Graham's Blog

As you may know, the new season of The Big Interview starts very soon, with Gianluca Vialli. We’ll be out every second Thursday all the way through the football season, and many of these interviews will be in two parts, with the second section dropping into your feed on the Saturday after part one.

The new season of the podcast is sponsored by FanDuel, which is next-generation fantasy football. You play for cash or for fun, and the games span a single round of fixtures – you don’t have to wait until the end of the season to find out if you’re a winner. You can either play against your pals, play against a big pool of players for big money, or play against us, and the listeners of the podcast.

Here’s how to get the most out of our partnership with FanDuel.

• Sign up. If you like the look of the game, sign up at our special page here.
• Bonus code. When asked, use bonus code BIGINTERVIEW
• Play against us! In the ‘contests’ list on fanduel.co.uk or on the app, search for ‘GRAHAM HUNTER PODCAST CHALLENGE’. It’s £1 to enter, we’ll run it every week and the winner will get a shout-out on the podcast – not to mention a cash prize. You’ll be able to see how I do, as well as the producers Martin and Neil from BackPage. And we’ll be posting often on Facebook about this competition, it’ll be a fun way to keep in touch with the podcast team and other listeners.

We like the look of FanDuel. We tested it during the Euros and we think you’ll like the way it rewards the in-game performance of every player, regardless of position. Check out the scoring system here.

We’d love you to join in the fun, and by following the three steps above you’ll be helping the podcast, too.

Let’s play!

G

The new season of The Big Interview starts in a little under three weeks – we’re back with one of my favourite players, Gianluca Vialli, on August 4.

This will also be the first episode of our partnership with FanDuel, the next generation of fantasy football. That partnership means we can still give you the podcasts for free –we won’t even need to do another round of crowdfunding – and it also gives you the chance to play against me and the podcast team every week. More on that later.

We think a lot of you are going to enjoy playing FanDuel against us and other listeners of The Big Interview, and one of the reasons for that is the way the game is scored, which is revolutionary for fantasy football.

The Premier League game was built by football fans like us and is driven by OPTA stats. Players get points not just for goals, assists and clean sheets, but for interceptions, tackles, passes, shots on target and chances created.

I asked the guys at FanDuel to show me the most effective scorers at the Euros. It will come as no surprise that the best performer was Antoine Greizmann.

A FanDuel contest is played out over one round of fixtures – not dragged out over an entire season – and Griezmann put in the biggest score of any player in the Euros in France’s win over the Republic of Ireland. His 63.25 points in that game break down like this:

2 goals = 2 x 10 = 20

5 shots on target = 5 x 5 = 25

2 fouls drawn = 2 x 0.5 = 1

9 series of five passes completed = 9 x 0.25 = 2.25

3 tackles won = 3 x 5 = 15

Pretty interesting, no? And it gives a completely different picture than old-school fantasy football.

But there’s more to consider. For that game, Griezmann would have used up £11.8m of your £100m salary cap. These salaries change with every round of fixtures played, so if a player starts out with low expectations but heats up – think N’Golo Kante last season – his price is going to reflect that. To beat the game and your opponents, you have to stay on top of all the players in the league, every week you play.

It’s just as important to predict who in the bottom rungs of the salary list could produce a big game. During the Euros, the biggest bang-for-buck came from Albania’s Ledian Memushaj, a 29-year-old midfielder who plays his club football for Pescara in Italy.

He would have cost you just £6.6m before the game against Romania, but returned 50.5 points that day, largely due to the six chances he created, one of which was an assist on Armando Sadiku’s winning goal.

But who are going to be the under-valued players in the Premier League this season? And which of the superstars are going to deliver when you need them to most?

Check out fanduel.co.uk for more information, including a countdown to the launch of the app for their Premier League game. And listen out for how you can play against me and the podcast team in the new season.

And look out for Luca on August 4. We’ve already recorded two other episodes for the new season, and I’m in London next week to record two more. Thanks for your support, and keep listening.

G

 

 

I want to let you know that The Big Interview has teamed up with FanDuel – the next generation of fantasy football.

I’ll be telling you a lot more about FanDuel before their Premier League game kicks off for the new season. But right now they want people to join their beta testing programme during the Euros.

You play for free. You tell them what you think. And if you win, you win cash. Free cash.

I’ve played the latest version of the game and I loved it. With FanDuel you pick a new team for each round of fixtures – you don’t have to wait for the end of the tournament or the end of the season to get a result. You can choose to play against your mates, or against the rest of the country, in big competitions with big prizes. In the new season, we’re even going to have a special league for The Big Interview – your chance to take on me and the podcast team. It’ll be fun.

Best of all – as you’ll discover if you sign up as a tester before the Euros – this game is driven by OPTA stats and designed by proper football fans. Players score not just for goals, assists and clean sheets, but for interceptions, tackles made, passes completed and more. N’Golo Kante would be a wasted pick in old-school fantasy football, right? In FanDuel, he’s an ace.

Sign up right now to be a part of the game that’s going to change fantasy football – and be a big part of The Big Interview in the new season.

 

This is the second part of my interview with Paul Clement and – if you have got here quickly – it’s part of your preparation for the Champions League final.

It’s rare that we get somebody breaking down what matchday is like at that extraordinary level of sport, but that’s what you have here.

The tactical presentation that gave Paul palpatations; the reason they can’t leave the hotel as a team; the Ronaldo effect in the tunnel before the game; the staggered nature of the celebrations – and why, at Madrid, they never last too long.

Enjoy!

Graham