New Signings – Fantasy Premier League 2015/16. Bamford, Lens, Mitrovic, Kaboul
Popular Eurovision beat combo, Bucks Fizz, once sang, “Don’t let your indecision take you from behind”. Wise words indeed. With barely a week left until the first ball of a new season is kicked, most FPL gaffers will be fairly settled with their squad. And judging by Twitter, everyone has pretty much the same squad anyway. But it’s landing on those final 2 or 3 places that cause the most anguish. Tick. 5 days left, and that 3rd striker slot is obviously Deeney’s. But wait… Patrick who? Oh. Well he’s the one. Tock. 2 days left, Mitrovic. Mitrovic! Maybe. Tick. Then those final minutes; the painfully slow logging in as the Premier League website grinds to a Berbatov-like jog. It’s not enough time. It’s not enough time! Tock. Time up. Don’t let your indecision take you from behind.
Here are some words about footballers.
PATRICK BAMFORD (Crystal Palace – Forward – £6.0mln)
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Selhurst Park’s new recruit is so defined by his perpetually nomadic existence that he may be better served changing his name to ‘On loan from Chelsea’. It’s not the most shirt-friendly name to have on one’s back, but why should Jan Venegoor of Hesselink have all the fun? ‘OLFC’ joined the Blues in 2012 and has chalked up 43 goals in just shy of a century of games, taking in the sights of Milton Keynes, Derby and Middlesbrough. Unbelievably, he’s yet to play a single minute for Chelsea. But then, one can’t expect Jose to find room for a promising young English striker when (and this is just an example picked at random) he can pay £140k a week for a 29-year-old who scored 4 goals last season. On the bright side, at least Bamford can finally move to London now, and all the pre-season signs indicate his growth will continue along it’s parabolic path. A few more repeats of his tidy triple against Bromley last week and a return to the deed poll may be in order. ‘Hat-trick’ Patrick anyone?
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JEREMAIN LENS (Sunderland – Midfielder – £6.5mln)
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The arrival of Jeremain Lens gives the Black Cats some welcome balance, and now have genuine attacking width on either flank. We all know about the threat Adam Johnson poses, especially to [comment removed by legal team], but on the other wing it seems Advocaat has found talent to mirror the Englishman perfectly. A left-winger that likes to cut inside and look for goal certainly possesses the qualities to pique FPL interest. Coming from a mixed couple of seasons at Dynamo Kyiv, the Mackem masses will hope the Dutchman can recreate his PSV form which peaked in 2012/13, finding the net 15 times in 30 games. Furthermore, the Dutch Eredivisie saw him regularly register double figure assists. That the Sunderland manager’s brought him to the Stadium of Light is no great surprise, having worked with him at AZ Alkmaar then PSV. By all accounts Lens was the only positive to take from Sunderland’s recent woeful 2-0 defeat at Doncaster. If Dick’s boys can get their act together, his team’s kind start to the season could see fantasy managers soon switch their focus to Lens.
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ALEKSANDAR MITROVIC (Newcastle United – Forward – £6.5mln)
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At £12m, the 20 year-old Serbian international is the Magpies 4th most expensive ever capture. Admirably swatting away interest from both Roma and Porto, Newcastle have managed to secure a striker boasting a bumper 20 goal campaign in Belgium’s Jupiler Pro League (Nope, me neither). In fact, over his two seasons with Anderlecht he’s scored 36 times in 69 games. Impressive for someone so young, and it suggests McClaren has made a very shrewd investment. Self-styled on personal idols Didier Drogba and Alan Shearer, the 6ft 2in Mitrovic will hope to follow the latter into Geordie folklore, and not go the way of, say, Obafemi Martins or Michael Owen. Or Mark Viduka. Or Antoine Sibierski. Or Marlon Harewood. Or Emmanuel Riviere. Described by the new manager as “a real warrior” the Serb does currently lack match fitness and one wonders whether he’ll be thrown into the starting lineup straight away. But he’s definitely one for the Toon Army to get excited about.
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YOUNES KABOUL (Sunderland – Defence – £4.5mln)
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“Younes wouldn’t join Sunderland even if there was an earthquake. We have more interesting options than Sunderland. Don’t even think about it.” Yes. Those were the words of Younes Kaboul’s agent in 2008. Well, 7 years on and despite there being no earthquake, Kaboul clearly no longer had ‘more interesting options’. Not since Pascal Chimbonda, has a player’s arrival stirred such shoulder-shrugging apathy. In fact, this is probably the first most have heard about it. It’s hard to make a case for Kaboul as a fantasy option, when even teammates Van Aanholt and O’Shea have more appeal, and with only 3 goals in 5 years you don’t get much added value, even at £4.5m. He did however get given the armband in the second half of their Doncaster friendly, so one could argue that Advocaat trusts him and is likely to be a somewhat reliable fixture in his eleven. Barrel scraped. Straws clutched. Job done.
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Morning peps, how are we? Thanks for that my fellow Owls fan Bry. Very entertaining read. I have to say, Bamford interests me but then so does Lambert (has he signed for Brom yet?) And as for the news that Kun is training, that could scupper all our finly made plans!
How are our teams coming along?
Lambs just scored 2 goals tonight. Oi, you crazy KIWI. Take notice. Sighs, wtf will they do at WBA though? 5 strikers?
Anichebe, Berahinho, Ideye, Samaras and Lambs? I mean wtf?
Raz, who cares, surly he is a nailed on starter!
Like he was @ Pool? :p
haha just like that!
In all honesty. Why you think they wanted Berahinho at Pool? Because Lambs is better? 😉
Also, another thing to keep in mind, WBA fixtures. In their first 5 games they played City, Chelsea and Soton. You see Lambs score many hatty’s there? :p
Morning to you Alex.
Lambert has signed and scored 2 goals already so he’s interesting me anyway. Haha
Ye don’t really know what to do about Kun now that he’s back training.
Team is all sorted apart from the odd tinker and the probable change of mind especially if Kun is back. Yours??
Mat, morning mate! No far from it! Well done on your team, hows it looking? Thanks for the info, maybe Lambert, Rooney and Kun as your front three?!
Here it is mate. I’d love that front 3 but then the rest would probably be unbalanced. Plan on Rooney out for Ageuro and Benteke or Milner to someone else in GW4 but that could change if one of them is on fire.
Matt, my team is very very very similar! I have Mane instead of Milner and Cech in goal but other than that its virtually identical! What can i say, great team! lol
Ye it’s very template but everyone wants the best players and these are the hopefuls anyway. Would love to bring Mane in there but tried that earlier and it just weakened the team a lot so hopefully he doesn’t go points crazy
Cech should be a great signing and should keep a good few CS. Haha Cheers mate .
Right, it’s time to take the plunge. RMT.
NIN, I was expecting at least two Hammers
Now that would be something 😉 Young Cressy didn’t last long. Bilic is a donkey.
Schneiderlin? >.<
The rest is decent. PAntsuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu is a riskuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu though. One that could pay off.
Any ideas for that 5.5 slot in mid? I hate it too.
NIN… how aboit Cleverley at 5.5…. ha ha
How about Mclean, Redmond or Mahrez? And of course monitor where Moses ends up, at 5.5 he may be the bargain of the year.
I’ve got Larsson at 5.5, and will probably ship him out for Ki of Swansea after a few weeks.
But to do that, I got rid of Pants and won’t touch Defoe.
Absolute shite. Not actually even looked at it but I’ve been waiting 12 months for that revenge :hippo:
Actually, having looked at it now…
I was right :big-lol: #revenge 😉
NIN stop crying and step off, I’m only joking. It looks great. Couple or 6 issues I can see that need resolving and you’ll be sorted 😉
Hahahaha, i should have expected that one
Nice team NIN only thing I don’t like is Schneiderlin and not sure if Pants will be good enough to rely on just him but otherwise your teams looking good mate.
NIN, well done pal great team. I’d want a Chelsea defender though. Cedric is my preferred Southampton backline too
See you in the deep end soon mate!
No Chelsea coverage at the back? Schneiderlin as a regular? Aguero from the off?
Quite a few risks! Sergio vs WBA could be a stroke of genius… but I’m not sure those other two points are.
Wow NiN, is this only your second season?
Cheers Matt/NZ/James/Raz. Suggestions for improvements?
Raz – This is my 6th season, just the 2nd on this profile though.
If your looking for a 5.5 mid maybe Ki??
Interesting team NIN – why Koscielny instead of Azpi?
Cheers for all the responses folks. I’ve gone back to auto-complete, browned off tinkering now
Very nice team @NIN. Is Schneiderlin a shoo-in at ManUnited? In terms of minutes is what I meant. I watched the pre-season games and he didn’t work well off of Carrick. Martin and Holebas as your benchers? hmmm …
Evening all. Cheers for this Bry! Lens sounds class.
Now that J-Rod officially looks unlikely to start I’m starting to lean towards having Deeney *and* Wilson – not as a rotation – but playing both in most gameweeks.
Wanyama would be the (very) occasional sub for Wilson. It’s a risky strategy, but I’m not feeling positive about 8.5m for Benteke, and there seem to be few other viable options for 6-8m available.
I expect a negative response to this… but just how negative I wonder? It’s tempting as the rest of my team looks beastly.
Bentekers seems to be flagged. Anything Pool related is and will always be risky, unless it’s Luis Suarez. But I heard he bit himself in a Barca contract.
Do we know why Teke is flagged?
He hasn’t travelled to Helsinki for our final pre-season friendly. We do have a game against Swindon on Sunday which is basically for the reserves, so he might feature in that.
Thanks Kop.
Might pay off, been thinking of doing Defoe and Deeny/Wilson myself…
Defoe Lukaku Agüero is my fws atm…
Kun will be Rooney for gw1 most likley
Ah right nice, see Lukaku would interest me, but for their terrible fixtures after Watford at home.
How does your gut feel about two 5.5m forwards?
It could leave us stranded, but both look like great value for money, plus we’ll probably both have 2.5m for Rooney —–> Aguero saved up if things got desperate…
Might be to risky, it’s tempting to do that to free up some cash for kun.
Lukaku is injured right?
James, hello pal how are you? It’s a tricky one for sure. I’ve had a few conversations about a 5 man mid. This season, more so towards the start maybe, it could be the best way to go. I’m wondering if Kun and Rooney and then a cheap forward could work. Could be worth trying.
cor bloody blimey, everyones in a panic… Benteke possibly not match fit, Costa possibly fit… and Aguero???? All those well laid plans and it’s all going potty.
There’s still just over a week to go before kick off. Benteke has a week to get himself match fit… if Costa plays against the Gunners at the weekend you have time to get him into your team. Aguero will probably be fit for kick off as well…. what dillemmas!!!
OK, I’m not panicked……….. but if Benteke is doubtful., which would ruin my 3-5-2 for GW1…… who thinks that Lukaku would be a good replacement……….. AAARRRRGGGG
Twikle, imagine if we are still in the dark midweek, PANICK!!! Apparently Lukaku is a doubt with a hammy. Fun and games………
Yup, mourinho said costa fit to play in shield.
Benteke lack of match fitness? Damn u rodgers
Just bring him to helsinki.
Now i need to go back to my drawing board
And the best part of it, aguero has train..
Think he will play as sub
I’m sure we’ll have An article summing up preseason inform players. For now i’m thinking Mane is a must have. Hazard looks lively too and unlike Last season he will start the season on all cylinders. Sterling is also fresh which is expectable given he was rested Last season…
The rest have just been average And who will perform good is actualy anybody’s guess.
How sure?!
As sure as Kun will be involved come GW1!
(That and also I looked it up and there was one last year!)
There won’t be this year mate! We are locked down and that’s not on the agenda – sorry! Couple of surprise ones over the next few days assuming they are delivered as promised and then we begin a ‘normal FPL’ week from Monday. How soon it comes round…
Ah so Kun is Out for GW1 then!
No prob mate you guys are tireless and We can only thank you lot for the commitment.
Hi Guy, still playing around with my team any thoughts would be appreciated, I think I might be taking to many risks with new signings
Schmeichel
Darmian, Azpilicueta, Mertesacker
Sterling, Milner, Depay, Hazard
Rooney, Ulloa, Giroud
Guzan, Simpson, Baker, Wanyama
Hey Dazza I like your team and what it shows is that it’s impossible to have a balanced squad with 5 +8£ players that include Aguero. Any plans to get him In?
I will look at him when he comes back, but I want to see how Rooney goes for a few weeks
Yeah totally agree on that but it will represent hits if you want to react quick and will mean no more 5 +8£ players.
thanks
cheers