What to expect

So we have 51 final entries in this, the 11th Nobby & Ready Fantasy League season. Thanks for joining us. By my reckoning we have 16 new managers this year, so to the unitiated I thought I would give people an insight as to what to expect.

Nobby is me and is the only name I am known by in the City square mile. An old boss gave it to me way back and it stuck. I will let you draw your own conclusions as to why Nobby but please believe me when I say it is not a very exciting story. Ready of course is my partner and long time mate. We used to work together occasionally but mainly drunk a lot. He spends his time between Thailand and The Lamb. If you can't get hold of me, you will undoubtedly find him propping up the bar with such market legends as Rutts, Snevs and Oakers.

Some of you such as Godders, Rose, Oakers and Singleton have been in the league since the outset. Others have been dragged along during the way. This website, formerly which was an old fashioned typed and photocopied newsletter is not for the faint hearted and Nobby & Ready cannot be held responsible for the huge amount of piss taking that we do. If you don't like it, go and join a poofs league with Greg Harris.

The scores will be sent out in an excel format weekly (week 1 to follow shortly). Depending on my hectic executive lifestyle these sometimes might be late. The weekly scores will always be accompanied by my very witty and erudite comments as well as any other crap that I happen to be stewing over.Regular blog features will include The Road to Wembley, my view on life in the English 'soccer' leagues and for the sweaties out there, some boring crap on the SPL.

As we are not all intimate with each other, Kelleher aside, I will also run a regular series on someof the managers in the league - you're gonna like that. There will also be the Team Challenge trophy (held by AIG), Ready's FA Cup 3rd Round predictions competition and of course what you all log in for, My kinda town, which is my thoughts on life living in Chicago.Finally we have done something different this year due to the number of entries. We have split the league into two - N&R Serie A and N&R Serie B. No Fifa rankings were taken into account, it was simply split alphabetically. 26 teams will contest Serie A and 25 will compete in Serie B.

Then after week 20, after the busy Christmas and New Year Premiership programme, the top 12 teams in each division will enter a N&R SuperLeague with the remainding 26 going into a Plate competition, more commonly known as losers league! Teams will keep their points tally already accumulated at that point.The weekly best score, for which there is a 5 quid (or $ equivalent) award each week will still go to the best score over the two divisions.

The prize money will be announced in due course but it will be weighted towards the Superleague, although plenty of prize money will still slush around within the Plate. With 51 managers hopefully this will keep the interest going for the full 9 months of the season and unlike the Premiership where only one team can realistically be the champion and the filthy Russian's get richer, here in the N&R FL everyone has a chance of winning.

So, the first few months of the season are vital. Remember the links on the right there are for your benefit. Watch your players form carefully, transfers are an important part of the competition and you each have 12 opportunities to make changes. The weekly deadline for your switched players to start gaining points is every Tuesday at 5pm (GMT).

Good luck to you all. Remember this league is about people and personalities, a bit like the insurance market used to be before all those actuary wankers joined. Post comments on the blog, email, text, call.... lets make it fun.

Nobby & Ready
simon_newport@ars.aon.com
keith.read@layton-blackham.co.uk