New Fantasy Premier League Transfers 2017/18 West Ham
Hello and welcome to New Fantasy Premier League Transfers 2017/18 West Ham. West Ham struggled for the most part last season and at one stage looked like they may get dragged into the relegation mire, with boss Bilic under severe scrutiny. Both he and them weathered the storm though and came out with a fairly respectable 11th place finish and they even managed to beat Spurs in their Cup Final. They’ve made a few relatively small but maybe shrewd moves in the transfer window so far, most notably bringing in Joe Hart, Pablo Zabaleta, Marko Arnautovic and Javier Hernandez. I shall take a brief look at all four and their relative FPL prospects. I should preface it all by saying that I really don’t rate at least 2 of them as players though, so the bias police beware! I’ll also preface it with a mention of their opening fixtures. They play the first 3 away from home due to the World Athletic Championships being held at their ground. The stadium ‘gift’ that just keeps on giving then… As a group of opening fixtures though they aren’t actually that bad. Away at Man United first game isn’t ideal and probably promises little in terms of either attack or defence points if we are being brutally honest but beyond that they visit Saints, Newcastle and West Brom, face Huddersfield at home amongst that lot and then have their aforementioned ‘Cup Final’ early this time with Spurs at home in GW6. Yeah it’s not the best but also could be worse. Onto the new signings…
Joe Hart
Position: Goalkeeper (in theory)
FPL Price: £4.5m
“We didn’t expect so many mistakes from Joe Hart”… That was the damning verdict from the Torino president himself. Probably didn’t watch the Euros prior to loaning him then did you Mr Cairo?! He did concede that Hart “did some good things too”. Bless. Look, I’ll be honest here – I like Hart as a person, he seems like a really good lad and he’s always been honest in his interviews – be that about himself most recently or even back in his good old City days when he occasionally ripped into the team. As a keeper though I think he’s damaged goods. The Euros was horrendous for him, it was the last thing he needed with Pep just incoming and seeing his supposed number 1 exposed, and he’s never really recovered since. Pep was brutal and ruthless in both his assessment and subsequent disposing of him. Less so in buying two clowns to replace him but that’s another story!
Can he recover though? He’s joining a team who conceded 64 goals last season – only 5 teams conceded more and 2 of those got relegated. They only kept a clean sheet in 26% of their games so it could well be a case of chasing save points with Hart really. Which brings me back to the Euros again funnily enough, not his strongest suit anymore…!
At a surprisingly budget friendly £4.5m though he could well be a rotation option if you can find the right partner for him…
If you are as of yet unfamiliar with the above picture then go and check out the Fixture Trackers again as we have added in some new features which show the best rotation partnerships for defences for the first 10 GW’s.
Pablo Zabaleta
Position: Defender
FPL Price: £5.0m
I won’t go on about Pablo too much as you should all be familiar with him from his many years at Man City. If you somehow aren’t then basically he’s a much liked attacking full-back who will grab the odd goal and probably a few assists along the way, maybe less so now that he is at West Ham as opposed to a very attacking unit like City. He’s also £0.5m more than Hart so if you feel the need for a West Ham defender then that difference probably won’t be worth the stretch. Oh, and he’s about 55 years old now…
Marko Arnautovic
Position: Midfielder
FPL Price: £7.0m
Does anyone else have that player who they always meant to own but never quite got around to it? And then every time they did anything it felt like a small dagger in the back! That’s what Arnie is to me. It’s a very small and very infrequent dagger fortunately but it still niggles! I liked Arnie when he first came into our FPL lives back in 2013 and he had a hand in 14 goals in 30 games that season so the dagger was fairly consistent at first! He was dirt cheap back then too, I’m not sure exactly how cheap but £5.0m springs to mind. He was still relatively cheap 2 seasons ago when he managed 11 goals and 6 assists, probably £6.0m at that point. Fast forward a few years and he’s now a solid mid-priced midfielder at £7.0m so that ‘value’ pick has gone. The trouble with the move to West Ham is that any set-piece threat may have gone too, as they are already full of such specialists, but that will have to be monitored. Take him back a million or so and I’d be sort of interested, but at his current price he has too many alternatives to be considered for me, and that’s just within his own team, never mind amongst the rest of the teams!
Javier Hernandez
Position: Forward
FPL Price: £7.0m
“Ex-Real Madrid superstar signs for West Ham”
There’s so much wrong with this quote that I don’t even know where to begin!
“Like a puppy with a beach ball”
So let’s start with this one instead! It was a random comment, not even on an article, not even in relation to Chicharito himself. And yet it became a bit of a tag line as a certain Steven Naismith grew a cult following on here. I quote it now as I have the same feeling about the pair in relation to their first touch! Now granted, I haven’t seen that much of Javier since he left these shores a few years back so maybe he’s honed his skills and is now a more rounded player. I can only hope so for West Ham’s sake otherwise they are putting a lot of faith in a football CV that really defies belief when you see the actual player behind it. I can understand him ending up at Man United as he scored a shed load of goals at Guadalajara and looked like the perfect poacher. When he got there though he looked like a fish out of water whenever asked to do anything outside of the six yard box! Quite how Real Madrid then decided he was good enough for them is beyond me.
Anyway, he since left there and went to Bayer Leverkusen and did what he does best which is score goals. He got 28 goals in 54 games for them. I can’t comment on whether his general play has improved but that won’t be what he will be judged on in FPL terms next season, it’ll be goals and assists and he should be able to provide a good few goals at least and may well be great value given that he has been more than reasonably priced at just £7.0m. Or maybe it’s just that FPL towers remember him how I do!
Thanks for reading New Fantasy Premier League Transfers 2017/18 West Ham. This article was written by Inittowinit
The Fixture Tracker…
Mornin all. Are most/some of you doing a private draft league? Had our draft last night, just wanted to share my team with y’all. Was a good time, but definitely produces some wacky teams. Came away with….
Foster, Hart
Alonso, Valencia, Cedric, Davies, Mustafi
KDB, Willian, Lallana, Tadic, Ince
Sandro, JRod, Gayle
Colriles, afternoon, mate. I assume that’s in a 7- or 8-person draft league? The strike force…
I’ve been dragged into doing at least one, possibily two, both for fun. It’s a good job: if money was involved in the drafts too, well, my brain might explode… “please do well in FPL for me… oh, shit, no! Don’t do well in draft!”
Got any tips? I was in a draft league on a different site, with some regulars, a couple of seasons ago. The initial draft was fun but most got bored after a couple of months.
I think your team’s a reminder that attack’s the priority; there are plenty of defensive options.
Hey James, yeah i picked 9th in a 10 person league so all the big fwds were long gone….hence those 3
Think I took my first fwd (Sandro) 5th or 6th?
Good point about FPL vs Draft teams, hadn’t thought about that one. Like I needed more FPL details to stress about!
Only tip – pray for a top 3 pick and bag a decent striker!
Whilst doung these H2H leagues i’ve noticed some people i’ve not seen about for a while.
Pancho.
Billybobby.
Peaky Dave Wilkes
And everybodys favouite guy, RAZMAN.
Raz has been on briefly in the past week or so. Peaky hasn’t posted in years!
Afternoon all! Still not 100% sold on the 3rd striker berth Anyone going for a super-cheapo? Was just looking at the list for a cheaper option that 6.0m JRod. Really slim pickings! Have heard good things about Abraham at Swansea, but picking him means playing 4-4-2 or 3-5-2 some weeks…
Pippin
I think those are the only two I’d consider 6.0 and under. For the fixtures though I would fall on the side of Rodriguez.
hi GP, yeah, I’m leaning the same way. There seems a lot more choice in the cheap midfield this year (though equally, it’s hard to choose between them….)
Afternoon fellas, few questions to ask your opinions on please.
1. Riedewald or Cedric?
2. Willian or Ince and use the mil elsewhere
3. Kane up top worth it? Bit wary of Spurs maybe not starting great.
4. Also thinking of downgrading Trippier, Spurs have been poor enough in preseason and Trippier has been the worst of them, thoughts?
Current draft:
Foster (Elliot)
Trippier Riedewald Azpi (Mee) (Hunemeier)
KdB Salah Willian Walters (Carroll)
Lukaku Kane J.Rod
1. Cedric. Assuming we’re confident he’ll start.
2. Willian
3. I think he’s worth it. You could have the same concerns over every team
4. I wouldn’t have an issue with not having Trippier. Don’t read too much into preseason though.
Cheers Kop. I’m not too confident on Cedric are you? As for Trippier I’m thinking of downgrading and using some of the money to upgrade Azpi to Alonso. Decent move or should I just leave it?
Also with regard to Kane, would you rather have him or one of Alli or Eriksen?
Probably Kane but that could all change after a game or two!!
Grand. Better to have him and be able to downgrade instead of needing him and having to take a bunch of hits to get him.
Not sure on Cedric but they’ve got two friendlies left which should give us an idea.
Who would you get in place of Trippier to allow you to switch Azpi to Alonso?
Oh they have 2 I thought they only had the one left. I’ll leave him in for now then. If I downgraded Trip then I’m looking at Riedewald or Dunk and upgrading Foster to Forster.
So you’d need to find another £0.5m too?
Cedric
Willian
Not sure on Kane he’s an obvious captain choice. Proven and points pretty much guaranteed but is a lot of money
Trippier will be fine it’s only pre season. Can’t read much into pre season they could still hammer Newcastle
Cheers Smash. But would you rather Trip and Azpi over Alonso and a 5 mil or below defender?
Yeah I think so. Attacking full back and Spurs are good at the back seems a bargain even for me who hates spending cash on defenders. Alonso is way worth that extra 0.5 though which is easier said than done
Grand so Azpi and Trip stay then. Cheers Smash
So do you think Salah is the best bet?
That is a really tough one. Salah is looking very dangerous but Couthino is on freekicks and is launching long balls and through passes into Mane and Salah to set them in on goals. I think it’s a three way split between the them and you just have to pick one and have faith in him. Right now I’m between Couthino and Salah with Salah just edging it right now as Cout is having some doubts over future.
Fair enough thanks. All 3 will be in the points
And just to add to the heartache I’d even add Firmino to the points. The four of them together were brilliant yesterday so will definitely share the points and it will be frustrating but I think one is needed!!
Ritchie just scored a corker of a free kick!
OK, decided to take a risk a take out Kane?
Do I:
A. Take out Mane -> Cout/Salah and upgrade Rosenior to a 4.5?
B. Even crazier Mane -> Cout/Salah then Dawson -> Bertrand
C. Leave as it is
D. Better suggestion?
Forster
Dawson Daniels Yoshida
Willian Zaha Alli Mane
Defoe Jesus Lukaku
Elliot T Carroll Mee Rosenior
I’d leave it as is tbh. Don’t like any of the other options
Cheers Matt