Insurance Times speaks to Aon’s head of M&A data and analytics about his performance in this year’s Fantasy Football league
As we prepare to enter gameweek three of the Premier League season tomorrow (31 August 2024) with Brighton and Hove Albion’s trip to Arsenal, some early leaders have emerged in the Insurance Times Fantasy Football League.
With nearly 450 of the insurance industry’s best and brightest competing for bragging rights, those at the top of the table have made some solid decisions so far – but will they last the season?
Insurance Times spoke to Aon’s head of M&A data and analytics, Johnathan Beechey, to get his tips on how he managed to haul Bora Bora Beechey into third place in the league.
1. Congratulations on being in the top 10 for GW2, how do you rate your chances of staying there for the season?
Thank you very much! I was very fortunate in taking a calculated risk in playing my triple captain chip on Haaland this week, but thankfully it paid off.
I thought it was a good opportunity to capitalise on – for a high scoring player to score big against a newly promoted team at home.
I have a feeling this season will be more unpredictable than most, but I’m hoping to take each week as it comes and hope to be in the mix come the end of the season!
2. What are the key decisions to make ahead of GW3?
Having saved a transfer from GW2, I took a chance to leverage the £2m I kept in the bank from the start of the season to sure up my defence, bringing in a couple of players who have more favourable fixtures.
Apart from that, it’s hard to make the decision to not captain Haaland again, but with his current form I will likely stick with him for another week at least. Shame I can’t play the triple captain every week!
3. Who would you call out as an under-rated player for everyone’s Fantasy squad?
While Cole Palmer was arguably the most under valued player last season, his much higher price tag this year creates more difficult decisions on how to balance the team if you want the likes of Saka,Salah orHaaland in.
It’s certainly far too early to call who that will be this season, but with Danny Welbeck currently generating 3.75 points per £1m in cost (21 points at a current market price of £5.6m), that makes him a strong candidate for the time being.
For context, that puts him ahead of Salah and Haaland, with those two generating 1.9 and 1.59 points per £1m cost respectively.
4. Who or what would you like to call out in the insurance industry?
Impetus is a charity that the M&A and Transaction Solutions practice here at Aon has been supporting in a number of ways over the past few years and their work with young people from disadvantaged backgrounds is simply inspiring.
Having roots in the M&A and Private Equity space, they bring investment firms, advisors, brokers and underwriters together outside of an M&A deal context to create and drive meaningful impact through mixture of key initiatives, including enabling tutoring opportunities and hosting a charity triathlon – which I am very much looking forward to taking part in a few weeks time!
- Have you spotted yourself in the top 10 of the Insurance Times Fantasy Football League? We’d love to hear from you. Please do get in contact with deputy editor Yiannis Kotoulas at Yiannis.Kotoulas@InsuranceTimes.co.uk
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