A final WRINKLE??

 

Just when you thought you might have been almost out of the woods for FPL confusion & calamity,..... it appears there may yet be a further Blank/Double speedbump lurking in our future.

Because the FA Cup has been scheduled before the end of the regular season this year (on Saturday of Gameweek 37 - WHY, WHY???), the Palace v Wolves and City v Bournemouth games in the League will have to be moved from that weekend.

Now, they won't be - can't be! - moved very far: they'll just have to be shunted a few days forwards or backwards into the middle of the adjacent week. And forwards - into the gap between Gameweeks 36 and 37 - seems way more likely, since the League surely wouldn't want to clutter up the final week of the season; and it would be a bit unfair on those four teams to have a substantially shorter recovery time before their final league games (there being no scope to play their weekend games on the Sunday or Monday, as the final matches of the season are now always played simultaneously).

So, yes, that's definitely going to happen. But it's not clear when the rescheduling will be confirmed (maybe not before the upcoming GW35 deadline!), or which of the adjacent Gameweeks the League will choose to include the new dates in.

And just for a further sprinkling of mayhem, Spurs have now cheekily asked if they might be allowed to move their Gameweek 37 fixture (away to Villa) forward slightly, to allow them more time to prepare for a possible Europa League Final (also, weirdly, to be played in the middle of the last week of our domestic season). If they were to be granted that wish, I suppose Manchester United would demand the same privilege. But I don't think the League would like the idea of four matches being moved out of their scheduled weekend starting slots (it would cause all sorts of havoc with the TV arrangements!). And since we won't even know if they 'need' that indulgence until just before the Gameweek 36 deadline, it could be a massive pain-in-the-backside for FPL managers too!

However, I don't think Spurs have much of a leg to stand on with this application; they're just trying it on - with almost zero chance of success. Fixture logjams like this, and additional squad pressure from big midweek games, are part-and-parcel of playing in the European competitions; they've been having to cope with it all season - they should be able to manage the burden just one more time. (And, thankfully, their opponents, Villa, seem to be unwilling to countenance the change, so that probably puts the kibosh on the proposal.)

The FA Cup Final reschedulings, alas, still hang over us, like the proverbial 'Sword of Damocles'. If the League did mischievously decide to declare GW37 a 'blank' week for those teams and GW36 (most probably) a 'double', it would be a HUGE hassle to have to deal with. Even though it's only 4 teams involved, they are 4 teams that most FPL managers have significant representation from; and probably no-one has the Free Hit or Wildcard left any more to skirt around the disruption,... or many (any?) saved Free Transfers either. So, for most of us, it would probably be that painful conundrum of whether to take 'hits' for multiple transfers or put out a short team.

Now, I can't see any earthly reason - other than sheer malice - why the League would choose to declare that moving these matches just a few days moved them into another Gameweek. But they might, they can....  And the not-knowing is agony.

[Fortunately, the League announced the following afternoon that these two games would be moved (surprisingly, back rather than forwards; presumably that was a request from the clubs in the Cup, feeling that they'd rather have a bit of extra prep time for the Wembley Final than for the last day of the League; actually, the last two days of the League!!) to the evening of Tuesday 20th May - but would stay part of Gameweek 37, as I'd anticipated/hoped. Phew!]