With Fantasy Premier League (FPL) live for 2024/25, we’re welcoming back our team of Hall of Famers and guest writers. Here, FPL General reveals his first draft, discusses player pricing and gives his opinion on the game’s major changes.

It feels so good to be back writing about FPL again! This is the most excited I’ve been about a new season for a long time. In my opinion, the game had started to become very boring, with everyone having the same players and making identical transfers and captaincy choices. The new format changes will go a long way to addressing those issues. 

For example, the ability to roll five free transfers adds another level of strategy. Most will want to collect five as quickly as possible but we all know how FPL works – we’ll be desperate to make a move as soon as someone we don’t own scores a Gameweek 1 hat-trick and looks set to immediately rise by £0.2m or £0.3m.

To reach the holy grail of five free transfers, you need a lot of luck with injuries and players delivering consistent points. Realistically, the majority of managers won’t ever get to five and I don’t think we should be striving to do so. Points can be missed out on by being too patient.

Even having three of them will offer a lot more flexibility compared to the previous one or two. So the key will be perfecting the balance between accumulating transfers and grabbing the right players at the right time. Don’t be too patient is my main advice. Get points on the board. 

PLAYER PRICING

What I like most about the game’s launch is player prices. They’ve pretty much nailed it, aside from one or two individuals that are slightly off.

We are now forced to decide which big hitters we want to back, rather than owning all of them. Erling Haaland (£15.0m) becoming the most expensive FPL player of all time is a very welcome move. He’s no longer an auto-pick and this is reflected in his current ownership percentage of 34%.

At present, only three players are in more than 50% of teams: Cole Palmer (£10.5m), Ollie Watkins (£9.0m) and Alexander Isak (£8.5m). We’re in for a great season ahead because of the pricing, so thank you FPL Towers! 

FPL GENERAL’S CURRENT DRAFT

One other piece of pre-season advice is to not over-tinker. I prefer to make just one or two drafts and then leave them alone until the final week before kick-off. Otherwise, you’ll have every player in your draft at some point, leading to frustration when they inevitably deliver in Gameweek 1. Limit the time you spend on the FPL website and app until we have all the information needed.  

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