New: What’s in the Members Area?

I spend on average 5-6 hours per day creating content, looking at the market, and researching teams and players. So there will be updates almost every day.

After every match day I go through the stats in detail to see what Player Ratings should be updated and what team and player tactical changes members will want to know about. Generally, this will happen within 1-2 days of the games including for pre-season friendlies as we prepare for the next season.

Likewise, the market analysis section is updated whenever I have an insight or update I feel is useful, generally at least a few times a week. This could be as a result of a shift in the mood of the market, or a new trend that members need to be aware of for example. 

There is no set schedule for Members Only Posts/Articles, I will write them when I have something useful to share! But I anticipate doing around 6-10 a month covering anything from Strategy for the upcoming months ahead to detailed scouting of strongly performing and under valued players. 

No, not necessarily. They may be high quality players, but that does not mean they are a good value trade. This is where my market analysis on the Members Dashboard can help a lot with the overall market trends, pricing, risks and opportunities. And, I provide detailed strategy guides for each phase of the season so members will always have my thoughts on how best to apply the information given.

However, nobody runs the exact same strategies and a player that is right for one portfolio is not necessarily right for another. Members will still have to use their own judgement on this. 

Whilst I will highlight changes in the fortunes of performance players positively or negatively, and I will share insight on optimal strategy for the coming months and the best types of players to hold, I do not tip individual trades and I never will (for very good reasons of integrity and market stability). 

Each player has two separate ratings out of 5 stars, “Current” and “Potential”. This is explained fully in the Members Guide to Player Ratings, accessible from the navigation bar. It is very important members understand how I set the ratings in order to get the best out of them. 

I use professional scouting data used by real scouts and coaches to assess players which is something that very few people have access to. It provides a depth of information not available on free statistics websites. 

All my ratings are based primarily on real match data, not narrow Football Index historical performance scores which can be very misleading. 

No, not specifically. I could run a “tipster” service with about 5% of the effort I have put into this site. But frankly, I don’t think such a “service” really works on the Football Index.

If I tipped a player, the first 25 members to login and see it might be happy, but what about the 25 that come after? The price will have moved if everyone followed the tip and not all members would get good value.

Instead, I focus on providing good information on the whole market and it’s players and take some of the heavy lifting out of the research. People can use that to narrow things down and then select the players that are right for them and fit with their own strategy. 

Rather than lazy tipping, I want to make a sustainable site for the long term. I  will  manage and monitor numbers as the site grows to ensure it remains an exclusive club rather than a mass membership site! I will keep track of the most long standing members and ensure they do not miss out if membership numbers needs to be capped one day.

There are currently just over 450+ players who have been individually assessed at time of writing. But it is growing all the time. Whenever a player is getting attention in the market (ignoring the obvious useless pump and dumps) they will usually be added. As will any emerging talents from youth teams or ineligible leagues as I find them.

As you would expect, the vast majority of the top 200 players are included, barring some of the ones who dip in and out of the squad. The rest are a selection of notable players as I see them. There are thousands of players on the Index but really, there are only hundreds at any one time that are relevant.

Goalkeepers are *not* currently included. They so rarely challenge for performance dividends that I have not prioritised them. However, I am open to feedback on this, and if the scoring system changes, or some keepers become more relevant, I will include them in future. 

If a player you want is not rated, you can draw them to my attention via a simple form in the members section (or even query a rating if you think I’ve got it wrong!).  

Not at all. There are many ways to play the Football Index and the best strategy is the one that fits your skills and the time and bank balance you have available. 

Personally, I operate with a mid to long term style and usually hold for weeks and months rather than days. As long time social media followers will know, I am an advocate of responsible trading. I am very aggressive when I judge a trade to be high reward and low risk, but I strongly avoid exposing my portfolio to high risk players with a high price and not much substance behind them. 

My analysis starts from this perspective but I discuss alternative strategies too, and the information I give can be used to inform any style of trading. 

And obviously, knowing who is likely to win performance dividends, is picking up transfer rumours and what the trends in the market will be is useful no matter the strategy.

Currently, there are no media ratings on the site. My thinking is that by it’s nature, most people know already who gets most of the media attention! It is better I focus on the hard work of digging through performance stats and transfer rumours. But if this is something members want, I wouldn’t be against including it in future.

As for In Play dividends, the members dashboard has a section where I highlight players who are currently showing very strong stats and could be challenging strongly for wins in future. This will help members who are looking for In Play dividend opportunities as well as standard performance wins. 

I took a lot of different factors into account when setting the price. Obviously, there are costs that need to be covered like web hosting, design, and the various subscription services like the professional scouting and player data I use as well as the slice PayPal take etc. 

And, I spend around 6-8 hours a day (often more actually!) working on the site and creating content for members, and that could not happen without the subscriptions. 

I could have set the price very low and tried to flood it with members, but I felt that the cost should be reasonable whilst at the same time not so trivial that everyone can join. I think it works better as an exclusive club rather than a mass membership site. Members want an advantage, not something everyone has. 

For any portfolio of £750 or above, I’d be confident the site can deliver enough timely, good quality information to more than make back the cost (Feedback from members supports this). And, it saves members a lot of time to boot. 

Also, there is now a 10% discount available for picking the 3 month sign up option that is proving popular. 

Bringing it up in conversation with a friend is fine, but sharing it in groups or on Social media is not. I need to protect both the interests of members who have paid and my own income as well to ensure the site is sustainable for the long term.

So, I will take a hard line on this.  I am active on a wide range of social media and any members found sharing members content will be banned for life without refund. If you see members content being shared, I’ll be grateful if you let me know when, how and who. Free months of membership are available to those who help keep members content to members only! 🙂 

The membership software of the site also has various protections that flag up account sharing etc, and you may find yourself being automatically logged out if more than one person is logged in on your account, or too many IP addresses login with the same account in a set period of time. If you share your login with others you are likely to run into problems like being logged out and having the account blocked. 

If the software detects abuse then it will automatically suspend that users account and they will need to contact me to get it ironed out!

All the information on this site is subject to copyright, and I reserve the right to take legal action to protect it if needs be.

Roar. 

I have no plans to offer a free trial. It might be good for marketing purposes but there is a lot of information on the site and I think it would be unfair to paying members to effectively give it away for free!

There are extensive screenshots on the “What’s in the Members Area?” page and detailed descriptions of what you can expect. And, you can check the site out on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday every week for free articles on the players and the market. This will give you a feel for the quality of content and my thinking. 

Also, there is no obligation to buy a second month after your first, you can cancel anytime.