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Time for some transfer business?

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20th Sep 2013
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The closing of football’s transfer window presents an opportunity to spruce up your early season line-up, says AccountingWEB’s fantasy pundit John Stokdyk.

The intervention of World Cup qualifiers and the first European matches into the Premier League schedule have given fantasy players a few extra opportunities to assess to potential of previously unknown players who joined the league at the beginning of the month, or old favourites such as Marouanne Felaini and Peter Odemwinge, who have moved to new teams.

In his Everton heyday, Felaini offered great value to fantasy managers, particularly when he played as an out-and-out attacker in spite of being classified as a midfielder. He has not looked out of place in his first couple of outings for United, but with Robin van Persie, Wayne Rooney, Danny Welbeck and “Chicharito” Hernandez in the squad, there’s less need for an emergency striker. So Felaini has few opportunities to pick up fantasy points in his appointed role as a defensive midfielder. And having been stuck with an £8.5m price tag, any points he does pick up will come at too high a price.

At Arsenhal, Arsene Wenger threw off his habit of financial prudence to sign Mesut Ozil from Real Madrid. Ozil definitely looks like he’ll bring a more attacking spark to the team, but at £10m, he too, does not represent much of a fantasy league bargain.

North London rivals Tottenham looked to have picked up a gem in Christian Eriksen, an attacking midfielder from Ajax who provided an assist in his first Premier League game last week and followed that up with a goal against Tromso in the Europa Cup on Thursday night. He’s still pricey at £8m but may be worth a punt if you’re the kind of player who likes to bet on obscure long-shorts.

Which brings us to Odemwinge, who was vilified when he was turned away from the QPR gates on deadline night in January. He finally got his move away from West Brom this month. With a £5.7m price on his head, the handicappers aren’t expecting much , but Cardiff have already drawn with Everton and beaten Manchester City, so he may get an opportunity to shine.

According to my self-imposed rules, I’m sticking with players who have good statistical histories rather than playing hunches about new arrivals. So one bit of deadline day business that brought a cheer to my heart was the loan move of Romelu Lukaku from Chelsea to Everton. He was of my early season selections at Chelsea, but couldn’t get a game. After leaving him on the bench for the past few weeks, he should be good for a few more goals now and is carrying my hopes for points this weekend at West Ham.

Who are your transfer deadline tips - and can they boost the performance of your teams by lifting the players around them?

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Replies (5)

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By User deleted
20th Sep 2013 22:08

OK ...

... boots have been thrown, cools have been lost, duffers have been packed off, new faces have arrived, wildcard has been worn thin from use and backsides have been well and truly kicked, hopefully the rebuilt side will start performing else I'm going to start a fantasy rugby league, well a union league, not a league league - Ah, just waiting for when Saturday comes and the seagulls start following the trawler ...

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Man of Kent
By Kent accountant
20th Sep 2013 22:05

Sounds like

...you had too many Chelsea players :(

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By User deleted
23rd Sep 2013 09:25

Damn you City ...

... thought I would rest Hart as my substitute keeper had an "easier" match - how wrong was I ...

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John Stokdyk, AccountingWEB head of insight
By John Stokdyk
23rd Sep 2013 12:17

Remember your wild card!

If you're really cheesed off with your squad, the Fantasy Premier League boffins have built in a twice-a-season escape hatch in the shape of the wildcard.

It allows you to overhaul your entire squad in one week, without incurring any penalty points. You can use a wild card early in the season, and they offer another one after 21 Jan. You can click the button in the black bar at the top of the Transfer page to activate it if you're making more than 1 transfer in the week.

For the moment, I'm sticking to a process of gradual improvement, but it's not keeping me in very close contention with the early leaders just now. And don't despair OGA, that stupid free kick they let Rooney get late on Sunday means that Hart's points tally (2) isn't that great this week.

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By rob.little
25th Sep 2013 16:18

John,

intrigued to know how current the information you feed into your system is?

Presumably your 'value-meter' is off the scale when you look at players like Ramsey or Coleman? And does it discourage you from spending all your cash, or have you managed to use the full £100m?

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