[Cal?]

All players born in the 1970s (1 Jan 1970 to 31 Dec 1979), are available for drafting. For the purpose of this competition, these players are considered at the level when they were in their prime. Each manager gets to pick 12 players to form a squad.

Competition format is identical to that of the Euros - 4 groups of 4, top 2 in each group advance to the quarters. Group winner gets to pick one player each from the two eliminated teams to add to his squad, followed by the group runner-up's turn. In the knockout rounds, winner of the tie gets to add one player from the losing side to his squad. This means that by the final round, each of the two finalists will have a squad of 16 players to choose their matchday team from.

1 managerial openings left for 16 teams.
Would anybody be interested?

Draft rules
* Managers will take turns to draft players (first round of draft will start with Manager 1 and end with manager 16, second round starts with Manager 16 and ends with Manager 1, third round will start from Manager 1, so and so forth)
* You have 6 hours to post your draft pick. If you do not do so, the draft proceeds to the next manager in line and it is up to you to post your draft pick at your earliest convenience.
* In this competition, players are considered at the level when they were in their prime.
* When posting your draft pick, please post a picture of the player. You can also briefly explain why you picked this player.
* Once you have posted your draft pick, you have to PM the manager next in line to inform him/her that it is his/her turn
* Once the draft is complete, match threads will be started where each manager posts their match team, tactics and any persuasive arguments why their team has an upper hand over the opposition etc.

Participants so far:
Crustanoid
Cal?
Team Brian
Gio
Brwned
Snow
Jayvin
DanNistelrooy
kps88
Ralaks
TheReligion
Cling Bak
Antohan
Zen
Cold Boy

[Rood]

go on then - I'll have a go at this one

[Cal?]

So full list of participants:

Crustanoid
Cal?
Team Brian
Gio
Brwned
Snow
KM
DanNistelrooy
kps88
Ralaks
TheReligion
Cling Bak
Antohan
Zen
Cold Boy
Rood
----------------------------------------
Using Random.org here's the drafting sequence:
1 Antohan
2 DanNistelrooy
3 Rood
4 TheReligion
5 Cal?
6 Gio
7 Cling Bak
8 Jayvin
9 kps88
10 Ralaks
11 Cold Boy
12 Zen
13 Desert Eagle
14 Brwned
15 Team Brian
16 Snow

To be fair to Antohan, he has 24 hours to make the first pick in case he's not around. PM sent.

[antohan]

Shit, whoever I choose my whole ideal teamsheet will be gone by round 32 of the draft...

I'm fecked

[antohan]

Need to secure some quality in midfield or I'm shot

Zinedine Zidane

[Zen]

I can understand the dilemma...Zidane or Zidane, tough one.

[antohan]

PM sent but "Dan Nistelrooy has chosen not to receive private messages or may not be allowed to receive private messages. Therefore you may not send your message to him/her".

[antohan]

Originally Posted by Zen

I can understand the dilemma...Zidane or Zidane, tough one.

In fairness, I rate Ronaldo at his peak as the best of that generation but there are a zillion strikers and they are as good as the service they get.

[Jayvin]

Dammit missed out again.

[Cal?]

It's been more than 6 hours, but to be fair to Dan, we'll keep the first cut-off time to 24 hours from my post on the drafting sequence or 6 hours after the previous pick, whichever is later.

[Interval Level]

Is there a slot still open?

[kps88]

Anyone up for changing the rules with regards to picking players from teams you beat? Seems like a case of making the strong stronger and has a lot to do with the teams you're drawn with so luck comes into it. The way I see it is if you're drawn with say the first five teams in the drafting order, you're obviously going to get a better marquee player to add to your squad if you manage to advance from the group.

[Cal?]

Originally Posted by kps88

Anyone up for changing the rules with regards to picking players from teams you beat? Seems like a case of making the strong stronger and has a lot to do with the teams you're drawn with so luck comes into it. The way I see it is if you're drawn with say the first five teams in the drafting order, you're obviously going to get a better marquee player to add to your squad if you manage to advance from the group.

Personally I'd prefer not to change it, makes it more fun to get extra players.

But I wouldn't mind minor changes, eg the group winner gets to choices 1 & 3 and runners up 2 & 4 or something like that.

[kps88]

It is fun getting new players. What you said would make it more balanced. Just feel the current way makes the group winners strong favourites while the runners up just make up the numbers.

[Cal?]

Originally Posted by kps88

It is fun getting new players. What you said would make it more balanced. Just feel the current way makes the group winners strong favourites while the runners up just make up the numbers.

I was ONE vote away from an upset.

Anyway, let's carry on with the voting and see what everyone else thinks about going with 1&3, 2&4 instead.

[DanNistelrooy]

My first pick is the greatest striker of his generation: Ronaldo

[Rood]

hmmm ... first 2 were easy picks, bit more difficult on the 3rd best of that generation

I've gone for Rivaldo

[Crustanoid]

Zidane will headbutt someone and get sent off whilst Ronaldo will have one of his funny turns.

[kps88]

Rivaldo will lye on the ground holding his face in agony.

[TheReligion]

Sorry lads didn't know this was going ahead.

Give me a minute

[TheReligion]

I will have Alessandro Nesta

[antohan]

Originally Posted by Cal?

Anyway, let's carry on with the voting and see what everyone else thinks about going with 1&3, 2&4 instead.

Adding players is a must, I will most likely end up with Zidane + 10 OK chaps, which hopefully I would get the chance to improve on.

But the winner getting first choice is indeed a bit much.

I think the 1&3 and 2&4 makes sense.

[antohan]

1 Antohan: 1. ZIDANE
2 DanNistelrooy: 1. RONALDO
3 Rood: 1. RIVALDO
4 TheReligion: 1. NESTA
5 Cal?
6 Gio
7 Cling Bak
8 KM
9 kps88
10 Ralaks
11 Cold Boy
12 Zen
13 Crustanoid
14 Brwned
15 Team Brian
16 Snow

[antohan]

A couple of things:

1) Please PM next guy in draft when you are done with your pick

2) Since I'm off for the next 28 picks I'm happy to receive a couple of picks from each of the remaining 12 contestants, which will probably make this quicker (I'm also doing an admin/workfromhome day, which helps).

As we enter the second round of drafting I can chip in second choices if still available but we should aim at having someone voting after us knowing our pick in advance.

[antohan]

(BUMP)

Off to look for 3rd choice defenders

[Crustanoid]

Yay - I've just realised what players born in the seventies means:



Not actually my choice .....really guys

[Ralaks]

so Crustanoid picks Heskey, I vote we'll allow him to use his pick even though it's not his turn

[antohan]

Originally Posted by Ralaks

so Crustanoid picks Heskey, I vote we'll allow him to use his pick even though it's not his turn

Seconded, we need to keep this moving!

[Cal?]

Keano

First pick, our Treble captain!!

[kps88]

Antohan REALLY wants to get this done quickly.

[Team Brian GB]

This is going to be much more interesting than the sixties iteration, everybody should know the great players born in the seventies seeing as the last wave of them are only retiring now.

[Ralaks]

Are we keeping the winner takes two from the other teams first? Imo it should be changed a bit, like 1st place picks first, then 2nd, then 1st then 2nd. The way it is right now pretty much makes sure the first placed teams go all the way, such a massive difference between the best players than can be stolen compared to the 2nd best.

[Gio]

Edgar Davids

[kps88]

Pm'd antohan my pick.

[antohan]

1 Antohan: 1. ZIDANE
2 DanNistelrooy: 1. RONALDO
3 Rood: 1. RIVALDO
4 TheReligion: 1. NESTA
5 Cal? 1. KEANO
6 Gio 1. DAVIDS
7 Cling Bak
8 KM
9 kps88
10 Ralaks
11 Cold Boy
12 Zen
13 Crustanoid
14 Brwned
15 Team Brian
16 Snow

[antohan]

Originally Posted by Ralaks

Are we keeping the winner takes two from the other teams first? Imo it should be changed a bit, like 1st place picks first, then 2nd, then 1st then 2nd. The way it is right now pretty much makes sure the first placed teams go all the way, such a massive difference between the best players than can be stolen compared to the 2nd best.

So far everyone has agreed with that option.

I would go a step further and allow 3, which should make tactical variations more feasible. Seeing the latter stages of the 60s game you noticed some teams screaming for width as an option but they only had one winger...

The draft already has enough influence on the Group Stage as it is.

What does everyone else think?

[Cling Bak]

Je ne sais quoi?

Thierry Henry

[Snow]

Fuck. Near the bottom again. That sucks. Still the same rules where you take a man from the losing team? I don't like that rule btw.

[Cling Bak]

Originally Posted by Rood

go on then - I'll have a go at this one

Just noticed this. Against one another...

[antohan]

Originally Posted by Snow

Fuck. Near the bottom again. That sucks. Still the same rules where you take a man from the losing team? I don't like that rule btw.

That stays, what people have suggested, which is fair, is that the group winner and second placed team take turns.

I guess it's not great to be last, but you get two VERY GOOD WORLD CLASS players whereby I get one of the best but my second pick is unlikely to be even world class.

Being somewhere in the middle looks best to me.