The future is now

If I’m not wrong, this is the first time the top three players are the same according to both current and predicted score:

1. Neymar (current 98, predicted 162)
2. Mueller (88, 134)
3. Oezil (80, 107) (indeed Cazorla has 80 points, too)

Wikipedia

You can now find a column in the Excel spreadsheet with the URLs of the English Wikipedia pages of the players (the ones who have a page!). Right now it’s one of the last columns of the sheet, at the far right.

How I did it: first, I let the Python Wikipedia library (it requires pip, that on its turn requires Python) find the best URL match for the (family+given) name of each player; then I checked these URLs and manually corrected some of them. But there could be (I bet there are!) some errors: if you spot them, please tell me at milivella@gmail.com.

By the way, the whole process forced me to correct a shameful lot of name spelling errors in the database.

Sliding faster than Maldini

My position in the 1st picking cycle ranking in the last months:

• August: 3rd
• September: 4th
• October: 5th
• November: 6th

Sometimes one gets ugly surprises.

A couple of comments. First, the prediction formula has always told me that my high place wasn’t meant to last: it was right. Second, I love the winter international break (I mean, my lost places/month ratio will get better…).

Ex-desaparecidos

The following players are all picks of mine:

• Ansaldi: picked in 2010, just 2 caps after that, one in 2011 and one in 2013. 2 caps + 1 goal in November 2014.
• Fazio: picked in 2008, just 2 caps in the next six years, both in 2011. Got capped again in November 2014.
• Douglas Costa: picked in 2009, never played for the national team in the next five years. 2 caps in November 2014.

Sometimes one gets nice surprises.

Desaparecido

On November 5, 2009, Giulio sent the following laconic message to pick a player: “gustavo pereira arg”. I evidently found some information about this player on the web, since without asking Giulio for more data I filled Pereira’s date of birth in the database: 1992-07-08.

The problem is that now I can’t find any trace of Gustavo Pereira on the web! I’ve spent some time trying, and I’ve considered the chance that I got either the given name, the family name, or the date of birth wrong, but… nothing. What the heck?!

Failure

When a club would rather pay £1.4m than keeping a player you picked, you know it’s bad.

When that player is the best (by both current and predicted final score) among the ones you picked when you had only one opponent, you know it’s a complete failure.

Anderson is about to get unemployed (the other players I picked in January 2007 are Bayern’s Rafinha, Flamini, and Pennant). Fantasy Scout sucks… No, I suck.