11 Cheap Fantasy League Players You Must Sign
What do you mean Jamie Vardy costs too much?
Is it that time of the year again? Dust off your mousepads, because it’s Fantasy Football season.
Budding tacticians across the globe will be preparing for nine months of competitive action, in which they go téte-a-téte with their contemporaries to see who is crowned king of their league. Rubber-stamping the finest bargain can be a tricky business, however.
Snapping up Jamie Vardy, Riyad Mahrez or Eric Dier last August would have reaped dividends, but considering their previously unremarkable statistics, it would have taken a brave amateur tactician to plump for them. While one of Sergio Aguero, Harry Kane and Mesut Ozil will, or at least should, always be a staple in a Fantasy League team with aspirations of finishing top of the pile, the squad must be counter-balanced with a selection of carefully-chosen bargains.
After all, this isn’t Sheikh Mansour’s Fantasy Football League, where the talent can be recklessly hoovered up with an apparent disregard for the laws of modern finances.
With a £100m pound kitty to spend on 15 players, one needs to adopt less of a frivolous no-holds-barred shopping spree attitude and more of a reserved way of thinking. And luckily there are some choice bargains and cheaper gems to be had.
10. GK: Victor Valdes (Middlesbrough) £4.5m
Victor Valdes may well wake up one morning, possibly when winter hits, and wonder how the hell he has managed to trade the Catalan suburbs for the north-east of England. His agent is probably bracing himself in the corner, sweat lining his forehead, awaiting the inevitable blame. However, Valdes’ career spiral notwithstanding, the former Barcelona stopper is a valuable commodity and a top signing by Spaniard Aitor Karanka.
The 34-year-old shot-stopper links up with his compatriot, who has prided himself on building a solid defensive unit at the Riverside since taking the reins three years ago. Middlesbrough kept 25 clean sheets last season, including a six-game streak that hadn’t been bettered since December 2003.
With such a solid foundation already in place and with the addition of Valencia right-back Antonio Barragan, Valdes shouldn’t find himself too unduly troubled this forthcoming campaign. But then, having had his feet up and with a front-row seat to Lionel Messi and co. ripping it up in La Liga every week, he’s used to that.