JOE’s five tips to become a Fantasy Football champion

It’s finally time. Forget that carefree summer as nine months of sweating over your last-minute Fantasy Football transfer additions have returned.

By Emmet Purcell

(Fantasy Football in association with Champion)

First things first - have you joined the JOE Champion J-League yet? There are just hours before the Fantasy Football transfer window and our own league slams shut so all it takes is a quick e-mail with ‘Fantasy Football’ in the subject line to [email protected], and we’ll send you on the code to register.

Once you have the code, head on over to http://fantasy.premierleague.com/ to build your team and click on ‘Leagues’, then ‘Join Private League’ to enter the code. If you were a participant in last year’s league, there's a possibility that the code won’t work for you. That could be because you've automatically been entered into our Champion J-League 2011/2012 already, so don't worry about that.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, you’ll probably have noticed that there are hundreds of competitors (including the JOE journalists) fighting for bragging rights in the JOE Champion J-League this season.

If you're to have any fighting chance, you’ll need an expert, someone who's scaled the heights of Fantasy Football before and is ready to spout his untold and unquestioned knowledge and wisdom. Unfortunately, you’ve got me instead but I’ll give it a go with these essential five tips:

Keep an eye on current transfers to snatch bargains

This is probably one of the most important tips for anyone new to the social life-sucking world of Fantasy Football. Take Newcastle, for example. The club is hours away from selling Jose Enrique to Liverpool and have signed up Manchester United's Gabriel Obertan.

If you log into the Fantasy Football site, you'll find that Enrique's valuation if just 5.0m - which makes sense for a Newcastle defender, but not someone that will be the starting left-back for Liverpool very soon. Best of all, that price tag won't magically leap forward by an extra million once he joins the Reds.

Similarly, Obertan could be worth a punt at 5.0m too, as he will receive a lot more playing time than he did last season and should be able to provide a few assists for fellow Tyneside new boy Demba Ba.

Look out for players being played out of position

Seamus Coleman was on nearly everyone's team last season as he was registered as a defender on the Fantasy Football site but played in midfield for Everton.

As such, he got extra points from defence for clean sheets but he was high enough up the pitch to garner assists too. Sadly, the crafty folks behind the site have figured this out and switched him to midfield for 2011/2012, but surely they've made the same error this season for different players?

If anything, the bigwigs behind the Premier League's Fantasy Football are playing it extra careful, as Arsenal signing Gervinho, who is expected to play as a winger, is registered as a forward instead - which is a real shame, as his pre-season form suggests he could've been dead cert acquisition in midfield.

Either way, we won't truly know who's being taken out of their comfort zone for the new season until it kicks off so keep your eyes peeled.

Don't select your captain and lineup until the last possible second

By all means, transfer in an in-demand player a week before the next round of fixtures - this actually is a risky but profitable move, as the more fellow players bring in your target, the more that their transfer fee will increase in increments.

However, always log in and check out your team's availability an hour or so before the Saturday morning 11.30am deadline. Although the site has a weekly newsletter to inform players of updates on Friday morning, plenty can happen in the intervening 24 hours so it's up to you to log in and place your oh-so-important captain's armband accordingly.

Buy two competent keepers instead of splashing the cash on one

A common mistake by a lot of newcomers is to splash the cash on one top-four keeper and upon realising that they're nearly bankrupt, add in the Norwich City third-choice 'keeper for a paltry sum.

If you have the money then sign that expensive 'keeper as your main man between the sticks, but for the tricky away games against top-four sides, you'll want a reliable, relatively cheap option to swap instead. For these occasions, it's a brave man that doesn't have Shay Given, keeper for Alex McLeish's likely defensive-minded Aston Villa side, as their first or second choice, especially since he's just 5.5m.

Pre-season form matters too

Picking your team by looking over last season's form is a surprisingly ineffective way of doing things - as previously explained, Seamus Coleman simply isn't going to reach the same points haul without the clean sheets he was yielding as a defender.

So instead take a look at players that have had explosive pre-season form - Yossi Benayoun, Gervinho, Edin Dzeko or Victor Moses, say. Especially the latter as he looks an absolute bargain at just 5.0m and Wigan have a home game against Norwich this weekend.

Heed our advice, forget about that pesky social life and for God's sake, send us your email to [email protected] already!

Pic via manchesterunitedbowie