New Signings – Fantasy Premier League 2016/17. Zaza, Boufal, Manquillo
The second of this week’s review of recent transfers might easily be renamed “The most pointless article of the season”. There is no Benteke to provide your 3rd striker solution, nor is there a Pereyra to get your juices flowing. Instead, we have West Ham’s new striker whose biggest claim to fame is to impersonate an English player in a penalty shootout while wearing an Italian shirt; there is an award winning African Frenchman who is injured but who still becomes Southampton’s record signing and last but very certainly least is the Sunderland defender who wasn’t even good enough to hack it in the Liverpool backline.
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Simone Zaza (West Ham – forward – FPL price 7.0mln)
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Losing Andy Carroll and Andre Ayew to injury so early in the season has at least given Slaven Bilic the opportunity to dip into the market to find a replacement while the window was still open and the Hammers have plumped for Italian striker Simone Zaza. If the name is not immediately obvious to you, then cast your minds back to the Euros and the penalty shoot-out between Italy and Germany – Zaza was the chap who made the bizarre run up only to miss his penalty. This was after he was brought on in the last seconds of extra-time to take a penalty in the shoot-out. So there is amusement from the start, which is always a positive. Zaza has found first team football hard to come by at Juve, making just five starts. He has represented Italy on 14 occasions scoring just the one goal and is described as quick, strong, versatile and hard-working, capable of playing both as a centre forward and off another player as a second striker. Time will tell if he can finally settle down and perform in a top division, but with the likes of Dimitri Payet and Manuel Lanzini around, there should be plenty of creation behind him. Zaza has joined the Hammers on a season long loan and the club has an option to buy him permanently in the summer.
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Sofiane Boufal (Southampton – midfielder – FPL price 7.0mln)
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Having got rid of Graziano Pelle and Sadio Mane, the Saints decided that the purchase of Nathan Redmond wasn’t enough and have paid a club record £16mln to bring 22 year-old Sofiane Boufal from Lille. Boufal can either play as an attacking midfielder or a winger and last season scored 11 goals and made 4 assists in 29 league appearances for the French side, which prompted his call up to the Moroccan national team in March of this year. He has actually scored with 7 of his last 8 shots (for Lille, obviously).
Don’t get too excited quite yet as Boufal is recuperating from a knee injury sustained in May and is not likely to be available for at least another month or so. However, Saints boss Claude Puel knows the French league inside out and must therefore see something special in the player who won Best African player in Ligue One.
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Javier Manquillo (Sunderland – defender – FPL price 4.5mln)
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Manquillo has joined Sunderland on a season-long loan from Athletico Madrid. The right back is known to us from his brief time at Liverpool (again on loan) where he started under Brendan Rodgers but quickly dropped out of the first team after ten appearances and was sent back to Madrid a year early. With the Black Cats in dire trouble having lost Big Sam, Moyesie has been busy in the transfer market and Manquillo will compete with Donald Love and Billy Jones for the right back slot and made his debut in the weekend draw at Southampton.
Frankly a Sunderland defender looks like a strange desire for any FPL manager now that Big Sam has departed and with Lamine Kone’s future at the club in doubt. However, if the club can keep Kone and shore up the defence then maybe the likes of Manquillo may become a possibility if he can make the right back position his own. However, our favoured Black Cat defender remains PVA due to his attacking returns.
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Thanks for reading New Signings – Fantasy Premier League 2016/17. Zaza, Boufal, Manquillo This article was written by Cookie
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Lukaku band wagon anyone?
Maybe, have to balance his fixtures with the fact that he hasn’t scored for 11 consecutive premier league games.
Hahaha good old Lukaku. We all put him in at least a season only to be disappointed. This could be my time……
Classic Lukaku ;). If Lamela isn’t banned I may keep him and bin Barkley instead for an Arsenal mid (and therefore get Lukaku for the fixtures).
Yeah I was thinking Lukaku. Which you can never be confident about.
no. already have barkley. enough from everton.
So the Kun out campaign begins!!
Right now I’m going to sell him but leave the money in the bank to bring him back in when he returns. Which option is better?
1. Mahrez, Townsend, Gray and Kun to Ozil, Stauni, 8.0 mil or less mid and Costa
2. Mahrez, Townsend, Gray and Kun to Ozil, Benteke, Costa and a 5.6 or less mid possibly Fer.
Could you squeeze Coutinho in if you did 1? If so I’d say 1.
I could do Stuani to Diomande instead and then I would have 8.4 to bring in Couthino.
I’m liking the look of Coutinho so far, should of had at least one against Spurs. Or you could get some Arsenal cover if you don’t already have some.
Sorry your bring Ozil in….. Forget that last bit….. It’s late here!
Yeah Cout should have scored plus fixtures are starting to ease now. haha it’s cool mate
Yeah I like the look of Coutinho so far. Hoping he drops because he has blanked last 2 weeks
Yeah I don’t really see him dropping but I’ve been wrong before on price drops
A) Sanchez & Defoe
or
B) Ozil & Lukaku?
B I’d say
1)
or
2)
then…..
sanchez and defoe.
if aguero does get a 3 game ban – will he be replaced with iheanacho or do you guys reckon sterling might take the striker spot?
It’s too hard to tell with a new manager if it was still Pellegrini I would say Ihenancho would start but with Pep I don’t know maybe Nolito will start up top.
Iheanacho i think might be wrong… Or Bony?
loic Remy worth a punt anyone?
If he moves from Chelsea then maybe but right now not a chance.
Matt,
he’s gone to Palace mate. Season loan i think….
Has that been confirmed?? I didn’t know that sorry
Yeah it’s confirmed. He looks a bit over weight though
Just seen he’s a Palace player on the FPL site and at only 6.4 now I’m interested in him I’d say both him and Tekkers will play together with Tek knockingg the ball down to him to finish.
Not sure how many minutes Remy will get with Benteke in the squad. Don’t think they will play together so the chances are they will share game time. Just my opinion though….
I’ve not heard anything but he’s showing up as a palace player on the site.
Palace can play 442 they did at weekend. Plus Remy has played out wide many times before. He ain’t gone to be back up. I do worry about his fitness though
i was thinking of selling Mahrez + Long and then buying Ozil + Remy