Spoiling the party over at Middle-Eastlands, Fabian Delph turned his back on Man City to fight for the cause over at Aston Villa and become the latest young player to nestle under the comforting wing of Martin O’Neill.
Joining for an undisclosed fee (widely reported to be in the region of £6million with numerous add-ons), O’Neill has again snapped up one of the most promising English youngsters in the game. Alongside the likes of Downing, Ashley Young, Milner & Agbonlahor, Delph joins arguably the strongest contingent of young English players in the Premier League.
At only 19 years of age, the former Leeds midfielder has bags of talent; he is truly a diamond in the rough and one that O’Neill will be hoping can shine for many years to come. It’s fair to say that most of us fantasy managers will naturally shy away from such untried talent but, judging by Delph’s debut against Fiorentina, we may have to reconsider…
The versatile Delph was often employed at left back and left midfield for Leeds last season. In that respect he can be compared to a Gareth Barry – something which probably didn’t go amiss to a certain Mr. O’Neill. In the role of a marauding box to box midfielder there’s already evidence to suggest that Delph could fill the void left by Barry’s departure. Following a stand-out performance against Fiorentina on Saturday, O’Neill even indicated that he is “knocking on the door” for Villa’s first game of the season at home to Wigan. Such comments should certainly put those championing the merits of Steve Sidwell on alert.
In his first season proper for Leeds, the young lad from Bradford walked away with Football League player of the year and a spot in the League One team of the season, highly impressive for such a young debutante. Alongside his screamer against Brighton, Delph netted 5 more goals for a total of 6 in the season – he knows where the goal is then. A somewhat less appealing statistic is his 12 yellow cards in one league campaign, but hopefully that is something that can be attributed to his over-zealous spirit, which, at his tender age, is something which can be worked on.
His price tag across the fantasy games certainly adds to his appeal. With Villa surely still wanting to challenge for a place in Europe and maybe push on once more for that Champions League spot, someone so cheap could be perfect for us fantasy managers if he keeps up a place. How cheap you ask? Well on Fantasy Premier League he is priced at a mere £6.0m, on the Telegraph game he is mighty fine option at only £2.9m and at Fantasy League he comes in at a none too shabby £3.6m. Food for thought across the fantasy spectrum then.
Finally, time to enter some cut-and-paste territory. As with many players we’ve highlighted this pre-season, there is one big caveat that can’t go amiss despite all the potential on show. Villa are one of the eight sides to not have a fixture in gameweek 2, so along with a none too peachy fixture list beside, it would take a truly brave manager to select Delph from the get go. Looking on the plus side – that gives us time to assess just how Delph fits into O’Neill’s plans and perhaps get a measure of how his precocious talents will translate to the Premier League stage.