It’s that time of the year when we begin our exhaustive trawl through the Fantasy Premier League (FPL) price list. We start with the best £4.0m defenders.

Before 2023/24, we were often scrabbling around for one or two £4.0m playing FPL defenders at best. A lot of the time, these budget gems – such as John Lundstram and Tino Livramento – only revealed themselves during pre-season.

But last summer, the games-makers made it much easier to find £4.0m options with strong chances of starts.

Most of them came from the three promoted clubs – and that’s exactly the case this time around.

Here, we take a look through all 48 defenders currently listed at £4.0m and pick out the potential gems.

£4.0M DEFENDERS: THE PROMOTED TEAMS

Exactly half of the 48 defenders currently in FPL’s bargain basement play for Ipswich Town, Leicester City or Southampton.

IPSWICH TOWN

CHAMPIONSHIP RECORD: 2023/24

Let’s get the non-options out of the way. Elkan Baggott (£4.0m) and Corrie Ndaba (£4.0m) have never featured in the Championship, let alone the Premier League, spending last season on loan at other clubs.

George Edmundson (£4.0m) is also way down the pecking order at centre-half. Harry Clarke (£4.0m), meanwhile, is now possibly third in line at right-back despite featuring prominently for much of last season.

There’s uncertainty even beyond these bit-part players.

Cameron Burgess (£4.0m) and Luke Woolfenden (£4.0m) were the first-choice centre-half pairing in the English second tier. Burgess seems to have already been usurped, however, with the arrival of Jacob Greaves (£4.0m). The new £15m signing from Hull City is, like Burgess, a left-sided centre-half. He was also one of the Championship’s most highly-rated defenders last season.

Woolfenden, not much of a goal threat with only six shots last season, has yet to see any competition arrive on the right. However, Axel Tuanzebe (£4.0m) – so far mainly used as a right-back who tucks infield by Kieran McKenna – could feasibly be moved to his more natural centre-half spot. Pre-season will be an interesting watch.

Ben Johnson (£4.0m) has arrived, presumably to take up the right-back slot once occupied by Clarke and Tuanzebe. Would he have moved without game-time assurances? Either way, he’ll offer much less attacking threat than opposite full-back Leif Davis (£4.5m), a glorified winger who delivered an astonishing 18 assists in 2023/24.

Our guess at Ipswich’s backline, as things stand, would be Johnson/Woolfenden/Greaves/Davis.

LEICESTER CITY

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