Established Premier League centre-back Issa Diop has joined Ipswich Town from Fulham for £8.5m.
He’ll cost you less than half of that in Fantasy Premier League (FPL) in 2026/27, however – just £4.0m, in fact.
Diop has spent the last eight seasons in England, racking up 173 top-flight matches for West Ham United and Fulham.
The Moroccan international swapped east London for west in 2022. Injuries disrupted his 2023/24 campaign and then, due to Joachim Andersen (£5.0m) and Calvin Bassey‘s (£4.5m) partnership, he’s only been able to start nine league games since March 2025.
Still, Diop recently scored in Gameweek 38, before netting in the World Cup. He only made himself available for Morocco in March, but started five times in the tournament, heading home a dramatic equaliser that forced the Netherlands into extra-time and, ultimately, penalties.
ANY GOAL THREAT?
Strangely, for a 6ft 4in giant, Diop doesn’t score too often. He’s found the net on eight occasions over here, averaging one per season:
DEFCON POTENTIAL
We usually don’t expect too much from defenders from newly promoted clubs, at least in terms of clean sheets.
On the plus side, Ipswich were the Championship’s joint-second best at preventing goals (47) and outright second for expected goals conceded (xGC, 46.60). After a slow start of one clean sheet in 10, they shut out 15 of their final 32 opponents to settle on a shut-out total of 17.
Of course, the Premier League is a much tougher task. Burnley went from 30 second-tier clean sheets in 2024/25 to just four in 2025/26!
So, what’s Diop’s defensive contribution (DefCon) potential?
| Season | Team | DefCons per 90 mins |
|---|---|---|
| 2025/26 | Fulham | 6.72 |
| 2024/25 | Fulham | 7.34 |
| 2023/24 | Fulham | 9.12 |
| 2022/23 | Fulham | 7.40 |
| 2021/22 | West Ham | 6.67 |
| 2020/21 | West Ham | 7.89 |
| 2019/20 | West Ham | 8.41 |
| 2018/19 | West Ham | 9.79 |
There are some so-so averages in there, with his debut season representing a high. He hit the threshold in 57.6% of his starts then, which was among the top 10 FPL defenders.
Fulham were a front-foot team under Marco Silva (they averaged over 50% possession in each of the last three campaigns), so perhaps Diop will enjoy more defensive work in a newly promoted side.
Centre-halves playing for Gary O’Neil would have had some DefCon success in the past, particularly at Bournemouth, who were new to the Premier League in 2022/23. The Cherries had a second-worst 40.7% of possession that year.
BOURNEMOUTH CENTRE-HALVES’ DEFCON SUCCESS RATE UNDER O’NEIL IN 2022/23
WOLVES CENTRE-HALVES’ DEFCON SUCCESS RATE UNDER O’NEIL IN 2023/24
FIXTURES
As mentioned in our Fatawu piece, at least the Tractor Boys’ early fixtures are decent.
While there are some tests to avoid during the opening 10 Gameweeks, there are seven alright fixtures in that period. The colour-coded difficulty ratings below come from our Fixture Ticker:
WHOSE POSITION DOES DIOP TAKE?
What should boost his Fantasy Premier League (FPL) credentials, of course, is regular first-team football. Will he get it?
On the surface, Diop will tussle with fellow right-sided centre-half Dara O’Shea (£4.0m) for a spot. That’s problematic, as O’Shea was ever-present in 2025/26 – admittedly under a different boss – and is club captain.
However, might we see Ipswich go to a back five, with Diop and O’Shea alongside Jacob Greaves (£4.0m)? It’s one to watch in pre-season as Fantasy managers hunt for a stand-out £4.0m defender.
