OK; I am about to play a wild card after two weeks into the season. The team I have is, mildly put, inadequate. The author of this inadequacy is me, of course. I hit that auto-pick button when I started this stuff. Wrong move! I ended with two sets of three average players from the same teams and some other would be good players which are underperforming. Eh ...

Now, to the wild card. I asked experts and they said - do it! The gist of the advice  was:

  • getting at least 3 players from both Man City and Liverpool,
  • think about Arsenal players because Arsenal will face weak opponents for the upcoming 8 weeks.

Can I make 9 transfers with three times three players from these three teams? Will three be my new lucky number after these moves? I am certainly willing and ready to find out.

So, let's take a rational approach. The current situation is as follows:

Let's assume I keep both goalkeepers, Mkhitaryan and Zaha. That's five players with two already being from one of the top three teams at this moment. Should I ignore Ederson and Zaha and press on with nine additions? Let's try it. I still have the budget issue to solve, after all.

First on, let's do some cleanup.

Removing Young, Davies, and Aurier from the defense leaves me with £20.9.

On to the midfield. Antonio, Jahanbakhsh, and Yarmolenko are gone. £41.7.

Attack, easy stuff. Rashford and Giroud, goodbye. Now I have £56.6 to play with and 8 open positions. £7 on average? It won't be easy since top players are really expensive.

Should I first take Salas and see what I can do afterward. OK, let's do it.

Salah in, £43.6 left.

Next stop, Agüero. £32.5 left for 6 picks. 

It is getting tight. £5.4 on average. I already see that I will have one open position after all this charade.

Let's pick Mendy. £26.3 left.

On with the defense and Liverpool. Robertson it is. £20.3 left for 4 positions.

Let's complete the midfield and deal with the forwards later. Looks like Mané is a must. An expensive one. £10.5 left for 3 places.

Yet, I have a full squad now. Ten field players and two goalies. I could stop here. Should I?

I also have three from Man City (Ederson, Mendy, Agüero) and three from Liverpool (Robertson, Salah, Mané). There is one from Arsenal - Mkhitaryan. Should I get some more from the Gunners? Let's see what's available.

Hm, no. I won't do the same mistake again. Grouping too many players from the same club at the same position is not good. I already have two from Liverpool in the midfield.

The next best man is ... Richarlison. Added. £10.6 for three positions.

Next, I'll complete the forwards and stop there. Callum Wilson is going strong. OK, I'll give him a chance.

That's it. What do you think?

 A complete overhaul with some space left...

Dear experts, I won't ask you for your opinion and approval. I will applaud you if you read the whole story up to this line :)

I'll go ahead and do it. Pressing the Play Wildcard button ...

Eh, I can't confirm transfers. Does it really have to be a full team of all fifteen players? 

OK, let's do some magic. I am adding a defender Jon Gorenc Stankovic for meager £4. By the way, he is the only player from Slovenia in the Premier League. And he did quite well in GW2.

£0.5 left and I need a midfielder. It won't go this way.

More cleanup is necessary. Sanchez out, Steve Cook in. He is cheap and in form.

Sorry, Alex McCarthy, you are gone too. Now I need the best goalie that I can get cheap. The only one for £4.0 that's actually playing, is poor Ben Hamer. Benny, I will give you a chance.

£2.4 and one empty spot. I'll pull a strange one right now. I am afraid Zaha has to go. There are £7.0 reasons.

 Forwards are so overrated. The cheapest is valued the same as a decent goalie. OK, Aboubakar Kamara is in. He won't be playing, anyway.

The last move. I have £4.9 left for a midfielder. Hey, Matteo Guendouzi from Arsenal is available. Great!

Make Transfers button is alive now. Let's record the setup for the history.

It's a brand new team.



Done!







The job is not done yet. Now I have to set up starting eleven. What do you say now?

Well, this task took me at least two hours to complete. Without any proper research. Just playing with numbers and names. 

Thanks for your patience. Everybody who gets through this novel all the way to the happy end and comments meaningfully gets my full upvote :)