What this actually is

Right. Before the season starts. Before I pick a single fixture. Before you lot start complaining about my reasoning. Let me tell you what this is.

This is not a game with a blog attached to it.

This is a column. A proper one. Every gameweek: a preview before the fixtures, picks on the record before a ball is kicked, and a verdict after the results. My reasoning is public. My record is live. If I get it wrong -- and I will get it wrong, because that is football -- it stays up. No deletions. No corrections. No hiding behind I said at the time.

“That transparency is not a feature. It is the whole thing.”

I said at the time. It is always there. That is the point.

The game is the accountability mechanism. You predict alongside me. If you beat my weekly score, I send you an email and I am not happy about it. If you beat my season total, you are above me in the table. Publicly. Permanently. That is the deal.

Most pundits pick in private. They frame their takes retroactively, drop the bad calls, and show up the following week as if last Saturday did not happen. I do not get to do that. Every pick I make on Friday morning is timestamped and visible. Every result lands on top of it. You can read exactly how wrong I was and exactly why I thought I was right.

That transparency is not a feature. It is the whole thing.

What you will find here, every gameweek: the picks, the reasoning, the post-match verdict, and wherever I am in the table. Some weeks I will be sharp. Some weeks the table will make uncomfortable reading. Either way, it is on the record.

Right. Now we are clear on what this is.

Let's go.