Tag: doctor khumalo

MANAGING a team in regular fantasy football contests offers little true variance.

Sitting at your computer and picking the same two strikers 100,000 others have, while the War Office reminds you it’s bin day tomorrow is unpreferred.

Having to then spend the tournament logging on to make transfers and, God forbid, ‘pick captains’, is quite frankly unacceptable.

In the Olisadebe auction, managers lock horns in that most competitive of arenas, the pub.

Once the auction’s over, managers are free to enjoy the tournament in the patented Ruud Gullit ‘bars and discotheques’ style.

For the uninitiated, here an idiot’s guide to the rules:

• Each manager has £100m to buy 11 players in a 4-4-2 formation
• Each team may have no more than one player of each nationality
• Managers breaking the rules are subject to the Titus Bramble Ruling.

The second rule in particular makes the Olisadebe ultimately challenging. Buying a bottom-drawer player from a top team is folly.

Going around the table, each gaffer takes it in turns to introduce a player to the bidding. The auction ends when every team is filled.

The Olisadebe ‘Brambles’ will be announced next week.

What experience tells us

Looking below at the top performers from the last international tournament, the Doctor Khumalo 2010 World Cup, the immediate thought is: what the bejabbers was someone up to spending £31.5m on a holding midfielder like Schweinsteiger?

During a domestic season, steady Eddies like Bastian ‘Pig-overseer’, making regular appearances and nicking the odd goal can be useful.

But in tournament football, where an absolute maximum of six games awaits, the only successful midfielders are those scoring just as many goals as their striking counterparts (Wesley Sneijder).

Forwards regularly finding the net and back fives from organised teams picking up clean sheets offer the best return on investment.

Creative wing backs getting assists and goals, while their side keeps clean sheets, are a handy addition.

The second thing you’ll notice from the table is that some household names went for chicken feed. There are three reasons for this:

1. all the other managers had bought their quota from that country (Iker Casillas)
2. those at the auction simply hadn’t considered that player of value (Thomas Muller)
3. the player had initially been bought for a large sum, forfeited through the Titus Bramble Ruling and bought on the cheap later in the evening (David Villa)

Top European’s from the 2010 Khumalo World Cup in South Africa

Name	Position	Country	Points	Auction price
Thomas Muller	Striker	Germany	42	£0.5m
Wesley Sniejder	Midfielder	Netherlands	40	£36m
David Villa	Striker	Spain	39	£0.5m
Iker Casillas	Goalkeeper	Spain	35	£0.5m
Gerard Pique	Defender	Spain	33	£22m
Carlos Puyol	Defender	Spain	33	£1m
Sergio Ramos	Defender	Spain	28	£1m
Mesut Ozil	Midfielder	Germany	26	£0.5m
Miroslav Klose	Striker	Germany	25	£7m
Manuel Neuer	Goalkeeper	Germany	24	£0.5m
Phillipe Lahm	Defender	Germany	22	£13.5m
Arne Friedrich	Defender	Germany	22	£1m
Arjen Robben	Midfielder	Netherlands	21	£15m
Bastian Schweinsteiger	Midfielder	Germany	21	£31.5m
Andres Iniesta	Midfielder	Spain	20	£19m
Giovanni van Bronckhorst	Defender	Netherlands	20	£5m

Follow the auction live on Twitter @jeffkennaleague or #eurosauction on Tuesday 29 May from 7pm (BST)

Look out for more news and features about the Olisadebe in the build up to the auction.