It’s time to begin our trawl of the Fantasy Premier League (FPL) price list – and we start with the £4.0m defenders.
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 three 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 46 defenders currently listed at £4.0m and pick out the potential gems.
£4.0M DEFENDERS: THE PROMOTED TEAMS
Over half (26, to be exact) of those 46 defenders play for promoted Coventry City, Hull City and Ipswich Town.
COVENTRY CITY
2025/26 LEAGUE STATS FOR COVENTRY
| Player | Starts (sub apps) | Goals | Assists | DefCons per 90 mins | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Milan van Ewijk | 43 (1) | 0 | 8 | 6.42 | First-choice right-back in the second tier. His only two absences were enforced, while his one benching came on the final day when promotion was already assured. Created 46 chances, 11 of which came from his long throws. Joint-second among Championship defenders for assists (eight). |
| Jay Dasilva | 41 (1) | 0 | 3 | 5.12 | A regular at left-back, again only missing out on the final day when rotation ensued. He sat out three other matches after a red card. Actually pipped van Ewijk for chances created (48) despite registering five fewer assists. |
| Liam Kitching | 37 (1) | 2 | 0 | 8.90 | A mainstay at centre-half for much of the season but did drop to the bench in January after a run of matches without a clean sheet. Nevertheless, Frank Lampard insisted he was one half of the “best [centre-half] partnership in the league” and he regained his place six matches later. Had more shots (46) than any other Coventry defender, 41 of which were from set plays. |
| Bobby Thomas | 33 | 3 | 4 | 8.56 | The other half of Lampard’s vaunted centre-back duo. He too dropped to the bench in January but reclaimed his place much quicker than Kitching, being reinstated the very next game. It was a stop-start campaign for the centre-half, who was linked with Brentford in December, thanks to recurring calf niggles and a nasty bout of illness. A goal threat at set plays, having scored three last season and five in 2024/25. Three of his four assists also came from dead-ball situations. Recorded 37 shots in total. |
| Joel Latibeaudiere | 15 | 0 | 1 | 7.98 | A knee injury forced him to miss the start of the season, and Coventry’s first-half centre-back partnership was established in the meantime. Featured more after Christmas, at times keeping Kitching out of the side and also deputising when Thomas was unavailable. |
| Luke Woolfenden | 11 (6) | 0 | 0 | 9.48 | An eye-catching DefCon hit rate but ended the season as fourth-choice centre-back and likely to be even further down the pecking order now. |
| Kaine Kesler-Hayden | 5 (17) | 2 | 1 | 8.60 | Back-up at right-back who featured a lot off the bench but kept out of the starting XI by van Ewijk. |
| Jake Bidwell | 3 (8) | 0 | 1 | 7.84 | Pretty much the same as Kesler-Hayden but on the opposite flank. A veteran at 33 who has spent 12 straight years in the Championship. |
| Miguel Brau | 1 (8) | 0 | 0 | 5.97 | Another left-back, signed last summer. A bit of a flop who struggled to make an impact, made just one league start, and then missed four months through injury. |
There is one more Coventry defender available at £4.0m: Aurele Amenda.
The Swiss centre-back has just signed from Eintracht Frankfurt, where he eventually became a regular starter towards the back end of 2025/26. He averaged 8.97 defensive contributions per 90 minutes – strikingly similar to Liam Kitching (£4.0m) – reaching the required 10-action threshold in seven of 18 starts.
It’s indeed assumed that Amenda will take Kitching’s place, but it’ll be worth paying attention to pre-season to be sure of that.
Bobby Thomas (£4.0m) is the big centre-half hope, given his additional goal threat. His Gameweek 1 appeal hinges on Coventry not signing yet another stopper, of course. While 8.56 contributions per 90 minutes isn’t stupendous, that’ll surely rise in the Premier League.
Just look at Maxime Esteve: 7.90 in the 2024/25 Championship, 10.26 in the 2025/26 Premier League.
Milan van Ewijk (£4.0m) looks like he could be this season’s Gabriel Gudmundsson of the £4.0m picks. No real DefCon potential but a decent chance of some assists from full-back.
Coventry have been linked with left-backs this summer, so Jay Dasilva (£4.0m) is perhaps best avoided.
HULL CITY
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