The Manc’s Fantasy Premier League is up and running for the 2023/24 season — and there are prizes to be won
Ah yes, it's once again time to fall out with your friends, waste hours at work rejigging your team and restart the most toxic relationship of your life. Oh, how we've missed you, FPL.
The Premier League is finally back (it always feels like an eternity, doesn’t it?) and you know what that means: it’s time to get your Fantasy teams sorted, pick a clever name to prove you’re funnier than your mates, and pull your hair out every week — and you can do it all with us at The Manc.
All you need to do to take part is join The Manc‘s Fantasy Premier Leaguefor the 23/24 season by joining with the code: lwgqvq. It’s as simple as that. We’re getting excited already. With the new season getting underway on Friday 11 August, you have 6:30pm to get your team all sorted if you don’t already.
Now, while we’re sure plenty of you are already painfully-familiar with the addictive highs and lows of doing the FPL year in, year out, we thought we’d give a quick explanation for those who might’ve never played before.
Don’t worry, it’s dead easy, and you already have the comfort of knowing that The Manc‘s so-called ‘dream team’ is probably going to finish right down at the bottom of the table.
Had to be black and yellowUs doing our team every weekCredit: The Manc Group/Fantasy Premier League app
First and foremost, this is a completely free-to-enter league — we’re sure we’ve all got enough paid little invitationals on the go already — and all you have to do to get started is download the official Fantasy Premier League app, or log in online via a browser.
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The Manc FPL league works just like any other: participants are given £100m to build their best title-winning squad from this year’s 20 Premier League clubs, with one player able to be transferred in or out each week — provided you’ve got enough money, of course.
Oh, and be warned, the best players are obviously the most expensive, so you might struggle to fit Haaland, Kane, Rashford, Salah, and so on all into one team but, hey, you can try.
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You have a total of 15 players to pick but you can only choose a maximum of three players from any one club, so no, you can’t just the entire Man City or Man United squad.
To make things interesting, we’re only using people who play for City or United, were previously at either of the clubs or are born Mancs.
Again, for anyone new to this, as well as having your chosen captain that can score double points each gameweek, as well as a vice-captain to fill in for them if they don’t play for whatever reason, you also have special chips that can be played once throughout the season.
Your free hit allows you to change your team for one round of fixtures only before it reverts back to your previous squad, your wildcard lets you transfer in and out as many players as you like, your bench boost allows you to play your subs as well as your starting lineup (they play when one of your 11 doesn’t), and you’re triple captain does exactly that: triples the amount of points your chosen player will earn.
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Changing your team before each round of games will become a regular obsession/stress for you every week, believe us, but it’s also really fun once you start getting the hang of tactics and outmanoeuvring your mates — just make sure you get your squad sorted before the deadline.
And that’s pretty much everything you need to know about how to play, but if there’s anything else you’re curious about, you can see the full list of Fantasy Premier League rules explained HERE. There you’ll find information about things like double gameweeks and how points are calculated.
Obviously, the person with the most points come the end of the season is the winner and whoever that lucky sod/fantasy football genius is will win a truly mint prize — and no, we have no intention of telling you what that it is at this time. Just trust us, you want to win this…
But fear not, there’ll also be runners-up prizes for people who finish in the Champions League places (2nd-4th), Europa League spots (5th and 6th), as well as the Conference League (7th). There’s even a cup tournament that runs alongside the league which you can win too. Not bad for a free league, right?
Whether you’re a massive footy fan or not, the love/hate relationship of playing FPL every week, getting one over on a work colleague, or picking the wrong captain one week and changing up your team every couple of days, is genuinely addictive (in the best way) – and we wish you all the best for the season.
Ruben Amorim fires back at Man United legend Wayne Rooney after ‘naive’ comment
Danny Jones
Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim has responded to comments made by club legend Wayne Rooney following the team’s exit from the FA Cup.
Amorim’s Reds and current cup holders under his predecessor, Erik ten Hag, dropped out of this year’s tournament to Fulham on penalties after a fairly low-quality 90 minutes and an even more exhausting extra time for both sets of fans.
The Portuguese coach had no trouble accepting that his side wasn’t up to the level on Sunday evening, as he has since he arrived, but insisted in his post-match interviews that Man United‘s overall goal is to win the Premier League.
However, reacting to the fame in the gantry after the game, ex-player and former all-time leading England goalscorer Wayne Rooney remarked that “little bit naive” to suggest they can challenge for the title any time soon. Here’s exactly what he had to say:
Do you agree with Rooney – is Amorim being naive?
While neither party actually gave a timeline as to when they expect Man United to realistically compete for a Premier League title, there seemed to be an agreement in the studio that the new manager might be thinking a little too far ahead this very moment.
For context, as well as having now conceded their trophy win from last season in a game that most supporters would have felt they should be winning (especially as the holders playing at home), the Red Devils currently sit 14th on 33 points in the Premier League table with a negative goal difference of six.
In contrast, league leaders Liverpool – also still adjusting to life under a new manager, though doing so much better – have just over double that amount of points after 28 games and even though Man City have had a bit of a rollercoaster time of late themselves, they’re still fourth and not far off second.
Nevertheless, the boss didn’t just sit there and take ‘Wazza‘s remarks lightly, choosing instead to provide a bit of perspective from one football manager to another.
Delivering a fairly calm but somewhat barbed response to Rooney, Amorim shrugged off the suggestion that he’s being naive when it comes to his new home, clarifying that while it would be foolish to expect fast results this year or even be “the best contender” in the coming campaign, it is their ultimate goal.
"I'm not naive, that's why I'm coaching Manchester United at 40 years old" 👀
Ruben Amorim responds to Wayne Rooney saying it's naive for him to say his goal is to win the Premier League 🏆 pic.twitter.com/YZ3GWkGcP6
To put it in footballing terms, you could argue Amorim left a bit of a boot in on Rooney, who was sacked by Birmingham City after just 15 games in charge and Plymouth after just seven months in the dugout.
Even prior to these two less-than-fortunate spells, the only other two jobs on the 39-year-old’s CV are his time at Derby County and DC United in the MLS, at which he failed to make any real impact at either.
Meanwhile, Amorim has won Liga Portugal twice, their domestic league cup three times at two different clubs and the Portuguese Super Cup once since his first coaching job at Casa Pia in his home country’s third tier in 218 – again, all at the age of 40, as he was keen to point out.
He also went on to quip, “Everybody knows everything”, adding that he was also a pundit when he finished his career and it is “easy” to comment from his/their position, going on to reinforce that the goal, however premature or long term it might feel, is to win the league.
Amorim has reiterated that he is “not naive” on multiple occasions already since joining the club and whatever Rooney or anyone else thinks, he appears to be remaining steadfast. You can listen to Ruben Amorim’s post-match press conference in full HERE and see the highlights from the game down below:
If you had three words to sum up this current United team, what would they be? Let us know in the comments.
Pep Guardiola hints at when Manchester City fans can expect to see their latest arrival
Danny Jones
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has given supporters a rough timeline as to when they can expect to see their new signing, or at least their latest arrival, make his first appearance.
The Blues wrapped up the January transfer window with four major signings: their new attacking number seven, Omar Marmoush (who has already bagged a hattrick on his home debut) promising defensive duo, Abdukodir Khusanov and Brazilian Vitor Reis, as well as their ‘mini-Rodri’, Nico Gonzalez.
However, the club has had another late arrival who was technically signed back at the start of last year but who has spent for the last 12 months or so loaned back to his previous parent club, River Plate in Argentina, waiting to make the move over to the Etihad Stadium – and now he’s here in Manchester.
Speaking on his touchdown in 0161, Pep said Claudio Echeverri won’t be thrown into first-team action straight away but did give a rough estimate as to when City fans could expect him to get involved. You can see him discussing the integration plan in his post-match press conference following the Spurs win.
The mention was only brief but there’s still plenty of reason for Man City fans to be excited by the late January signing.
“Yeah, he [Claudio Echeverri] is going to start to train and mainly will be for the end of the season, maybe the [Club] World Cup and as soon as possible [that] he arrives he can adapt quick for the future.”
As mentioned, the 19-year-old Argentinian attacking midfielder from Resistencia officially put pen to paper with CFG back in January 2024 and was quickly dubbed ‘the next Messi’.
Now, although the football world is often quick to jump the gun with these things and he isn’t the first and certainly won’t be last to be slapped with this premature title, he’s done more to back up these claims since then than he has rubbish them.
Starring at the 2025 Under-20 South American Championships, netting six goals in nine games to finish the tournament as the second highest scorer thanks to notable braces against Brazil and Uruguay as the young Argentine’s finished as runners up.
He also notched 48 senior appearances for River Plate thus far, netting four goals and grabbing eight assists in that time, not to mention having already captained his national team at the 2023 Under 17s World Cup, where he scored another five.
Safe to say there’s plenty of talent to be tapped in this lad.
Once again, Echeverri won’t go straight into the senior set-up for a little while yet, barring a major injury crisis, but he’ll be a more than exciting addition to the City Football Academy and for future first-team lineups for years to come.
Who knows, maybe he’ll be included in an FA Cup matchday squad? Nevertheless, you can expect him to not just come of the bench but hopefully show what he can do at the Club World Cup this summer.
City‘s first fixture as reigning champions of the competition will be against Moroccan side Wydad AC on 18 June 2025.
You can watch Echeverri’s first full interview as a Man City player down below:
The new Man City signing is excited to be finally be part of the club 13 months on from agreeing his contract.
Danny Jones -
10th August 2023 
