Career Hall of Fame update: Sean Tobin leads Mark Sutherns at the top

As the launch of Fantasy Premier League 2019/20 draws ever nearer, we have taken the opportunity to highlight who the best-performing managers are in our recently updated Career Hall of Fame.

This ranking system is applied to everyone who takes part in either of our FPL leagues, with managers’ performances over the seasons then tracked to give a Hall of Fame (HoF) rating.

While the Live version of our Hall of Fame can only be viewed by Members, everyone can access the Career Hall of Fame by clicking here.

Further information on the Hall of Hame is included at the bottom of this article, but alternatively, you can view this movie to listen to Mark and Rate My Team’s Chris Atkinson discuss the feature.

2018/19 Career Hof: The Standings

2018/19 Career Hof: The Top Ten

Sean Tobin sits atop our Career Hall of Fame after his 16th-place finish in 2018/19.

Sean’s previous best finish was 923rd in 2014/15 and he has four other top 5,000 finishes in his nine-season history.

Initially breaking into the top 1,000 in Gameweek 9, Sean peaked at 7th in Gameweek 26.

Sean deployed his first Wildcard in Gameweek 4, subsequently rising from 69,955th to 508th in the space of six weeks.

All ten of our featured managers, including Sean, played their Free Hit, second Wildcard and Bench Boost chips in Gameweeks 32, 34 and 35 respectively.

Using the excellent FPL Statistico tool, we can see that Sean took hits totalling 24 points and used a 3-4-3 more than any other formation (23 times).

Sean hit double figures for captaincy points in all bar seven Gameweeks, with Mohamed Salah his most-captained asset – the Egyptian was handed the armband on 15 occasions.

Mark Sutherns stays in our Career Hall of Fame top ten for the third season in a row.

Mark almost recorded his fifth top 1k finish, having to settle for an overall rank of 1,367 in the end.

That was the fifth time Mark has finished with an overall rank between 1,000 and 5,000.

Mark favoured a three-man backline on 26 occasions, with Salah his most-captained player (19 times).

Like Sean, Mark played his first Wildcard early in the Season, in Gameweek 3.

Mark was outside the top one million at this point but was in the top 10k by Gameweek 14, only dropping out of it again on one occasion.

Mark made more transfers (50) than any of the top ten, taking 68 points-worth of hits throughout the season.

Fábio Borges is a new entry in our Career Hall of Fame top ten, after a 95th-place finish in FPL.

Fabio was as high as 28th in Gameweek 19 before dipping to 715th in Gameweek 29, only for a late surge to seal his first ever top 100 finish.

Fabio has never finished outside of the top 20,000 in five seasons of playing the game, improving his rank every year: he had finished 671st in 2017/18.

Fabio made 14 fewer transfers than Mark, ceding only 16 points in hits.

One trend that is familiar among our top three is an early first Wildcard: Fabio used his in Gameweek 5, subsequently rising from 35,020th to inside the top 1k in the space of four weeks.

Once again, Salah was the most-captained player: Fabio handed him the armband on 24 occasions.

A three-man defence was used on 21 occasions.

Stephen Harrap is another riser into the top ten, posting a career-best overall rank of 129 in the season just gone.

Stephen had strung together six successive top 10k finishes from 2011/12 onwards but this was the first time he had cracked the top 1,000.

Two triple-figure scores in Gameweeks 1 and 2 lifted him within touching distance of the top 1k, with Stephen rising to 255th by Gameweek 4.

Stephen was to spend 27 of the next 34 Gameweeks inside the top 1,000, never dropping out the top 500 from Gameweek 28 onwards.

Unlike our Hall of Fame top three, Stephen saved his first Wildcard till the last possible moment, deploying it in Gameweek 20.

Our first three managers featured all saved their Triple Captain chip until Gameweek 36 but Stephen successfully used his in Gameweek 25, hitting triple figures after handing the armband to Sergio Aguero.

The Manchester City striker was captained on 13 occasions by Stephen, with Salah trusted 16 times.

A 3-4-3 or 3-5-2 was used on 29 occasions.

Marlen Rattiner drops only one place in our Career Hall of Fame, from fourth to fifth.

Having recorded four top 1k finishes in the eight preceding seasons, Marlen ended with an overall rank of 2,477 – his third finish between 1,000 and 5,000 in his 11-year history.

Marlen’s end rank in 2018/19 was his highest of the season, although he spent 18 Gameweeks inside the top 10k and never once dropped outside the top 100,000.

There was an unusual deployment of a Triple Captaincy in Gameweek 38, though the 15-point return wasn’t as successful as our other managers who used their chips in Gameweeks 25 or 36.

A familiar pattern is developing here: a three-man backline was used on 31 occasions, with Salah the most-captained played (14 times).

A total of 46 transfers were made, at a cost of 52 points.

Grant Barclay, last season’s Career Hall of Fame number two, is now sixth in our table.

Grant only just missed out on what would have been a seventh straight finish inside the top 10k, ending with an overall rank of 10,643.

Grant’s previous two FPL finishes were within the top 1,000.

Grant’s best score of the season was 121 in Gameweek 25, when a Triple Captaincy of Aguero catapulted him from 34,101st to inside the top 10k for the first time in 2018/19.

The Argentinean striker was actually Grant’s most-captained player of the season, although Salah was handed the armband on only one fewer occasion (14 and 13 respectively).

A 3-5-2 was used on 16 occasions, with a 3-4-3 utilised ten times.

Grant was one of the many FPL managers who ditched Salah on a Gameweek 16 Wildcard, with the Egyptian subsequently embarking on a scoring spree over Christmas.

Alan Day‘s remarkable run of FPL form continues and he has the best average score of any Fantasy manager over the last three seasons.

After finishes of 137th and 368th in the preceding two years, Alan ended up 331st in 2018/19 and entered our Career Hall of Fame top ten for the first time as a result.

Alan was another one of our featured managers never to drop out of the top 100,000 in the season just gone.

A well-played Wildcard in Gameweek 9 saw him jump from 48,481st to just outside the top 1,000 in the space of seven Gameweeks.

Alan finally cracked the top 1k in Gameweek 24 and stayed there for the remaining months of the season.

Alan nailed his captain picks for the first 15 Gameweeks of the season, with Salah and Aguero his most-captained players over the course of 2018/19 (15 and 12 times respectively).

Alan was remarkably consistent in his formation choice, favouring a three-man backline on 35 occasions.

A 4-4-2 was used only twice, with the Bench Boost chip accounting for the other Gameweek.

Aleksander Våge Nilsen is a new entry into our Career Hall of Fame top ten, recording his third top 1k finish in the space of five seasons.

Aleksander finished with an excellent overall rank of 659th but an even better season was in the offing at one point.

The Norwegian manager cracked the top 1k for the first time in Gameweek 2, rising to 16th in the world by the halfway point of the season.

Aleksander was back down to 920th nine Gameweeks later – a Gameweek 25 Triple Captaincy of Leroy Sane not working out – but recovered well to stop the slide.

Salah was captained by Aleksander more than twice as many times (17) as his next most-favoured player.

A 3-4-3 or 3-5-2 were used on 26 occasions.

Tom Freeman rises to ninth in our Hall of Fame following another excellent campaign.

This was Tom’s fifth top 1k finish in ten seasons of playing FPL.

But for an anomalous finish of 181,455 in 2015/16, Tom would be towards the top of our leaderboard.

Tom’s final overall rank of 214th was his highest of the season and his best ever finishing OR in his history.

A Gameweek 15 Wildcard and a Gameweek 36 triple captaincy worked out well, while there was only one captaincy blank in the first 17 Gameweeks.

Salah, again, was his most-captained played (14 times).

A 3-5-2 was used on 16 occasions but a 4-4-2 was also popular, utilised a further 11 times.

Matthew Jones completes our list, just clinging on to his top ten spot after finishing third in our Career Hall of Fame last season.

Matthew managed to sneak another top 10k finish in, with four green arrows in the run-in lifting him from 26,163rd to a final rank of 9,864th.

That was Matthew’s eight top 10,000 finish, three of which were inside the top 1k.

Matthew’s Gameweek 19 Wildcard was a success, lifting him from the 40,000 mark to the fringes of the top 10k.

Patience was the key, with Matthew the joint-least-active member of our top ten in terms of transfers made (36) and hits taken (16 points).

Matthew nailed the captaincy for the first 13 Gameweeks of the season and backed Salah with the armband most over the course of 2018/19 (16 times).

A 3-4-3 was used on 17 occasions, with a 3-5-2 deployed a further nine times.

2018/19 Career Hof: Other notable performances

Andrew Hyde and Stuart Wright narrowly missed out on a top ten spot in our Career Hall of Fame, finishing in 11th and 12th despite recording top 10,000 overall ranks.

Stuart, indeed, has never finished outside the top 10k in his four seasons playing the game and posted an overall rank of 7th in his debut campaign in 2014/15.

Aside from his one top 1k finish, this was Andrew’s fifth overall rank inside the top 10,000.

Adam Levy rises to 25th place in our Career Hall of Fame after landing the FPL crown.

Adam led the way from Gameweek 29 onwards and had a comfortable winning margin of 57 points in the overall standings, also running away with the two Fantasy Football Scout FPL leagues.

You can read about Adam’s incredible season via the links below:

READ MORE: Interview with Adam Levy – part one
READ MORE: Interview with Adam Levy – part two

Andrew Green and Tore Bjørheim, who finished second behind Adam in our two FPL leagues and ended with overall ranks of third and 18th respectively, rise to 245th and 1677th.

2017/18 Career HoF Top Ten: Where are they now?

As we have discussed above, four managers who were in our Career Hall of Fame top ten in 2017/18 are still there 12 months later: Mark, Marlen, Grant and Matthew.

Two of last season’s top ten haven’t fallen far, with Owen Walker in 13th and Richard Clarke in 19th.

Both managers narrowly failed to secure top 10k finishes in the season just gone.

Owen and Richard have three and two previous top 1,000 ranks to their names respectively.

Last year’s FPL runner-up Paul Gee falls to 40th in our Career Hall of Fame after a still-creditable finish of 31,530 in 2018/19, while the much-discussed Ville Ronka now sits in 72nd after ending the season just gone with an overall rank of 47,161.

Ville, who has finished in the top 1k on an enviable four occasions, had been in 817th place in Gameweek 16 but then suffered 12 straight red arrows.

After two seasons in the Career Hall of Fame top ten, Lester Cheng drops down to 171st.

Like a lot of seasoned FPL managers, Lester suffered a difficult campaign.

Lester, who has thrice finished in the top 1,000, ended up outside the top 100k for the first time in 12 seasons.

Perhaps the most notable fall sees Jay Egersdorff, last season’s Career Hall of Fame number one, drop to 174th.

Jay has three top 1k and seven top 10,000 finishes to his name but even he endured a year to forget, ending up with an overall rank of 282,069.

Meet the Manager

Four of our Career Hall of Fame top ten have already filmed Meet the Manager episodes with Joe and these videos can be watched via the links below:

Sean Tobin
Mark Sutherns
Aleksander Våge Nilsen
Matthew Jones

Other episodes of this series can be viewed on our YouTube page.

Hall of Fame FAQ

How is my rating calculated?
The “HoF Rating” is based on your points scores from previous FPL seasons, with the latest season weighted the heaviest and each corresponding season weighted at roughly 80% that of the previous season. So, in other words, those who performed best in 2018/19 will receive a bigger HoF Rating boost from those who did best in 2007/08. The “HoF Ranking” even allows for those with missing years, adapting the formula accordingly to allow rookies to rank alongside the veterans of FPL.

How do I join the Hall of Fame
Simply sign up to our leagues next season, either the Fantasy Football Scout Classic League or if you’re a member, the Members’ Classic League – the code for the latter league will be available on the dashboard of the Members’ Area after launch.

How do I find myself in the Hall of Fame?
The search box at the top of the ranking tables allows you to search by surname or by FPL id.

What if I don’t want to be listed?
Either notify us via support@fantasyfootballscout.co.uk or simply leave the relevant Fantasy Football Scout FPL league and you’ll be removed on the next update.

When does the Hall of Fame get updated?
The Career table is available to all and is updated at the end of each season to display the latest rankings. The Live version, accessible only to Members, is updated throughout the season to reflect the scores of the current campaign.