A dangerous pitfall when making your Fantasy Football team for the start of the season is to ignore a player's fixtures when deciding whether or not to take the plunge. While you may think you have a great team on paper, when you look through the gameweeks you van be sometimes be greeted with the terrible reality that you are in fact screwed.
One night stands or long term relationships?
Not to do an Ian Holloway on it but Fantasy Football is a lot like going on the pull on a night out. First you've got to decide the type of man you are and then the type of girl you'd like.
Leighton Baines; now Leighton's a long term girlfriend prospect. He'll play hard to get no doubt – considering he costs £7.5m – yet he's worth it. Why? Because he's reliable. Yes your relationship will have its difficult days – like when Everton play Chelsea on 14 September – but what relationship doesn't have its bumps along the way?
Overall yourself and Leighton could be looking at a good nine month journey together.
Ashley Cole on the other hand; now he's nothing more than a one-night-stand. Sure he'll treat to a couple of crazy nights over the next 10 days or so. Maybe even a midweek romp, but come late August his flame will begin to burn out – maybe during the Chelsea v United match – and my bet is that by the end of the month he'll have stood you up, and you'll be left broke after spending £6.5m on quickie.
Play your cards right
It may seem for that I'm advising you to go out and find yourself a steady partner but au contraire, once you have a plan then there's no reason why you can't become a bit of a player.
For instance, Danny Graham or Dimitar Berbatov aren't long-term relationship prospects in the slightest. But they'll fill those lonely nights for a while. Just make sure you get them at the right time. Go for Berb first, see how you get on together and then if that goes tits up you can always turn your attention to Graham then. Hopefully by that stage he'll have put his difficult days – Chelsea and Man City – behind him and he'll be able to keep you busy for a weekend or two.
Marriage material
Robin Van Persie. Hold on tight and never ever let him go.
Consult your calender
The golden rule. Make sure you plan your dates in advance, don't ever double book, and make sure you keep enough money in the back pocket to convince your potential lovers to come home with you.
Join the Balls.ie league with 362931-93780. Also make sure to check in with us during the week as we discuss Fantasy Football options further and collectively weep as we struggle to decide on our final squad.
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