EPL Pre Season Chatter – Only 17 days to go!
Hello all,
As Supercoach settles down for another week, it’s time to talk football again (you may call it soccer if you must) and to quote James Brayshaw “What a week it’s been in football ladies & gentleman” with some big signings taking place, pre-season injuries/operations, and a whole heap of transfer whispers & rumours going about the place.
I have also decided to give you guys my FPL gold mine…that’s right, all the sites I have been using over my seasoned veteran FPL career, as well as some I have only recently picked up along the way. My advice is to save these links in your favorites for future reference as they will come in very handy.
I would like to make it clear that by no means am I any type of expert on FPL, and my posts are designed to update the masses, and hopefully you all can add to it and we can be an informed community. I have been playing a long time and have had some good seasons, and some bad seasons.
So let’s start with the links shall we 
and then we can move on to the transfer and injury news.
Firstly, the best site for injuries etc without a doubt is http://www.physioroom.com/news/english_premier_league/epl_injury_table.php This is site is updated in real time and I have not found better. I use this before EVERY lockout and every trade (which you should follow the same rules as in SC, trade as close as you can to lockout.
Keep in mind there are always fixture changes due to cup ties, adverse weather conditions, and sometimes for reasons unknown so always check premierleague.com as well. On that note, some game weeks you will find that some teams play 2 games, and some don’t play any at all. This is why it is critical to check in every few days.
The next gem I have for you all is a site that predicts salary movement (similar to the stats tab here) except the movement in FPL is based on net transfers rather than performance (although you usually find these 2 are related). http://www.fiso.co.uk/crackthecode.php is your salary site.
For strategy, tactics, tools and discussion http://www.fantasyfootballscout.co.uk/ is your one stop shop and is comparable to sites like TS and FF.
For transfer talk and general info, I like http://www.goal.com/en/ and http://www.tribalfootball.com/ the rest like football365, and especially mirror football are utter crap and are just rumour mills for some shocking journo’s and nothing else.
Lastly, this little gem was just given to me by a very special person (you know who you are 
) and is a site that give the most comprehensive match review site, http://www.zonalmarking.net/ so if your looking at trading a player in, or want to know how your players are going in terms of there match day role, etc then this is the site for you.
Also, team pages such as arsenal.com etc and BBC.com are always handy sources of info.
Now on to the trade talk and injury news and lets start with a list of all confirmed ins and outs for the premier league and much like last year, Manchester City are buying up all the talent in the world in there quest to win something…but they need to make the top four first I think.
Those in bold font are ones to watch and come with big reputations.
Arsenal
In: Marouane Chamakh (free, Bordeaux), Laurent Koscielny (undisclosed, Lorient)
Out: Philippe Senderos (free, Fulham), Luke Ayling (free, Yeovil Town), Eduardo da Silva (£6m, Shakhtar Donetsk), Francis Coquelin (loan, Lorient), Pedro Botelho (loan, FC Cartagena)
Aston Villa
In:
Out: Stephen O’Halloran (free, Coventry City)
Birmingham City
In: Ben Foster (undisclosed, Manchester United), Nikola Zigic (undisclosed, Valencia), Enric Valles (free, NAC Breda)
Out: Gary McSheffrey (free, Coventry City)
Blackburn Rovers
In:
Out: Marcus Marshall (free, Rotherham United)
Blackpool
In:
Out:
Bolton Wanderers
In: Robbie Blake (free, Burnley), Martin Petrov (free, Manchester City)
Out:
Chelsea
In: Yossi Benayoun (£5.5m, Liverpool), Tomas Kalas (£5.2m, Sigma Olomouc)
Out: Miroslav Stoch (undisclosed, Fenerbahce), Rhys Taylor (loan, Crewe Alexandra), Tomas Kalas (loan, Sigma Olomouc), Joe Cole (free, Liverpool)
Everton
In: Jan Mucha (free, Legia Warsaw), Magaye Gueye (undisclosed, Strasbourg)
Out: John Ruddy (undisclosed, Norwich City)
Fulham
In: Philippe Senderos (free, Arsenal)
Out: Chris Smalling (undisclosed, Manchester United), Stefan Payne (free, Gillingham)
Liverpool
In: Jonjo Shelvey (£1.7m, Charlton Athletic), Milan Jovanovic (free, Standard Liege), Joe Cole (free, Chelsea), Danny Wilson (£2m initial, Rangers)
Out: David Martin (free, Milton Keynes Dons), Yossi Benayoun (£5.5m, Chelsea), Albert Riera (£3.3m initial, Olympiakos)
Manchester City
In: Alex Henshall (undisclosed, Swindon Town), Jerome Boateng (undisclosed, Hamburg SV), David Silva (£24m, Valencia), Yaya Toure (£28m, Barcelona), Aleksandar Kolarov (£19m, Lazio)
Out: Paul Marshall (free, Walsall), Martin Petrov (free, Bolton), David Ball (loan, Swindon Town), Gunnar Nielsen (loan, Tranmere Rovers)
Manchester United
In: Chris Smalling (undisclosed, Fulham), Javier Hernandez (undisclosed, Chivas de Guadalajara)
Out: Ben Foster (undisclosed, Birmingham City), Ron-Robert Zieler (free, Hannover 96), Zoran Tosic (£8m, CSKA Moscow), Tom Heaton (free, Cardiff City), Matthew James (loan, Preston North End)
Newcastle United
In: James Perch (undisclosed, Nottingham Forest)
Out:
Stoke City
In: Florent Cuvelier (undisclosed, Portsmouth)
Out: Nathaniel Wedderburn (free, Northampton Town), Andy Griffin (£500k, Reading), Diego Arismendi (loan, Barnsley), Ibrahim Sonko (loan, Portsmouth)
Sunderland
In: Cristian Riveros (undisclosed, Cruz Azul), Simon Mignolet (undisclosed, Sint-Truiden), Ahmed Al-Muhammadi (loan, ENPPI), Marcos Angeleri (£2m, Estudiantes La Plata), Titus Bramble (undisclosed, Wigan Athletic)
Out: Jamie Chandler (free, Darlington), Roy O’Donovan (free, Coventry City), Lorik Cana (£5m, Galatasaray), Daryl Murphy (£1.5m, Celtic), Conor Hourihane (undisclosed, Ipswich Town), Nyron Nosworthy (loan, Sheffield United)
Tottenham
In: Sandro Ranieri Guimaraes Cordeiro (undisclosed, Internacional)
Out: Sam Cox (free, Barnet)
West Bromwich Albion
In: Gabriel Tamas (undisclosed, Auxerre), Pablo Ibanez (free, Atletico Madrid)
Out: Luke Daniels (loan, Bristol Rovers), Borja Valero (loan, Villarreal)
West Ham
In: Thomas Hitzlsperger (free, Lazio), Frederic Piquionne (£1m, Lyon), Pablo Barrera (£4m, UNAM Pumas)
Out: Bondz N’Gala (free, Plymouth Argyle)
Wigan
In: Antolin Alcaraz (free, Club Brugge), Mauro Boselli (undisclosed, Estudiantes La Plata)
Out: Tomasz Cywka (free, Derby County), Titus Bramble (undisclosed, Sunderland)
Wolverhampton Wanderers
In: Jelle Van Damme (undisclosed, Anderlecht), Steven Fletcher (undisclosed, Burnley), Steven Mouyokolo (undisclosed, Hull City), Stephen Hunt (undisclosed, Hull City)
Out: Jason Shackell (undisclosed, Barnsley), Mark Little (free, Peterborough United), George Friend (free, Doncaster Rovers), Andrew Surman (undisclosed, Norwich City), Nathaniel Mendez-Lang (loan, Peterborough United)
There are a couple of beauties that have not been included in this list such as Victor Moses who is touted as a star and signed from Palace to Wigan last year, and Jerome Beckford who sunk Manure last year in the FA Cup and signed from Leeds with Everton. You would expect these guys to play a bit this year and while they are unproven, they have a bucket load of potential. Also expect Bent to get a run if he stays at Birmingham, McCarthy at West Ham, and Benjani if he stays at Sunderland
The other big one that everyone is talking about is Ahmed Al-Muhammadi but no-one has actually seen him play, so beware in my opinion.
Now the rumours, and the big one is that Fab is gone but this is not official yet, and I pray Arsenal can keep him but I doubt they will. Sol Campbell is rumoured to be off to Newcastle, City are set to sign Mario Balotelli from Inter, Tottenham (aka the scum) are looking at Scott Parker, Mascherano is set to leave the KOP, Arsenal have made a second offer to the toffees for Phil Jagielka, Keane is set to go to Tottenham, Arsenal Target Ajax Goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg, Real Madrid Defender Royston Drenthe Set To Join Liverpool, Ronaldinho is being looked at by West Ham, Torres could go to anywhere and Real want Stevie G, Vidic has signed a long term contract with manure quashing any transfer rumours, City are making a second bid on James Milner, Liverpool are hunting AC Milan Striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Nice’s Loic Remy, and many more but remember that nothing is certain until you see the words OFFICIAL in front of the report, or you see a photo of the player holding up a jersey with his name on it.
And Manure lost to Kansas City 2-1 bahahahahaha!!! 
But ex united striker Frasier Campbell scored 4 against Hull in a friendly. And Arsenal LEGEND Thierry Henry scored on his New York debut against former enemy Tottenham.
Confirmed injuries have Chelsea duo Drogba and Alex to miss the start of the season, Ferdinand will miss as well. Rumours are that Cahill, Given, Pavlywhatever, Torres, Duff and Cech to all miss the start of the season.
Until next week
Just a reminder that there is a TooSerious league for the Virtual Sports EPL. League Code is: 113582 and the link is http://epl.virtualsports.com.au/?p=index
There is only 7 spots left so get in quick. We are hoping its going to be as tough as last years league and we hope to break into the top 5 overall this year with some luck (no chink united)
oh and forgot to say that it works like the supercoach/dreamteam competitions with the salary cap etc
“or you see a photo of the player holding up a jersey with his name on it.”
Don’t count on this either, a few years back John Arne Riise was announced on the Fulham website, complete with pic holding up a Fulham strip and smiling….to then two days later sign with Liverpool after ctalking to his Mum.
Spot on Hazey, I had forgotten all about that…lol
Great stuff JoshyC.
bolotelli has signed with man city rejecting a higher offer from manchester united(not all these players are coming to us for money)
JoshyC hate to be picky but its jermaine beckford from leeds bloke scored 65 goals in his last 2 seasons also scored 2 goals in evertons first friendly match
Kolorov is a player very siumlar to ashley cole plays left back and gets forward alot so could be a very good cheap option gotta wait on price
West Ham have some good signing is hiltzsperger and Piquionne so these players good be good possible cheap options. Also stephen hunt joing wolves could be another cheap option
Like chamakah seens highlights of him playing in france and gets the job done exactly what arsenal need to partner along side van persie
Manure have bought a young mexican hernandez into their squad will labal a buyer beware to that one wait and see how he goes early but we all know rooney looks playing up front by myself and believe berbatov would still be 2nd choice forward there
Thanks for all the sites i normally just browse around premierleague.com and bbc for all my gossip
Joshy from your post im guessing your a Gunners supporter??
I’m in! Donksters have joined.
Yeah fez, huge gooner since I was about 6 years old, lived through the boring days, cherished the glory days. I am extremely biased but try to contain myself as much as possible when I write, I just can’t even think the word tottenham without it being followed by the word scum.
Bolotelli has agreed to terms bu the deal is not done yet, although I am sure it I’ll be soon.
Not sure what you meant by beckford mate…ooops, I see it now, wrong first name. Sorry!
Here is a quick rundown on the Virtual Sports comp. Its only my 2nd year playing so Im not really sure on the best strategies and stuff as I only really started to get the hang of it in the last 15 weeks…. But its important to know that you’ll score FULL points from your selected starting 11 line-up, and HALF points from your 4 substitutes on the bench. So make sure you fill your squad with players actually playing as those half points do come in handy each week.
Players wages work the same as in supercoach where its based on a 3 week average, so your big guns you can pick up cheaper right throughout the year as its much harder for them to keep scoring high. I did notice last year that goalkeepers really seem to drop in value, even the big names.
I think a mid-range strategy could really work as it would give you depth on the bench for those important half points and easily upgrade to to Lampards, Rooneys when they drop. You get 50 trades for the year aswell….
Anyone else that has played before will probably be able to help you out better though, but hope it kinda helps.
One thing i have noticed is Bale from Tottenham isnt listed as midfielder in this, he is classed as a back.
Hey JoshyC – way to send that keyboard to an early grave!
As a reminder to those who don’t scroll down through old topics, we have some TooSerious leagues set up on the fantasy premier league site.
There is one Head2Head league that is now full (league code 32457-12169); a Classic league with no maximum entry limit (league code 32457-12154), and a second H2H league (league code 225694-84040) which is about half full – maximum entries of 38.
And I can also vouch for physioroom, fantasyfootballscout and fiso as good information, opinion and rumour sources throughout the course of the year.
Keane to Tottenham – isn’t he already there? The rumour is moreso that he will get out, and will fire up wherever he lands. Could be really good value at 5.5m (from memory) if he leads the line for another premier league outfit, as historically he has fired early after moving clubs. (Liverpool supporters may disagree)
Slight tangent from stkildathunda’s post – be careful of guys whose positions have been reassigned this year. Gareth Bale was designated as a defender in FPL last year and is now a midfielder – so those clean sheet points are no longer going to pad his scores (not that I would describe him as an out-and-out defender anyhow)
If he’s listed as defender wouldnt he still score clean sheets though? Its only the virtual sports one that he’s a defender, not a midfielder.
there is also this H2H that has been set up by walesy – 99771-116683
Is there an EPL fantasy comp that actually has any half decent prizes? I don’t have enough soccer knowledge to bother with this…unless someone dangles a large enough carrot.
anyone play on the fantasy.premierleague.com site?
any league codes?
Hi,
I heard there are no movements in player values at fantasy.premierleague.com. is that true? Otherwise, trading will not be fun:(
Parasite- the Metro are giving away 30k worth of Pounds, which goes alright, but you need to register as someone who lives in the UK.
– http://fantasyfootball.metro.co.uk/
Stavros, check through the thread mate- there’s a couple of league codes.
JP, Salary movements are determined by trade-ins/trade-outs. As Joshy wrote:
“The next gem I have for you all is a site that predicts salary movement (similar to the stats tab here) except the movement in FPL is based on net transfers rather than performance (although you usually find these 2 are related). http://www.fiso.co.uk/crackthecode.php is your salary site.” – So you can track the salary movements as it goes along.
Good stuff JoshyC. Further info from overnight. Torres is staying at Liverpool. Mascherano has asked to leave (not a big scorer in fantasy EPL) but news nonetheless. Sol Campbell has joined Newcastle. Chelsea are close to signing Ramires. Man Utd chasing Ozil (get him if that proves to be true).
Anyone else finding the prices of players for EPL fantasy season 2010/11 a little steep?? Far more players seem to be 9.0+ in value these days.
Makes it that little bit more difficult… but all the more interesting!
Hmmm, well I do have a few pommie relatives.
Coincidentally, beings poms, they probably need a nice bath like Manda.
@ paul 74 – where did you get the info re Sol Campbell?
also, i know Stevie G has committed but nothing is clad about Torres as far as i can find
JoshyC – BBC went with the story yesterday about sol campbell the blokes too old and 2 slow now so thats a nothing trasnfer for the toon army
mascereno looks like going to inter their is also a rumour that when man city sign balotelli they will loan out adebayor to juventus and kuyt and forlan will end up at inter think thats a load of crap and adebayor is going nowhere
i read that he is having a physical but no deal is done, and that he has snubbed them to play one more year at Arsenal
http://www.goal.com/en/news/9/england/2010/07/23/2038251/sol-campbell-to-remain-at-arsenal-for-another-year-report
that article was 4-5 days ago (and was from the sun)
Josh – Guardian.co.uk
Sorry, forgot the important bit… Guardian.co.uk/football
After bit of looking through here are few guys that could be bargains.
SILVA, David: £6,870,000
TOURE, Yaya: £4,040,000
BOATENG, Jerome: £4,040,000
SHAWCROSS, Ryan: £6,180,000
If Fab does leave Arsenal, who is likely to replace him and would they be worth looking at?
Oh and it looks like the virtual sports league is now full
Hi any help with some cheap forward options that will play (excluding doyle)
Cheers and thanks in advance
@ Bobby
Zigic, N
Rodallega, H
Carroll, A
They seem to be the popular ones around the place.
rodaelga is a gun the priced but in premier league is at 6.5 and is in my team stkildathunder dont rate carrol zigic dont know enough about, fabregas wont leave, barcalona are 400m in debt and arsenal will only sell for the right price (be over 50m)
note all prices in pounds
Big read ahead…
goal.com is an interesting read but most of it won’t happen (it is better than the other rumour sites)
The rest of the sites linked are fantastic. Some are new to me so thanks JoshyC
I doubt Torres, Drogba and Fabregas (Barca have their own issues) will go. I thought City weren’t interested in paying more than the 20m Villa rejected for Milner.
Balotelli is an interesting signing (not confirmed yet?)
I’m steering clear of Shawcross because Stoke have a horror early fixture.
Koscielny looks great but at 6.0 is he worth it. Wenger will need more central defenders by the time the transfer window is shut.
Doyle is the cheap man for me at 5.5 but Rodallega is the next best imo and many have it the other way around.
Zigic is from Valencia he was the giant Serbian who didn’t do much against us Aussies but did fluff some very good opportunities. He’s apparently been playing well in the pre-season.
Carroll was awesome for Newcastle last year but the premier league is a step up and a new challenge for him.
I haven’t played virtualsports epl for a few years but I did play it for 3 years in a row at some stage.
Points are awarded with 4 points for playing 60+ minutes (2 for less) 4 points for a win 2 for a draw.
assists are all 6 points.
Goals are like FPL where defenders get more points 12 over mid 10 and fwd 8
Clean sheets is where it differs with defenders getting 8 and midfielders 6 so picking up a Lampard or Fabregas is a must.
Price changes are like supercoach with a 3 week rolling average. So if a defender scores and has a clean sheet (score of 28) their price will rocket and I usually traded them in and then back out when they were set to fall because they netted you good money and fast.
@ NedFlanders – lol on the keyboard pun…but most of that was cut and paste mate…and sorry Keane to Tottenham should have read Keane to Fulham (i had so many players/clubs going through my head).
@ paul74/fez – still unconfirmed regarding sol campbell
@ everyone else – TORRES IS GONE!!!!! nah, unconfirmed but the rumour is Chelsea have made a 50 million pound bid.
Federico Macheda scored twice in the first 13 minutes and Javier Hernandez also scored in his Manchester United debut against a Major League Soccer All-Stars team.
Both possible cheap forward options in Virtual Sports EPL @ £4,850,000 & £5,660,000 respectively.
liverpool was 70 m for torress but might settle for 50 also man city are sniffing around for torres
wants**
that would mean he is rated higher than fab…i dont think so
Any more leagues opening up?
Great to see lots of interest in the FPL !!
As discussed last week, it would be excellent if Too Serious could provide some 4-A-Side teams for our competition in the FPL.com game. Walesy has popped over to say hi which is great..
Some guys were asking about big money games ….There are stacks of big money FPL games but not sure which ones are open to overseas entrants..I think Sun Dream Team is – huge cash prizes in that one. Other big money games are the Telegraph Fantasy Football game (not open overseas I think), You The Manager (Daily Mirror) – other smaller games are run by Sky, Daily Mail etc.
EPL update…. sorry for the following long post but for those that are interested…
Sky Sports News (UK) have just spoken about the potential takeover of Liverpool FC by a Chinese consortium. They are currently in negotiations with the Royal Bank of Scotland.
It has been reported in the Times and The Guardian today.
the following is an email i recieved from a friend in Liverpool…
A bit of clarity – Kenneth Huang is not the whole story here. There are other big players in the group that is looking to buy the club but, for reasons that will become clear, their identities have to be kept secret for as long as possible. Speaking for myself (and other posters like Don Vito are no doubt privvy to the same inforamation) I’ve sat on this story as it has developed for weeks and months. It would never be my intention to torment the forum with ‘nearly’ stories, and I only broke the story last night in the knowledge of these things:
1) Once July 30th passed, RBS had the legal right to call in the loan. It’s up to them now. It really is that simple.
2) When I first learnt of this possible takeover, the first thing I asked my sources was this: in blunt terms, would the majority of clued-up Reds consider the prospective new owners to be fit and proper custodians of our unique club? The answer, and this from people you all respect, was (and I paraphrase). Nobody’s perfect. Huang’s Gang are stratospherically rich. Torres, Gerrard and Joe Cole are taking them seriously (this was before we signed him). The days of local businessman/lifelong fan owners has gone – but this lot are the next best thing. They know football. They revere the club. They will invest, hugely.
3) They kept the bid from G&H for as long as possible, knowing they would go down kicking and screaming the moment they realised they’d been out-manoueuvred. There is the joyous prospect that the cowboys will get little or no profit on their ‘investment’. But the main thing is, they will soon be gone. We hope. That’s why, with respect to wise and experienced posters who’ve cautioned against welcoming the new bid with open arms I’d say yes, correct, none of us really knows how Huang’s Gang will pan out. But it’s still worth pressurisng RBS and moving the evil, cunning and manipulative George Gillett right out of the picture.
4) Expect to see the essence of this update on all the journalists’ Twitter pages any moment now
Points 1>4 above from RAWK. (liverpool website)
Anyone have thoughts on this fantasy epl team???
GK – Sorensen (SC) Soderberg (NEWC U)
DEF – Givet (BR) Foley (WW) Shawcross (SC) Carr (BIR C) Bramble (SUN)
MIDS – Ferguson (BIR C) Barton (NEWC U) Jarvis (WW) Lampard (CHE) Fabregas (ARS)
FWD – Tevez (MAN C) Rodellega (WIG) Rooney (MAN U)
thoughts?
I think Harper is the first choice Newcastle Keeper. I think Stoke have it tough early so I’m staying away but Shawcross is a champ.
If you have 0.5 extra upgrading Jarvis to Petrov (BW) or N’Zogbia (WA) could be a good idea because Petrov could be a star after moving from City and N’Zogbia is a proven performer.
Im grateful for the article.Much thanks again.