How FPL managers have been using their transfers

Bruno Fernandes (£8.6m) remains the most sought-after player among those using their free transfers during the Fantasy Premier League downtime.

FPL’s decision to leave the Gameweek deadlines as originally scheduled, despite the lack of fixtures taking place, means that Fantasy managers are granted a free transfer each Gameweek, with a maximum of two rolled over.

That does present us with the option of clearing out some deadwood or indeed carrying out a larger scale rebuilding job while the coronavirus pandemic keeps sport in lockdown.

Those without a second Wildcard remaining, for instance, will perhaps be viewing this period as a time to rebuild ahead of the 2019/20 run-in – should we ever be in a position to proceed.

There were 188,141 transfers made in Gameweek 32, a small drop on the previous week and, of course, a fraction of what we’d usually get in a regulation weekend.

Fernandes was the most-bought player for the third Gameweek in a row, attracting just over 15,000 new owners, and rose in price as a result.

The removal of flags for Jamie Vardy (£9.7m) and Kevin De Bruyne (£10.6m) was significant as both players entered the top five for transfers in. De Bruyne, indeed, had previously been the fourth most-sold player of Gameweek 31.

The ten most-bought assets of Gameweek 32 are listed below, with their respective positions in the Gameweek 31 ‘transfers in’ table listed in the final column to see how trends are changing.

Danny Ings (£7.1m) was the most-ditched asset of Gameweek 32, with the injured Ricardo Pereira (£6.3m) also continuing to lose owners.

Nine of the ten players who suffered the most transfers out ahead of last Saturday’s deadline had also been in the same table in Gameweek 31.

What we have been seeing over the last week is a huge number of price changes, which perhaps indicates that the thresholds are much lower in the FPL transfer market when there are fewer overall moves being made – although the algorithm, as ever, remains something of a mystery.

There have been 35 price rises and 78 price falls just since last Friday, with a selection of those affected listed below:

Price Rises

• Fernandes (£8.6m)
• Calvert-Lewin (£6.5m)
• Vardy (£9.7m)
• Stevens (£5.2m)
• D. Henderson (£5.3m)
• Pepe (£9.3m)
• Saka (£4.7m)
• Alonso (£6.2m)
• Mount (£6.2m)
• B. Williams (£4.2m)

Price Falls

• Aurier (£4.9m)
• Soyuncu (£4.9m)
• Van Dijk (£6.5m)
• Cantwell (£4.7m)
• Son (£9.7m)
• Grealish (£6.4m)
• Kelly (£4.1m)

While many of us will be leaving our FPL squads well alone until we have more concrete information about a possible restart, it is perhaps worth keeping one eye on the volatile transfer market, should the price changes continue to be so erratic. 

Finally, there were the usual acts of self-sabotage carried out ahead of last weekend: just under 2,000 managers used a chip for no apparent reason.

The next FPL Gameweek deadline is at an earlier-than-usual 19:00 BST on Friday.