Earlier this afternoon the Fantasy Premier League (FPL) continued to drip feed us Fantasy managers more player prices for the upcoming season via their official twitter feed. Yesterday gave us Eden Hazard (9.5), Ji-Sung Park (6.0) and Pavel Pogrebnyak (5.0) and today we learned the cost of another trio, with the revelations prompting some mixed reaction:
Around quarter to one, the FPL decided to roll out the following information, looking at a couple of last season’s mid-term sensations and United’s brand new purchase from German champions Dortmund:
Here are today’s three player values: Gylfi Sigurdsson (TOT) £9m, Shinji Kagawa (MUN) £8.5m and Papiss Cisse (NEW) £9.5m.
Gylfi Sigurdsson is no longer a cut-price option, then. The Icelandic midfielder will now set you back 9.0 next season following his move to Tottenham – a far cry from his initial cost of 5.0 at Swansea last January. It’s the price of success, really; Sigurdsson ended the season with an average of 5.7 points per game last time round, the highest of any midfielder in the FPL game. This then asks the question of Gareth Bale and Rafael Van der Vaart’s respective new price tags. The Welshman finished as top scorer for Spurs in the 2011/12 campaign with 195 points, while Van der Vaart ended the season strongly and notched 167. Bearing in mind they kicked off last term at 8.0 and 10.0 respectively, we can expect a rise from Bale, while Van der Vaart could well sit around the same valuation. Sigurdsson’s new cost will give Fantasy managers plenty of problems in the Spurs midfield now – grabbing more than one is likely to prove problematic, handing us a real dilemma for the season ahead. Looking at other games, Sky has priced Sigurdsson as the cheapest of the three by some distance; he comes in at 7.3, while Van der Vaart is 8.0 and Bale is by far the priciest at 8.8.
United’s new playmaker Shinji Kagawa comes in at 8.5 in FPL and – even more so than the Spurs situation – is likely to hand us headaches as we ponder the options from a congested midfield area. The summer signing from Dortmund is vying with Antonio Valencia, Nani and Ashley Young for our attention and at that price, there’s every chance he could be the cheapest of the quartet; Nani and Young both started last term priced at 10.0, while Valencia averaged 5.2 points per game after starting at 8.0. If Kagawa can cement a starting role in his preferred position in “the hole”, the new boy could well be the one to watch from United – much depends on the pricing of the other three as to how we view his value. Certainly, in the Sky game Kagawa affords Fantasy managers the cheapest route into United’s midfield; he costs 7.6, in comparison to Valencia’s 7.9, while Young (8.3) and Nani (8.7) are even heftier on the budget.
Papiss Cisse’s goalscoring exploits in the second half of the previous campaign have had a significant impact on his new valuation. The Newcastle man has been slapped with a starting price of 9.5 – up substantially from the 7.0 he came in at last January upon his arrival from Bundesliga outfit SC Freiburg. Looking at the stats, it’s little wonder; Cisse finished the season with an average of 7.5 points per game over his 14 appearances, more than any player in FPL, with Robin Van Persie (7.1) in second spot. Whether in a 4-3-3 or 4-4-2, Cisse racked up the goals, scoring 13 times, in addition to returning a couple of assists and 20 bonus points – if he can even close to maintaining such a level, the price tag still looks more than decent value; depending on the cost of Van Persie, Wayne Rooney and Sergio Aguero, Cisse could well find himself in plenty teams next time round. The Sky game has included Cisse amongst the heavyweights – coming in at 9.3, he’s the seventh priciest forward, with Van Persie top at 10.0.
