The Football Index Forum awards for the 2018-19 season will only add to what has been fantastic so far and like most other seasonal awards in football, I've decided to throw this into the mix before the season does finish. As this is the inaugural Awards, there may be some categories or nominees that you feel haven't been included, in which case let us know and we'll see if they can be added. Otherwise, this just seems like a fun thread to clutter this place up a touch more. So, onto the awards and their nominees:

Best Thread

• Pogba- FI King - @Valhalla
  Possibly one of the threads that could run for years. Paul Pogba causes viewers and drop their jaws in awe, more often due to his lack of urgency in anything he does, to the odd sensational strike and even due to his dividend return simply for a hair cut and a new emoji. The Pogba- FI King thread currently has been going strong for 4 months now and is currently at 626 posts and over 60'000 views!
• The Advincula Challenge - @dannypea
  In late September on a slow Friday night, Dannypea decided he would get 5 shares on an unpromising right wingback on loan at a terrible PB League from a Mexican team. On that night, a legend was born. Luis Advincula has since become one of the most well known names on this forum, hundreds of players bought thousands of shares in the Ferret and I have a Rayo shirt in my wardrobe that I bought online but is too small for me. The celebrations that shook Football Index will forever be remembered when in early 2019, Luis Advincula won PB on a single match day Monday. The thread may now be dead but at 314 posts and over 66'000 views, it will be remembered for a long time by many of us.
• Tincan, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.....muppet - @Valhalla
  With 9 posts and 186 views, this is one of the clear underdogs for the award, however it gets nominated simply due to the fantastic name and the feel of community spirit it brings. Valhalla, with his second nomination in the category, outed "Tincan" as a muppet who was attempting to cause unrest on a wide scale to buy at a lower price. The forum is a better place for this spirit and for the wit involved in the name.
• Will I have to wait until Easter for Jesus to rise? - @Dronny-Gaz
  What a name!! Hindsight tells us the biblically named Gabriel Jesus will still be waiting come the end of the season to have that major rise as Sergio Aguero continues to score, particularly at the business end of each campaign. However, there seems to be an annual inquest into whether Aguero is past it and Gabriel Jesus is the apparent heir to the throne. 2 months ago, Dronnygaz was one of the many wondering if this was going to be the year that Pep finally got Jesus in and with only 7 posts and 473 views, this is another underdog for the award.

Services to the Football Index forum

• @Misto
  Misto has created the Football Index Master Thread and the All Things Football Index thread during the 2018-19 season, with the latter even being pinned by admin and regularly updated. Always looking to offer advice and pump Piatek, Misto has certainly earned his place on this list.
• @Advinculas-Index
  After initially starting with a kind of warm up tournament, Advinculas-Index has been the most popular forum game and probably more than most on Twitter, the FIFA World Cup. That's right, the Football Index Ferret Association! Updating an Excel spreadsheet which initially had 32 players picking 4 footballers each and pasting it onto the forum at least 4 times a day - and continuing to do so now that he has been eliminated by the imperious Keegan's Bluff - is massive dedication and he definitely deserves to be a front runner for this award.
• @Ollie
  One of the calmer heads on the forum with an anecdote for every occasion, Ollie was always has had a more serious approach to forum issues, predominantly creating an alternative. There is nothing that boosts performance quite like competition and hopefully time will show that he has proven that, although there have already been suggested changes to the forum itself. On top of that, Ollie punts his game with chances to win cash and donate to needier and better causes on a daily basis. He's a fantastic personality and has done more than enough to be nominated for this award, especially at the expense of DanFI.
• @ScouseSte
  The daily Footie counter has been and will forever be a myth to most of us mere mortals, however whilst not knowing exactly what it meant, ScouseSte popped up every evening to update the thread he had started on the subject. May not seem a massive commitment but he put in the hours that the rest of us didn't and kudos to him.
• @Indexical
  For anybody who follows the Cheap Players thread, Indexical must be an absolute saint. His dedication and research of players under 35p in pre share split prices would be a full time job for most others and if anybody deserves a nomination and a cheeky profit, this is the man.
• C Arroyo (just cannot tag him!)
  With some posters, you know what you're getting. C Arroyo has been posting essays since before I can remember. They are a fantastic read, blending his own opinions with finely placed facts and fantastic real life anecdotes that inform and entertain. He has also begun a daily thread where posters guess their PB tips for the day. It's interesting, competitive and takes the kind of commitment that rightfully gets him on the nominees list for Services to the FI Forum.

Greatest Comeback

• Zinedine Zidane
  Zizou left at the peak of his powers last summer after a 3rd Champion's League title. Who would have thought that after all the stress Lopetegui went through pre-world cup, that he'd have been out of a job by Christmas?! Anyway, sensational return for Zidane and they cannot be ruled out of the CL next season.
• Bayern Munich
  Having started the season terribly under Kovac, the reigning champions have gone on a sensational run of form in the Bundesliga to all but guarantee the trophy going back to Bavaria with them again. Who knows when they will be truly challenged again!
• Manchester United
  That away leg versus PSG certainly was ridiculous and Marcus Rashford had most people in the country biting their lip, their nail or their partner as we waited for him to run up. What a moment, what a comeback and highlighted by how poor Utd have been otherwise in this campaign. This was also done without any "first team" midfielders as well.
• @Andy-M
  To some he is irksome and to some he is fantastic, he is one person who has definitely achieved FI Forum celebrity status. Whether he's pumping, advising a new user, arguing with Ringers/Dannypea/other or promoting FI in Sweden and Europe, Andy M is one of the most regular posters and well known names. After a falling out with a NewUser, Andy dramatically quit the forum. There was plenty of shock when he announced he was quitting the forum only to reappear days later as a NewUser himself, he sensationally returned, renamed himself Andy M and picked up where he left off but without his Wissam Ben Yedder futures. To slip back in exactly where he left off, this truly was an amazing comeback and makes him the outstanding favourite for this award.

Best Newcomer

It's been a busy season, there have been thousands of newcomers to the Index and to the Forum itself, therefore nominations must be made by the readers themselves. I would certainly throw @Ericali and @ScouseSte into the mix.

Most Popular Poster
The big one!

• @Misto
  Undoubtedly, Misto is one of the most popular posters on the Football Index forum. At the thick of every big trend, he always seems committed to building better bridges between users on Football Index. His unquestionable attitude to the forum along with his apparent acquisition of a signed England shirt from Sir Geoff Hurst for the winner of the Football Index Ferret Association World Cup have put him right up with the highest front runners and with a reputation of 1.1k and 13 followers, the forum would be at a loss without him.
• @Advinculas-Index
  For the poster previously known as Curious Horse, this nomination comes as acknowledgement of his creation, the FIFA World Cup and his intelligence and casual jokes within other threads. Only God knows how this man has the time to manage his own portfolio, but the forum now has the opportunity to vote him into greatness.
• @johnboywalker
  The wily underdog, JohnBoyWalker pops up with nuggets of wisdom, sarcasm and pure brilliance. The only forum user with a higher reputation than "posts" count, he is simply known for regularly suggesting NewUsers take their newly created threads on the next Steve Marlet to be added to the Cheap Players thread and for chastising some of us for blatant pumps whilst mentioning Marco Asensio in the next breath! He acts as an unpatronizing but hilarious referee when the handbags kick off and he could very easily be the winner of this massive award.

If anybody has any suggestions feel free to add them to the comments and we'll form an orderly vote in due course.

@MrWh1te on the 31st of May you created a thread saying how you are leaving the forum.

It's now the 23rd of September. You're tune hasn't changed, your point of view hasn't varied and the amount of people disagreeing with you climbs.

You remind me of my ex. She would start of arguing something non-sensitive. Then would start shouting and screaming abuse before storming out and slamming the door. Then, between 3 and 20 seconds later, she would burst back in, beginning with her first sentence "and another thing..."

There have been enough "another things". It's over. Go away.

@NewUser115892 Because with the amount of commission they're creaming, in the mix of cocaine, champagne and hookers, someone accidentally clicked "reactivate bonus" and still they haven't noticed.

This isn't Fantasy Football. This is real money. The encouragement to hold long term and build a football stock market is replaced with sticking a tenner on at Paddy Power on Glenn Murray to score first at the weekend.

Furthermore, this has been ridiculously unprofessional; official communication coming on social media, bogus leaks (that I didn't bet or lose money on) and now an announcement that really undermines what this platform was previously about.

Not to be a pain here @DANFI but @Westy asked you something that everybody on this forum really needs to know. With the reported issues already and the amount of money people have in here.

Westy asked you about communication regarding the share split 14 hours ago and the above screenshot shows you were online 2 hours ago.

What's the secret with the share split?! What are you hiding?!

Hopefully he's on the beach, in the Bermuda Triangle with Andy M and Tupac

I think Germans are less inclined to gather 25 Facebook friends and go to Hyde Park for a bbq simply because it's hit 18 degrees, therefore they can stop the spread.

He gives me a bloody headache because we tend to have opposite views on literally everything (aside from Ighalo!) but @Sol deserves a mention for dedication to Neymar, Messi, Pogba and certified dividend winners.

@Advinculas-Index obviously for the competitions and eccentric input.

Eric, ScouseSte and maybe Vesp would be there but if they continue pissing on each other they'll drown all of us.

Although infrequent now, I've always enjoyed the input of @Martyn-B @LuaLua @Timothee-Atouba and @Black-wolf

But if AndyM doesn't win it then I'm gonna move to hang a Sweden flag in my window to show solidarity.

I don't think anyone needs to create a thread to say they're leaving the forum.

I guess if they allow the Super Cup, then they'll end up allowing the World Club Championships and it'll be a smaller version of when they IPO a bunch of Peruvians only for nobody to even search them ever again.

@DW that's interesting. But, it might not be a higher proportion, just there have been a lot of goals! And, like @FootballArgos said, it's the start of the season and defending is rusty and I think that affects set piece defending more than anything as that's down to instinctive and habitual concentration and reactions.

Why would no fans mean more defender goals?

John Lukic

So how does this influence FI?

Or does it?

Less abuse and less pressure, hence the goal glut last weekend and still, no draws in the premier league. (I know I'm practically summoning dark arts to guarantee a few 0-0s at the weekend but bear with me..)

With Covid restrictions on the rise again and winter incoming, there are various sources who believe that March will be the next step for some kind of normality.

How does this affect football and FI? Will football be more free flowing with more goals? Without crowd influence, will there be less upsets? Will Santa be allowed to enter other households at Christmas? Are European and International football threatened by the risk of being called off again?

@Advinculas-Index don't think qualifiers have been completed yet. End of this week you'll have the full list, I'll have my butler see to it!

@Kanzz ahh the good old days! Ended up 500% on Donyell Malen and Patson Daka! That'll be a rare, rare occurrence to happen again.

I've realised that it's more of a gamble. That big crash a couple of Sundays back, I moved a lot of money into Kimmich and other proven dividend winners. I still have stupid money in Viktor Kovalenko, Bruno Petkovic and Joao Mario but I believe there is still capital appreciation to be made. But now my cheap long shots are not necessarily youngsters, I got on Pizzi a few days ago as his PB scores were huge last year and Benfica have only got Europa so dividends are more reachable. Top mid on a gold day is 14p. He's currently available for 20p. It's a no brainer.

And in the meantime, I watch Kovalenko's price die as I look back to when I had 70% profit kn him!!! He'll come good, probably after I sell him off 🤣

@Kanzz you'll learn to accept that 🤦‍♂️ a lot of this is trial and error, from us and them!

@Kanzz said in Wtf???:

@Lukeroro How Im looking at it, I dont need the money and dont plan on touching it.

Trying to look at the longterm picture and im hoping I will be rewarded for it.

Yeah, as long as the reasons you bought into specific players are still viable you'll be fine.

For example, with Pogba, he gets the odd PB but was media king. Since MB opened up to everybody and Fernandes took over the Man Utd media attention, Pogba doesn't have the same value. So his price wont recover. But the players you have, if their variables are still viable, you're fine over time.

@MrWh1te said in Wtf???:

@Lukeroro

"And another thing..." 🤣

I did not create a thread saying I was the forum.

That perception was created by trolls who have a lack of reading comprehension.

But don't let facts get in the way.

On each person's forum profile, if you scroll down, each person's top posts are listed. Yours was the original post on a thread you created named "goodbye". You gave various points which are pretty balanced and accurate

Since then, you've jumped on the Footstock bandwagon (which has gone pretty quiet of late) and repeatedly criticized FI whilst claiming to be selling your port and finally actually leaving.

Which begs the question, if you're taking so long to sell your holds, maybe the reason you're taking so long to sell up AND the reason you're unhappy with FI is that your holds were pants.