New Signings – Fantasy Premier League 2016/17. West Ham
What a difference a year makes! Roughly 12 months ago, some bozo on here was ribbing this lot to the max, predicting a rough season and possible relegation due to the appointment of “woeful” Slaven Bilic as head honcho in replacement of the ever sturdy Sam Allardyce. An unknown French dude was supposedly the key to Hammers success but this bozo just didn’t believe it. Who was this character, you ask? None of your goddamn business, that’s who. Now, moving swiftly on; West Ham have been quite busy in the current window, snapping up some very interesting players, 4 of which we’ll cover in this here article. Two youth prospects (Domingos Quina & Toni Martinez) aren’t really expected to break into what is fast becoming a stacked Hammers team but they are worth a mention nonetheless. Quina, a 16 year old Portuguese attacking midfielder, has been highly touted as one for the future and West Ham have done well to nip in and take him on board. Martinez, slightly older at 19, was snapped up from the Valencia youth and is again seen as one for the future. Like Quina, he’s not expected to get much if any game time this season but as fantasy managers we’d be doing ourselves a service to keep an eye on the progression of Martinez and Quina as we may well be punting on them in a season or two. With those two now out of the way, lets have a peek at the Hammers signings that are more relevant to the upcoming fantasy season, shall we?…
For West Ham’s pre-season games, line-ups and general musings here is their link on the Pre-season hub we have created West Ham Pre-season info
Håvard Nordtveit – Defensive Midfielder / Center Back (£5.0m) Classed as a mid in FPL
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Signed from German outfit Gladbach, this defensive minded Norweigan has seemingly been drafted in to help plug the holes in a Hammers defence that was pretty porous at times last season. Despite playing an attractive, attacking style of football and finishing a more than respectable 7th, West Ham ranked 8th from the top 10 in terms of goals conceded – shipping a hefty 51 times over the course of the season. A reduction of 10 or so goals may have resulted in a top 4 finish, what with there being just a four point gap between themselves and Manchester City. Considering this, it’s not surprising that Bilic went after a solid member of a rather impressive Gladbach team and we’d expect Nordveit to do a job for the Hammers. Looking at his attacking stats there’s not a whole lot to whet the appetite, fantasy wise. Nordveit spent a full six seasons at Gladbach but only managed to find the net on 13 occasions and contributed few assists, making him an unattractive pick for us fantasy folk. It’s worth noting that he has been classed as a midfielder in FPL. We all know the value of an out-of-position gem in the game we love / hate so much so had he been classed as a defender then those goal scoring stats wouldn’t look all that bad really; 4 last season and 3 the season before. Decent, but only if there were clean sheet points to go along with the odd goal, which there isn’t!
Fantasy Prospect; 4/10
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Gökhan Töre – Winger / Attacking Midfielder (£5.5m)
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Now, onto the attacking side of things and first up we’ve got a loanee drafted in from Turkish side, Besiktas, a club most of you will know from their appearances in the Champions League down the years. The Hammers have dished out £2.5mln to bring Töre in for the season with a view to making the deal permanent next summer for a further £7.5mln should he do the business. The Turkish international (26 caps, 0 goals) started out as a professional in Germany with Hamburg, making 24 appearances before moving on to the Russian league of all places to ply his trade for Rubin Kazan. That venture didn’t go all that well for Gökhan and he was soon out of there, signing for Be?ikta? in 2013. During his three seasons in Turkey, Töre saw plenty of game time, making 111 appearances in total and finding the net 19 times; far from a spectacular return we think you’ll agree. Add 28 assists to that tally and we’re starting to look decent but we’d have to think that Töre will need to up his game considerably if he is to be effective in the Premier League. At just 24 years of age there is certainly time for improvement and it will be interesting to see if he gets into the starting 11 from the off but one thing is for sure; West Ham have a few players that could easily force Töre to sit out most games unless he hits the ground running. One to keep an eye on for sure.
Fantasy Prospect; 6/10
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Manuel Lanzini – Attacking Midfielder (£6.5m)
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Here’s a name we should all know from last season as he was on loan at the Hammers, and has now been added to the permanent squad for the upcoming season. Lanzini started the season off rather quietly, appearing here and there and not really showing much of anything. That was, until playmaker Dimitri Payet was ruled out for a couple of months through injury. Young Manuel burst into life in the absence of Payet and proceeded to become a heavily fancied fantasy option, scoring and assisting regularly before he himself picked up an injury that kept him out for a while. It seemed that by the time Lanzini was available again, West Ham had switched up their formation and he took time to settle back in but an okay tally of 6 league goals from 25 appearances may be a sign of what is to come from the young Argentine. How this talent ended up playing in the UAE Arabian Gulf League is anyone’s guess but now that he is on board at West Ham we’d be foolish to overlook what will likely be a much cheaper alternative to Payet, although maybe not quite as productive, but we shall see. At just 23 Manuel Lanzini has a bright future ahead of him and once he can nail a starting spot we’d expect him to continue to do well. The main drawback is the fact he is off to the Olympics with Argentina so he may not be available for the season start. Keep an eye on that one.
Fantasy Prospect; 7/10
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Sofiane Feghouli – Winger / Attacking Midfielder (£5.5m)
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Last, but most certainly not least, a player who has been making waves for a number of seasons in La Liga for Valencia; Sofiane Feghouli has been and still is an excellent player and is currently West Ham’s most exciting summer signing by far. Four seasons at Grenoble was enough time for Los Murciélagos to realise his talents and snap him up, and there he has stayed, bar a brief loan spell at Almeria, steadily improving as the seasons go by. Deployed mainly as a wide player, although at times shifted to a central attacking role or even the odd time as a central midfielder, Feghouli has almost always done what was asked of him to a high level and we’re expecting him to continue improving in a more free flowing attacking West Ham team. Work rate is the first noticeable trait in Feghouli. The Algerian has no issues with helping out on the defensive side as well as providing a skillful outlet at the other end of the field. 31 goals in five seasons at Valencia, a club who are almost always chopping and changing due to financial issues, is a decent return, considering. Feghouli is a good creator also, ticking another box for us fantasy managers. At international level, Feghouli is second only to the mercurial Riyad Mahrez in terms of importance to the team and even that is debatable. 11 goals in 40 appearances for Algeria is an excellent return, we think you’ll agree. All in all there’s no real downside to this signing and once priced reasonably he could well be one of the gems of the upcoming FPL season. Of that there is no doubt, even less so if the Hammers manage to snag one of the top strikers they are currently trying to sign. Watch this space people, Sofiane is an excellent player and should suit the fast pace of EPL.
Fantasy Prospect; 8/10
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Fixture Tracker – the first 6 games
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Great write up NiN!! Going to try fit Payet in but will be all over Feghouli if he keeps that RW spot as he has for the last few friendlies and re-invest the 4m. Many thanks!
1st Shot, main considerations – 1st 4 weeks fixtures then expect to WC, OOPs,
Schlupp,Ayew,JRod – if they all come off it makes for a 2-3-5 / 2-4-4 main choice squad; with AOA 1-4-5 !
Otherwise switch one to Feghouli & upgrade Rhodes
My cheap 4th mid is Schlupp,my cheap 5th fwd is Rhodes
Swans only there for first two weeks really then expect to FT them
The price paid is only Kun,Miki, & Erik as big hitters.
Mad,Bad,or merely left field??
Tiger, there’s a few in there that we need to watch preseason to see if they are favoured by their managers – specifically Cuadrado, J-Rod and Rhodes, while Carroll is injured (quelle surprise) at the mo. I like Schlupp in there very much as long as he secures a start, eh is likely to be OOP.
You may be light on Chelsea attacking coverage if Cuadrado doesn’t feature under Conte.
Thanks for the article NIN, this is how we dig up the differential and budget gems to round out our squads! Much appreciated man.
Brilliant write up and I think you’ve convinced me to dump Tore for Fegh. Here’s hoping Fegh fires us all some solid returns!
Great article NIN! Cheers! Wonder if Feghouli in the course of the season can give better returns than Lanzini / Carrol FPL-wise…hmm.
Morning all,
It looks like things are hotting up on the transfer front, if press reports are to be believed…..
Liverpool have agreed a fee for Wijnaldum – what will that mean for the likes of Firmino, Coutinho and Mane – especially with no European rotation worries?
Joe Allen could go to Stoke – Jon Flanagan could go on loan to Boro or Burnley.
Man United appear to be close to closing the deal to bring Paul Pogba back to Old Trafford – if he arrives, is he a player you’d be interested in? What price would he be in FPL terms – 9mln?
Chelsea have placed bids for both Morata and Lukaku over the last few days – who would you prefer them to buy and would you consider either for your FPL team. Bear in mind, Lukaku is priced at 9mln.
Discuss……
i think Pogba would be in a holding role, not much fantasy prospect for me (if Mou will stick to 4-2-3-1).. i’d say 8mln
Glad Wij has left, won’t lose a minutes sleep over it. He only turned up for home games and was largely doing a good impression of an inanimate object away from St James. I do like him as a person though as he seemed like a nice kid. He’ll probably do well at Liverpool as he’ll be surrounded by better players than he was up here. I’m not bitter when i say i’m glad he’s gone, I just think that we need players who give their all week in week out in the championship and i don’t think he has the work ethic. I’m also pretty happy at the fee as thats a pretty good profit in just 12 months, hopefully we do put that back into players as we’re lacking creativity. In Rafa we trust!
Not sure how this will effect Liverpool, they have so many potential FPL picks in the middle of the park that rotation is a big concern. Think I’ll avoid them for now unless pre-season gives us a strong indication of who’ll be a permanent fixture!
I think Pogba will cost around 9-9.5 but I think in Mik and martial we have better fantasy options but we’re going to be getting into the same problems we’ll have with Liverpool in terms of who’ll actually start every week!
In regard to Chelsea I’m hoping Lukaku based on his price, that said Morata might be priced favourably and he’s probably not as frustrating as Lukaku!
All in all I think all these new signings could make for a very interesting first few weeks of FPL until a couple of cheap players become this years Mahrez and Vardy and we get a nice safe template team and look with Jealous eyes at those with the foresight to have these players from day 1!
Morning Cookie
Lukaku going and Costa staying would be awful for us fantasy managers as they would have three big strikers and two spaces for them.
I rather suspect these sudden bids mean they expect Costa to be going, despite what they said publicly the other day.
Could be Init.
Would you have Lukaku then? You would surely need to consider it with the level of service he should receive.
Long way to go before I have to make that decision GP!
Pfft.
You’re no fun . . . :smirk:
Can’t even afford a decent back line never mind accommodating him just yet. This is my core so far. The 4.0’s are just place holders, not looked at those yet.
Init
Have you looked at rotation of your GKs? I mean will you actually bench DDG on occasion? I have DDG.
The double Man Utd at the back is noted. I have Shaw watchlisted currently. I hope I’m wrong as it benefits us all but you may be struggling to get 3 x 4.0M defenders. Might need to up the budget at the back to get starters.
Love the City, United and Chelsea attacking coverage mate. :clap:
Had a brief look. I did fancy some WHU def for a couple of the opening fixtures and it rotated ok hence Adrian finding his way in there. I could and probably will just throw a 4.0 playing keeper at the situation and that allows a bit more flex in at least 2 of the defensive slots.
That spells jakupovic
Morning Cookie,Chelsea have bid for Lukaku ?? Mwahhaha.Don’t really get that one.He was awfull the back end of last season and not much better in the Euro’s ! Nice bit of business for Everton if they make a profit on him !
Only a rumour Brooky