Pre-season transfer watch: what's actually changed before Gameweek 1
Gameweek 1 is four weeks out (deadline: Friday 21 August, 11:30 BST), and this summer's transfer window has already reshaped enough squads that last season's form guide only gets you so far. Here's what's actually moved, and what it means for the squad you're building.
The headline deals
Chelsea broke the British transfer record to sign Morgan Rogers from Aston Villa for a reported £117m, and he arrives priced at a very manageable £7.5m in Fantasy - a lot of underlying quality for the price if he walks into a settled front line under Chelsea's new manager. Manchester City spent heavily too, bringing in Elliot Anderson from Nottingham Forest for around £116m, while Tottenham had one of the busiest windows outright: Mateus Fernandes, Sandro Tonali, and Jan Paul van Hecke arrive in a combined £230m spend.
Elsewhere, Arsenal added Christos Tzolis from Club Brugge (£34m) and Brighton paid a club-record £46m for defender Luka Vuskovic - notably bought from Tottenham, which tells you something about how highly both clubs rate him.
Three clubs also changed manager over the summer: Chelsea, Liverpool, and Manchester City all start the season under new leadership, which is worth factoring into your early-season reads - new managers often mean a settling-in period before a first-choice XI and set-piece hierarchy stabilizes. Worth watching closely for the first few gameweeks before committing too heavily to a "nailed" starter at any of the three.
The promoted three
Coventry City (Championship winners), Ipswich Town (automatic promotion, second place), and Hull City (play-off winners, beating Middlesbrough in the final) are back in the top flight. Ipswich strengthened immediately, signing Ghana international Abdul Fatawu Issahaku from Leicester for around £20m - a name worth knowing if you're hunting a cheap-enough differential from a promoted side.
Promoted teams are a genuine trap in Fantasy: cheap defenders and midfielders look tempting on price alone, but the model this site uses already accounts for the fact that promoted sides historically concede more and create less than their price tag suggests (see the fixture difficulty and outlook pages for the numbers, not the vibes).
What it means for prices
FPL's price reveals landed with a few standouts. Erling Haaland is priced at a record £15.5m - the highest any player has ever started a season at. Bruno Fernandes picked up one of the biggest rises in the game, up £3.0m to £12.0m, reflecting a genuinely huge 2025/26 for him. Gabriel Magalhaes (£8.0m) and Igor Thiago (£8.0m) both rose £2.0m on the back of strong campaigns, and Eli Junior Kroupi has climbed from £4.5m to £7.5m - a big jump for a name that wasn't on most radars twelve months ago.
On the incoming side, Morgan Rogers' move to Chelsea prices him at £7.5m, and Marcos Senesi's switch from Bournemouth to Tottenham prices him at £6.0m - both worth a look if you're building out midfield or defensive depth on a budget.
FPL itself is also launching a Price Change Predictor this season, using official transfer data to flag who's likely to rise or fall each night. It's the same signal our own Price Watch page tracks - net transfers in versus out, updated as the data comes in - so the two are worth checking together once the season and daily transfer activity are both live.
Early captain thinking
With the fixtures and prices now locked in, the early consensus is unsurprising: Haaland projects as the strongest Gameweek 1 armband if you can afford him, with Bruno Fernandes the best alternative if you can't. Gabriel gets mentioned as a differential captain option on set-piece and clean-sheet threat alone, for anyone wanting to break from the pack early.
On chip strategy, the early read is to hold your first Wildcard rather than rush it - form takes a few gameweeks to separate from noise - while Bench Boost is realistically playable as early as Gameweek 1 itself, since every squad starts with a full 15 players who all have a game to make an impact in.
Where to take this next
If you haven't built a squad yet, the Outlook page ranks every player by predicted points over your chosen run of fixtures, and Fixtures shows exactly which sides have the kindest run to target first. Once GW1 locks, My Squad will track your actual team and flag transfers automatically as prices and form move. We'll keep this blog updated as the picture sharpens closer to deadline day.
Sources: Fantasy Football Scout - confirmed summer signings, Fantasy Football Scout - price reveals, Premier League - Price Change Predictor, Premier League - Hull City promoted, Fantasy Football Hub - GW1 guide.