Here’s a new feature and one I’ll be looking to introduce regularly to supplement the monthly picks. In a nutshell they are articles about players who have entered my radar and are likely to be new entries in those picks. In this first one, I assess the potential of West Brom’s new loan signing from Arsenal – Jay Simpson…
“I think it says a lot when our best player today was a 20-year-old boy on loan from Arsenal. He’s what we’ve been looking for this season, some real quality in the final third.”
Tony Mowbray had little doubt over the impact made by Jay Simpson on his debut for West Brom. Within minutes he’d demonstrated quick feet to skip past a couple of Villa defenders and whip in a cross on goal. That split second alone indicated that the midfielder-come-striker possessed the kind of direct attacking qualities that the Baggies had been lacking.
I’ve previously written at length about his background and potential and you can soak that up here. In fantasy terms, Simpson is of such interest because of his classification as a midfielder in many of the games. What’s more he is also a budget purchase – priced at just 5.0 in the Fantasy Premier League game. Despite this classification, there can be no doubt that Mowbray sees him as a solution to their problems up front and given that he has already ousted Bednar to the bench at Villa, he looks assured of starts in that role.
West Brom aren’t finding goals easy to come by of course, so the merits of considering one of their attackers needs careful consideration. The Baggies have scored just 7 goals in the last 8 Premier League games. Goals have been more frequent at the Hawthorns however, with 7 goals arriving in the last 5 home games. One glance at the fixture list reveals that West Brom now face 3 of the next 4 at home and, although one of those is against United, the other two see them face Boro and Newcastle. Those two opponents could allow Simpson the platform to get off the mark for his new club and bring in some returns.
It’s a gamble but not an intimidating one given his price. Even so, perhaps instant investment is unwise given that Simpson is still getting up to speed with first-term football. Simpson admits that he is yet to reach full fitness required to turn out week-in-week out in the Premier League…
“It’s a lot quicker than I am used to but I really enjoyed it,” he remarked after his debut at Vila.. “It’s good to get a run-out and a first 90 minutes under my belt for quite a while”.
Long term, there is another period where he could be prominent on the fantasy radar. Should Simpson settle and start producing, then gameweeks 29-33 appear to offer the best window for investment. In this spell, West Brom face 3 home games in 5 against kind opposition (BOL STK por mcy SUN). It’s likely to be a make or break spell and Simpson could well step up to offer fantasy managers a very decent budget midfield option.