This season was only the 3rd time that all 3 promoted teams stayed up in the premier league as Newcastle, Huddersfield and Brighton all avoided relegation. We assess the prospects of this seasons promoted teams from the Championship.
Background
Checking the list of online bookmakers on Playright you will find that, at the moment, Cardiff are pretty much every bookies favourite to go down and Wolves are expected to be mid table. Fulham or Aston Villa will probably be at a similar level to Cardiff when promoted.
What we can expect though is that the GW1 teams will look significantly different than they did in the Championship.
Newcastle bought in 8 players over the summer and transferred out 20 although in the end only Lejeune was a regular starter of the 8. Newcastle though had a side with premier league experience with 9 of their regular starting 11 having previous premier league experience.
Brighton were a different kettle of fish. Only 4 of their regular starters had played in the premier league before. 4 key players in Ryan, Propper, Izquierdo and Gross were bought in and became key contributors among a massive transfer churn of 13 in and 13 out.
Huddersfield were in a similar position with only 3 regular starters having premier league experience. 12 players were bought in and 11 out with Lossl, Hadergjonaj, Zanka and Mounie becoming regular starters of the transfers in.
From the promoted teams last season, the following players were legitimate options at one time or another:
Newcastle: Defenders Dummett and Yedlin, Midfielders Ritchie and Forward Gayle
Brighton: Goalkeeper Ryan, Defender Dunk, Midfielders Gross and Izquierdo and Forward Murray.
Huddersfield: Goalkeeper Lossl, Defenders Zanka and Schindler and Forward Mounie.
So, you can see there were a fair amount of cheapies who did help to provide fillers in our FPL teams. It’s worth stating that 6 of the above players were transfers rather than players from their Championship season.
Therefore, we can expect a fair amount of transfer activity by the promoted teams between now and GW1 especially from Wolves who have a fair amount of money behind them. However, here are the options to monitor based on the current squads:
Wolves
Wolves finished top of the Championship with 82 goals scored and 39 conceded for 99 points. Those are similar statistics to Newcastle’s Championship title winning season.
Subject to transfer dealings there are 2 players of interest at the moment:
Diego Jota
Jota is a 21-year-old attacking midfielder who last season started 43 games plus 1 sub appearance for 17 goals and 5 assists with a goal or assist every 165 minutes.
Barry Douglas
Douglas is a LWB who started 38 games plus 1 as a sub for 5 goals and 14 assists including some set piece responsibility.
I will be shocked if relatively big money isn’t spent on a CF.
Cardiff
Cardiff finished 2nd on the last day of the season with stats not too dissimilar to Brighton with 69 goals scored 39 conceded and 90 points. Players of interest are:
Junior Hoilett
Hoilett is a 27-year-old LW who started 44 games last season plus 2 as sub with 9 goals and 11 assists with a goal or assist every 190 minutes. He has considerable premier league experience having played 129 games previously for 14 goals and 11 assists. He has 17 caps for Canada.
Callum Patterson
The 23-year-old Scot started 23 games and 9 as sub for 10 goals and 4 assists at an impressive rate of a goal or assist every 155 minutes. He was fairly multi-functional having played mainly as a CM/RM but also as an RB earlier in the season. He’s also played 108 games in the Scottish Premier League and 6 games for Scotland but has no English Premier League experience.
It’s worth noting that CF Zohore also had some success but like Wolves I’d be shocked if there wasn’t a striker signed in the summer.
Fulham
Fulham are in the Championship play off final vs Aston Villa on Saturday. Fulham are a very attacking side who scored 79 goals and conceded 46 with 88 points in the regular Championship season. There are 3 players worth monitoring:
Ryan Sessegnon
The 18-year-old left back was the Championship player of the season and incredibly Fulham’s top scorer with 16 goals and 7 assists in 47 starts plus 1 as sub.
He is an English under 21 international and has the interest of some of the words biggest clubs.
Ryan Fredericks
The 25-year-old RB started 46 matches for 7 assists in the Championship this season and has played once for the England under 19 team.
Aleksandar Mitrovic
The 23-year-old Serbian CF has been a revelation since his January move from Newcastle to Fulham with 12 goals and 1 assist in his 17 starts and 2 sub appearances for a return of a goal or assist every 106 minutes. He has considerable premier league experience, although with mixed success, scoring 10 goals and 4 assists in 26 starts and 14 substitute appearances. He’s also played 35 times for Serbia for 13 goals
Aston Villa
Aston Villa finished 4th in the Championship scoring 72 goals conceding 42 for 83 points. They have to navigate a Championship play off final v Fulham. 3 players to monitor:
Albert Adomah
A 30-year-old RM who started 36 games plus 5 as substitute for 14 goals and 5 assists at a goal or assist at an impressive 159 minutes. He’s only played twice before in the premier league though for Middlesborough in 2016. He’s played for Ghana on 18 occasions.
Conor Hourihane
A 27-year-old CM who started 42 games plus 1 as substitute for 11 goals and 2 assists at a goal or assist every 277 minutes. He has no previous premier league experience. He’s played 5 games for Ireland.
Robert Snodgrass
A 30-year-old LM/RM is the set piece specialist who started 40 games plus 2 as substitute for 7 goals and 14 assists at a goal or assist every 159 minutes. He has a wealth of previous premier league experience having played 103 previous games for 19 goals and 15 assists. He’s played 25 times for Scotland for 7 goals.
We’ll continue to monitor the transfers and lineups closer to the start of the premier league season
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