We’re just days before the first Double Gameweek of the season and late developments in the transfer market
Amid the carnival of yellow ties, made-up sightings and besieged television reporters, this live blog rounded up the confirmed deals that could present Fantasy bosses with new targets or have a negative impact on existing assets.
You can revisit how deadline day unfolded in the article below.
The prices given in brackets are the players’ Fantasy Premier League cost, rather than their actual transfer fees.
UPDATES
00:35 – Crystal Palace have signed Michy Batshuayi on loan from Chelsea until the end of the season.
The Belgian forward spent the first half of 2018/19 on loan at Valencia, where he found the net on just one occasion in 15 La Liga appearances.
Batshuayi’s capture will likely have implications for Jordan Ayew (£5.7m) and push the likes of Christian Benteke (£6.3m) and Connor Wickham (£4.9m) further down the pecking order.
It could have positive ramifications for Wilfried Zaha (£6.7m), however, who scored his first goal since September in midweek and who has arguably missed having a physical foil up front to play off.
00:30 – Lazar Markovic has joined Fulham from Liverpool on a permanent deal.
The 24-year-old Serbian winger hasn’t featured for the Reds in the Premier League since 2014/15 and has had four loan spells away from the club since then, including a stint at Hull City two seasons ago.
Capable of playing anywhere across the front line, Markovic has played the bulk of his career on the right flank – which could further threaten Andre Schurrle‘s (£5.6m) ever-weakening hold on that position.
23:35 – Stefan Johansen (£5.0m) has left Fulham to join West Brom on loan for the rest of 2018/19.
23:00 – Newcastle United winger Jacob Murphy (£4.7m) has joined West Bromwich Albion on loan until the end of the season.
22:10 – Håvard Nordtveit has joined Fulham on loan from TSG 1899 Hoffenheim for the rest of the season.
The former West Ham United utility player and one-time Arsenal prospect is capable of playing at centre-back and in central midfield.
Nordtveidt made 11 Premier League starts and five substitute appearances for the Hammers in his one season with the club in 2016/17 and was listed as a midfielder in FPL.
The Norwegian’s sum attacking contribution in those 16 matches was one assist.
20:15 – Monaco’s Youri Tielemans has joined Leicester City on loan for the rest of the season, with Adrien Silva (£4.7m) moving in the opposite direction until the end of the current campaign.
A central midfielder, Tielemans has been capped 14 times by Belgium and featured at the 2018 World Cup.
Tielemans has scored five goals in 20 Ligue I appearances this season, though he would seem to be more a threat to the likes of Wilfred Ndidi (£4.9m), Hamza Choudhury (£4.3m) and Nampalys Mendy (£4.5m) than James Maddison (£6.7m).
The player himself said:
I think it’s [box-to-box] my best position but I can play in every position in midfield. Whenever the coach needs me, I can play in no.6, no.8 or no.10 but it’s true that I’m mostly a box-to-box player.
I like to attack. I think as a midfielder it’s really dangerous when you have a midfielder coming from the second line and trying to shoot or get into the box. It’s always difficult to defend and I try to add this to me game. I think it will help the team.
19:45 – Watford’s Ben Wilmot (£4.0m) has joined Udinese on loan for the rest of the season.
The central defender/midfielder played the final 24 minutes of the Hornets’ 2-1 defeat to Spurs on Wednesday.
19:35 – Fantasy Premier League have added several of today’s new signings to the game already.
They are:
Goalkeepers
Perri – Crystal Palace – (£4.0m)
Defenders
Barreca – Newcastle United – (£4.5m)
Bacuna – Cardiff City – (£4.5m)
Midfielders
Almirón – Newcastle United – (£6.0m)
Suarez – Arsenal – (£6.5m)
Forwards
Grant – Huddersfield Town – (£5.0m)
19:10 – Peter Crouch has signed for Burnley on a short-term deal until the end of the season.
The 38-year-old striker will provide back-up for first-team forwards Chris Wood (£6.2m) and Ashley Barnes (£5.6m), who have started all of Burnley’s last five Premier League matches.
Sam Vokes (£5.3m) has moved in the opposite direction, signing for Stoke City on a permanent deal.
Speaking in his weekly press conference, Sean Dyche said of Crouch:
There’s no issue about his fitness and I think he has an intention and a desire to still make a mark in football.
We know what a good character he is and he still has that edge. We know he’s an effective footballer and he has a hunger to come here and make a mark.
Regarding Crouch’s potential availability for Gameweek 25, Dyche said:
We’ll see. I know he’s been active recently so therefore he’s fit and well enough. We’ll give him a chance to come in later today once everything’s sorted and join in [training] tomorrow.
18:40 – Brighton and Hove Albion have signed Romanian midfielder Tudor-Cristian Baluta from FC Viitorul Constanta and Slovenian striker Jan Mlakar from NK Maribor.
Both players have returned to their former clubs on loan for the rest of 2018/19.
18:30 – Some loan signings to bring you from the last hour – none of which will likely affect Fantasy managers.
Emile Smith Rowe (£4.5m) has left Arsenal to join RB Leipzig, Reece Oxford (£4.2m) has joined Augsburg from West Ham and Everton’s Cuco Martina is bound for Feyenoord after cutting short his loan spell at Stoke City.
17:05 – Wolves’ back-up striker Leo Bonatini (£4.6m) has joined Nottingham Forest on loan for the rest of the season.
16:35 – Leandro Bacuna (£4.5m) has joined Cardiff City from Reading on a permanent deal for an undisclosed fee.
Bacuna has previous Premier League experience with Aston Villa, having scored five goals in his first season in the English top flight in 2013/14.
A central midfielder by trade, Bacuna is also capable of filling in at right-back – which could threaten budget defender Lee Peltier’s (£3.9m) starts.
16:10 – Fulham’s Aboubakar Kamara (£4.5m) has joined Turkish side Yeni Malatyaspor on loan until the end of the season, subject to international clearance.
The forward, still owned by almost 10% of FPL managers, had been suspended by the Cottagers for disciplinary reasons.
15:00 – Spurs midfielder Georges-Kevin Nkoudou (£4.8m) has joined Monaco on loan until the end of the season.
14:35 – Newcastle United have announced the signing of attacking midfielder Miguel Almirón (£6.0m) from Atlanta United.
The 24-year-old Paraguay international has signed a five-and-a-half-year deal for an undisclosed fee.
Almiron scored 13 goals and registered 13 assists to help Atlanta win the 2018 MLS Cup.
Rafael Benítez said:
We were following Miguel Almirón for a while, and we saw a player with some pace in attack, who can play behind the striker. We have someone who can score goals and give assists.
His impact in MLS has been really good – he’s been one of the best players this year – and hopefully he can give us more competition and more quality in the final third.
Almirón’s capture could have ramifications for Ayoze Perez (£6.1m) or Christian Atsu (£5.1m), who have been used as the support for Salomon Rondon (£5.7m) in recent weeks.
14:30 – Bournemouth defender Tyrone Mings (£4.2m) has completed a loan move to Aston Villa until the end of the season.
13:25 – Anthony Martial (£7.3m) has signed a new contract that will keep him at Manchester United until June 2024.
13:05 – Newcastle United have confirmed the capture of Antonio Barreca (£4.5m). The 23-year-old Monaco defender has joined on loan until the end of the 2018/19 season, with the Magpies having an option to buy at that point.
Barreca is ostensibly a left-back, an area Newcastle
Matt Ritchie (£5.8m) has been used as a left wing-back of late in Rafael Benitez’s now-preferred 3-4-2-1.
The Newcastle manager said of his latest capture:
The left-back/left-wing-back position is one we’ve been looking to strengthen for a while and he’s an Italy under-21 international who we know has quality, good delivery and is good going forward.
He has the attributes, he has the quality and he has the characteristics that we look for. Now we must see how quickly he can adapt but we will try to help him and if he can give us more competition in this area, and more quality in the final third with his deliveries, the only thing I can see is a positive.
12:15 – Arsenal
The Spain international heads to the Emirates for the remainder of the season and will link up again with Unai Emery, who he played under at Seville.
Emery said:
We are very happy that Denis Suarez is joining us. He is a player we know well and I have worked with him at Sevilla. He brings us quality and options in many different attacking positions, so he’ll be able to help the team.
Suarez’s versatility was mentioned by Emery in the above comments, with the 25-year-old Spaniard having mostly been used on either the left wing or in a more central attacking midfield position.
Suarez made 31 league appearances for Seville under Emery in 2014/15, with 15 of those coming off the bench. Arsenal’s latest recruit ended that season with two goals and four assists.
10:15 – Wolves have signed Jonny (£4.3m) on a permanent transfer after the defender’s successful loan spell. The budget FPL defender has signed a contract that runs until 2023.
Jonny has one goal and one assist to his name this season and has featured in every Premier League game in which he has been fit for selection.
10:00 – Already this month we have seen Bournemouth snap up Dominic Solanke (£4.7m) and Chris Mepham (£4.5m), both of whom made the bench in the 4-0 win over Chelsea last night.
Nathaniel Clyne (£4.4m) also joined the Cherries from Liverpool on loan.
The Blues, of course, signed Gonzalo Higuaín (£9.5m) on a temporary deal last week.
Ryan Babel (£5.5m) was acquired by Fulham for an undisclosed fee from Besiktas, while Oumar Niasse (£5.0m) and Jason Puncheon (£4.2m) joined Cardiff City and Huddersfield Town respectively on loan deals.
