As I said on Bull by the Horns, I had an interesting year personally in 2023 and that meant that I took a break from fantasy football, mid-season.
I didn’t forget, I didn’t give up, I just simply didn’t have the head-space for it.
So I would always make sure I got my transfers in early when I returned to the fold of managing my team, the following year of the 23/24 season.
This year, I don’t have such a problem. The family and friends I surround myself with are obsessed by every turn and tangent that FPL throws up. That leads to an agonizing wait for someone who likes to get things done promptly and has recently developed the habit of making instantaneous changes to the playing squad on the digital platform that so many like-minded and non-like-minded individuals find fun and thrilling in, which is Fantasy Premier League.
So, what does this have to do with Sammie Szmodics?
Well, I identified him as a pick to replace one of my other ex-championship stars from an early outset in my thinking for FPL transfers for the game-week that comes after internationals (the dreaded break in so many ways, I swear it gets earlier every year.)
With that comes an almost singularity of focus in how I engage with football, through the lens of FPL and maybe even on a macro level, the Premier League itself – seeing as a large amount of head-space in following the top tier is constituted by the borderline fictitious realms of managing a make-believe roster of players.
And then, on a much more trivial note, there is his name. And then, on a sporting level, there’s the fact that he was the top scorer in the second division last year. And there’s the FPL element, as Ipswich Town has a favorable run of fixtures. And then there’s the personal sentiment that I love following the football league because it just feels more organic and more primally rudimentary.
Deep down, maybe though, Sammie Szmodics has become a byword for controlling an innate desire to be quick off the mark, which filters down into every aspect of his life, including the trivialities of FPL.
Sammie Szmodics has become a euphemism for temperance. A desire not to simply rush into things, but to assess a situation and an individual for what it is, or who they are.
I haven’t made the transfer yet. He could get injured. I am winning the battle of leaping headlong into something that could be left untouched, and staying the course of time to allow life to unfold, in whatever way it chooses to assume form.
Therein, fantasy football isn’t a game; it is a reflection of our base personalities and our base impulses, and how we control them. It may not win us the jackpot out of millions of players, but it may leave us knowing ourselves a bit more. And knowing Sammie Szmodics a bit more too!
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