Lush Gutters

ProMax Royal Draft 2024/25: Episode 2 – The Agony and the Ecstasy

Well, I had a lovely weekend! Being top after gameweek one is about as noteworthy as being the fastest out of your mates to count to twenty. It means absolutely nothing and nobody cares. However, it’s me who’s top, and it’s my blog, so I’m now going to declare myself a genius because I (the…
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ProMax Royal Draft 2024/25: Episode 1 – On Your Marks…

There was a point, not two or three weeks ago, where I wasn’t all that fussed about the new season. Every leap year the average football fan is given not a single moment to miss the sport. The domestic football calendar bleeds within weeks into the European Championships, which itself is barely over before the…
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Respect Qatari law? F**king make me.

It is my steadfast opinion that anyone who says, “I’m all for gay rights, but we should respect the laws of a foreign country”, is lying to you about how much they actually support gay rights. We have a nasty tendency to refer to gay rights as an issue on the same level as what…
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Mad Max’s World Cup Hullabaloo – Why I hate myself

In the best circumstances the build-up to a World Cup involves hype and hysteria, anxiety and excitement, and the giddy thrill of consciously misguided expectation. Once every four years, myself and millions of others mentally depart the real world and allow ourselves an opportunity to frolic in a realm unconnected from whatever woe engulfs our…
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Mad Max’s World Cup Hullabaloo – The Calm Before the Storm

The parellels are uncanny. A little more than four years ago, England prepared for their first major tournament after the gargantuan embarrassment of Euro 2016. An abject humiliation to Iceland in the first knockout round marked a low point in the nation’s footballing fortunes, and by coming just a few days after a wave of…
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Mad Max’s Royal Draft Smorgasbord – GW4: You’ve got to know when to Holding, know when to Foden…

“If you can’t spot the sucker in your first half-hour at the table, then you are the sucker.” Mike McDermott (Matt Damon), Rounders, 1998 _______________________________________ The first four weeks of the ProMax Royal Draft have played out like the opening hands at a high-stakes poker tournament final table. We’ve had a month now in which…
Read more: Mad Max’s Royal Draft Smorgasbord – GW4: You’ve got to know when to Holding, know when to Foden…
Mad Max’s Classic Grand Hootenanny: GW1 – Deal or No Deal

On August 3rd 2022 – approximately forty-eight hours before the new season of the English Premier League – Leicester City sold Kasper Schmeichel. The ramifications would be catastrophic. What Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha and Brendan Rodgers couldn’t possibly have known was that their actions would kickstart a series of events that would cost me the first game…
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Mad Max’s Royal Draft Smorgasbord: Episode 1 – A Jigsaw Falling into Place: A Guide to FC Dodge

Yesterday, at 6pm GMT, 7pm in Berlin, 1pm in Georgia, and 10am in Arizona, history was being made. ProMax moved into the future. Seven intrepid pioneers took part in the first ever Royal Draft, and the stakes couldn’t be higher. In this league, each Premier League player can be owned by only one manager. Destinies…
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Max Max’s Classic Grand Hootenanny: 2022/23 Pre-Season Review – Episode 1: The Looming Iceberg

It’s important that we take a moment to appreciate exactly what we’re about to get ourselves into. Fantasy football is all about planning ahead. The season is lengthy enough that long-term plans play out, and short bursts of disorganised good fortune are evened out by the laws of averages. This effect is exaggerated the more…
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Mad Max’s Classic Grand Hootenanny 2021/22: Episode 1 – Max Selby and the Madness of Perfection

It all started with an itch that just could not be scratched. After three seasons of Fantasy Football, Max Christopher George Selby had much with which to be satisfied. He was, after all, the big kahuna, the top dog, the biggest name in the ProMax World Championship, having won two of the three world titles…
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Author: Lush Gutters