I’m a liar. I’m a big, fat, smelly liar with an ugly face and a big butt and my butt smells and I like to kiss my own butt.
I lied when I said that I would roll my transfer this week. With the Gareth Bale scuttlebutt becoming headline news, the time came to deal with Dele Alli earlier than expected. Sure, I could have done a wait-and-see but I have no patience to find out the impact of this and I planned on moving him anyway.
Who came in? Who might come in next? Who shines as a glimmer of hope on a far away hill? Read on, dear reader, as readers are often wont to do.
Watchlist
Despite my poor Gameweek 1 returns, I still have confidence in my squad. That said, transfer strategy matters and mine will not be driven by past performance or the money chase.
Sure, Alli’s imminent drop helped me decide on a change, but there are other factors at work here. Between the 45-minute performance at Goodison, the Europa League snub and Gareth Bale’s return. I’ll gladly be called a hypocrite under those circumstances. This move just makes sense.
Gameweek 1 also revealed some value and interesting prospects at midfield. As I watched the games, I took note of some key players and threw them on the old Watchlist. The move is not a knee jerk if you already have targets in mind.
Right now, my Watchlist consists of 35 players who showed something in Gameweek 1. A big pool, but the names will drop off.
My hope is that the Watchlist serves as a baseline for a strategy projecting transfers out through the end of the year. When I bring in players, I want it based on form, fixtures and value, in that order, and not due to my whims.
More likely, this becomes a document of my terrible lack of knowledge.
Let’s take a look at my top five prospects based on their future appeal. If you want to be obviously smart about it, then you should probably use your transfer to swap in KDB, Bruno, Martial or Rashford. Or take a lark with me!
James Rodríguez
This is the exact type of move that feels knee jerk, trendy, flavor of the month, because really, isn’t that just the entire career of Hamez?
Quality player for certain, and he showed flashes of it against Spurs. There was an adjacent, threatening look about him all game, like a bully eyeing some dweeb’s lunch money who, in turn, is eyeing the money of some yet dweebier kid.
Given that I just said form is king when it comes to transfers, I can’t lean on that with James. Those fixtures, tho.
That’s primarily why he replaces Alli. A half a mil cheaper to boot, which gives me some flexibility with future transfers. Ultimately, this could blow up and he may be out with the wildcard, but I’ll give him the four weeks ‘til then to nab that lunch money.
Daniel Podence
As I weighed my options on the Alli swap, I only wish I had the guts to move to Podence. He ended Project Restart in good form and chipped in an assist in Gameweek 1.
Looks as though he’s nailed on a wing opposite of Neto, and I don’t think Nuno Espírito Santo likes to tinker. Now that they have been relieved of Cup and European duties, they’ll have full focus on the league, which could help them challenge for a top six finish again.
I see myself investing heavily in Wolves in the near future. In case you care, Marçal and obviously Raúl Jiménez are also targets.
Tariq Lamptey
Here’s a punt. After watching the Blues breeze by Brighton, I still remain interested in a couple Seagulls. Most notably, Lamptey looked as if he could.
My concern is that the marauding attacks were crimes of passion, that he was merely angling at the eye of team who jilted him.
I see him as a wildcard swap in, but he may also fall off the Watchlist faster than Adam Lallana jumps on the physio table. Oh, it’s unfortunate, folks!
Miguel Almirón
Not really interested in doubling up on the Newcastle attack. But if I didn’t have Wilson and I needed to save a million or two, I’d consider a representative from this midfield group.
Make me choose who will come out on top at the end of the season and I’ll go with Miguel Almirón. Part of the reason he wasn’t in my lineup is a belief in Wilson, but uncertainty of his spot in the starting XI.
That said, I think anyone of Saint-Maximin, Fraser or Almirón could be a worthwhile investment. Let time sort out who will be in Steve the Bruce’s favor.
My hope is a drop in ASM owners and a tick up in form makes him a cut-price pickup, but he also looks great on the field, just not as a FPL asset. I see Jeff Hendrick presumably being swooped up by newbies, which may keep the others from becoming overvalued too early.
Ainsley Maitland-Niles
Or Héctor Bellerín. While I’d prefer to give this spot to Reece Hamez, it’s still unclear to me what Gaffer Frank’s ideal backline looks like.
Meanwhile, in the Neverwhere of Gunnertown, Ainsley and Bellerín look to be the guys, assuming the transfers don’t blow that up. They might well.
However, exercise caution with Arsenal players. According to the Fixture Difficulty Ratings, they have the worst fixtures over the first 8 gameweeks. Also, Arsenal sucks.
Shitlist
In this section, I call out one player I expect to ship out in the next couple weeks. This week, that player is…
Rob Holding
I should be grateful for the points and, as of current writing, it looks as though he may live to play another gameweek it looks as though Rob Holding may shuffle out with the latest injury report. So much depends on that red wheelbarrow, David Luiz.
Next: Tears in my beers, it’s the Gameweek 2 results!