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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I see many people talking about Remy and Benteke, I think Benteke isn’t that bad a shout but Remy probably is. I personally wouldn’t risk those two til I see them scoring, Place are so woeful, you expect that to change over night? Someone like Defoe is such a better and safer bet. Cant believe people would pick them over Defoe for the sake of 0.6mil or whatever it is
Yes they have fixtures on their side but they aint even won in 24 league games or something, its shocking
Yeah personally I’m trying to avoid Palace they are on a really bad run. Fixtures ain’t that great considering its Palace.
Shame as well I dont know what Pardew did to Cabaye, when he first came to the league at Newcastle he was awesome now he is useless, and the only possible reason he could be in your team is for penalties. But wait he fcked the last one up and Benteke is taking them from now on. Cant believe that Deschamps was seriously playing Cabaye ahead of Payet until the euros LOL
Mid-Sto-Sun? For real Smash10? I know not all the teams have the United money too spend, but they should do okay.
What is really weird to me is that Lens never made it there, I rate dude. Less talented than Wijnaldum but a hard worker. If he’d be a regular from the start, I know he would be scoring loads of goals. Anyway, he seems on his way to Turkey. 😉
Yeah for Palace that’s my point. They have won only twice in 2016 I believe. So I’m not suddenly expecting them to win 2 away games. Plus Stoke are rarely easy to beat
Yeah baffles me how Lens did not get in the Sunderland team guy looks fairly decent
Many thanks for this Cookie, only just got a chance to read it properly now. You must be really really bored at work to be writing about these guys but thanks anyway 😉
Was just checking your team Init. But I guess you’re definitely not in in it to win it, this season.
Maybe you are taking this vacation thing a little bit too seriously? 😛
At least he don’t have to worry about Gray and Lamela I guess
It’s not a bad side though
Haha, yeah whatever Raz!
Is that a 6 figure rank I see in your history there? 😉
Yeah, was the only season I had 2 accounts running the game. And it sort of messed up everything, I was experimenting with both, too much. Plus I was in a lot of H2H leagues, which messed my game up. We learn from past mistakes. But as you can see, the my spiral is going up. Yours however…
Oh you guys have good records, im such a noob in comparison my best rank was 96k or something, hopefully I can do better this season. I’m normally transfer crazy which has cost me alot in the past but this season I am trying to learn from my previous mistakes and stop with the hits. I think last few seasons I cost myself over 100 points in hits :/
I do play this game with my mini league mainly in mind though and haven’t really payed attention to the bigger picture, thats probably my downfall. I have side bets with people in my mini leagues so that has always been overwhelming factor but this season I want a good rank overall
I was only messing Luke, and so was Raz, relax!
I know, but you still have good ranks fair play
@Luke
My best season ever I had a huge number of hits
Nothing wrong with hits if they earn more than they cost
Think of them as a cost of purchase against an unsure asset. A bet against odds that you calculate yourself.
I like hits!
(Others disagree!)
Hey James, yea I think I took it to the extreme I remember one point I was taking KDB out and putting him back in on a weekly basis, I must have lost the plot lol
As you said I do think hits can work out, if managed well
Yeah. We’ve all been there with the in/out transfers of a single player. It’s a challenging game.
Sometimes you’re the screwdriver, other times you get scr… You get the picture.
I agree with both, I think. What always needs to come in to consideration about hits is the potential score of the player being transferred out. Often we tend to look only at the player’s coming in potential and normally it does pay back or at least evens things for the coming weeks, but, and this is a big but, you also need to look at the points tally the ditched player acrued that gw. Only then you can say a hit did compensate. And more often that not it won’t if the said player is an important one and features in that gw. That’s all boring though, no hits, no love.
I thought you had edited it?!!
Tried to, fell asleep….
Cheers cookie – nice cover of these 3. I wonder if there could be an emoji with zaza!! That would be awesome!!
As for their FPL potential, wait and see, of course.
Cheers DMC, defo a wait and see! At best, but you never know! Might have to buy Zaza if there were an emoji!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=z3C_2AzebvQ
Evening lads and site team. My first post of the new season. I have had some family worries so haven’t had the time to say hello. Hope everyone’s good and starting the new season well. So like everyone aguero with his ban is not good. I also have stones and wolscield maybes but sure they will be fine. Anyway just wondered for some team advice. Don’t want to wc early but as usual the players start performing and you want to change your team. Not happy with Townsend and stuani. 3.3itb
Hi jumpers – hope all is well or at least better mate.
Not sure why you are saving those 3.3 and I can surely see places where you could use them to improve your squad, like upgrading at least one of the 4.0 defenders you have there.
Stuani could work as a 3rd striker but that’s only if you have other cheapos to rotate him with when needed, which you don’t seem to, imo.
Anyway, looking only at the aguero situation and your unwilingness to WC, I would recommend at least Aguero and Townsend out for Sanchez and let’s say Defoe in! That would leave you an extra 1.5 to add to your 3.3 meaning you can easily generaly upgrade your squad while leaving enough quid to get Kun back when you feel you should.
Agree with DMC, hey I have 4.4 mil sat in my bank account
luke – don’t do a wenger mate. Splash that dosh around!
LOL
Thanks dmc hoping things will turn around with the family stuff. Anyway I had musa in but decided last week to downgrade to stuani after his 2 goals hoping I had jumped early on a cheapy so I can upgrade some midfield. Then I changed firmino to Barkley so that’s why I have the funds in the bank. I’m not against the wildcard but I think ideally no one wants to use it this early but I’m leaning more towards it now. Are you wc dmc? How are you getting on?
jumpers – with 62, 68 and 41 I would like to think I’m doing well, but then I look at my #284k rank and can’t help to think I should be better. But, hey, that’s all about Ibra+Kun’s points tally in those 2 initial gw’s so it’s understandable given that most have them both and several also have people like foster and mcauley who have excelled in the first GW’s. Anyway, it’s very early days and a good gw get’s you a long way up top at this point. Not worried about overall rank at this point really.
What I’m worried about is that I actually have 2/3 players underperforming such as Silva, Townsend and 2/3 others that would like to get in such as Williams and Sanchez. That, with the aguero and gray situations makes me feel an early WC strategy (that I have never endured in 9 seasons past) could be a good move here. Need to work out the get aguero back in plan.
On that note, he would be out for only 2 games but I see that the away game against swansea is previous to their 2nd Champions League clash so I’m not sure what to make of it. I think City are going all out to win it ahead of EPL this time around meaning he could be rested or early subbed. Food for thought here.
How about you mate, if you were WCing how would be your priorities?
That’s a good start dmc. I think I’ve managed 68-56-and a lowsey 44 this week with cap aguero blanking. Like yourself Townsend hasn’t lived up to his hype when he was at Newcastle. Firmino hit and miss so shipped him out for Barkley due to Liverpool fixtures and Everton’s fixtures plus Barkley seems on it at the moment. Because I’ve gone top heavy I have let my defense suffer but I could accept that for now. But I know you need players playin no matter what so will be looking to change them.
Well if I was to wildcard I would go for ozil coutinho to replaced Townsend and Barkley and if I could afford it sterling in there but that’s a dream team literally. Might have to miss 1 of them and keep redmond. 3rd striker is a toughie. As much as I love ibra. If rashford starts playing I would happily swap him in and use that cash elsewhere. Rashford is quality and I just think he will score if he’s played with his pace and ability. Aguero out for costa maybe as temp fix. So yer I’ll wait until tomorrow to see transfers and see if I can find a Jem or 2 and debate the wc. Just worried this year about making the rights moves at the right time for player prices. Townsend gone down already I hear so I’m loosing alread. God help us it’s starting again the headache
Townsend hasn’t gone down. Yet.
Hey jumpers, good to see you on the boards and hope you are ok and that the family stuff works itself out.
Don’t think you need a WC just yet. Especially not with that bank to play with.
Hi init and thanks a lot. Good to be back I’ve missed it so much. Really looking forward to this season. Unfortunately failed to win my mini league last season I was so intent on winning but got 2nd and only 8 points away. Just whatever I did he kept churning the points. Ah well here we go again and feeling positive this season. Yep with the money in the bank at the moment I have options so will get back to you guys for advice. I usually like to wait until near the end of internationals for injuries but i worry for player rise and drops. How are you my friend and how have you got on so far?
Hi jumpers, sorry I off to bed when you posted the reply and saw it this morning. All good here thank you. Indifferent start and now I’m unsure which way to go. WC now or wait. Tempted on the former right now. I’ll see what the Aguero outcome is and then make a decision. Hope to see you around anyway mate.
Out of curiosity, when Vardy was racial abusing people did the FA act on that? I guess maybe its similar to what Gray has done, whatever punishment they dished him is probably going to be similar to what Gray gets. Or maybe the FA did nothing? Cant remember
He got a fine as I remember. Terry got 4 games but that was because it was within a game, as such. Not sure where Gray sits on that scale. Probably somewhere in between. Usually I wouldn’t be bothered as I don’t own him but given that Raz does I’m rooting for a ban
LOL
Ah ok, well I just plucked this from wiki “Gray has a four-inch scar on his left cheek having been stabbed in the face in Wolverhampton in a gang-related incident in 2011. He spoke in May 2015 of having started to grow out of the gang lifestyle around the time of the incident and credited his mother, close friends and Luton Town for turning his life around.
On 23 August 2016, Gray was charged with misconduct by the FA after a series of homophobic tweets he posted on Twitter in 2012 came to light. Four days later, it was reported that the FA were also investigating another tweet posted by Gray in 2014 which included a derogatory racial term.”
So there is another incident from 2014 as well.. I just added the scar bit because I was curious
Evening all
Jumped the gun today (i know it’s rare)
Kun for Tekkers and Redmond for Sanchez
Lamela can always get benched if worst happens and I’ll save 2 ft’s to swap Kun back in (pfft – 2 ft’s – what’s that like?)
Mad – Reasonable enough, bar the fact that we are two weeks away and two internationals will be played meanwhile.