Our latest Fantasy Premier League (FPL) transfer round-up looks at some more moves from the last fortnight.
The most significant players will be the subject of their own dedicated Scout Report but all the others will feature in regular round-ups over pre-season, continuing with this one.
You’ll find all the major deals on our dedicated Transfers page, while you can get a club-by-club guide to the key moves via our comprehensive Pre-Season tab.
Our sister website, Fantasy Football Community, also has a daily round-up of the latest transfer rumours.
LATEST FPL SCOUT REPORTS
- Fabio Vieira (Porto to Arsenal, £34.2m)
- Gavin Bazunu (Manchester City to Southampton, £12m)
- Darwin Nunez (Benfica to Liverpool, £64.4m)
You can find more articles on the likes of Erling Haaland and Ivan Perisic in our Scout Reports section.
FPL TRANSFER ROUND-UP
Julio Enciso (Libertad Asuncion to Brighton and Hove Albion, undisclosed)
The only striker featured in this piece is Julio Enciso, the teenage Paraguay international dubbed the next Roque Santa Cruz.
A quality forward is one of the few missing pieces in the Brighton jigsaw (apologies to Neal Maupay), with the Seagulls in the bottom four for shot-to-goal conversion rate in each of the last three seasons.
Whether Enciso is that man in the short term is doubtful, as Albion have a recent history of loaning out young South American imports (Alexis Mac Allister, Moises Caicedo) before they are introduced to the Premier League. That indeed seemed to be the suggestion from Brighton CEO Paul Barber in a recent Q&A with Albion fans.
“He’s a young guy who is moving away from his home country for the first time, so we will help him to adapt to new surroundings and settle here in Brighton and Hove.” – Graham Potter
Playing mostly as a second striker for Libertad Asuncion in his native Paraguay but able to operate on the flanks too, Enciso scored 12 goals in 14 starts in the 2022 season and banked a further three assists.
Nayef Aguerd (Rennes to West Ham United, £30m)
Aaron Cresswell and Vladimir Coufal have offered decent attacking threat and returns over the last two FPL seasons but that sometimes hasn’t been backed up with clean sheets at the other end.
Only four teams kept fewer shut-outs than West Ham (eight) in 2021/22, indeed.
New centre-back Nayef Aguerd might be the man to help improve the Hammers’ fortunes at the back, having joined from Rennes for £30m.
The left-footed stopper was part of a Rennes side that had the third-best defensive record in Ligue 1 over the two seasons he was at the French club.
Pacey and comfortable in possession, he was also second among defenders for aerial duels won in the French top flight in 2021/22.
That ability in the air also comes in handy at the other end and he has scored nine goals in 91 league appearances for Rennes and former club Dijon.
Aguerd averaged a goal attempt every 109 minutes last season, almost exactly the same as what the aerially strong Craig Dawson (111) managed.
View more attacking stats from FPL defenders here.
“I think he is a great signing. First, because he is a left-footer but he is not just a left foot – he has a really sweet left foot. He has that technical ability that is quite rare and then he is just tall and quick and reads the game well.
“He is also a threat on set pieces as he has scored goals this season offensively. We know how good West Ham are at set pieces so he will be another weapon in that armour on top of all of the others they already have.” – French football journalist Julien Laurens
Calvin Ramsay (Aberdeen to Liverpool, undisclosed)
The fresh-faced Sarah Solemani lookalike arrives at Anfield to give Trent Alexander-Arnold specialist back-up at right-back, something he hasn’t really had for some time given that occasional understudies James Milner and Joe Gomez have more commonly been used in central midfield and at centre-half respectively.
Still only 18 years old, Calvin Ramsay was snapped up by Liverpool after his breakthrough season at Aberdeen.
One goal and five assists arrived in 24 league appearances for the struggling Dons and it was the set-piece-taking Ramsay’s creativity that stood out.
The teenage right-back created an opportunity every 39 minutes in the Scottish Premiership in 2021/22, a figure not far short of what Alexander-Arnold (32) was delivering south of the border.
From the prolific chance creation to corner-taking, there are obvious parallels to be drawn with FPL’s most expensive defender.
“It must be surreal for Calvin right now, because Trent Alexander-Arnold is a big influence on him and the way he plays the game has been modelled on him. If you’re 17 years old and you come into a team and are immediately put on set-piece duties, then you must be good to elbow senior pros out of that equation. He is a serious weapon in that respect and that’s one of the reasons I’m confident he’ll do well at Liverpool.” – Liam McLeod, BBC Scotland’s senior football commentator
Expect cup appearances and the occasional cameo off the bench at first as he beds in on Merseyside.
Yves Bissouma (Brighton and Hove Albion to Tottenham Hotspur, £25m)
A semi-popular bench fodder option during his time at Brighton, Yves Bissouma will again be listed at £4.5m or £5.0m in 2021/22.
Just three goals and two assists have arrived during his four years on the south coast, with 27 yellow cards and one dismissal wiping out any points accrued from attacking returns.
Reliable appearance points have been his main selling point as a £4.5m asset but he’ll now be competing with Rodrigo Bentancur, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Oliver Skipp for two spots in the Spurs midfield, so it remains to be seen if he’s immediately installed as a first-choice pick by Antonio Conte as is expected.
Bissouma could still play a significant role in FPL, however. The Athletic, for instance, suggest that Bentancur could be unleashed more if and when Bissouma plays alongside him, with a deeper role not really suiting the former.
But of more interest to Fantasy managers will be how much more solid Bissouma makes the Spurs backline, which was already performing well under Conte with 13 clean sheets in 28 matches.
| Yves Bissouma in 2021/22 (rank v other midfielders with 10+ appearances) | |
| Clearances, blocks and interceptions (CBIs, per 90 mins) | 4.25 (4th) |
| Tackle success rate | 82.6% (2nd) |
Only Albert Sambi Lokonga had a better tackle success rate than Bissouma, while Wilfred Ndidi was one of the three midfielders to improve on Bissouma’s frequency of CBIs.
Bissouma’s rate of CBIs is perhaps all the more impressive given that Brighton had the fourth-best possession rate in the division, so had less off-the-ball work to do.
View more stats on FPL midfielders here.
Marc Roca (Bayern Munich to Leeds United, £10m)
The signing of Marc Roca from Bayern Munich could turn out to be quite the coup for Leeds United but even if the Spaniard does rediscover the form that saw him attract suitors while at Espanyol, he’s not going to be a big FPL asset.
A deep-lying midfielder described as a “Rodri-Busquets hybrid”, he’ll be used as a number six by Jesse Marsch either alongside Kalvin Phillips or instead of him if the England international moves on to pastures new.
Only three goals and four assists have arrived in 118 top-flight appearances in Spain and Germany, while there’ll be question marks over how quickly he can adapt to the physical demands of Leeds’ play having barely featured for Bayern Munich over the last two years.
Marquinhos (Sao Paolo to Arsenal, undisclosed)
A “player for the future” was how Arsenal’s technical director Edu described Marquinhos upon the teenager’s capture by the Gunners in June, so he’s unlikely to be troubling our FPL squads any time soon.
Preferring to operate on the right wing (where Bukayo Saka was typically stationed in the second half of 2021/22) but versatile enough to operate across the frontline, the 19-year-old attacker scored four goals and set up three others in 44 appearances for Sao Paulo in all competitions.
He’s been mostly peripheral under current head coach Rodrigo Ceni in Brazil, however, barely making the starting XI in 2022.
“He’s a Gabriel Martinelli, one for the future. They are not going to have to a pay a great deal for him.
“He announced himself late last year, about a year ago, he started in the Copa Libertadores away in Argentina against Racing, and he was magnificent. He reminded me a little bit of Douglas Costa, previously of Bayern Munich and Juventus. Squat little figure, left-footed, can play across the attacking line, looks very, very talented indeed.
“After that, he had some injuries, and the team wasn’t doing very well. Hernan Crespo, the former Chelsea player, lost his job at Sao Paulo, so he [Marquinhos] has since been a bit-part player for them.
“So Arsenal are buying this one, much more on promise, than reality. He is not a player that is going to solve Arsenal’s problems immediately, but for the long-term.” – Tim Vickery, South American football journalist
Armel Bella-Kotchap (Bochum to Southampton, £8.6m)
Ralph Hasenhuttl has solved his Kotchap problem with the capture of a young centre-back from Germany.
Armel Bella-Kotchap is a 20-year-old stopper who arrives from Bochum, where he made 66 appearances over the last four seasons. Only one of those campaigns was in the German top flight.
Saints defenders aren’t likely to be top of the shopping list given that they are near the bottom of our Season Ticker for the fixture difficulty in the opening month of 2021/22 and had the joint-worst defensive record in the Premier League in the final 11 Gameweeks of the season.
Bella-Kotchap doesn’t seem likely to compensate with many goals at the other end, either, having scored just once in his career. An average of a shot every 213 minutes or so across his time at Bochum underscores that lack of threat.
Ryan Fredericks (West Ham United to Bournemouth, free)
Bournemouth have begun their round of summer recruitment with the capture of Ryan Fredericks, who was released by West Ham at the end of the season.
Predominantly a right-back, he’ll provide competition for Adam Smith as the Cherries make their return to the top flight. He’ll also be reunited with Scott Parker, who he played under previously at Fulham.
READ MORE: Bournemouth’s defence assessed ahead of FPL return in 2022/23
Fredericks registered only two goals and four assists across his four seasons with the Hammers, although game-time was increasingly hard to come by.
2 years, 8 months agoAreola apparently on the verge of signing permanently for West Ham and if so looks like he could be taking over as first choice from Fabianski. Settled in last season playing cup competitions but now ready to step up. Could be a decent pick but maybe not straight away given the risk of him not starting and the first fixture. One to keep an eye on though? Especially if he comes in at 4.5m...