We’ve got a £4.0m goalkeeper who we hope will start in the medium term. The same with a £4.5m forward. Several £4.0m defenders will make their teams’ starting XIs in Gameweek 1.
But what about the last Fantasy Premier League (FPL) bargain bin: the £4.5m midfielders?
It’s slim pickings at the cheap end of the midfield scale but one or two names have emerged from the 65-strong group in pre-season.
We assess them all here.
£4.5M MIDFIELDERS – PRE-SEASON GAME-TIME
Thanks to our Pre-Season Minutes Tracker, we can look at the minutes racked up – or lack thereof – by the £4.5m midfielders.
As we did in yesterday’s £4.0m defenders piece, we have to insert a caveat here.
Line-up information wasn’t available for a small number of friendlies (ie those played behind closed doors and kept quiet by the clubs involved), so the true number for some of the names below may be slightly different.
All that said, here are the leading names for (known) pre-season game-time:
POTTS + KING THE STAND-OUTS?
In the words of Tyrion Lannister: “If you want nailed £4.5m starters, you’ve come to the wrong place”.
Two of the early hopes are Fulham’s Josh King (£4.5m) and West Ham United’s Freddie Potts (£4.5m).
Central midfielder Potts started the last three West Ham friendlies to suggest he may line up in the middle of the park in Gameweek 1.
Graham Potter has shown plenty of faith in youth over the years. He did so most recently with left-back Ollie Scarles (£4.5m) in 2024/25.
You do wonder how long Potts will stay in the side if there is a bad performance or two, however. Tomas Soucek (£6.0m), Edson Alvarez (£5.0m) and Guido Rodriguez (£5.0m) were all on the bench on Saturday and will have designs on a central midfield slot.
As for King, he started all three of the Fulham friendlies in which line-up information was available (there were at least three other warm-up games when it wasn’t). He has earned plaudits, too.
He even started alongside one of his positional rivals for the number 10 role, Emile Smith Rowe (£6.0m), in two of them. Smith Rowe was on the left.
King bagged two goals in pre-season, underscoring the extra attacking threat he’ll bring compared to Potts.
With Andreas Pereira (£5.5m), Alex Iwobi (£6.5m), Harry Wilson (£5.5m), Adama Traore (£5.5m) and Ryan Sessegnon (£5.5m) all competition in the attacking midfield positions (eg Sessesgnon, Iwobi or Traore could start out wide with Smith Rowe coming infield), there are of course no medium-term game-time guarantees.
THE REST
Lewis Miley (£4.5m) got more minutes than any other £4.5m midfielder this summer. With Sean Longstaff (£5.0m) gone and Joe Willock (£5.0m) sidelined, Miley is next in line in central midfield at Newcastle United should any of the three who usually start in the middle of the park pick up an injury. Expect reinforcements to arrive, however.
With Justin Kluivert (£7.0m) struggling with injury, there’s a chance we could see Bournemouth’s Hamed Traore (£4.5m) fill in in the number 10 role against Liverpool. Andoni Iraola split his squad across two friendlies at the weekend, so no clues there, but Traore did at least start two of the three matches in the Summer Series. Longer term, of course, Kluivert will return.
We’re down to the dregs already, so here’s a brief round-up of the 61 other £4.5m option:
| £4.0m midfielders | Club | Notes |
| Lokonga, Kabia | ARS | Way down the pecking order in central midfield and out wide respectively and didn’t feature at all in pre-season. Lokonga has been loaned out in each of the last three campaigns. |
| Broggio, Jimoh-Aloba, Dendoncker, Young | AVL | Three rookies and a senior, Dendoncker, who is surplus to requirements. Attacking midfielder Jimoh-Aloba got by far the most pre-season minutes of any of them and with Villa shorter on numbers than they were last season, he could even be on the bench in Gameweek 1. |
| Sadi, Silcott-Dewbury, Winterburn, Faivre | BOU | Winterburn and Faivre – who was loaned out last season – were bit-part players in the Summer Series, with the other two youngsters even more peripheral in pre-season. Given the current unavailability of Messrs Cook and Christie in central midfield, Winterburn could feature off the bench this weekend. |
| Donovan, Konak, Maghoma, Peart-Harris | BRE | Four young prospects, three of whom (all bar Maghoma) have been around the summer’s three first-team friendlies, albeit without starting any of them. Peart-Harris has actually been coming on up front, too. None of them got off the bench in the final warm-up game, however. |
| Knight, Mazilu, Moran | BHA | All of these are some way off first-team contention. Moran featured a fair bit in the warm-up games but, crucially, was with the reserve side when Fabian Hurzeler split his squad across two friendlies on the final weekend of pre-season. |
| Tresor, Banel, Adewumi, Ramsey | BUR | Ramsey is FPL’s most-owned £4.5m midfielder and is one to watch if he can work his way back into Scott Parker’s plans after a long spell out: he missed almost the entirety of last season with a knee injury. Tresor barely played at all in 2024/25 in mysterious circumstances (injury, illness, other?), while Banel didn’t play once in the league after signing in January. All three have featured in pre-season but none of them were involved in the final two first-team kickabouts of the summer, which looked very Gameweek 1-y in terms of personnel. |
| Santos, Essugo | CHE | Back-ups to Messrs Caicedo, Enzo, James and Lavia in central midfield. |
| Devenny, Agbinone, Ahamada, Rak-Sakyi, Franca, Rodney, Umeh | CRY | Franca (injured) and Rak-Sakyi (never been able to make the leap from promising youngster to first-teamer) may be the more attacking of this young lot but Devenny has the better game-time prospects. He featured off the bench in the Community Shield and will likely get minutes as a sub this season – he was brought on 19 times in 2024/25. |
| Heath, Ebere, Bates, Armstrong | EVE | Even with Everton’s thin (but slowly expanding) squad, Armstrong is the only one with any senior prospects. Even then, the arrival of Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall pushes him further down the list in midfield and a loan move could beckon. |
| Godo, Reed | FUL | Reed has fallen down the central midfield pecking order over the last year or two, while Godo is similarly down the list out wide. |
| Gyabi | LEE | Surplus to requirements and has been linked to Cardiff. |
| Bajcetic, McConnell, Nyoni | LIV | Young prospects with very little chance of starting a Premier League game. Nyoni got minutes at both centre-half and in central midfield in pre-season but is down the pecking order in both positions, while Bajcetic is working his way back from injury and potentially on his way out. |
| Collyer, Fitzgerald, Fletcher, Kone, Moorhouse | MUN | This young lot were pushed nearer the first-team squad towards the end of last season, when Ruben Amorim was protecting his big guns for Europe. Collyer is the closest to the senior set-up but is still well down the pecking order in central midfield. |
| Kuol | NEW | Has never made the grade since signing three years ago and has been loaned out twice. |
| Da Silva Moreira, Stamenic | NFO | Moreira made only two sub apps last season, while Stamenic was loaned out. There’s been a slow dribble of minutes in pre-season but nothing to suggest they’ll be threatening the starting XI. |
| Ba, Browne, H Jones, Ekwah, Matete, Triantis | SUN | Plenty of minutes for Jones, Browne and Triantis in pre-season, with Jones operating at left-back amid the injury crisis in defence – until Reinildo arrived. Ultimately, though, they’re second-string players, as shown by their involvement in the ‘reserve’ team when Regis Le Bris split his squad across two friendlies last weekend. |
| Olusesi | TOT | Young midfielder who barely featured in pre-season and who won’t be anywhere near a Spurs starting XI. |
| Earthy, Irving, Orford | WHU | Can Earthy emulate Potts and get a chance under Potter? The West Ham boss reportedly wants Earthy, who is currently injured, to stay around the first team squad this season, so that’s one to monitor. Irving is no rookie at 25 and made only one start in the whole of 2024/25, while Orford looks set to be loaned out. |
| Chirewa, Edozie, Gonzalez | WOL | Gonzalez is rehabbing from a long-term injury, while Edozie is some way from the first-team picture. Chirewa got two half-hour run-outs in pre-season and was an unused sub in the final friendly of the summer, so could be involved in the Gameweek 1 matchday squad. |
