PlayTheGame

Richard Duce, the Sports News Editor, was pondering a choice of forwards for the sixth place on his bench, and it came down to a former European player of the year or a Hull City forward who has probably never even been player of the year in his own house. "Only in fantasy football," you thought…

And only with PlayTheGame, our advanced fantasy football game, can you experience in football terms the sort of event that American fantasy sports fans take for granted. Some of us have also been playing fantasy baseball in an intensely competitive UK Media league for several years now, and we look forward every year to draft day, when we pick the players who we know will deliver us a championship trophy six or seven months down the line. We wanted the same thing, but with Hammers, Trotters and Latics rather than Yankees, Orioles and Red Sox.

Hence the sight of ten grown men gathered around a table covered in stat sheets and team sheets (downloadable from our offline allocation kit), beer bottles and pizza boxes, calling out the names of professional sportsmen. It's a funny thing, but only men ever seem tempted to get involved. Two female football fans in senior positions on the Times sports desk and Times Online were invited, but both made their excuses and were somewhere else.

It was their loss.

We thought about having an auction, but decided to follow a traditional “snake” system. Lots were drawn for allocation order, with the sequence reversed for even-numbered rounds. This is what our computer does when it allocates players automatically - the order “snakes” backwards and forwards and gives managers at the end of the allocation order the compensation of being first to pick in even-numbered rounds.

Phil Myers, who edited our Fantasy supplement, came out of the hat first, and with the opening pick in the first-ever Times offline player allocation – we felt the hand of history on our shoulders – announced that he was taking Cesc Fabregas of Arsenal, which, he admitted, was a somewhat perverse choice for a Spurs season-ticket holder.

More predictable was Mick Hume, our Manchester-United supporting columnist, taking Wayne Rooney with his first pick – and following up with three more Reds in the next three rounds. The offline system was ideal for him. “In principle I feel that fantasy football is unethical,” he said. “As a United supporter, I don’t want any Arsenal, Chelsea or Liverpool players scoring for my team.”

The surprise pick of the first round was Mikel Arteta of Everton, but since Tony Cascarino has played plenty of proper football for Aston Villa, Chelsea and Ireland, we assume he knows what he is doing. And Arteta, as Tony pointed out, can score goals as well as create them, plays for an improving Everton team and strikes a good free kick.

In the early rounds, there is no shortage of good players – so that anyone who missed out on Nemanja Vidic at pick 19 could still find decent centre backs such as Ricardo Carvalho or Jamie Carragher a round or two later. But as the available talent began to thin out in the middle rounds, there were more than a few muttered curses when managers’ top targets were taken by rivals. You’ll find that these are the most pleasurable sounds on such occasions, apart, perhaps, from “The pizza has arrived.” Snaffling a player someone else wants not only denies them a key performer but also proves that you are doing something right.

As the bottom of the barrel came closer, the choices were between regulars at teams likely to struggle and fringe players at more established clubs. Will Nicklas Bendtner get much playing time with Arsenal? Will it be more or less than Florent Malouda gets at Chelsea? Someone remembered Matt Derbyshire scoring goals for Blackburn Rovers whenever he was given first-team opportunities, but could not locate him in the player lists. “Where’s Derbyshire?” he said. “Near Nottingham,” came the reply. It had been a long day. “I’d been waiting to say that,” the culprit admitted.

Whether all our picks work out or not, we all had a great time, as we hope you will at your offline allocation. We guarantee that it will get your fantasy season off to a memorable start. As Mick said, it was live Premier League entertainment but with pizza. Good company, lots of football banter and plenty to eat and drink – what more could you want?

We all came away with some players we liked, we all missed out on some we wanted, and we all took fliers on players that could pay off handsomely or be given free transfers before the end of the August transfer window. Some teams have already been affected by injuries and transfers - Wilfred Bouma's dislocated ankle and the departure of Sulley Muntari from Portsmouth to Inter Milan. But we’re all looking forward to seeing the pick that caused the raised eyebrows come good and prove that we are truly football geniuses.

Your offline allocation may be different, but we spotted several trends. There are uncertainties around so many Tottenham Hotspur players that not even the two Spurs supporters among our ten managers were entirely convinced by many of Juande Ramos’ squad. “We always say Spurs players are ‘interesting’ when someone else picks them,” Tony correctly pointed out. And there was a late run on players from Newcastle United and West Ham United, but only one player from each club went in the top 50 – both after two Blackburn Rovers players.

We were reluctant to take players from the three promoted clubs, so you may find that you can afford to wait until the late rounds if you think you have spotted a diamond in the rough at Hull or Stoke. In larger leagues, don’t forget that the new “minutes played” scoring category gives value to steady first-team regulars even if they do not put up sexy numbers in assists, goals and points. And the defence category rewards those who man the barricades in overworked defences.

But in a 10-team league, there is still quality in the 20th round. Andriy Shevchenko, for instance. And Dean Windass …

To see how the allocation went, pick by pick and round by round, click here

The Inquest - four managers survey the damage.

RICHARD DUCE (Sports News Editor)

Best pick:
Michael Ballack - A class act who rose massively in my estimation at the end of least season and at Euro 2008

Worst pick:
Matt Etherington. Seriously unfair on Etherington, but showed up the dearth of left-sided midfielders as Joe Cole, Nani, Duff and even Morten Gamst Pederson were snapped up earlier by others.

Best hope:
Jose Bosingwa. In at right back in a side which, wholly unintentionally, plays largely for Chelsea and Portugal.

Ones that got away:
Plan A - move in ASAP on a prolific goalscoring striker or midfielder - disappeared through the window as soon as I began batting at number 8. Torres, Rooney, Gerrard and Fabregas were all gone in 60 seconds. Tevez was always on my shopping list but I had hoped to make him second pick rather than first. To my right Tony Cascarino had nicked my choice of David James very early doors so Joe Hart became a target on the grounds that Mark Hughes will concentrate on clean sheets from the start.

BILL EDGAR (football writer and TheGame Podcast stats guru)

Best pick:
Patrice Evra: Undisputed first choice in the league's best defence, rarely injured, and liable to set up goals from the byline.

Worst pick:
Kolo Toure: What should have been a sound choice changed a few hours after I picked him when he was diagnosed with malaria, which means he is likely to miss the start of the season.

One that got away: I was confident of getting Tim Cahill because he was so far down the ranking list. He missed half of last season through injury but was brilliant in the half when he played.

MICK HUME (columnist):

Best pick:
Wayne Rooney. As a confirmed football bigot I only really wanted United players and Rooney is the most important of the lot, Ronaldo or no.

Worst pick:
I refused to pick Liverpool, Chelsea or Arsenal players so ended up with two from City and a full-back called Hreidarrson I've never heard of. Oh, and John O'Shea

One that got away:
Dimitar Berbatov. Assuming that Fergie gets his man, he has a touch of the Cantonas about him. Probably not quite 42 goals a season though...

NICK SZCZEPANIK (football writer)

Best pick:
Surely Luiz Felipe Scolari will realize that Joe Cole should be at the heart of a team rather than on its fringes – England’s as well as Chelsea’s. Cole will then dominate in successful passes and assists and secure more playing time. And if Big Phil decides that he rates Shevchenko too, my last pick could be the best of all. But on the whole I picked players that I like – the ones who don’t blank you as you wait for post-match quotes in a freezing cold car park: Cole, Phil Neville, who has shown his quality as Everton captain after emerging from Old Trafford’s repressive shadow, and Jimmy Bullard are all top blokes. And how could a Brighton fan pasas up the chance to have Bobby Zamora in his team?

Worst picks:
Did I really need Bacary Sagna when I had already picked Neville, who qualifies at right back? And although Tom Huddlestone has some great seasons ahead of him, 2008-09 may be too early to be one of them.

One that got away:
A goalkeeper on a top team. At least Chris Kirkland will probably have a lot of saves to make.