I might be wrong but I see the big rise in Kanté as evidence of the large number of new users we have on the platform. He's so famous amongst experienced traders as an example of a 'good in real life, shit on FI' player that I was initially amazed to see him rise so much on the basis of a good first-half performance. I think the huge rises on players who have scored goals in non-eligible competitions and friendlies this close season is also indicative of this. Good sign if it's true, even if it takes a little getting used to.

@Vespasian32

My plan is to build up a big enough stake in him that when I IS him it causes market panic, everyone sells and Ramos slips back up the rankings in this challenge. My whole investment strategy is now geared towards repaying ZX's faith in my tip.

@Vespasian32
He went up 10p this morning it seems. I've been topping up on him with divs but his growth is outpacing me! Hopefully plenty more to come. Espanyol playing tomorrow in the Europa qualifying 2nd leg.

@Dan-The-Man

Being Neymar is Neymar's market driver, and it has historically (aside from the 6 months we're looking at and which others have pointed out were probably the worst 6 months Neymar has had since FI started due to a variety of negative market drivers) been more than enough to better the market drivers of virtually every other player on the index

@Tom77
Thanks

@Tom77
Apologies, I’ve got confused, seems we switched subjects half way through the thread. Who is injury prone, Alcantara or Goretzka?

@SteveP said in Pogba or Neymar:

Fundamentally Pogba isn’t that good at football.

You must have very high standards. I get that he was shit for the majority of last season at Utd, but people saying he isn't good at football? If he isn't good at football then he's a clever bastard because he's pulled the wool over the eyes of Juve, Utd (twice), the French Football Federation, anyone who watched the World Cup, Real Madrid and most of the players he's played with. I guess it also means that about 75% of professional footballers aren't good either.

@ScouseSte
Absolutely mate I’m just glad it’s over and we can rely on the players to earn us money again, instead of agents and directors of football!

Mine was poor, but I've learned a lot and will go about it very differently next year.

Before the window opened I had lined up some transfer hopefuls. Below is what happened with them (it’s more amusing if you do a Family Fortunes fail sound after each summary):

Ryan Fraser - Bought on 01/05 at 1.32. No move to Arsenal. 2p in divs. IS’d for a loss (1.14) at the end of July.
David Neres – Bought throughout May and June at between 1.85 – 2.00. Didn’t move. No divs. Sold early July for a loss (1.65)
Cristian Pavon – Bought end of May at 76p. Did nothing until threatening to join LA Galaxy. Sold 17/06 for a loss (59p)

During the window my combination of bad luck and poor judgement continued. This section could be sub-headed ‘Man Utd rumours’. (Family Fortunes noise works well here too).

Gareth fucking Bale – Bought in at the height (3.15). Pretty much immediately the China rumours starting circulating. Sold at a big loss (2.23). Bought in again at 1.66. Still holding, stubbornly. This could end well? Maybe. Please. For the love of fuck.
Paulo Dybala – I posted at the time that I had sold all my Martial (at 2.33) to fund this investment and promised everyone that it would end in disaster. True to my word, sold Dybala as he tanked (bought in at 3.76, sold at 2.93) and then watched Martial soar to new heights as predicted.
Mario Mandzukic – On the final day of the window, desperate, needing something to happen for me to alleviate the sense of… grief? Bought in at 73p and watched him steadily rise with relief coursing through my veins. You know the rest. Sold at 63p.

Perversely the one trade that I made some money on was Scott Sinclair which was based largely on a joke post on the forum.

I’ll probably not bother getting involved in rumours at all next season, and make fewer transfer-related purchases prior to the window opening. It felt like almost nothing happened for two months after the initial deals were done (Hazard; Wan-Bissaka) and Neymar and Pogba cleaned up on MB and then didn’t move. The biggest winners were probably FI, they must have made back all the Media Madness divs on IS commission for Dybala and Bale alone!

Only had a quick scan but I think I am right in saying I am the only competitor to have 5/6 picks in the blue. You'll struggle to match or surpass that.