Manchester United have continued their central midfield overhaul by signing Youri Tielemans from Aston Villa.
The 29-year-old midfielder costs the Red Devils a reported £35m.
The Belgian international joins United a day after Michael Carrick’s side signed Andrey Santos from Chelsea for around £48m.
Tielemans isn’t likely to appeal to Fantasy managers: last season brought zero goals and four assists from 21 starts and four substitute appearances. An expected goal involvement (xGI) of 4.50 suggests this was about par.
Never before has he exceeded 10 attacking returns in a single campaign – and he no longer has penalty-taking duties to count on.
However, his ability to break the lines with his (Carrick-esque!) passing should benefit other United attacking assets.
As for Andrey, it remains to be seen if United add any more central midfielders this summer or if he’ll be more of a regular starter than he was at Chelsea. Carrick already has Kobbie Mainoo to call upon, although Casemiro has now departed and Manuel Ugarte is surplus to requirements.
Andrey scored one goal and provided zero assists in 2025/26 – but of course, that’s not really his game. Could he instead do the Casemiro donkey work? In two of his four 90-minute run-outs last season, he banked defensive contribution (DefCon) points.
We’ll take a look at both players in more detail in our Moving Target series.
- READ MORE: FPL 2026/27 transfer news: Confirmed summer signings
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