This was the week that we crowned a new King on the Index, Jadon Sancho. This isn’t the first time he’s been on the throne. I wrote a post on the 18th August last year when Sancho overtook Pogba at the top of the Index, with Mbappe already having forced Neymar into 4th place.

That was a short lived reign but I said at the time that I wouldn’t be surprised to see Sancho at the top for the foreseeable future, with Mbappe snapping at his heels. It all comes down to potential at the end of the day – youngsters have more room to grow, more time to bring in dividends, and anyone else is basically a depreciating asset.

I know all about depreciating assets because I’m the idiot that didn’t sell Pjanic, Parejo or Immobile when they were at their peak. I could also have got out of Kostic or Arthur when they peaked recently but no, I’m still hanging on there too. Mistakes like this are gradually costing me money, particularly from the Performance fund which finished this week down by nearly £55. Not a huge amount but tough to take when it feels like there were so many easy rises to catch elsewhere.

The PB market feels pretty fickle at the moment, traders don’t seem to have as much patience with their holds as they used to. Things are definitely more volatile than I remember from last year and I get the sense that a lot of traders are aiming for smaller portfolios so anyone who doesn’t make the grade gets chopped pretty quickly. This was backed up by a poll I ran on Twitter today where over half of respondents said that had a port of 30 players or less and nearly half have reduced their holds in the last few months.

Back to the Performance fund. As well as the drops I’ve already mentioned, there was also a big pull back on Dabbur so he’s been nothing but a dud so far. Rebic saw a very nice rise of the back of some more goals – he’s on fire at the moment – and Aouar had a good week too, which I think was just a correction after a dip last week.

I pulled the plug on Sabitzer for a profit of £76.18. With the arrival of Olmo and the resurgence of Nkunku, there’s just too much else going on in the Leipzig midfield to make him a reliable hold at the moment.

The Potential fund had a flat week after the massive gains of the previous week. The star of the week was Edouard with the noise around a summer transfer growing. Also on the up were Benrahma, Oblyakov and Caqueret. Going the other way were Alena (again), Sergio Gomez and Cherki.

Sancho dominated the Premium fund movers with an incredible rise of 13% during the week. I can see him reaching £10 by the end of March with the prospect of a summer transfer to the EPL looking ever more likely. This is good for holders like me but also good for the players below him, as it gives them room to grow – stretching the whole Index.

Drops elsewhere took the shine off things meaning that the fund as a whole only rose by £32 over the week. The main culprits were the Man City duo of Sterling and De Bruyne. The news that UEFA were proposing to ban City from all European competitions led some traders to panic sell. This is a difficult one to call as a ban would certainly hurt their PB potential (and therefore their value) but I tend to see this as an opportunity in the short term at least.

Why? Firstly, City will appeal the ban and may be successful so we can’t assume they’ll be out of all competitions yet and while they do so there will be plenty of news coverage about the impact on the players – which can only mean MB. And if the appeal is unsuccessful, I really can’t see either player staying at City during their prime years if they can’t play in the Champions League so they are bound to agitate for a move to another club – which means more MB.

Anyway, with City players tumbling and depreciating assets elsewhere, even King Jadon wasn’t able to prevent me making a small loss overall this week – the full breakdown can be found on the separate fund pages if you’re curious.

Next week brings the return of European football so that adds more volatility into the mix. Happy trading!