Early wild card...yes or no

[Omarz14]

Every season I save my wild card till the double gameweek and it usually pays dividends...but this season it looks different.

Any views on whether to save it or do it now?

[Sammy the Crab]

Well you can't save it anymore, the first wildcard has to be used this calendar year.

[Ezequiel]

Well you can't save it anymore, the first wildcard has to be used this calendar year.

This makes it so much easier to use now, with the international break. I usually was debating to save it till the end of the season, but this changes everything. Also, the fact that players can rise more than 3 times during a gameweek, makes a wildcard during the international break that much better.

[Curmudgeon]

Well you can't save it anymore, the first wildcard has to be used this calendar year.

Also, the fact that players can rise more than 3 times during a gameweek

I understood that the maximum rise in a gameweek was 0.3M

[Omarz14]

Its annoying when all you need is just three transfers but you don't wanna lose 8 points...at the same time you think that a -8 is not worth a wild card...very confusing

[Ezequiel]

Well you can't save it anymore, the first wildcard has to be used this calendar year.

Also, the fact that players can rise more than 3 times during a gameweek

I understood that the maximum rise in a gameweek was 0.3M

It was, but I read earlier this month that restriction was removed this season

[Curmudgeon]

That makes an arbitrage strategy potentially even more interesting!

Now if only I could get some seriously irrational bandwagons and kneejerking going during the international break I might be able to afford KdB and Martial for the bench, to keep De Gea, Wanyama and Berahino company . . .

(Or is that the sort of thing that got those guys who manipulated LIBOR locked up?)

[Mav3rick]

Even if the limit of 3 rises had been removed, it's so rare for even a triple rise that a quadruple looks impossible in a practical sense. Mahrez was one of the bigger bandwagons and he didn't triple rise.

Don't forget that the transfer activity isn't constant over the long break. It tails off for the majority of the two weeks and only really shows big movements in the first and last few days. There might be some extra movement with the window closing if some big names come in.

[Curmudgeon]

You're pretty much confirming my (completely unfounded in experience) expectations there, Mav3rick.

I should say that five of my Saturday night transfers in went up a point immediately over the weekend (and I added Gomis and Ayew yesterday who should go up tonight) and if any of them rise again in the next two weeks I will cash them in, but in any case I will be able to rejig my naively assembled initial squad in a couple of weeks time to account for international injuries, the deadline mayhem, and a little more knowledge acquired by lurking here for a month.

Using the wild card this fortnight is money for nothing and some picks for free, as a couple of my favourite Geordies once sang.