Mount, Maddison and Mondays 👀

Summary for the Lazy

⛰️ Mason Mount to United confirmed by Fabrizio Romano.

🤝 James Maddison to Spurs makes progress as verbal agreement in place.

🇪🇸 Pau Torres to Aston Villa.

💰 Dominik Szoboszlai to Liverpool.

👀 FPL HQ will start revealing player prices on Monday July 3rd

Stick around to find out which player is the only FPL asset to be classed as a forward, midfielder and defender during his career.

Alright?

It’s highly likely that this will be the last email we send before the game launches. That means, by next Sunday, we’ll be able to start building our Gameweek 1 drafts.

The first FPL drafts of the season are always loopy, and I for one can’t wait to build my monstrosity.

What does it mean for this newsletter?

The bottom line is that we’ll just keep doing our best to give you the good stuff. We want next year’s winner to be a LazyFPL reader, and we’ll do our darnedest to make it happen.

In practice, it means we’ll transition from the masterclass in barrel-scraping that you’ve endured over the last month to something more substantive. Phew.

For starters, we’ll know how much players cost and the positions in which they’ll play. That means we can start to fish out the under-priced gems and the over-priced red herrings.

We’ll also know if there are any rule changes, product updates, or anything else that might alter the way you play the game. We’ll endeavour to cover all of these as swiftly as we can.

(Oh - we’ll also be reopening LazyFPL Premium soon, after its lengthy stint on the sidelines. More on that next week.)

For now, it’s the calm before the storm. The belly rumble before the shart.

This email is mostly about this week’s big signings - let’s get into it.

Mount to Man United

Fabrizio Romano has confirmed that Mason Mount to United is a done deal, which is usually the predecessor to an official announcement.

It means Mount - a once popular FPL asset - is back on the menu. Cue the LOTR meme.

But let’s not make a Mountain out of a molehill (I’m here all week, folks). It’s unclear how much Mount will play at his new club and the role he’ll take up.

Many think he’ll compete with Bruno Fernandes for match time, but Mount is versatile enough to deputise for Rashford and Eriksen too. It could spell trouble for the more consistent Man United attackers we’ve come to trust.

All eyes on their preseason which, incidentally, starts on Wednesday 12th July against Leeds.

James Maddison to Spurs is Maddis-on

No surprises here. James Maddison has agreed “personal terms” with Spurs, which presumably went something like:

“James, do you wanna play in the Premier League or the Championship next season?”

“Premier League please m8.”

“Nice one. Welcome aboard.”

Whilst the formalities still need to be confirmed, nobody expects this to fall through.

Who will he replace? Well, probably nobody.

It would have been lovely to have made a SonIsMad joke about MadIsSon’s signing, but it’s easy to see why Spurs were so keen on the Leicester man - because it’s the sort of player they’re lacking at the moment.

Could Postecoglou be eyeing a 4-2-3-1 with Son, Maddison and Kulusevski forming a potent midfield triumvirate? Again, all eyes on pre-season.

Dominik Szoboszlai moves to Liverpool

FPL content creators around the world are trembling at the prospect of having to discuss Liverpool’s latest signing, who surely wins the award for hardest-to-spell-name in the league. Sorry Carney Chukwuemeka, there’s a new sheriff in town.

Let’s pray he’s a huge disappointment.

For an attacking midfielder, Dominik Szoboszlai’s surface-level stats are fairly underwhelming. He notched six goals and six assists in 31 Bundesliga appearances for RB Leipzig last season: hardly the sort of stuff that gets fantasy managers frothing.

But that doesn’t tell the full story. At just 22, the Hungarian captain is young, versatile and seems to possess the sort of qualities that might one day make him a great player. Aside from creating an average of 2.6 chances per game last season, he was also amongst the top players in the league for winning the ball back.

Oh - he’s also a fantastic penalty taker, as England fans may recall from the Nations League.

Those metrics don’t get you FPL points on their own, but they hint towards a player who will, if he plays, likely be very involved.

That’s probably why Liverpool have just shelled out 70m euros for him. One to monitor.

Pau Torres to Villa

Much coveted centre-back Pau Torres has joined Aston Villa.

That’s a massive coup and speaks volumes for Emery’s pull but, given his goal-scoring record, is noteworthy for FPL managers mostly because of the impact it might have on other Villa options.

The likes of Alex Moreno and Emi Martinez certainly look more intriguing after a signing like this, but perhaps not in the immediacy. They’ll face Newcastle, Liverpool and Chelsea in three of their first six.

Villa don’t look like they’re going to be pushovers next season, that’s for sure.

Something’s brewing at FPL HQ

Several large Twitter accounts have been in collusion with OfficialFPL over an announcement on Monday 3rd July, 13:00 BST.

Today (Sunday) it was revealed that 20 player prices (one from each club) will be broadcast live, with pundits reacting to them and everything. This is the world we live in now.

According to their statement, you can watch it live on the Premier League’s website, or on Youtube/Facebook.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, Premier League clubs will be revealing more FPL prices of their own squad members.

Combined with the game updating, Man United’s leak and the way previous launches have gone, it looks highly likely that the game will launch on either Wednesday 5th or Thursday 6th of July.

If you’re the sort of sad bastard that likes a low FPL team ID (like me), here’s a word to the wise: login to the FPL website and re-confirm your details now. Otherwise you’ll be asked to do it when the game launches, costing you vital minutes. You’re welcome.

Other tidbits

🤝 Declan Rice to Arsenal looks more likely as a £105m fee is agreed.

🤝 Mateo Kovacic signs for Man City after Gundogan’s departure.

 🔥Ashley Young has officially left Aston Villa. As spotted by our friends at AllAboutFPL, he’s the only player to have been listed as a forward, midfielder and defender on FPL.

💰 Riyad Mahrez has allegedly agreed personal terms with Saudi club Al Ahli, according to the usually reliable Rudy Galetti. Talks with Man City are “progressing well”.

Remember to keep one eye on the official game launch. We’ll speak next Sunday.

Stay lazy,

The LazyFPL Team.