Sidwell for Ronaldo” at the bottom throwing me, because he never had Ronaldo on his team. This was at the same time as “The Arteta Affair” was raising its ugly head.
So I have used a matter of deduction, and Cec Fabregas got the road. Everything fits nicely now.

His team now reads…

There has been some controversary as to how Donal Murphy’s charges have been catapulted to the top of the table. The picture on the left shows his original team from DJ’s copybook which comtained all the teams. (Copybook probably stolen from some poor unfortunate child). Anyway, when my secretary was entering in the teams, he mistakenly used Arca instead of Arteta. In his defence, Arteta is spelled incorrectly (a third party error), so the mistake is understandable.

So what have we learned? Cut out the middleman, change management companies, and…. do your own calculations. The mistake was only found by pure chance when the last set of transfers were sent in. My secretary went … “Sure Donal Murphy doesn’t have Arteta in his team”. Thus began the mayhem.