Rather than dwell on the removal of IPD's, I mocked this concept up earlier as a thought experiment for the type of system that I think could replace IPD's. It's a little sloppily done but I thought it'd be good to show an example of how the removal of IPD's might turn in to a good thing. (or bad if you don't like the concept I guess)
Ladies and Gentlemen of FI... I present to you.... the all new singing and dancing IPD replacement....
TARGETS!
The concept is super simple , players earn dividends when footballers hit specific targets. For example, if a midfielder scores 5 goals, holders are paid 10p.
In many ways, it's just an evolution of IPD's, where traders win dividends for specific actions... albeit, in a more prolonged manor, so as to incentivise long term trading but the system would offer a great degree of flexibility to FI and the targets could be just goal/assist related OR as granular as FI choose to make them. (10,000 passes = 10p, 50 tackles = 5p. 20 GWG = £1), etc. Some might never come off, others might be low earners but frequent winners.
The targets would change from position-to-position, with a Striker needing to score more goals than a Defender to win the dividend. Goalkeepers could be rewarded 10p for 5 clean sheets, where as a Defender could be rewarded 5p for 10 clean sheets. FI, could even tailor this system to specific players, for example, DM's like Kante, could have lower goal targets than other midfielders like Ilicic or perhaps receive a dividend for 15 clean sheets to reward the defensive side of their game.
One of the issues with the existing IPD's, is the need to regularly refresh to stay in the game. With a system like Targets, it could take a DM such as Kante, multiple seasons to score 5 goals but if you picked him up at a time when he's in red hot form, he might score 4 in a week, then keep you hanging on in there for an entire season (or 2) before scoring the 5th.
Obviously, there's a few challenges for a system like this. For starters, FI would need to give users a full breakdown of our holds incase we have bought the same player on multiple occasions... but that functionality is meant to be coming anyway.
At this point any new system at all has the potential to cause an absolute earthquake on FI or a gold rush, so, I just hope, whatever they go with, they find a way to phase it in properly and give us something fun.
They could even take this system to the next level. Imagine you did buy Kante in a hot streak and he scored 4 out 5... they could let you sell that Kante with the 4/5 Targets attached, so you would be able to list him for a higher price than someone with a Kante who has no Targets met. At this point, it's more a redesign of the entire Index though...
Anyhow... If you've made it this far... you're obviously as bored as I am... feel free to pick this to pieces or post your own alternatives.