01 Feb 2014

Gameweek 23 - Pyrrhic Victory

With the transfer window definitively shut yesterday, the focus returns to the mobius strip that is premier league football. Much as I would love to (I wouldn’t) delve into how your club has fared over the window, I’d be best served to leave that to the good eggs over at fantasy football scout.

The scene is set with gaffers squinting through their Saturday hangovers trying to make sense of the cavalcade of injuries that underline this gameweek. It’s a tetchy situation indeed with most having already expended their January wildcards and now having to contend with possibly incurring hits to assuage matters. Add to that the added tumult brought about by new signings and it quickly becomes a not-so-nice problem to have.

In my case, the last few weeks have been something of a pyrrhic victory. My calls for increased competitiveness in the league were met by three new additions (four now with Wamae FC being the latest entrant). As regards the competition stakes, this was obviously good for the LoF - three of the new boys are already firmly ensconced within the top 6. From a personal perspective however, doubts linger over whether this was a move draped with folly. For all of the benefit served up by having the new chaps dominating the higher echelons, you have to wonder how detrimental that proves to the existing camaraderie. You see, LoF is very much a ‘family’ league. Most of us are good mates coming from a shared background. The original motivation for its formation was the desire to compete with each other as such. It was all hunky dory at the start when the idea was still novel but as is normal with most things, the initial lustre faded somewhat with quite a few of the original pack losing interest. Case in point the likes of Ben (who’s on something of a self-imposed Mugabe Media Lockdown), Allan Kisanya and Alex Baraka. The concern remains, does the addition of new 'unknowns’ and their subsequent ascension to the top only serve to further exacerbate an already ailing situation? Is it more disheartening to log on and find that you’ve been bundled back five places by folks you don’t know who perhaps don’t share your same level of attachment or enthusiasm for the entire shebang? These are questions whose answers will likely emerge as the season continues to run its course.

I’ll leave you to mull over that.

- denniskig at 01:14