New Signings – Fantasy Premier League 2015/16. Cech, Sinclair, Clyne, Falcao
It’s been a while since we last talked, my friends. Too long. I hope you have found the MLS (and our FF247 Fantasy League) to be suitable entertainment during the summer. Or perhaps you fancy cricket and are watching our very own Tekno light up the fantasy cricket world? Or maybe you are doing both. If so, you are likely a fantasy addict and worry not: there are support groups for that kind of thing. On this website we call them the comment section.
And as much as I dislike having to follow the much-talented and ever-eloquent Gallant Pioneer and the effervescent inittowinit, I will attempt to do so nonetheless. Here are a few more transfers we think you should know about:
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[/three_fourth]Petr Cech
Arsenal
Age: 33
Position: Wearer of Funny Hats (also plays Goalkeeper)
Signed From: Chelsea
Fee: £10m
Petr Cech really needs no introduction. Three times named Best Goalkeeper of the UEFA Champions League; three times the winner of the Premier League’s Golden Glove Award. In his 11 seasons with Chelsea he won four Premier League titles, four FA Cups, three League Cups, one Europa League title and one Champions League title.
His arrival has been met with mixed reactions amongst Arsenal fans. While there is no doubting the Czech’s talent, how much does he improve the goalkeeping position at The Emirates and is it worth ending the Arsenal career of David Ospina or Wojciech Szczesny (or both?)? Arsene Wenger has already announced Cech his starter for the upcoming season, which means one of the two is likely to depart the club. Will it be Szczesny, a player in whom the club have invested years, or Ospina, who did all that was asked of him en route to helping the club to its best finish in four seasons and a second consecutive FA Cup victory?
Fantasy outlook: Depending on his price, we think Cech will be popular with fantasy owners. Despite limited opportunities last season, fans will remember the 220 clean sheets he kept while tending goal for Chelsea. Tucking him in behind a defence that ended last year in great form, we think Cech’s transition into the squad should be a smooth one.
Fun fact you will only get at Fantasy Football 247: Cech was born a triplet and enjoys playing the drums.
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[/three_fourth]Scott Sinclair
Aston Villa
Age: 24
Position: Midfield
Signed From: Manchester City
Fee: Undisclosed
Anyone else remember Scott Sinclair? The talented winger scored 19 goals in the 2010-11 season helping secure Swansea City’s return to top flight English football. He followed that up with eight goals and four assists in Swansea’s 2011-12 campaign, and those numbers don’t adequately spell out his importance to the Swansea attack that year.
And then came Manchester City. Lured by a massive wage packet, Sinclair signed a four-year deal with City and promptly found himself on the bench. After playing just 13 league games for City, Sinclair has been given a new lease on life after securing a move to an Aston Villa team that is quietly having a very good offseason.
Fantasy outlook: Having spent the 2nd half of last season on loan at Villa Sinclair should step straight into the starting line-up and provide better service to Christian Benteke than he’s used to. Coupled with his ability to cut inside and get off a quick shot, we think there’s no reason why Sinclair can’t meet or exceed the numbers he put up at Swansea.
Fun fact you will only get at Fantasy Football 247: his brother Martin, who has cerebral palsy, was selected in Great Britain’s Cerebral Palsy football team for the 2012 Summer Paralympics.
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[/three_fourth]Nathaniel Clyne
Liverpool
Age: 24
Position: Defender
Signed From: Southampton
Fee: £12.5m
What an incredible piece of business by Liverpool. They obtained a young English-born player, in a position of need, for a great price. What is shocking about this transfer is that more clubs weren’t interested and that Southampton was willing to let him go on the cheap.
After arriving from Crystal Palace, Clyne quickly claimed the right-back job at Southampton as his own. Over three years, he played 94 times and helped keep 29 clean sheets. Last season alone he helped Southampton keep 13 clean sheets in the 35 league games he played and chipped in with two goals. He’s consistently been ranked among the top right-backs in the Premier League.
Fantasy outlook: while he won’t start out priced at just £5.0 like last year, Clyne is one to consider for your team. A solid overall defender who, surrounded with a more talented team, will likely be given greater freedom by Brendan Rodgers to push higher up the pitch. Even if he posts at £6.0m we think he’s great value.
Fun fact you will only get at Fantasy Football 247: Clyne is reportedly named after noted Swiss musician Nathanial Hornblower.*
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[/three_fourth]Radamel Falcao
Chelsea
Age: 29
Position: Forward
Signed From: On loan from AS Monaco
Fee: Undisclosed
There was a time when El Tigre needed no introduction. Having scored 41 goals in 51 games with Porto and 52 goals in 68 games with Atletico Madrid, the talented Colombian striker was well-known by footy fans worldwide. Then came the transfer to AS Monaco, and loan spell to Manchester United, which resulted in just 17 goals in 51 appearances for the two teams.
Chelsea fans and fantasy owners are wondering which Falcao they’ve gotten on loan. Can the enigmatic striker rediscover the form that saw him torture Spanish defences while at Atletico, or will he continue to struggle adapting to the English game?
Fantasy outlook: Falcao, on his day, is class. It can be argued Falcao was played out of position at United or that Van Gaal didn’t get the best out of the player. At Chelsea he will be surrounded by a squad far superior than the one he had at United. It will be interesting to see how and where Jose Mourinho elects to play him.
Fun fact you will only get at Fantasy Football 247: with his arrival at Chelsea, Falcao joins former Atletico team-mates Thibaut Courtois, Filipe Luis and Diego Costa. OK, not fun enough for you? Try this: George King, one of his great-grandfathers, emigrated from the North Yorkshire village of Burn in 1932 to work as an accountant for the United Fruit Company in Colombia.
Right, that’s all for now my friends. Until next time. Cheers!
*this is most likely not true and possibly fabricated by me.
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This is proving a tad interesting trying to fit players in , looks as if lots more attacking options available
Right, here are some initial thoughts on this seasons game. Leave the squad selection and prices and all that shite to one side for a minute, there’s bigger issues here, namely the new “chips” addition. At first glance, i think the days of starting the season with a very weak/risky bench are over. The new “chips” make it that we have to have full, strong squads for the whole season as we never know when we may have to use these things.
It looks a bit the chips could be best used for a big DGW but, lets face it, most aren’t going to have them left come GW 30 odd (WC, anyone?). So, how do we use them and how do we prepare for using them? This is the key question this season, for me. The rest is the same: Pick your players and run with it. So, the chips are point 1, 2nd point is the 50/50 split WC’s. Now, this adds yet another large, very interesting quirk to the game i think.
My suggestion, at this early stage, is to avoid 4.5m mid’s unless they are bankers to start, and have some attacking potential. For example, Wanyama may seem like a decent option but he scores rarely and his assists are even rarer, so he’s a write-off, for me. Same goes for defenders. If they’re 4m then be 100% sure that they’re going to be solid going forward/ How to do that? Well, there lies the answer. There are likely very few, if any, reliable 4m defenders. The reason i think avoiding these types as much as possible is the “Bench Boost” and “All Out Attack” chips. These are going to be useless unless our subs are good. For example, we decide to play the “All Out Attack” chip, meaning we drop a defender for a mid. If that mid to come in is someone like Wanyama, what can we expect from him? Not much. Same goes for the “Bench Boost”. This is pointless unless the quality is there to take advantage of it. A stronger starting squad will hopefully lead to more price increases which, again, hopefully, will mean a boss squad for later on.
With the 50/50 split WC’s, we now essentially have a WC all season long, which is something of a treat, i must say. The first half of the season will likely go as per, with most boinking their’s early on. So this leaves the 2nd WC and a few stragglers who still have two on Dec 28th. Initial thoughts here are to keep that first one until early December/late November and activate it, meaning we’re set up nicely for the schedule madness around that time, and aren’t under pressure with the 2nd one as we’ve got the rest of the season to play it.
All in all i reckon these are brilliant changes to our beloved FPL. The casual players have an easier time of it and the junkies like ourselves have been thrown an even bigger challenge. Fantastic stuff by the FPL team :thumbup:
That’s my two cents anyway. Happy tinkering
Excellent stuff there NIN. Feel like you’ve set my head straight for what I need to do with my team…having said that I’m -£2.5m with Hoban and Grabban in my team hahahaha
Oh Aguero, why do you have to be so god damn expensive?
How’s yours coming along? Or do you wait a few weeks before drafting?
No worries AT. Just thought i’d throw it out there in case anyone overlooked the new features, or spent a day or two amassing the shittiest bench possible! They’ve blown the game wide open with these changes, for me.
I had an initial tinker just to see prices and that, but then i auto-selected and it’s staying that way. I’ve already got a good idea what to do it’ll just be a matter of putting numbers to it once a few more transfers are done etc.
For the record, Aguero is 100% in my team for GW1.
Aguero is 100% in for me too, just can’t seem to get him in with four good mids!
Can’t even seem to get him into 3-5-2 either!
It’ll become easier when you spread your money out a bit. As i said before, i only looked at one “half-draft”, but a midfield of Depay, Hazard, Cazorla, Ki, Mahrez stood out to me as an interesting way to go. Remember, we need good subs!
Is Aguero likely to be rested at the start of the season though? Because of the Copa America. I suppose we’ll learn more about that in the coming weeks.
No chance. All the CA players will be good to go, unless injured of really, really fatigued. City play Kun when he’s injured, so when he’s tired…. defo.
Start as you mean to go on NIN excellent mate :worthy:
Cheers Silvers/Raz. It’s always important to go over the rules and the effect of new ones :thumbup:
Job well done NiN. Who needs articles when you post comments like these? :p
Good stuff Nin and valid points made mate.
I think you’re right in that the days gone by of chucking complete fodder on the bench are gone now and a more savvy approach is needed.
In my current draft I’ve got Cleverley, Dyer and Grealish as an example, not that it will stay that way of course
:thumbup:
Noticed Wally is not that popular yet. We still have to see what Wenger does, but if he does get the striker role (like @ the ending of the season), he is a must. Giroud has always been shite.
Oi, wtf. Seems I already have a perfect team. HOLY MOLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :dance:
Nice Raz, personally miles away. Just out of interest, have you included Terry and/or Aguero?
Ivanovic and Kun. 😉
I haven’t really considered the new rules so nothing is set yet. Lol, I remember last season I changed my team a billion times before the deadline. 😉
I can’t decide whether Terry will be rested at all this season or not. We all thought it last year and it didn’t happen but I feel like Zouma will play a larger role this season. Ivanovic/Terry or do you go Courtois to save some cash? Tricky one..
I’m counting on Wally to be a starter from day one, especially as Sanchez most likely will get an extended leave due to Copa America.
True tekno..sanchez kun di maria will be put at least 1-2 games before they are match fit.
I think i will avoid kun but have enough money to slot him into my team.
And do hope everybody pick kun and sell him when he will be fit next match
Any one thinking of trying to fit Kun & Costa in?
Silvers – I’m not tinkering yet but, after a quick looksie i’d say that’s going to be very hard to achieve unless you drop to one premium mid, or butcher your defence. With Costa being so unpredictable and Falcao being there now, maybe he’s too much of a risk?
Thanks NIN I cant help myself 😉
Ive come up with this team as a starting point.
Good start Ant , got a good feeling about Silva , saw an interview with him says he was playing with injury most of last season not sure if Fab will be such a big influence this season , I have Deeney in my 1st draft I’m sure there is a lot of tinkering yet
Payet or Ritchie?
Ritchie for the time being mate. West Ham have difficult fixtures plus I’m not sure what this Payet fella is like.
Hey MattX a very decent player He has played 337 matches in all competitions and has been directly involved in 148 goals (71 goals and 77 assists). That’s a direct goal involvement in better than every
Ye I read about him in the article and I think it was GP I had to conversation with about him and I think the conclusion was that with fixtures and a new manager don’t know how Hammers will settle you know?
*the conversation
and I think i’ll be bringing him in just want to give him a few games.
Matt,
Cheers – do you reckon Ritchie & Sakho over Payet & Wilson?
I’d go Ritchie and Sakho but like NIN has said below its pretty early to be making these kind of calls.
TMW – It’s hard to make these calls when it’s this early but, for me, it’s Ritchie just now. My reasoning for this is that he’s already at Bournemouth so he’s already integrated into the team. With Payet, his stats are pretty good over the last few seasons but he’s 28 so is a late bloomer. We also have to consider that he’s coming to a new league, to a team that have a new manager (and a dodgy one at that), and some iffy at best fixtures. I think there’s too much risk there but preseason may change that. Maybe in a months time we’ll all be “Siggying-it-up” 😉
NIN –
Cheers! Would you keep Sakho then or go for a 6.5/7.0 striker?
I see Sakho is 6.5m. That’s quite a bit i think. Vardy at 6m seems a better deal to me but, again, it’s early so their new manager -once they appoint one- may not fancy him to start. As it stands, Vardy tops that price bracket, for me.
Will Vardy play though? Ulloa, Nugent, Kramaric & Okazaki all as competition?
Your guess is as good as mine! Way too early for these sort of decisions mate. My suggestion would be to balance your squad out, price wise, irrespective of which actual players. Once the balance is made then it’s a matter of seeing who buys/sells who and how preseason goes, culminating in a final selection for GW1. You could be happy with a draft tonight, then a top 4 team make a signing who you want and that throws the entire squad out the window.