Fantasy Football: Allianz Commercial's Darragh Kennedy

Gameweek 25 of the Premier League kicks off tonight with a lower league clash, as Leeds welcome Nottingham Forest to Elland Road for an 20.00 kick-off.

This gives Insurance Times Fantasy Football League managers until 18.30 to lock in their tranfsers for the gameweek, with juicy fixtures to target involving Chelsea against Wolves and a big game between Manchester City and Liverpool.

Before all that though, Insurance Times thought it would be good to speak to a new entrant to the league’s top 10. Allianz Commercial’s property and casualty new business underwriter Darragh Kennedy has charged up the table in recent weeks and currently sits in second with 1,492 points. 

This places him just eight points behind Aviva underwriting apprentice Archie Taylor-Salmon, who currently sits in first.

Kennedy’s Allianz colleague Steve Fisher is also nipping at his heels, just 22 points behind him. 

1. Congratulations on being in the top 10 for game week 24, how do you rate your chances of climbing the table further? 

Speaking honestly, I do feel confident that I’ll win the Insurance Times Fantasy League.

There is some fierce competition, but I’ve finally got rid of my over-management issue, which has hindered me for the last 10 seasons.

I look forward to an engaging title race.

2. What are the key decisions to make ahead of game week 25? 

There’s two big decisions here. Firstly, whether to bench boost or not. There are whispers of a Jurrien Timber injury, as yet unsubstantiated, but the way my bench falls I am leaning towards playing the chip.

Secondly, I have to decide on captaincy. It’s Gabriel vs Bruno for me. This will go down to the wire, but I imagine Bruno will be the skipper.

3. Who would you call out as an under-rated player for everyone’s Fantasy squad? 

There’s two names here. Fulham’s Raúl Jiménez is on 0.47 expected goal involvements per 90, on pens, nailed and has six favourable games in the next seven.

Ismaila Sarr is also on 0.48 expetced goal involvements per 90, sort of on pens, nailed and has six or seven favourable games in the next eight. Although, I’d caveat that and say that whenever I bring him in, his hamstring pops – proceed with caution.

4. Who or what would you like to call out in the insurance industry?

There’s two things I’d like to call out here.

The first is Tom Chandler, a colleague at Allianz, just to tell him he will never hit the dizzy heights of top 6k global rank ever again – the (fantasy) football’s left him.

Secondly, if anyone in the Leeds market wants FPL tips for the rest of the season, I will be stationed on the Allianz table at the Leeds Institute Dinner – advice available on first come, first served basis…