h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

While we wait for Aston Villa and Portsmouth to complete this week's fixtures, I become aware that the game is getting a little too 'beatable', if you like. Bubba based his strategy from day one on buying a top-notch defence, and this has paid off. Now I don't begrudge Bubba a good victory this season, but I am pondering over some rule changes for the 2007-08 season.

There's absolutely nothing set in stone, yet. I would really appreciate some feedback, plus any ideas that other people have. These are the possibilities I've come up with so far:

SCORING It seems that goalkeepers score disporpotionately well. I would consider pushing them down to 4 points for a clean sheet. Also, 5 points for a defender's goal seems too much; I'd quite like to push this down to 4 points as well. Would -1 points for a yellow card be too stiff a penalty?

TRANSFERS I'd like to drop the 'one transfer per position' rule, because it's a bit of a fiddle to monitor. I would still retain the right to turn down offers if I consider that a manager is playing the market.

I have been frustrated with the lack of transfers between team over the last four seasons. With this in mind, one of my more grand schemes would be to abolish the January transfer window (which does unfairly penalise some teams), and introduce the following: as you know, my spreadsheet calculates a market value for every player in one of the teams. If a manager wishes to purchase that player, he needs to submit a bid to me whereby he has estimated that player's market value. If the bidding manager is correct to within a certain margin (say £0.2m), and has the cash to spare, he automatically gains that player. I like this rule particularly, because it represents the fact that transfer decisions often go above the head of the selling manager.

LOANS The trial loans system seems to have worked well. I don't want to introduce a squad system like Phantasy Krikket (too fiddly, again), but I will make inter-team loans a permanent fixture. Perhaps the loaning manager could earn a fraction of that player's points, rather than cash? Feedback appreciated.

CUP COMPETITIONS As well as the two cup competitions per season, do we want an additional mini-league whereby players earn points in their FA Cup and Carling Cup matches? I'd prefer not to include Euro matches, because this will prejudice the opening bids too much, but it should be relatively straightforward to create a Cups League. Any better names?

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I'd appreciate any feedback or additional ideas: remember, this is your League too!

B

I like those new transfer rules. As for the loan situation, speaking as the league's Sam Allardyce I would like to say points instead of cash would be more beneficial for not only the loaning team, but for those of us inclined to pyss all our cash up the wall on players like Kewell and Bellamy.

Here's a bit of food for thought.

1) I don't really understand the loans system. Why would somebody lend me a player? If he's good enough to be wanted by someone else then he's probably good enough to stay in my side. "Say Bubba, why don't you borrow me your back 5?"..."Why Trout, of course, why didn't you say so earlier?"

2) As well as reducing the infallibility of a high-scoring defence, a restriction on the number of players from one team (in the defensive 5, e.g., one player per Premiership Team only) could also work.

3) Points for direct penalty goals might be reduced. That way, non-strikers like say Gareth Barry or Frank Lampard become less of a target for bidders.

4) I liked the transfer window. A lot of the "thrill" of these games is during the excitement of the bid stage. The transfer window regenerated that a bit.

5) The idea that players might come and go as B determines is a bit of a worry. I might be off line for a week and come back and find I have eight men playing. How do we fill in the gaps. And if it is "bid-based to the nearest 0.2m how might this be restrained, e.g. consider the following e-mail exchange:

0.2m for Ronaldo
No
0.4m for Ronaldo
No
0.6m for ... [you get the idea] ...

8.8m for Ronaldo
Yes, you get him. Well done.


Trout

"0.2m for Ronaldo
No
0.4m for Ronaldo
No
0.6m for ... [you get the idea] ...

8.8m for Ronaldo
Yes, you get him. Well done."

As opposed to Real Madrid, who will be doing the following in summer:
"40m for Ronaldo?
No
50m for Ronaldo?
No
60m for Ronaldo? (you get the idea)

120m for Ronaldo, plus the horsey one back on loan in a Larsson stylee?
Yes, you get him. Well done."

All good points, MT. I'll tackle them one at a time, if I may.

1) I don't really understand the loans system. Why would somebody lend me a player? If he's good enough to be wanted by someone else then he's probably good enough to stay in my side. "Say Bubba, why don't you borrow me your back 5?"..."Why Trout, of course, why didn't you say so earlier?"

Abolishing the 'one transfer per position' rule and introducing loans will allow me to tighten up what managers are allowed to pay for players. Currently, I have allowed managers to get away with some pretty shoddy deals that have allowed them to straight-swap a poor defender for a much better one. Under the proposed loans system, I wouldn't feel so bad turning down a weak bid from a manager in need, because I know if they are strapped for cash, then one of the richer teams could ship them out a player on loan.

2) As well as reducing the infallibility of a high-scoring defence, a restriction on the number of players from one team (in the defensive 5, e.g., one player per Premiership Team only) could also work.

Agreed. Looking at Bubba's tactics this season, I may well consider this.

3) Points for direct penalty goals might be reduced. That way, non-strikers like say Gareth Barry or Frank Lampard become less of a target for bidders.

Now, this one I disagree on. Knowing the penalty takers is a small, but key, part of the skill of being a Phantasy Manager. I based a nearly-winning Euro 2004 strategy around those most likely to score from penalties and free-kicks. If you make the not-unreasonable assumption that people have a generally good idea of who scores from penalties, then you can expect the bidding prices for the aforementioned players to be higher.

4) I liked the transfer window. A lot of the "thrill" of these games is during the excitement of the bid stage. The transfer window regenerated that a bit.

Interesting. I suppose there is the possibility that I can keep both transfer systems.

5) The idea that players might come and go as B determines is a bit of a worry. I might be off line for a week and come back and find I have eight men playing. How do we fill in the gaps. A

Ah yes. Sorry. This point arises because I didn't clarify in Post 1. If a manager DOES NOT correctly bid the market price for a player, then I would not allow him to re-bid. It's a question of judgement and skill, which - as you've said - is part of the thrill of playing this game.

B

My

Scoring; agreed, 4 points does seem to be fairer, and -1 for a yellow does not seem unreasonable.

Transfers; I, too, like the January Transfer Window, but would not have a problem with both transfer systems. (It would make it more 'exciting')

Loans; Although I have not taken part in the loan malarky, I agree, B, that points would be better than cash

Cup Competitions; Your suggestion there seems pretty good to me.

I can't think of anything else.

I would go further and drop clean sheets down to 3 points.

Defenders not conceading drop down to 2 points.

Defenders scoring, yeah 4 points.

Forwards and midfielders both get 3 points for scoring.

Yellow cards -1 sounds good.

If the player plays for 60, mabey 70 minutes and the team draw he gets 1 point and if the team wins 2. Mabey?

All other rules stay the same.

I think clean sheets for keepers needs to be more than for defenders. 4 for a keeper and 3 for a defender seems okay.

I like the idea of limiting to only one defender from a Premiership team. I was going to suggest specifying a difference between full-backs and centre-backs, so that you have to have two centre-backs, but I think the limit of one per Premiership club will be better.

I'm not so sure about forwards and midfielders getting the same points for a goal, but if everyone else wants it that's fine. Actually - if they are going to be getting the same points for everything, maybe it would be possible to allow a choice of formation (i.e. 4-3-3 or 4-4-2)?

Perhaps it would also be a good idea to give points to players if their team wins as bubba suggests. Defenders certainly seem to have scored more than forwards/midfielders, so maybe something could be worked out to benefit them if their team does well? For example, maybe they could get bonus points if their team scores 3 or more goals whilst they are on the pitch? Sort of the opposite of a clean sheet, if you see what I mean.

I like the yellow card idea - make things more interesting without being too complicated.

If you really want to go for the loan idea, then why not allow people to have a squad of 13 - they can shuffle players in and out on a reasonable basis (not every week) and if they have 12 or 13 good players, could benefit from this by loaning on or two out.

sprout