That’s right; this is not actually a story about Josh Tymon. It’s a story about a fantasy soccer player who owned Tymon last weekend.
Josh Tymon is one of the better stories in this young Premier League season. At 17 years old, he is the youngest player to make his Premier League debut for Hull City. According to The Sun, he is still making only £160 per week. Hull manager, Mike Phelan, is using him, though, to try to stabilize the shaky Hull defense.
That means he is now someone for desperate fantasy soccer owners to consider.
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There once was a fantasy soccer player; we will call him Zeke. Zeke’s story started two weeks ago. As an astute fantasy owner, he decided he needed to sell Romelu Lukaku (£9.4). He wanted to buy Harry Kane (£11.1) in his place, but he did not have any money in his bank. So he suffered with Lukaku for one more week and did not use his free transfer.
Last week, with two transfers to use, Zeke made the move. He sold Lukaku and bought Kane, feeling great about the improvement to his fantasy lineup. Since his bank was now deep in the negative, Zeke had to do something with his second transfer.
Luke Shaw from Manchester United has been hurt and/or not playing lately for Jose Mourinho, so he was the obvious choice. Zeke hit the button to transfer him out.
Now, he had to buy a defender in Shaw’s place, and £4.1 was all he had to work with. At that price point, there was only one defender he could transfer in who had played at all in the last few weeks.
You guessed it. Hull City’s Josh Tymon.
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Friday night. Time to set the lineup. Zeke looked at his options. He loved his forwards. Harry Kane’s name was shining brightly on his phone. His defense? Not so much.
Steve Cook from Bournemouth was going to play Liverpool. Liverpool scores a lot of goals. Josh Tymon, if he played, was going to be defending against Middlesbrough. They score 0 or 1 every week, it seems.
Zeke didn’t feel great either way, but he had to choose one. He chose Tymon.
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Sunday morning. Bournemouth v. Liverpool. Wouldn’t you know it? Steve Cook scored a goal. Suddenly, playing Josh Tymon was not such a good idea.
Of course, Zeke thought. That’s been my luck all season.
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Monday afternoon. Hull is now playing Middlesbrough. Tymon is not in the lineup, but he is on the bench. Hey, thought Zeke. Maybe this isn’t so bad. If Tymon doesn’t play, then Cook will come into my lineup, and I will get those 7 points!
Suddenly, Zeke found himself watching the match just to make sure his fantasy player didn’t play. In the second half, Mike Phelan made two substitutions. Neither of them were Tymon.
Zeke breathed a sigh of relief. But there was one more sub to go.
81st minute, and Phelan made the third change. David Meyler replaced Markus Henriksen. Yes! Zeke is thrilled. Cook’s 7 points are his! It was unconventional, Zeke knew, but what a great end to the weekend!
*****
Tuesday morning. Zeke reviewed the past weekend’s results one more time. Wait a minute, he pondered. Why don’t my points look right? Instead of seven more points, he only got one. It didn’t make sense.
That’s when Zeke learned something about fantasy soccer. When one of his defenders didn’t play, he didn’t automatically get the points scored by his benched defender. That’s not how it works. Instead, Zeke got points from his first benched outfield player.
Unfortunately for him, that player was Junior Stanislas. One point.
Zeke shook his head. He realized he still has much to learn about fantasy soccer.
