Clarky pulls up a chair at the top table

The Cloggers catch Candace, Ryan gets his captain back, and Ian plays his Wildcard—then makes the curious choice of Kostoulas as captain.

The league table

#	TEAM / MANAGER	GW6 NET	TOTAL	MOVE
1	PC clarkys cloggers Paul Clark	84	389	▲4
2	CVD FC Candace Van Damme	68	389	▼1
3	RH Red Djed Redemption Ryan Hindle	62	368	▲1
4	TB ABCDEFC Tineka Bishop	47	355	▼1
5	sendmetocoventry Ian Goodison-Powell	60	351	▲2
6	This is the Wirtz! Ivo Ferreira	37	351	▼4
7	Boo Tottenham Aubrey Hindle	55	350	▼1
8	Park the Bus Hailey Hindle	59	341	▲1
9	DA The Balon D'orgus Dela Avle	54	333	▲1
10	Green Street United Robert Ayres	40	324	▼2
11	Mikel Arteta's Army Peter Mossad	67	318	—
12	AFC Kincardine Steve Fletcher	45	261	—
13	Devastators FC Angelo Pavia	55	187	▲1
14	PP Vermilion Bird Portia Pavia	44	182	▼1

GW6 scores and weekly honours are net of transfer hits. Ivo: 41 − 4 = 37. Overall totals and table order follow FPL; Paul and Candace are level on points, as are Ian and Ivo.

Two at the summit, one very crowded chair

Candace did very little wrong. A perfectly respectable 68 ought to buy a league leader a quiet evening; instead, Paul Clark turned up with 84 and helped himself to half the view. Both stand on 389, with FPL listing Clarky first. Her sixteen-point cushion over Clarky has gone. Nobody has a points lead, whatever the seating plan says.

Ryan Hindle moves into third, 21 behind the leading pair, while defending champion Tineka Bishop slips to fourth. Her title defence has not fallen apart, but a week below the overall average of 58 has allowed the front two to get rather further down the road. Behind her, Ian and Ivo are level on 351, with Aubrey just one point away. That part of the table is less a procession than a queue at a pub with one working till.

Manager Spotlight: Clarky stops clocking in at 68

For three successive Gameweeks, clarkys cloggers had produced exactly 68. Dependable, certainly, but beginning to resemble a direct debit. This time Paul broke the routine in some style: 84 points, four places gained and Manager of the Week, without a transfer or a chip. Sometimes the best recruitment meeting is the one you cancel.

Dewsbury-Hall and Cherki gave the midfield its bite, Calafiori chipped in from the back, and Palmer made another useful contribution. Haaland’s doubled six was perfectly serviceable rather than spectacular. The real finishing touch came from the substitutes: João Pedro and Shaw supplied 15 between them when Isak and Szoboszlai’s absences opened the door.

Paul’s event history begins in GW02. Five scoring weeks later he has caught the summit, which is an awkward development for everyone who enjoyed a head start. There is no need to invent a masterplan here: the squad delivered, the replacements worked and the manager kept his hands in his pockets. An unusually economical route to making the rest of the league look busy.

The armband: Ryan gets the right João

Last week Ryan needed his vice-captain to rescue an absent João Pedro. This week João Pedro turned up with twelve, and Ryan’s captaincy returned 24—the best in the league. The patience paid. His 62 lifted him a place even as much of the supporting cast offered little more than proof of attendance.

Haaland and Groß each returned twelve when doubled. Bruno Fernandes offered a rather less luxurious two to Ivo, Dela Avle and Rob. All three also owned João Pedro, which will make reviewing the team sheet a particularly irritating little exercise.

Angelo Pavia’s nominated captain Isak did not play, so vice-captain Raya supplied six after doubling. Portia Pavia also collected six, through Tarkowski. Ian, meanwhile, put the armband on Kostoulas for two. More on that piece of avant-garde management below.

Ian renovates, then misplaces the armband

After last week’s Free Hit, Ian Goodison-Powell went permanent: a Wildcard, fourteen GW06 transfer transactions and no points charge. De Cuyper’s fifteen and João Pedro’s twelve did much of the heavy lifting, with Palmer and Belloumi helping sendmetocoventry climb from seventh to fifth.

The sixty-point result was useful. The captaincy was harder to admire. Kostoulas returned one while João Pedro watched from the same XI with twelve; simply swapping their armbands, with everything else unchanged, would have added eleven. You can rebuild the entire kitchen and still burn the toast.

That is a captaincy comparison, not a verdict on the Wildcard’s total value. One week cannot settle the long-term business. It can, however, earn Ian the “What Were You Thinking?” award without requiring a planning inquiry.

De Cuyper delivers; Ivo pays the bill

Candace’s move from Mukiele to De Cuyper was the sort of transfer that makes a manager briefly unbearable: fifteen from the arrival against three from the departure. Together with Verbruggen and Calafiori, the new defender supplied the foundations of a score that kept her level at the top. Losing first place on the displayed table hardly makes this a bad week.

Peter Mossad made the same purchase for Maatsen and finished on 67, third-best this week. Calafiori, Cherki and João Pedro also contributed, yet eleventh remains stubbornly attached to his name. There is progress beneath the unmoving rank: Green Street is now only six points ahead.

Hailey Hindle brought in De Cuyper and Groß for Konsa and Gravenberch. Her new pair returned 21 against the departed pair’s combined three, with no hit. That is a raw player-points comparison, but it neatly explains why recruitment deserves some credit for Park the Bus moving up to eighth.

Ivo’s new João Pedro and Konsa also delivered, so blaming the purchases alone would miss the story. The captaincy and thin supporting returns left him on 41 before the league’s only four-point hit. Net 37 is the lowest weekly score: the Pork Chop goes to Ivo. A drop from second to sixth is also the biggest fall. From leader in GW04 to sixth two rounds later: the cushion has had a fairly comprehensive puncture.

Champions, benches and the rest of the room

Tineka’s 47 came with fourteen unused points, the largest bench total. Verbruggen’s nine watched Kelleher supply two, while Ajer did at least come on for Szoboszlai and contribute six. Last season’s champion takes the Bench of Shame; silverware apparently does not make goalkeeper selection any less annoying.

Rob, champion the season before Tineka, avoided a second successive Pork Chop only because Ivo’s hit took him lower. Green Street United’s forty still sent the Chairman down to tenth. No transfers, no hit and another unhelpful armband: standing still can be an active form of trouble.

Aubrey Hindle also left the transfer market alone. João Pedro, F. Kadıoğlu and Yarmoliuk helped him reach 55, enough to stay within a point of Ian and Ivo despite slipping to seventh. Dela went the other way, climbing to ninth with Cherki, Mbeumo and João Pedro overcoming that Fernandes captaincy. His new Saka returned two against the seven from departed Rice; the rescue came from elsewhere.

Steve Fletcher made four transfers without a hit, but AFC Kincardine’s defence supplied just one point across four defenders. João Pedro, Rice and captain Haaland kept the score moving; 45 nevertheless left him twelfth. A busy recruitment department cannot do much when the back line resembles a row of switched-off parking meters.

Angelo’s 55 beat Portia’s 44, reversing their order at the foot of the table and turning a six-point deficit into a five-point lead. Calafiori and Palmer helped Angelo make the difference. Portia had useful returns from João Pedro and Cherki, but little around them to force the issue. The Pavia contest has changed hands; it has certainly not been settled.

GW06 honours board

Next: defend the lead you haven’t got

Paul and Candace head into GW07 level, with Ryan close enough to make either uncomfortable. Tineka needs to keep the leading pair in reach; Ian has a rebuilt squad to justify; Ivo needs to stop the slide. Further down, Peter is closing on Rob and the Pavias have exchanged places. The temptation is to answer everything with a transfer. Clarky has just offered a fairly persuasive argument for occasionally making a cup of tea instead.