The following hints and tips have been gathered from a variety of sources. They are provided without any warranty, express or implied, as to accuracy, usefulness or completeness. You will note that they also provide different and contrasting suggestions. They are for guidance only. Like any other walk of life, it is up to you to choose which and which not to believe, if any.

"It is essential that you take a little time at the outset to read and understand the rule. Remember that your team must consist of eleven players from the final price list, the total value must not exceed £30 million, you must have no more than two players from any one Premiership team as per the final price list, and your team must conform to the formation selected by you."

"Choose 4-3-3 because defenders tend to be cheaper and that way you can spend more money on forwards."

"Have as many in midfield as possible. Therefore choose 3-5-2"

"Choose 5-3-2 because getting points from defenders is easier. Buy some expensive defenders and you are guaranteed points."

"Know the players – by clicking on the Jerball icon, the Carling logo or the BBC football, you can get access to some first rate football information websites. The Jerball icon takes you to Soccer Update. From there, by selecting Team News you can see who is injured, and who might be sold. By clicking on Transfers you can see who has been transferred in the close season. By clicking on links, you can access a host of other websites, ranging from the useful to the useless. The Carling website is good for selecting a Team, and then the Squad section to identify where players usually play."

"Look for common languages – players that can talk to each other will pass to each other."

"Look out for players who were injured the previous season or who have moved to a better club. Also look out for new imported players. All are gambles, but with some research the chances of success can be improved."

"Look for team players, not glory hunters because glory hunters don’t get the ball passed to them, team players do."

"Look out for inexpensive midfielders with proven goalscoring records who will be available for the first time this year."

"Watch the summer transfer market. A player may move from a team where he was uncertain of a place, and hence where he did not score goals, to a team where he plays all the time and perhaps plays in a different position."

"Understand player values: the minimum price of a player is £1million. The maximum is £6.8million. Because you must pay at least £1million for a player, no matter how good or bad he is, you should really ignore that part of the price. Therefore, the first £11million is already accounted for and you really only have £19million to spend. Therefore, a player costing £6million is taking up £5million of your £19million, but a player costing you £3million is only taking up £1million of your surplus. That means that really you should expect the £6million player to score 5 times as many points as the other, and not just twice as many based on their respective costs. This will give you an idea about how many points/goals you should expect your player to score."

"The values formula which calculates player prices against performance, is based on a winning total of 100 points from £30million. On Average, you should be looking at 3 points per million spent."

"Spread the cash around and don’t rely on one player. Concentrate on good midfielders."

"Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Spending a lot of money on one player means that the success of your team depends on how successful that one player is."

"You might want to buy one or two top class defenders: players from the top clubs who get forward."

"Don’t spend more than 2 million on any defender unless they are guaranteed to score goals i.e. penalty takers."

"Try not to sign people who are critically ill or who are in the African Nations Cup."

"Look out for wrongly classified players: for example, don’t buy a defender who is wrongly classified as a midfielder or a midfielder who is wrongly classified as a forward; do buy a forward who is wrongly classified as a midfielder, or a midfielder who is wrongly classified as a defender."

"Buy defenders who go up for corners or take penalties, midfielders who can play as forwards and forwards who will play a lot of games."

"Beware of players who may transfer outside the Premiership or with long term injury problems."

"Many managers decide to spend about 1/3 of their money on two forwards, and then 1/3 on five defenders and a goalkeeper and 1/3 on three midfielders. This works if your forwards score a lot of goals."

"There are many contenders for your forwards: even if you can’t afford two expensive forwards – they are obvious from looking at the price list. Beware though, many of you will remember the year Shearer scored one goal all season when he broke his leg, the years Fowler has spent with fewer than 10 goals, the year Hasslebaink went to Athletico Madrid on the eve of the new season, and do you remember Raducioiu? "

"Don’t go for the obvious expensive strikers."

"Read the papers for last minute pre-season transfers."

"Transfers are particularly useful if a player is seriously injured, or if he loses his place in the team and you consider that he is unlikely to regain it."

"Leave it as late as you possibly can before submitting your team (but before the deadline, obviously). Beware of late signings or transfer rumours, injuries, work permit problems, player disputes etc."