New Signings – Fantasy Premier League 2015/16. Deulofeu, Cleverley
We continue our pre-season look at the relevant FPL signings today with a couple of players who you should already be familiar with from past FPL exploits but who have both decided to move to the house of Martinez… You know the house we mean. The one that had rock solid foundations under it’s previous owner Senor Moyes. The one that Senor Martinez decided was too functional and needed more flair and a few nice touches. Many, many nice touches. Far too many bloody touches. So he hung up a few fancy drapes and the foundations simply crumbled under the weight of them. His response has been to go out and buy a few more frilly bits. Lightweight ones at that. And so we bring you his business so far…
Gerard Deulofeu
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[/three_fourth]Everton
Age : 21
Position : TBC (Mid / Fwd)
Signed from : Barcelona
Fee : £4.2m
The man with the hardest name to spell in FPL is back. We forgive you now for the inevitable 45 variations that we will surely see in the run up to the season. The question is whether the young Spaniard is actually worth the effort in trying. The proof will be in the pudding but it depends a lot on his FPL classification. Last time he graced our shores he was a ‘forward’ according to the FPL site, although he rarely, if ever, featured as one. He’s more of a wide man and we feel he should be classified as a midfielder. If he is, and he’s kindly priced, then he could be a good pick up for a budget 4th or 5th midfielder if he is pitched at a realistic £5m – £6m.
Gerard spent the 2013/14 on loan at Goodison and made a good impression in fleeting appearances before returning to parent club Barcelona. His initial spell with Everton was hampered with a hamstring injury that kept him out of contention for a while but in all honesty the intention was that he would get a bit of experience of top flight football while not necessarily being first choice and when he did feature he did well enough to convince Martinez to splash the cash and sign him up permanently for about £6m this summer. He managed to fit in just 25 appearances for the Toffees in that spell notching 3 goals and 4 assists which doesn’t sound great but let’s break that down a bit and make it sound better! – He only actually had about 900 minutes of action in total which is effectively 10 full games so those goal and assist ratios actually represented a pretty decent return.
Since he last graced a Premier League pitch young Gerard returned to Barcelona and was promptly loaned out to Sevilla where he had mixed fortunes. He only managed 17 league appearances but did get 6 assists and a solitary goal in those outings and it was 9 assists across all competitions so again his returns are good when he actually plays.
He’s a rough diamond that needs a lot of polishing but hopefully Martinez will do that. As a player he’s a tricky winger who loves a dribble. His main flaw is that he’s yet to look up and find a final pass. That said if you look up and all you see is Steven ‘honestly, I’m a professional footballer, it just looks like I’m playing with a balloon’ Naismith and Romelu ‘Is that a Champions League class pass, no then I couldn’t be bothered going after it’ Lukaku, then he can be forgiven for that somewhat.
His main issue will be game-time. Assuming he plays as a winger in a 4-3-3 then competition for places will be fierce as Everton have a plethora of options in the shape of Mirallas, Pienaar, Naismith and McGeady not to mention the likes of Barkley and Osman who can also fill those berths and the possibility of Lennon coming back in on a permanent deal having impressed in his brief loan spell. If he can nail a starting spot then he should provide great value. If he’s classed as a midfelder and is cheap enough then he’s one to consider for your 5th spot but either way, Everton’s opening fixtures are a bit of a nightmare so you could always sit back and assess him from afar to begin with.
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Tom Cleverley
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[/three_fourth]Everton
Age : 25
Position : Midfield
Signed from : Manchester United
Fee : Free
Martinez clearly wants to surround himself with familiar faces and as such moved early to snap up Cleverley on a free transfer having missed out on doing so last season. Cleverley played under Martinez during a successful loan spell at Wigan back in the 2010/11 season when he helped himself to 3 goals and 2 assists in 25 appearances. Martinez has indicated that he sees him playing an advanced role and adding some much needed creativity to their attack which may mean he actually plays as a ‘No 10’ and is tasked with providing the bullets for Lukaku to fire.
Whether Cool Hand Luk-aku can aim properly is another matter entirely but it’s a fascinating prospect as Tom fared fairly well at Villa last season and indeed surprised a good many naysayers. 3 goals in 3 games towards the end of the season helped Villa secure their Premier League status and they would have loved to have kept hold of him but he had his heart set on a reunion with Martinez. Those 3 quickfire goals were however his only ones all season and he somehow failed to register a single assist. So either Martinez sees things we don’t or he’s simply clutching at straws. Only time will tell but we’d take a back seat on this one and see what happens. He was £5.5m last season and will probably come in at the same this time around so as per Delofueueoufoueue he’d be a luxury 5th midfielder for you really.
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well there you go Bell gone Aus have the upper hand
England crawling there way back into the Ashes 88 for 3
•Leeds, we hear, have meanwhile agreed a £500,000 fee with Sheffield United for striker Billy Sharp.
Anyone think Rooney will be a midfielder?.
From a fantasy classification. No chance.
Ant I would imagine he will want to play as a sweeper but honestly I think you could be right there.
Nope. He’ll be a forward as usual. Probably still 10.5m, which seems too much to me.
I really hope they class him as a Midfielder. Or if he is a striker then he should be good value, maybe 9.0m.
He’ll be 10m +, guaranteed. He’s always one to keep an eye on but, for me, he’s nowhere near my starting squad.
Not a chance in hell he’ll be classified as a midfielder and he’ll be a minimum of 10.0m
He never started below 10.5 and given that he reached top 10 last season one can’t see that figure going down.
I agree with NIN though for that price there are better options (in midfield perhaps) unless Louis plays him as an actual striker.
Interestingly enough he never gets two consecutive seasons at his best or at his worst.
So given that 2014/15 was his worst (overall FPL points) do we bother to relook (after we actually know whose United forwards are of course)?
Snapshot attempt II
He wont be in my team, that’s for sure. 26/38 GW’s last season he scored 2 points or less. I know United were all over the place for most of the season but that’s still shockingly bad.
Thinking Utd might be quite tight @ the back this yr if they get the signing they want Anyone looking @ Shaw this yr & Depay will certainly be worth looking @
Ive 100% going with Depay, but there defence ill be staying away from.
Unless Depay is seriously overpriced then i’ll be picking him up i think. Kinda hoping he’s classed as a forward, but it’s unlikely. Shaw is one to keep an eye on too. Darmian has a great chance of making my team but, again, that’s once he’s not overpriced.
Hey NIN don’t know much on Darmian is he an attacking player
He’s a defender. He can play all across the back but RB is his favored position. He’s Italian so his defensive capabilities are spot on, plus he’s bullet quick for attacks. He doesn’t come with a big reputation so i fancy he’ll squeak into FPL at 5.5m. At that price it’d be hard to say no i think.
Just looked at his stats doesn’t score many not sure on the amount of assists he gets doesn’t show that on site I go on could be worth a look if Utd can get Ramos
Yeah, he doesn’t exactly set the world alight with goals and assists, that’s for sure. Still, Azpi is a great defender for FPL and he doesn’t get much going forward. I’d fancy Darmian to get more returns than him so the potential is there. We’ll see how he’s priced first, eh?
Cookie’s done a write-up on him to go along with the Depay profile. It’ll be up tonight at some point.
Nice one. What do you make of this Nzonzi to Sevilla stuff? Seems a very strange transfer to me, or have i missed something?
Yeah seems odd but looks like it’s happening. They must have really wanted him too as they more than doubled their opening offer up to 7m.
I cant understand it i must say. Sevilla are pretty stacked in midfield too. Maybe a few are jumping ship or something. I think Krychowiak is being highly sought after.
England have done decent since the loss of the 3rd wicket, Root nearing a ton
Have they broke for tea and crumpets yet? :big-lol: