TFF Weekly password to 19th February

For players of the Telegraph Premiership Fantasy Football here's the password for this week...

SHEARER


...as in he of Match of the Day fame and I think he played for Newcastle.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder...

Sorry I've not been around lately folks. A short break and swotting up on my TFF Champions League teams has taken it's toll on my blogging so I'll try and get back on track with only a week to go before the big kick-off of the competition.

Having now had a good look at the fixtures I reckon this is gonna be one mighty tough competition to win. There's hardly any certainties I can see from the first knockout games and having studied hard I've based my second entry on the sides I've reckoned will be there at the end from the beginning of this Champions league campaign. I've obviously had to throw in a few players from the cheaper end of the market to make up the numbers and these guys could prove real bargains having produced the goods during the group stages. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you...

CHAMPIN' AT THE BIT

Victor Valdes- Barcelona

Sergio Ramos- Real Madrid
Carles Puyol- Barcelona
Lilian Thuram- Barcelona
Marcelo- Real Madrid

Cristiano Ronaldo- Man Utd
Lucho Gonzalez- Porto
Julio Baptista- Real Madrid

Carlos Tevez- Man Utd
Darko Kovacevic- Olympiakos
Luis Fabiano- Sevilla

So there you have it. I'm fully expecting Man United, Barcelona and Real Madrid to be still in there come the semi-finals and two of those sides, fixtures permitting to meet in the final in Moscow on the 21st of May.

Get your entries into my Super League by using the details below, the clock's ticking...

Pin Number: 8001255
League Name: EUREKA 2008

TFF Weekly password...

For players of the Telegraph Premiership Fantasy Football here's the password for this week...

LOFTHOUSE

...as in Nat Lofthouse

Two weeks and counting...

With only a fortnight to go until the Champions League is back with us I'm gonna get down to the serious business of starting to swot up before picking the £20k winning team for the TFF competition.

I'm going for three entries into this competition and decided that team No1 would be randomly generated by the TFF computer. Here's the line-up I was presented with...

BLOGGERS UNITED

Petr Cech- Chelsea

Rio Ferdinand- Man U
Eric Abidal- Barcelona
Gokcek Vederson- Fenerbache
Gael Clichy- Arsenal

Michael Carrick- Man U
Arjen Robben- Real Madrid
Massimo Donati- Celtic
Mahamodua Diarra- Real Madrid

Lionel Messi- Barcelona
Emmanuel Adebayor- Arsenal

On first impressions I'm quite impressed by what the TFF boffins have presented me with. There's only two players who are due to meet in the next stages and the majority of them are players with teams I fancy to make the next round anyway.

With Barcelona due to face Celtic, Massimo Donati has to go. Not only is he not getting a regular start with Gordon Strachan's side but I strongly fancy Barca to return to Glasgow, after already facing Rangers' and really go to town with the Scottish Champions.

The other player who may not last the tests of time is Fenerbache's Vederson. Though the Turks kept three clean sheets in qualifying Sevilla will provide a tough test but I may stick with him for the home leg and make a change when the second leg is played.

I'd also like to welcome Mr S Bilsbury who becomes the first player to join my Super League. Don't forget to get your team entered using the log in...

League Name: EUREKA 2008
Pin Number: 8001255

Transfer Window...

So the excitement of another transfer window is over and how dull was that?



The obvious big move, and the one that kept Sky Sports in business tonight was the Jermaine Defoe switch to Pompey from Spurs to team up with old gaffer 'Arry Redknapp. Defoe will bang the goals in for Pompey I'm sure and if you're a player of the Premiership TFF then I'd be waiting until after this weekends Chelsea game and getting Defoe into your starting XI.

The other movers to check out once they're added to the game or their club is changed are Anthony Gardner who should slot into an Everton backline that has been quite watertight already this season and will come at a relatively small price and Brazilian Afonso Alves who could provide Middlesboro with the goals that Tuncay has been regularly missing this season.

TFF Weekly password...

For players of the Telegraph Premiership Fantasy Football here's the password for this week...

WOODS

...as in Tiger Woods, golfer supreme and hubby of the Swedish beauty that is Elin Nordegren.



Mmmmmmmm

Most selected so far...

Having now started the serious business of setting about picking my TFF Champions League sides I thought I'd do a bit of studying and see who the most selected players have been so far. It looks like great minds think alike as the top-rated keeper is Manuel Almunia, who I tipped up as being the value keeper a few days ago when we focused on the keepers involved in the knockout stages...

M Almunia 32.72%
E van der Sar 16.74%
P Cech 11.18%
V Valdes 10.43%
I Casillas 8.73%

Defensively it seems that entrants are packing their backlines with players from the Premiership with six out of the top ten being English-based players. Man United's Patrice Evra seems the value pick with over 40% of managers picking him in their side, obviously due to his modest fee of £3.7m. Here's the top five stoppers picked so far...

P Evra 40.42%
D Alves 20.96%
N Vidic 19.61%
G Clichy 18.50%
Alex 13.69%


Midfielders wise it's the usual suspects who dominate everyone's team selections and there's no real surprises in there to be honest. The form man is undoubtedly Cristiano Ronaldo and this shows with nearly 60% of managers slotting him into their midfield. Here's the top five men in the middle...

C Ronaldo 58.79%
Kaka 31.73%
C Fabregas 31.66%
S Gerrard 24.82%
Ronaldinho 12.27%

Up front the managers are a bit more divided on who will do the business and get the goals to help them on to the £20k TFF prize. Carlos Tevez leads the way, but plent of the top marksmen have been taken by the managers so far. Luis Fabiano looks like the value choice with nearly 12% picking the hitman who only has a price tag of £5m. Here's the top five goal-grabbers selected so far...

C Tevez 27.00%
R van Nistelrooy 24.15%
F Torres 16.34%
E Adebayor 14.66%
L Messi 12.89%

Hopefully this gives you a small insight into the minds of the TFF managers who have been getting their sides sorted early doors. Click on the players name to read their entry in Wikipedia and find out more about them.

Havant any Heroes? Here's some...

Just a quick posting to say, 'What about those lads from Havant & Waterlooville?'


Saturday's match at Anfield against the multi-millionaires of Liverpool showed exactly that the romance of the FA Cup remains the same now, even in this age where money seems to be polluting the wonderful game, as it did way back in the day and has done since the tournament was born.

Well done lads, I and every other football fan in the world loved every minute of it!

What no comments?

Being new to this blogging business I don't even know if this is being seen out there in the big bad world of cyberspace. Please feel free to leave me some comments if you come across my ramblings just to let me know I'm being seen.

Super League set up... please join me

To make the TFF Champions League competition that bit more interesting for us all I've set up a Super League that will hopefully attract people from near and far. If you've got your entry in, and don't know anyone else who's playing well here's your chance to make the whole thing that wee bit more interesting.

The Super League details are...

Pin Number: 8001255
League Name: EUREKA 2008

The more teams we can get into this the merrer and it gives me a chance to get to know the people who are reading and using this blog a bit better too. I've set up the league so that we can all see who everyone has in their team, my team's Bloggers United and at present was just a randomly generated side, though I like the majority of what I see.

Come join me in EUREKA 2008 and make sure and tell all your mates to get their teams in too.

Premiership TFF Players...

For those of you that are already players of the Telegraph Premiership Fantasy Football here's the password for this week...

DUBLIN

...as in Dion Dublin I presume and not the place where it costs you ridiculous Euros for a pint but where the Guiness is fine! I'll try and post these passwords for you over the rest of the season too, it's good practice for me for the Champions League competition.

The keepers...

Over the next few weeks we'll be looking at some of the players involved in the next stages of the Champions League and how the TFF competiton rates them. Here's a list of all the keepers left in the tournament and the valuations placed on them...

P Cech CHE 4.0
J Reina LIV 3.9
Dida ACM 3.8
V Valdes BAR 3.7
E van der Sar MUN 3.6
J Cesar INT 3.5
J Lehmann ARS 3.4
I Casillas MAD 3.4
A Palop SEV 3.4
Doni ROM 3.3
R Vercoutre LYO 3.2
C Cudicini CHE 3.1
T Kuszczak MUN 3.1
M Neuer SCH 3.1
Helton POR 3.0
V Demirel FEN 3.0
A Nikopolidis OLY 3.0
L Fabianski ARS 2.9
M Almunia ARS 2.9
A Boruc CEL 2.8

Now, taking a quick glance at this the value I can see lies with Manuel Almunia of Arsenal at £2.9m. With Jens Lehmann's nose being firmly out of joint with the Gunners, Almunia is the undoubted No1 and with the first leg tie against holders AC Milan being at the Emirates a clean sheet, against a side who were beaten at Celtic Park during qualifying and by all accounts haven't performed this season could easily be on the cards.
Almunia managed 4 clean sheets during the qualifying stages, something that was only matched by Victor Valdes of Barcelona.

Battles of the Giants...

Over the next few weeks we'll be looking at the exciting fixture that lie ahead as the Champions League gets fown to the nitty gritty. The players who have been doing the business so far, where the goals have been coming from and where the value for money is to be with the TFF valuations placed on the players who could bag you the big points.

Just to get you started, here are the fixtures for the upcoming knockout stages with links to the relevant clubs...

Tuesday, 19 February 2008

Liverpool v Inter Milan

Olympiakos v Chelsea

Roma v Real Madrid

Schalke 04 v FC Porto

Wednesday, 20 February 2008

Arsenal v AC Milan

Celtic v Barcelona

Fenerbahce v Sevilla

Lyon v Man Utd

Get studying!

Get Scouting...

Entries are now being taken for the Champions League version of the Fantasy Football game that beats all others. The Telegraph competition has long been at the forefront of Fantasy games and not only is there over £20k up for grabs in prizes but you get to take on Match of the Day's very own defensive destroyer Alan Hansen.
The first scoring game kicks off on Tuesday February 19th so get your entry in here and see if you can emulate The Special One and win the Champions League. Sign up here and good luck, I'll take a hell of a beating.