I cannot exaggerate how little I knew about premier league football before this experiment started. I am the least sporty of all my friends. I never did sports at school, I never played tennis or football up the park, and I never enjoyed PE lessons. Of course, I used to keep up with the odd world cup, but beyond understanding my love for Bukayo Saka, I was rather useless. When compiling my team in that first week, I stuck to names I had heard of and those who were cheap to make up the difference. Beyond that point, I kept a notes app list of players mentioned in passing by my football-ing friends. Slowly, my knowledge began to grow, and I could rely less on others’. Now, I like to think I can make at least somewhat calculated decisions based on team cohesion, strategy, and injury etc.

 

Naturally, different friends had different approaches. One chose to randomise his team at the beginning and has not changed it since. Initially it worked out in his favour, as he had Ollie Watkins captained before he was seen as a hot commodity. As a result, he remained at the middle of the table up until a month or so ago without having to lift a finger. Another friend, try as he might, could not escape last place for weeks. This luck was probably inevitable from the start, as the day after he made his team, the star of his team “the Tottenham Hottenham-spurs”, Harry Kane, was sold to FC Bayern Munich. That being said, he is now consistently doing better than me week by week, so I probably shouldn’t laugh.

 

A couple of us have found the experience fruitful for relationships outside university friendships. I, for one, can finally discuss Arsenal’s performance with my brother, who took me to my first ever football match for my 11th birthday. Another friend, whose football career peaked as goalie for his secondary school’s H-team (yes, there were teams A through J), now regularly discusses the league with his Spurs-supporting father.

 

It was not all plain sailing, however. Sometimes I would get too cocky or make dangerous assumptions. Luckily, I was not alone. In week 9, me and another premier league novice took a gamble by triple captaining Heung-min Son in the Spurs match against Luton. Safe to say that was a terrible decision, but hindsight is always 20-20. It was surprisingly anxiety-inducing watching the time tick by, with every minute without a goal representing the opportunity I wasted. This feeling of visceral anxiety and despair has since become entrenched in my FPL experience. I remember feeling genuinely depressed when I realised I had accidentally captained Pape Sarr instead of Mo Salah a couple weeks ago. It turned out alright, as neither Son nor Salah scored, but it was then that it dawned on me just how much I cared about the premier league.

 

These days, I have found myself taking long breaks from work to watch the second half of a match with a couple friends, none of which were invested in the premier league prior to august 2023. A group of us also made it to a Turkish cup football game in December, the 2nd game I had ever gone to, and made friends with a couple ultras of the away team, who kindly agreed to send us some shirts. It is heart-warming to see a friendship group become invested in the interests of a few, even with the notable competitive element. As the Africa Cup of Nations is due to start, I have just sent a message to the same group chat, asking whether people would take part in an AFCON sweepstake. It has become so much more than just petty competition. It has inspired genuine curiosity and demonstrated how this sport (and indeed any) can be enjoyed by anyone, at any point in their lives.

 

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