It’s that time of the year when we trawl through the Fantasy Premier League (FPL) price list – and now it’s the turn of the £4.0m defenders.
- READ MORE: FPL 2025/26: Best £4.5m budget forwards
- READ MORE: FPL 2025/26: Best £6.0m to £7.0m forwards
Before 2023/24, we were often scrabbling around for one or two £4.0m playing FPL defenders at best. A lot of the time, these budget gems – such as John Lundstram and Tino Livramento – only revealed themselves during pre-season.
But in the last two years, the games-makers made it much easier to find £4.0m options with strong chances of starts.
Most of them came from the three promoted clubs – and that’s exactly the case this time around.
Here, we take a look through all 79 (!) defenders currently listed at £4.0m and pick out the potential gems.
Click here if you want to bypass the research and jump straight to the summary…
£4.0M DEFENDERS: THE PROMOTED TEAMS
Over a third (28, to be exact) of those 79 defenders play for promoted Burnley, Leeds United or Sunderland.
BURNLEY
2024/25 LEAGUE APPEARANCES FOR BURNLEY
| Player | Starts (sub apps) | Goals | Assists | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maxime Esteve | 46 | 1 | 0 | Ever-present starter at centre-half in 2024/25. |
| Lucas Pires | 32 (2) | 0 | 2 | Started the season as first-choice left-back before Humphreys (below) took over, although returned to the XI when his positional rival had his campaign ended prematurely. |
| Bashir Humphreys | 20 (5) | 1 | 2 | In and out the side at first but pretty much established himself as first-choice left-back in November. A thigh injury curtailed his season in February. |
| Joe Worrall | 3 (6) | 0 | 1 | Back-up at centre-half who started three games early in 2024/25 before a broken foot sidelined him. Was only a substitute after returning in December. |
| Oliver Sonne | 0 (2) | 0 | 0 | Back-up right-back signed in January who never made it into the starting XI once. |
| Shurandy Sambo | 0 (1) | 0 | 0 | Even further down the pecking order at right-back despite only signing last summer. |
| Jordan Beyer | 0 (0) | 0 | 0 | Injured for the entirety of the campaign but back in training and has featured in pre-season. |
| Hannes Delcroix* | 0 (0) | 0 | 0 | Centre-half who was injured at the start of 2024/25 but who couldn’t break into the team even when fit. Was sent out on loan to Swansea. |
| Hjalmar Ekdal* | 0 (0) | 0 | 0 | Centre-half who was injured at the start of 2024/25 but who couldn’t break into the team even when fit. Was sent out on loan to Groningen. |
| Owen Dodgson* | 0 (0) | 0 | 0 | Left-back and academy product who never made it off the bench. Sent out on loan to Burton Albion. |
*went out on loan
Dodgson, we’ve got Owen Dodgson (£4.0m) here! See? Nobody cares.
Of the dozen Burnley defenders available at £4.0m, 10 were on the books last year. Another two, Axel Tuanzebe (£4.0m) and Quilindschy Hartman (£4.0m), have joined this summer.
Maxime Esteve (£4.0m) is the stand-out, or the safest, candidate at the moment. An ever-present starter last season, he was part of a defence that kept a record 30 clean sheets.
While attacking returns may be in short supply, he was just outside the Championship top 10 for clearances (230) last season. Remember that outfielders get extra points in 2025/26 for clearances, blocks, interceptions and tackles (CBIT).
He and his centre-half partner, the now-departed CJ Egan-Riley, had near-identical CBIT rates last year: 7.7 and 7.8 per game. Those were the best in Scott Parker’s squad.
And he’ll surely have more of those to complete in the Premier League, too, with the Clarets coming under the cosh.
We’ll need to assess Burnley more in pre-season before touting the others. Will Beyer be straight back in the team after so long out? Will Parker switch to a back three, with Bashir Humphreys (£4.0m), Kyle Walker (£4.5m) Beyer and/or Tuanzebe as centre-halves around Esteve?
Hartman is one to keep an eye on: he has some assist potential from left-back/wing-back and was once coveted by Chelsea.
LEEDS UNITED
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