THIS article should have been written earlier.
We have been aware of Ben Mee's (£3.4m) healthy Dream Team returns for a while now and probably should have highlighted his viability already but as the old saying goes: better late than never.
The 33-year-old has proved to be a smart recruit for Brentford, adding experience, leadership and reliability to their defence.
He's also chipped in with three goals in 20 appearances for the Bees so far, his latest coming in the form of a brave header to open the scoring against Southampton on Saturday.
Thomas Frank's side scored three unanswered goals to register a comfortable victory and move up to seventh in the table.
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Mee scooped the Star Man award on top of his goal, clean sheet and 7+ rating to bank 18 points when all was said and done - his best Game Week haul this season.
The former Burnley centre-back has amassed 34 points in his last three games having contributed to a trio of consecutive clean sheets.
This prosperous run has propelled Mee up the rankings and he's now the ninth-best defender in Dream Team.
Given that one of the assets above him is Joao Cancelo, who will spend the rest of the campaign on loan with Bayern Munich, Brentford's No16 is effectively eighth in his position.
At £3.4m, Mee is the cheapest defender currently in the top 15 and his ownership of 2.5% is also the lowest among the same group.
The slim minority of Dream Team bosses who have backed him (which probably features plenty of Brentford supporters) have been handsomely rewarded for relatively little investment.
Mee deserves huge amounts of credit for his efforts to date, the other names at the top of the defensive rankings include Thiago Silva (£5.8m) and multiple representatives from the top four clubs: Newcastle, Manchester United, Manchester City and Arsenal.
Whether Mee can maintain his lofty position remains to be seen.
Brentford have no European commitments and were eliminated from the FA Cup by West Ham in the third round, meaning their Premier League games will be their only fixtures for the remainder of the campaign.
Having a singular focus may well help them achieve an impressive league position but, generally speaking, successful Dream Team assets will be active in more than one competition during the second half of the season.
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Mee will have to be immense to keep pace with the likes of Lisandro Martinez (£4.6m), Nathan Ake (£4m) and Ben White (£4.8m) if the Manchester clubs and the Gunners go deep in Europe.
At the risk of wishing time away, if the Bees continue their good form and end up qualifying for a European competition then Mee may well be a smart selection in 2023/24.