New Signings – Fantasy Premier League 2015/16. Ayew, Eder, Tripier, Obiang, Payet, McClean

New Signings – Fantasy Premier League 2015/16. Ayew, Eder, Tripier, Obiang, Payet, McClean

The transfer window has swung open and many teams are already on a player feast ahead of the new season. Some signings will be functional and some will be exciting but what we need to know is whether they will be fantasy gold or indeed just barely relevant enough to be bench fodder. Over the next few weeks we will endeavour to trawl through the transfer market and analyse the key transfers for you. We will look at each players past performances and try and give you a steer as to whether we feel they will be worth investing in.

[three_fourth padding=”0 20px 0 0″]

[/three_fourth]Andre Ayew
Swansea City
Age: 25
Position: Striker
Signed From: Free agent (previously Marseille)
Fee: Free

Not every player can say Pele is his dad. Well I suppose the great Brazilian did raise (cough) awareness of a male impotence cure so if he was indeed receiving payment of stock then maybe there are a lot out there who can rightly call him Papa Pele. Anyway I digress. My main point is that Swansea have signed Andre Ayew, the striking son of the great Abedi Pele or Abedi Ayew as he was christened in Kibi, Ghana. So, why doesn’t Ayew junior go with “Pele” instead of Ayew? Well, would you? Talk about a target on your back! In any event what Swansea have done is pick up a player with ten years of playing experience in France, mostly at Marseille but interrupted by loans at Arles and Lorient (where brother Jordan now plays) and they have picked him up for free. Andre is still only 25 and represents and interesting fantasy alternative should he be priced reasonably. He has scored 44 goals in 160 matches for OM and also has stacked 62 caps (11 goals) for the Black Stars of Ghana. It will be interesting to see how Swansea manager Garry Monk fits in his attackers this season but a change of formation to accommodate more than just a lone striker of Gomis looks likely. Ayew may find himself handily placed to be amongst the points. I think a watching brief should be taken on Swansea to see how they fit in their attackers. Speaking of which . .

[divider_1px]

[three_fourth padding=”0 20px 0 0″]

[/three_fourth]
Eder
Swansea City
Age: 27
Position: Striker
Signed From: SC Braga
Fee: Undisclosed

The Portuguese international has now also completed his move from SC Braga to the Swans. A better than goal every three games ratio in his time with Braga has encouraged Swansea to part with a believed £5M for the Guinea-Bissau born striker. It would seem very unlikely that Swansea could shoehorn in Eder, Gomis, Ayew and Sigurdsson at the same time and with Routledge and Dyer also in the wings, it is definitely advisable to see both how Garry Monk lines his side up and how the player himself settles. Probably a bit of a risky pick to start with but then again look at Michu.

[divider_1px]

[three_fourth padding=”0 20px 0 0″]

[/three_fourth]
Kieran Trippier
Tottenham Hotspur
Age: 24
Postion: Defender
Signed From: Burnley
Fee: £3.5M

The ex-Manchester City trainee (he’ll probably always be tagged this way) has found himself retaining a tag he’ll enjoy more, that of ‘Premier League footballer’. Pochettino has signed the right back who played more games for Burnley last year than any of his ex-clubmates. I don’t see him playing 41 matches this season. He is competing with England international Kyle Walker for a place in the team and each of them may find themselves in and out of the team especially with Europa League again on Spurs’ agenda. The Lilywhites’ other right back DeAndre Yedlin may be out of the equation as it is believed his employers are looking to loan the American out to gain experience so Trippier would at worst be second choice. It may well be worth watching to see who starts the league match at Old Trafford as that should be a good indicator of greater trust and therefore favouritism from the manager.

[divider_1px]

[three_fourth padding=”0 20px 0 0″]

[/three_fourth]Pedro Obiang
West Ham United
Age: 23
Position: Midfielder
Signed From: Sampdoria
Fee: Undisclosed

Pedro Obiang is 23. He has a number Spanish youth caps. He started his career at Atletico Madrid. Has played just one game short of a century in Serie ‘A’ for Sampdoria. And he isn’t Angelo Ogbonna. OK so those of you confused by that last sentence are not then familiar with West Ham co-owner David Gold taking to twitter to welcome his new signing to the club and posting a picture of Juventus player Ogbonna instead. Yep, ‘suck-air-through-teeth’ embarrassing. Gold clearly paid little attention during negotiations – probably dreaming about how to fill the Olympic Stadium next year or if big Sam knows any wrong ‘uns. Although the player may have potential to do a fantastic job for the Hammers I’ll say the two words that’ll have you immediately scanning to the next featured player. ‘Defensive’ and ‘midfielder’. Obiang scored just four goals in 132 games all-told for Sampdoria so whatever his price in the fantasy game, I wouldn’t advise taking the Spaniard from the off and expecting great things.

[divider_1px]

[three_fourth padding=”0 20px 0 0″]

[/three_fourth]Dmitiri Payet
West Ham United
Age: 28
Position: Midfielder
Signed From: Marseille
Fee: £10M

Allegedly courted by Chelsea and Liverpool during his time at St Etienne in France, one of his four former Ligue 1 clubs and where he made most appearances, Dmitri Payet is an attacking midfielder noted for his quick movement, excellent dribbling skills and killer passes which have enabled him to assist with impressive regularity. Having spent all his career in Ligue 1, his statistics make very appealing reading. 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 2 and a quarter games. This past season at Marseille, who received a cool eight figure sum for the attacker, he created more chances than any other player in Europe’s big five leagues. Let that sink in. He created more chances than Messi (in fact he has for the past two seasons), Suarez, Ronaldo, Robben, Ribery, Hazard, Sanchez etc. Now if you consider that of course not all of these became assists, it still makes very encouraging reading that Payet does have an eye for a killer pass. For the record, he created 67 ‘big’ chances, 44 of which from open play. And in case you think he is a one-season wonder, then the season previously, again at Marseille, only Kevin de Bruyne of Wolfsburg created more – 109 to Payet’s 101. Payet has made 14 appearances for France scoring once against Belgium last month and has two international assists to his name, unsurprisingly.

[divider_1px]

[three_fourth padding=”0 20px 0 0″]

[/three_fourth]
James McClean
West Bromwich Albion
Age: 25
Position: Midfield
Signed From: Wigan Athletic
Fee: £1.5M

The Republic of Ireland international could have been two divisions away from the Premier League this coming season as his former employers Wigan slipped in to League One but Tony Pulis has thrown the left-sided midfielder a Premier League lifeline, making him his first signing of the summer. I don’t think McClean will feature in many fantasy sides from the start as there will be other midfielders in his price range who probably offer better attacking returns. However if he holds down a regular place and finds form then this could change. Previously in the Premier League you could class him as a scorer of decent goals rather than a decent scorer of goals. How he fits in with Chris Brunt on the left hand side may be a factor this term.

[divider_1px]

New Signings – Fantasy Premier League 2015/16. Ayew, Eder, Tripier, Obiang, Payet, McClean This article was written by The Gallant Pioneer

Follow @mitchellcraig81