FPL Post-Season | What's happened this week? (Ep. 6)

Alright?

Diogo Jota and André Silva’s untimely passing last week is just tragic. We, like everyone else who likes football, were rocked by the news. Rest in peace, Diogo Jota and André Silva.

Any attempt at humour in today’s newsletter, however feeble our attempts tend to be, feels out of place. We’re going to relay the news you need to know, leave quietly, and come back next week.

The stuff you might’ve missed this week.

✍️ Kyle Walker joins Burnley.

🤝 João Pedro has joined Chelsea on an 8-year contract.

🤖 FPL Towers announces an AI-powered FPL assistant next season, in partnership with Microsoft’s Copilot.

🔴 Arsenal sign defensive midfielder Martin Zubimendi.

🕊 Brighton sign defenders Maxim De Cuyper and Oliver Boscagli.

👹 Man United sign left-back Diego Leon.

🔄 Nottingham Forest sign forward Igor Jesus, Brentford sign attacking midfielder Antoni Milambo, Chelsea confirm Jamie Bynoe-Gittens move.

⏰ The FPL game is “getting ready for 2025/26”.

The big done deals.

This section will only include transfers that have been confirmed by an official source.

Some interesting full-back options.

Kyle Walker joining Burnley has raised some eyebrows amongst FPL managers. Most of us can remember when he was a premium defender (both at Spurs and Man City), and whilst he’s “getting on” in football terms (he’s 35), he’s still rapid enough to be dangerous at Burnley.

This looks like an “experience signing”, and we expect his minutes to be managed carefully. Still, he’s one to watch.

Elsewhere, Brighton signed Maxim De Cuyper last weekend, and lots of FPL pundits (including The Professor) think he’s interesting. It’s unsurprising when you look at his stats: he managed seven goal contributions (2 goals, 5 assists) from 27 Jupiler Pro League games for Club Brugge.

If he’s priced cheaply, he could find his way into some Gameweek 1 drafts.

Man United’s new signing, Diego Leon, is only 18, and considered more of a work-in-progress than an immediate starting XI prospect.

Joao Pedro ➡️ Chelsea

Rumoured last week, and now official, Joao Pedro has joined Chelsea.

The response amongst FPL managers is mostly tepid. Pedro’s minutes were always patchy at Brighton, and moving to a club with as many attacking options as Chelsea probably isn’t going to help his cause. He’ll also presumably lose out on penalty duties, which contributed half of his 24/25 goal tally.

It’s easy to imagine that he’ll start Gameweek 1, score, everyone will bring him in, and then he won’t play again until Christmas.

Martin Zubimendi ➡️ Arsenal

Zubimendi is a defensive midfielder, so you won’t be buying him in FPL anytime soon.

His impact will likely be two-fold:

1) He should contribute to Arsenal’s defensive performance next season.

2) His presence might give Declan Rice - who showed some attacking promise towards the end of last season - more license to push forward.

The rumour mill.

This section will include transfers that are strongly rumoured by reliable sources. We won’t include pure speculation, and will always try to verify the rumour with multiple sources.

Victor Gyokeres ➡️ Arsenal

Unless Fabrizio Romano is mistaken (and he’s rarely mistaken), this is happening. Gyokeres is yet to cut his teeth in the Premier League, but joins Arsenal fresh from a quite ridiculous 39-goal season in Liga Portugal (from 33 games). He also scored 6 goals in 8 Champions League games.

Given the lack of competition for his spot at Arsenal, we expect he’ll be expensive in FPL, but if he can carry last season’s form over to the Premier League, he’ll be well worth it.

AI 🤝 FPL

FPL Towers announced that they’ve partnered with Microsoft’s Copilot to offer managers an AI-powered assistant next season.

We’re not experts, but we assume that this will give us a faster way to find what we’re looking for, rather than a tool that offers bespoke transfer and strategy advice.

For example, we’re guessing the AI assistant might give you an answer to the question “Who was the top-scoring midfielder under £8m last season?” or “Which forward has the highest xG over the last six gameweeks?”.

But it probably won’t be able to answer questions like “Who is the best defender to buy over the next three gameweeks?” or “Should I play my Free Hit this week?”.

Key dates this summer.

June 10th - Mini Transfer Window closes.

June 14th - The Club World Cup kicks off with the two best teams in the world: Al Ahly vs. Inter Miami. Chelsea and Manchester City are the Premier League’s representatives.

June 16th - The Summer Transfer Window opens.

June 18th - Premier League fixtures released.

~Early-mid July - The 25/26 FPL game is likely to launch. The FPL game is currently updating…

Mid-July - Pre-season friendlies begin.

August 10th - The Community Shield (Liverpool vs Crystal Palace)

August 16th - The 25/26 season begins 😍

Other stuff we found interesting.

1. Ola Aina has signed a new contract with Nottingham Forest.

2. Gameweek 1 prospect Valentin Barco has left Brighton for Strasbourg.

3. Chelsea is the last English team left in the Club World Cup.

4. Strand Larsen becomes a permanent Wolves player.

5. FPL Towers has also announced a dark mode on the FPL app.

See you next Monday.

Stay lazy.

The LazyFPL Team.