The Fantasy Premier League deadlines for Gameweeks 36 to 38 will remain as they are currently scheduled, despite the enforced suspension of top-flight football.
The announcement comes after the Premier League acknowledged that a resumption of play in early May won’t happen amid the ongoing coronavirus crisis.
This approach, of course, mirrors FPL’s policy for Gameweeks 30 to 35.
Fantasy managers will continue to be allocated one free transfer per Gameweek despite the lack of matches, then, with a maximum of two rolled over.
FPL say that they will “make a further announcement on any fixtures scheduled for after 17 May, 2020”, which raises the prospect of additional Gameweeks being added to the game – although we don’t really have any clear indication yet as to how the rearranged matches will be structured.
DEADLINES
The deadlines for the upcoming ‘blank’ Gameweeks are as follows:
GW34 – Sat 18 Apr 11:30 BST
GW35 – Sat 25 Apr 11:30 BST
GW36 – Sat 2 May 14:00 GMT
GW37 – Sat 9 May 14:00 BST
GW38 – Sun 17 May 14:00 BST
Transfers
FPL’s decision to leave the Gameweek deadlines as originally scheduled means that Fantasy managers will continue to have the option to tinker with their squads and use a free transfer with every passing Gameweek.
There were 66,064 transfers made ahead of the Gameweek 33 deadline, a sharp drop on the numbers recorded in Gameweek 32 (188,141).
Bruno Fernandes (£8.6m) was the most-bought player for the fourth Gameweek in a row, with Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£6.5m) not far behind him.
Nick Pope (£4.9m) remains the most-acquired goalkeeping asset during the downtime, while Aaron Wan-Bissaka (£5.3m) overtook Matt Doherty (£6.3m) to become the go-to FPL defender in the Gameweek just gone.
Manchester United’s appealing run-in is one obvious factor in Wan-Bissaka’s favour.
The ten most-bought assets of Gameweek 33 are listed below, with their respective positions in the Gameweek 32 ‘transfers in’ table listed in the final column to see how trends are changing.
Nine of the ten players who attracted the most investment ahead of last Friday’s deadline had also been in the same table in Gameweek 32.
Player | Club | GW33 Transfers In | GW32 Position |
Fernandes | Man Utd | 3,829 | (1) |
Calvert-Lewin | Everton | 3,723 | (2) |
Pope | Burnley | 1,995 | (6) |
De Bruyne | Man City | 1,920 | (5) |
Vardy | Leicester | 1,770 | (4) |
Martial | Man Utd | 1,663 | (3) |
Wan-Bissaka | Man Utd | 1,630 | (10) |
Barnes | Leicester | 1,558 | (7) |
Jimenez | Wolves | 1,292 | (12) |
Doherty | Wolves | 1,281 | (8) |
Danny Ings (£7.1m) was, as he had been in Gameweek 32, the most-sold asset of this latest Gameweek.
Caglar Soyuncu (£4.9m) and non-playing goalkeeper David Button (£3.9m) were the big movers, entering the top ten for most Gameweek sales.
Despite their teams enjoying one more outstanding fixture than 16 other Premier League clubs, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (£11.1m), Jack Grealish (£6.4m) and Riyad Mahrez (£8.5m) continue to lose owners – although the numbers we are now talking about are a tiny percentage of what we would normally see in a typical Gameweek.
Player | Club | GW33 Transfers Out | GW32 Position |
Ings | Southampton | 3,505 | (1) |
Aubameyang | Arsenal | 2,743 | (3) |
Traore | Wolves | 2,114 | (4) |
Soyuncu | Leicester | 1,315 | (18) |
Grealish | Aston Villa | 1,286 | (9) |
Button | Brighton | 1,258 | (26) |
Pereira | Leicester | 1,253 | (2) |
Rico | Bournemouth | 1,251 | (10) |
Mahrez | Man City | 1,240 | (5) |
Perez | Leicester | 1,202 | (7) |
While we reported a glut of price changes in last week’s transfer round-up (there were 113 between April 3-6), we have seen absolutely nothing in the way of movement since then.
The drop-off in purchases/sales and an earlier-than-usual Gameweek 33 deadline might have been contributing factors but, as we mentioned previously, FPL’s transfer algorithm remains an enigma.
4 years, 18 days ago
If I still have WC, FH & BB remaining should I be using a couple of these free transfers to make some changes, or no need?
Totally taken my eye of the FPL ball.....