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…
Right, i’m done mailing for tonight. If you haven’t received a mail don’t panic, back on it tomorrow.
Elle.
Cheers for sorting all this Elle! Your efforts are much appreciated!
Yeah cheers fella. Good work!
Cheers buddy…keeping us hungry managers together with this h2h league…keep up the good work..
Thanks Elle. Really appreciate your efforts, not a small task you have taken on.
Hey Elle, late to the party but I’d love to jump in if there’s an open slot. Cheers!
100% not starting with two £4m defenders to start the season, but don’t know what to do to resolve it – want them all! Pogba would be the easiest to downgrade but I want United cover. Any pointers?
Cheers
Forster to Foster, hegazi to Cedric or yosh
Was thinking that Milburn, but it wouldn’t solve Mason and Long!
Yeah, just 1 of them. Personally I don’t mind having 1 4.0mill player at the beginning of the season until you make a bit team value or a playing 4m reveals himself (Not in a pervy way tho).
Same total price, ain’t it? So wouldn’t help either, but yeah I’ll keep £4.0m.
Both same total price, aren’t they? So no help to Mason or Long. But yeah I would only upgrade one.
Oops, thought that hadn’t posted!
Ah apologies, I thought hegazi was the same as Dawson and McCauley.
Could do Fraser to Milivojevic who’s on pens and set pieces at palace?
Yeah, not a bad shout. I’ll have another tinker. Cheers!
+1 on Foster and Cedric. god knows how to get 0.5 there. Really makes a massive difference
Cheers lads – I’ll swap those two.
Yeah, not sure myself. Might have to drop double City, but really want two.
Are there many doubles teams?
Think we had about 10 or 12 last season. It’s an acquired taste. And an odd one too!
Was there any sackings? lol
Haha, not sure on that but there were certainly some teams being run by just one person come the end!
Good evening, guys, damn it… I have a lot of reading to do here!
This — init’s most recent article — is the perfect starting place.
West Ham really have, “in theory”, done quite well…
I’m looking forward to catching up, putting my first squad together and helping out whoever I can, let’s go.
Probably best to start with Smash…
I’m sure he’s far more capable of putting a good squad together than I am right now! Hate the feeling he’s going through — of being so torn — though…
Probably need all the help I can get and a bigger budget!
I’d start elsewhere mate! This one is probably the least relevant given the subject matter and their opening game/s. Reads more like a warning sign than offering anything FPL relevant
I enjoyed reading your warnings, haha, thanks for this latest piece.
As you say, the fixtures aren’t incredible but also not bad by any stretch, and I’m amazed at Hart and Chicharito’s prices… the latter may well make it in as my 3rd striker. Rodriguez is also tempting.
Fixtures are ok after the 1st one actually. More a case of there being a stack full of other priorities before West Ham even enter the equation.
There could be great value in the Hammersmith defence.. on paper they have a strong defence with premiership experience
Haven’t a clue what league Hammersmith are in!
I’m guessing you meant West Ham? I watched their game today and they were terrible. Lost 3-2 to a German team in the 4th tier of German football. Went down 3 times. Winston Reid got sent off before HT for 2 yellow cards both for dissent really looked a complete shambles especially in defence.
#initknows
Don’t forget what month we are in mate! You know me by now – listen after Christmas only!
I wasn’t on about West Ham of course not!
I actually have no idea what you are on about
Then I’m lost!
VDV or Scholes in midfield?
…… oh …… wait, this was meant for 2012 FPL ….. simpler times!
Easy VDV for fpl only! Scholes for real
Agreed but Scholes value for money at that time was enticing!
My best DGW score of around 140 points was with Berbatov as Cappo (5 goals) and Scholes with a few assists