FPL is back! Some early thoughts on the prices
Stay for the best half time rant of all time
Cancel the summer holiday. Pause the social life. Tell work you’re busy. FPL is back (yes already) and that means FPL Is Life is also back, too. Hi! What even happened last season? There was something about Arsenal, and then Man City won everything. Like Jack Grealish, that’s about as much as I remember. Time to go again.
This first newsletter is a bit of a bonus, just picking out a few interesting things from the launch of the game. Next week, I’ll do an update on my Ten Tips for the season and then we’ll start proper. The prices look cheap overall, but that doesn’t necessarily make it any easier… Please share and subscribe to help me out!
Formation advice? Summer holiday tips? Email me: fplislife@substack.com
Halaand is rightly £14m but it won’t matter
Anything less would’ve been a mistake, but even at the historically monster price of £14m (Ronaldo, Van Persie, Henry in their pomp hit these heights) the RoboBeast will be in most teams. Last I looked, he was already in north of 80% of teams. For the first few games at least, it looks like a game of 10 players.
The Arsenal prices are a mess
So overall, there aren’t too many mad prices, but the Arsenal prices seem a bit off. The biggest error is poor old Ben White, a bargain last season, who has now been priced out of the game for now at £5.5m. He’s more expensive than the surer starters Gabriel, who has decent goal threat, and Zinchenko, who gets forward - they’re both £5m. Both are too cheap. Saka feels ways too low at £8.5m and will be in loads of teams come kick off, especially as they start vs Forest. Martinelli has gone from too cheap to quite expensive at £8m (most will pay the extra for Saka, who has penalties). Odegaard is also £8.5m. That feels right, but Saka needed to be more to create a decision.
Chelsea - bargain or value trap?
Chelsea is interesting. Yes, they were a hot mess last year - and yes, there is loads of churn over the summer and we probably all need time to see who Pochettino starts with. But like any distressed asset, it’s tempting to think there are bargains to be had. But as any investor knows, sometimes things are cheap because they’re bad. The most obvious tempter here is Sterling at just £7m - he did little last season, but it’s a good price if he can get going. The newly arrived Nkunku is just £7.5. The wingbacks, so popular last season, are rightly priced at £5.5m, but the injury records of both Chilwell and James will make most wary. There’s a great Chelsea FPL preview blog if you click below:
FPL prices have been going down for a while…
A great piece of research here, showing prices have been declining overall for a few seasons. No surprise there - the Premier League use FPL to draw people in, so they want them to be able to buy more of their favourite players. They’re not thinking of weird obsessives like us who want to be forced to find a bargain in the Luton squad.
There’s a Salah debate (again)
There’s a lot of good midfielders at cheap prices - and that means there’s already a lot of talk on FPL Twitter about going without Mo Salah, the top FPL players for many seasons. In fact, it’s quite hard to find drafts out there with him in. He clocks in at £12.5m, which is fair - but going without is an option given the likes of Bruno (£8.5m), Mbeumo (£6.5m), Saka (£8.5m), Rashford (£9m) and Mitoma (£6.5m). Mo or no Mo, five in midfield could be the way this season, but things will change before kick off.
Botman is going to be very popular
For reasons only known to FPL Towers, they’ve decided to make Sven Botman, starting CB for Champions League-bound Newcastle, one of the early favourites among FPL Twitter. He’s priced at just £4.5m. For context, that’s the same as Nottingham Forest’s Steve Cook, who probably won’t start, as pointed out on this good YouTube vid examining the player prices.
This lot are already very popular picks
These lads are getting a huge amount of love already - Trent is looking very much part of the template even at £8m this year. The playing in midfield thing is hard to resist. Remember, knowing the popular players means knowing where you disagree and could possibly get an edge by being different. In FPL, knowledge is power.
Mbeumo: Toney or phoney?
You may have heard that Ivan Toney got in a bit of bother for betting on the odd football game. Well, 232 breaches of betting rules actually - earning an 8-month ban. So the clever clever FPL obsessives are looking at whether we should get in Mbeumo, priced at just £6.5m, who’ll be a midfielder playing out of position upfront (MIDs get an extra point for a goal). The question you have to ask yourself here is whether Brentford will be the same side without Toney. Mbeumo did have a great season last time out, but it’s not a given that he’ll be able to cover Big Ivan.
The best half time rant of all time
The other day, my boss called me into his office on an urgent matter. Knowing I was a lower league football fan, he said he had found himself in a cab driven by a colourful Londoner who claimed to be a former Leyton Orient manager. Anyway, it turned to be John Sitton, most famous for an amazing ‘90s documentary that included the most awesome half time rant (probably) ever caught on film. It contains swears. Lots of swears. You can see the whole thing here. Enjoy!
Please get in touch with any FPL dilemmas or general football internet gold. PS - I’m on Twitter here. Please help me grow FPL Is Life by sharing… thanks!