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…
Hi,
Hello, everyone, I have constructed a draft for my team.
Please comment.
Strong team mate.Be on the look out of Morata.I think he will be easied in the team.Cedric might/might not be fit for the first game.Probably downgrade Morata and improve on your bench and Hart maybe to a 5m guy(Forster?)
Decent team I’d want Kane or Lukaku in there. Easiest one is probably Rambo down to a cheapo 5.5 and Morata to Lukaku. A bit risky going for 2 new boys up top
I would also suggest one of those two in the forward line
How sure are we Austin starts over Gab?
We don’t know. They might both play together. There will be a bit of rotation there but Austin is cheap, proven and has easy fixtures
Second draft?
Looks good, but I wouldn’t go with double WBA defence, even with their good fixtures. Might be better to downgrade Dawson to a 4.5m defender and bring in another (preferably that rotates well) instead of Hudson – as it stands neither of your defender substitutes are guaranteed to start.
Thanks red
Hey all still not convinced by Utd & Luk anyone else going without him going to start with Kane & Kun ?
Hi Silvers,
I recall that Kane had a slow start last year but he certainly made up for it afterwards!
That said, I think I will go with Kane as well.
I have been tempted. Lukaku has been scoring in friendlies. Surprised Kane has yet to score. Depends on what City coverage you have if I knew Aguero will start every week I would have him. Jesus looks to be the man up top but I would much rather have Aguero so who knows
Cheers guys I keep debating going with Kane , Kun & Pogba or Luk , Kun & Alli but would have to pinch .5m from somewhere 😉
I just can’t ignore Kun at that price, he’s too damn good.
He’s gone from being the first name on my team sheet to not being in my current draft. Basically I’m lost
Keep the faith.
Silvers
Starting with Kun and Lukaku and will re-evaluate Kane when I WC around GW3
I’m having doubts about Kane again. Wembley thing is messing with my head again
What about Wembley, Smash?
Spurs playing their home games at Wembley. Teams tend to start slow at new stadiums
Hmm. I wouldn’t want to get Kane in if he was firing early doors though. Tricky.
That’s my thinking smash! They have played at Wembley 7 times and lost 7 times!
Most of the teams they’ve played there were no mugs, mind. And a totally different side to the one that lost to Portsmouth etc. there.
Tempted to go this route but that Burnley match GW3 has hatrick written all over it!!
We can WC just before GW3 😉
Ha ha yeah man we sure can! I’m thinking pre GW4 though when we can have 2 weeks to make some cash on the rises and falls!
I thk it’s a really tough call this season , I’m just trying to use my head the two best attacking sides in my opinion are City & Spurs over the last three seasons Kane & Kun stats are formidable, but Luk has had a good season & preseason it’s a nightmare 😉
Yeah I might even go with double City attacking coverage. It’s Kane and Lukaku one that’s driving me nuts which one or both
I’ve got KDB, Jesus (want Aguero but can’t afford) and Kane, for what it’s worth haha
Evening all, the H2H leagues have been drawn, mails sent as and when. You can still enter the H2H leagues if you would like. You will be placed in division 3 now though, but still a challenge. Mail me.
As & when Elle what’s that about 😉
Am I in?
Thanks.
Elle
Did I email you mate?
Hello mate, Is this for the regs? Checked my mail but don’t have anything?
Got it! Cheers Elle!
Not had anything come through yet Elle.
Same
Thanks Elle! I got in the Prem! Are you posting up who got in which one at all? Just a pic of them written down would do so that people know who they’re up against?
Here’s the Prem so far anyway…
I’m elite so I will be in that league
League one for me… all about promotion!!
Looks a friendly league
Thanks mate
Mane scores against Bayern. Anyone looking for another £0.5m? 😉
He could be the man this year for them.
It just gets harder to pick a team
Yep…… 😉
Salah tap in. Superb from Mane.
Wow this is a strong Bayern side. May need some Liverpool coverage
Take preseason with a pinch of salt, but would have one.