More Delays

I've had a spot of bother with my first delivery of 65 packs... but I've already managed to win another box of 100 packs for cheaper than the first lot! Bonus!

Obviously this has forced me into buying three more packs from the shops...

Pack Six


Craig Short – Sheff Utd: Surely he's at least 55 by now?

Craig Moore – Newcastle: There's quite a few Aussies about these days isn't there?

Anthony Gardner – Bolton: Pushing hard for the Most Jamaican Player in the Premiership title.

Josip Skoko – Wigan: Another Aussie, a bit of diversification into midfield though.

James McFadden – Everton: Is he? Isn't he? Crap I mean...

Man City Squad: These are OK, but I prefer shinys...

Pack Seven


Portsmouth Squad: Still not shiny...

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer – Manchester United: DAMN YOU, you munchkin faced Got!

Perdro Mendes – Portsmouth: Scores a belter then turns invisible for months - he goy skilllllz

Benjani Mwaruwari – Portsmouth: I wonder why Mwaururiiiaauww isn't on the sticker? Three Pompey sticker in one pack!

Stefan Henchoz - Blackburn Rovers: Liverpool's legendary ex goalkeeper.

John Halls – Reading: Noooo two Gots in 1 pack!

Two swaps in a pack... bah. I suppose it had to happen sooner or later...

Pack Eight


Gavin McCann – Aston Villa: Gav means I've now got at least one sticker in every section - woo hoo etc

Thierry Henry – Arsenal: Oooh Terry. Pants season, but still oozes class. A surprisingly cheesy grin for Mssr. Cool

Aaron Mokoena – Blackburn: Another damn Got... 3 now...

John Oster – Reading: Desperate to play for Wales... hmmmm

Brett Emerton – Blackburn: Hey look, another bleedin Aussie!

STAR PLAYER – Andy Johnson - Everton: At least it's a shiny...

Stats
So swaps come into play - boooooooo.

My Needs Per Pack (NPP) ratio dips to 5.63... unsurprisingly the Gots Per Pack (GPP) ratio gets off the mark to 0.38. It's not too bad really.

Reading (6) are still the most complete club, but Pompey (4) put in a strong performance today so they've come from nowhere to get close. Steady Blackburn (5) are now only one behind.

Sod it! It begins!

I'm still waiting for my stickers to arrive from my ebay dealer. If they're not here tomorrow I'll be sending an inquisitive email!

Well the pressure of the empty album was getting to me so I went to Smiths and bought five packs at lunch time. yeah i felt a bit sad in doing it, but wifey was with me so it at least took some of the stigma away.

Unless they thought she was my carer...

Anyway here we go with the first pack:

Pack One

Tim Cahill - Most Wanted: Hmm little Timmy is the first sticker I see. At least it wasn't a United player. And at least he isn't doing that bloody shadow boxing crap.

Jermaine Jenas - Spurs: The midfielder who will always be the next big thing...

Harry Kewell - Liverpool: Yay! My first Liverpool player in my first pack! Well I use the term player in the loosest possible sense...

Chris Morgan - Sheff Utd: You may be club captain, but sorry old bean, never heard of you! I'm sure he's gutted.

James Morrison - Boro: So long as it's not the smug singing one I'm OK...

Shiny Arsenal Badge! - Excellent, these shiny badges are still as cool to get as ever!

I also got a strange Lego sticker for the middle advert. You wouldn't have got that sort of thing back in the day...


Pack Two

John Halls - Reading: A player with his own ass groove in the Madejski Stadium dug out. A defender apparently.

Danny Shittu - Watford: A quality name for a player built like a brick shittu house.

Ryan Nelsen - Blackburn Rovers: A good solid centre back with a bit of loyalty - I'm looking at you Neill... (and no I haven't stuck him in the wrong place. Note to self, don't look at national flags, when numbers are unique...)

Shiny Spurs Badge! - Oooh the London derby in two packs!

Khalid Boulahrouz - Chelsea: Does anyone know how this guy is playing in the Premier League... never mind Chelski?

Kevin Doyle (Star Player) - Reading: The boys done alright too in his Premier League debut season.

Pack Three

Blackburn Squad: The big fat cup semi final faliures are my first squad - rejoice!

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer - Man Utd: Far to cheeky and likable to be a United player. It's almost a shame I must hate him and his stupid baby face.

Jermaine Pennant - Liverpool: You sir, are no way near good enough to be looking that smug. Unless you repeat your stunning goal against Chelsea in a few weeks. Then you may stay like that forever.

Dejan Stefanovic - Portsmouth: Not much to say really, he has slightly odd hair...

Phillipe Senderos - Arsenal: Once his career inevitably fades towards foreign obscurity at least Phillipe will always be able to get work as an extra fro the film La Heine...

Dean Ashton - West Ham: OUCHY!

Pack Four

Shiny Reading Kits - Oooooh I like these! Reading are doing well here...

Aaron Mokoena - Blackburn Rovers: Solid enough South African defender

Steve Kabba - Sheff United: See footballing dictionary definition of jounreyman... now at Watford.

Bobby Convey - Reading: Really sounds like he should be appearing live on stage in Vegas... or Blackpool... well give it a couple of seasons eh?

Stuart Downing - Middlesbrough: Boro - according to the album - had one of the worst crossing records in the league... and Stu weighed in with 1 whole goal last term. Men of Britain get those toddlers right feet tied down, there's gold in them thar South Paws!

Charle N'Zogbia - Newcastle: I really wasn't expecting Charles to be his first name...

Pack Five

Shiny Reading Badge! - Wow Reading are storming away, shiny badge, shiny kits, star player and two normals in five packs!

Stelios Gianikopopopopolis - Bolton: Good ol' Stelios. I think now we've got a bit of Yankee cash that the annual Stelios rumours will finally be over! Shame, I kinda like him.

Paul Dickov - Man City: I really wouldn't like to play against him, all sharp pointy elbows. It'd be like playing against walking tool box.

Sylvain Distin - Most Wanted: One of city's better players, who'll probably be off in the summer. Sums it up quite nicely I think.

Herman Hreidarsson - Charlton Athletic: The Hermanaitor, I like him, a good pro with the perfect, lovely no nonsense attitude.

Heidar Helguson - Fulham: 31 appearances, 4 goals... I'm assuming Coleman ket picking him because he like saying his rhythmical name. No wonder he was sacked.

Stats

Five packs - no swaps! Brilliant start.

With 30 stickers the album is 5.75% complete.

Reading lead the way with 5 stickers (20% already!), Blackburn are second with 3 (12%)

I would post some graphs, but at the moment that's a bit pointless! Don't worry I will make up for it when my 65 packs arrive!

The Project Roots

Hmmm this could well be the saddest thing I've done in a long time.

And that's coming from a person who spends a lot of time doing things that a lot of people would call sad.

I'm a web designer for a start. I know what the difference between HTML and XHTML is - not only that, but I also care about how it should be structured. Don't get me started on CSS.

I've got my blog at www.escapecrate.co.uk... but my day job is in local government.

Did I mention the Xbox 360 yet?

You get the picture.

The Idea

I'm sure you'll remember football stickers?Back in the day it was all about Panini and their "Football 8x" albums. They were awesome, you had one, all your friends had one, and you all collected the stickers like fevered worker bees.

Then you'd meet up at lunch time in the yard to purvey each others swaps piles.

"Got, Got, Got, Got, Need, Need, errrrr Need, Neeeeeeeeeeeeeed! Ohhh I'll give you these three Peter Reids for your Liverpool Badge... Guuuoooooooooon, pleeeassssse... get lost then you tight git..."

Ah the memories.

There was always one kid who was obviously a bit spoiled. He'd always have a pile of swaps as thick as his head. Of course he wouldn't actually swap anything, he just liked to Billy Big Balls it around school.

Cock.

A Very Mature Project

Well I'm 27 now, I earn more than 50p a week, and we've established that I am more than a little sad...

I can be that little bastard!

The idea came to me during the World Cup when the great footballing blog Who Ate All the Bratwurst started their Panini Mondays. Every Monday they would open 3 packets of the Panini's World Cup stickers and relay their wondrous contents for our pleasure.

It brought back loads of memories... then I completely forgot about it.

Then Bratwurst became Pies and earlier this year they brought us Sticker Sundays! The same thing but with Merlin's Premier League stickers. Great stuff.

So I put the idea at the back of my mind, where it promptly took root.

"Wouldn't it make an interesting blog project?" I thought.

"I always wanted to walk into a shop and buy a whole box of stickers..." I reminisced.

"Hmmm I must look on Ebay some time to see if you can buy stickers..." I mused.

"Oh look, whole boxes of the buggers going for like £13..." I muttered to myself...

"Oooops I seem to have just won 65 packs..." I hysterically laughed... in my head...

Anyway...

Yeah, so I've got 65 packs of the Merlin Premier League 07 collection winging their way to me.

That's a potential 390 stickers.

There are 522 spaces in the album.

There will be more sticker buying, this is where you will be able to follow my progress.

I am aiming to do it Dave Gorman style. There will be stats. There will be graphs.

Hopefully by the end of the project I will have my first ever complete album, and a stack of swaps thick enough to make even the most annoying and spoilt kid weep.

Mwuhahahahahahahaha.

Etc!