PlayTheGame

Gareth Bale - He wanted to join Manchester United but settled for Tottenham Hotspur and, to the fantasy manager, this should make Bale a more attractive proposition. Quite possibly the left back signed from Southampton could be the most profitable in his position outside those playing for the Big Four.

His principal quality is that left foot. Repeatedly in the Championship and for Wales he has shown a Beckham-like ability to create with it swerve, pace and accuracy from open play and a set-piece. Given a run in the Tottenham first team, he is almost certain to score goals and earn assists.

It is on this point that his decision to compromise with a move to White Hart Lane is important. At United or a side of similar standing he would almost certainly have served an apprenticeship behind a player of greater experience. United, for example, have the excellent Patrice Evra, and in Ryan Giggs a left-footed dead ball expert of more established status than his fellow Welshman.

At Spurs Benoit Assou-Ekotto is the next best left-back and the only other left-footed player allowed to take set-pieces. Remember him? Nor, it seems, does Martin Jol, who selected him on only 16 occasions last season - and that was only partly due to the injuries the Frenchman suffered.

Bale, then, is likely to start for Spurs and will be given the responsibility of taking corners and free-kicks. Given that his most likely targets from these will be Darren Bent and Dimitar Berbatov the teenager can expect to see his deliveries converted into goals and, thus, copious fantasy points.

Steven Reid - Wait, don´t laugh. Yes, Steven Reid, the water carrier with the weakened knee, the converted defender at the fulcrum of one of the Premiership´s most workmanlike midfields and the player who makes Robbie Savage looks creative. Yes, Reid could strengthen your fantasy squad.

Why? Several reasons. Firstly, an injury to his anterior cruciate ligament meant that he hardly played at all last season so he is unlikely to figure in the minds of rival managers so it should be easy to manipulate the rankings sufficiently to get him into your squad.

Secondly, the Reid of old is long gone. The callow full-back who looked embarrasingly out of his depth in his first year at Blackburn Rovers has become a central midfielder who passes accurately and defends solidly. The first attribute wins him points directly, the second helps to win them for his team. More crucial, however, is that he possesses one of the most fearsome shots in England.

Consider the 30-yard screamer scored against Wigan that won the December 2005 goal of the month award. Or the cannonball match-winner against Sunderland in the same season after a run from the halfway line. Few players available to you are capable of either feat.

The case for his inclusion does not end there, either. At 5ft 11in he poses a threat in the air, a fact perhaps best proven by the brave header he scored against the Premiership champions Chelsea in May 2006 to ensure his side qualified for the Uefa Cup. Plus, in Blackurn, qualifiers for Europe in four the past six seasons, he plays for one of the most consistent second-tier clubs in the Premiership.

See, Reid is your man. Just don´t expect to offload him easily.

Eduardo da Silva - The speed with which Arsene Wenger acted spoke volumes. A fortnight after Thierry Henry had bid au revoir to Arsenal, their manager, usually among the most cautious in the transfer market, had reportedly spent almost eight million on a replacement.

So how good is Eduardo da Silva? Let´s look at the statistics. In 104 appearances for Dinamo Zagreb he scored 73 times, a phenomenal return. On loan to Inker Zapresic, his only other club, he contributed 10 goals in just 15 games. Recalled by Croatia after the 2006 World Cup he has netted eight in 14 international appearances. And he scored the same number in only 12 U-21 matches.

But will he adapt to the rigours of the Premier League? Well, the evidence again supports his case. Last season he was the only Zagreb player to appear in all of their 18 matches before the winter break. In November he played for his club and country in the space of four days and scored a hat-trick for both. Nothing in da Silva´s background suggests he will crack during a congested fixture pile-up.

Then there is the Wenger factor. The Charles Saatchi of football can spot a young talent worth millions apparently before any of his contemporaries and knows perfectly how to develop them. Vieira, Anelka, Henry, Fabregas. The list is long, oft-repeated and only slightly undermined by the exception that was Francis Jeffers. If da Silva is good enough for Wenger, he should be good enough for you.

Martin Petrov - In Bulgaria he is more revered than Dimitar Berbatov and won the 2006 Bulgarian footballer of the year just as his countryman at Spurs had begun to pull apart the best Premiership defences.

Petrov won that honour for a string of superlative performances in his country´s qualifying campaign for the 2006 European Championships. Playing on the left wing, he scored once in a win over Slovenia, again in a draw against Holland and, most critically, twice against Romania to earn his side a point when the game appeared lost. This is a player who beats goalkeepers as well as defenders.

Admittedly, in two seasons at Atletico Madrid he did not score as many goals as a manager might expect of a player in his position but his number of assists compensated for that. In 36 appearances in his first season he earned eight. In nine matches last year he set up two goals, while also scoring two. And three seasons ago he shined like a man apart in the German Bundesliga for VfL Wolfsburg, scoring 12 and creating 14 in only 30 matches.
When he played, basically, he pointed.

Coveted by Spurs, he made perhaps a strange decision to join Manchester City, but their style could suit him. With England, Sven-Goran Eriksson often suited his tactics to players who he felt could get behind a defence. Think Darius Vassell and Emile Heskey. He will probably do the same with Petrov, a player with much more to his game than either of those two - he could hardly have less.

Kieran Richardson - As unlikely reunions with Roy Keane go, Richardson´s only barely fall short of Niall Quinn´s. This is a player who the Sunderland manager, when captain of Manchester United, famously felt deserved a demotion to the reserves such was his complacency. Intriguing then that Keane now considers him worthy of a place in the Sunderland first team. The Irishman clearly feels the winger has grown up.

He certainly has talent. Only 22, he made his United debut in the Champions League only two days after his 18th birthday, has been involved with the England team intermittently for two years and was one of an excellent U-21 side´s best players at the recent European Championships.

His statistics show promise, too. On loan to West Bromwich Albion, he scored once in every four games and was easily their most creative outlet in a miraculous escape from relegation. Two seasons ago, he scored six times for United despite playing frequently out of position at left back.

Do Sunderland have the firepower to convert his creativity into goals? Well, aside from new signing Michael Chopra, they possess two distinct and relatively unknown young talents in Anthony Stokes and Daryl Murphy. The former not long ago scored 18 goals in 16 games on a prodigious loan spell to Falkirk while Murphy was regarded as the find of Ireland´s recent tour of America.

Yes, neither of these strikers have produced in the Premiership, but the fantasy manager must take a risk to gain an edge. And if Roy Keane, a man who has not known failure as a manager or player, has gambled on Richardson that should be insurance enough. I mean, would you argue with him?

And so our list thus far is as follows:
Robin Van Persie (Arsenal)
Sulley Muntari (Portsmouth)
Andriy Voronin (Liverpool)
David Healy (Fulham)
David Bentley (Blackburn Rovers)
Luke Moore (Aston Villa)
Adel Taarabt (Tottenham)
Darren Bent (Tottenham)
Michael Dawson (Tottenham)
Joey Barton (Newcastle United)
Shay Given (Newcastle United)
Kieran Richardson (Sunderland)
Emmanuel Eboue (Arsenal)
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (Manchester United)
Shaun Wright-Phillips (Chelsea)
Tom Huddlestone (Tottenham)
Gareth Bale (Tottenham)
Steven Reid (Blackburn)
Eduardo da Silva (Arsenal)
Martin Petrov (Manchester City)
Kieran Richardson (Sunderland)