Transfers are where most FPL seasons are won or quietly lost. The mechanics are simple, but the judgement — when to move, when to sit still, when to take a hit — is what separates a top-100k finish from mid-table. This page covers how the system works and how to think about it.

Your free transfer

Each gameweek you receive one free transfer. Use it and nothing is deducted. Every additional transfer in the same gameweek costs points, deducted from that gameweek’s score — commonly called “taking a hit”.

A hit is not automatically bad. It is a bet: you are wagering the deducted points that the incoming player will outscore the outgoing one by more than that over the horizon you care about. Sometimes obviously worth it, usually not.

Banking free transfers

If you do not use your free transfer, it rolls over so you have more available next gameweek. Banked transfers accumulate up to a cap rather than indefinitely, so there is no benefit to sitting on them for months.

Rolling is genuinely useful when:

• You want to make two connected moves next week — sell an expensive player and fund a specific replacement.
• Team news is unclear and waiting one week costs you nothing.
• You are approaching a blank or double gameweek and want flexibility.

It is less useful when your squad has a real problem now. A rolled transfer that leaves an injured player in your starting XI for another week is a false economy.

When a hit is worth it

The honest framing: a hit needs to earn its cost back plus a margin, because you are also taking on risk.

Reasonable cases for taking one:

• An unplayable squad. Two or three injured or suspended starters means you are effectively fielding fewer players. Fixing that is usually worth the points.
• A strong multi-week upgrade. If the incoming player has a materially better fixture run over the next four to six gameweeks, the gap compounds.
• Getting to a chip in good shape. Sometimes a hit sets up a Bench Boost or Free Hit that returns considerably more.

Poor cases:

• Chasing last week’s haul. Buying a player because he just scored twice is the most expensive habit in the game — you pay a hit and often a raised price for form that has already happened.
• One-week punts. A hit for a single favourable fixture rarely clears the bar.
• Restlessness. Making a move because you feel you should be doing something is the most common reason managers bleed points across a season.

The FPL Assistant models this directly: it compares your weakest owned player against the best affordable replacement in the same position and only recommends a move when the projected gain clears a threshold. Otherwise it tells you to hold.

Prices, selling and squad value

Player prices move through the season based on net transfer activity across all managers. Heavily bought players rise; heavily sold players fall.

The important wrinkle is how selling works. When a player you own rises in price, you do not always recover the full increase — a portion of the gain is retained by the game. Your selling price is therefore sometimes below the current market price, and it is the selling price that determines what you can afford.

Practical consequences:

• Check your actual selling price before planning a move, not the headline price.
• Squad value is a slow advantage, not a fast one. A higher-value squad gives you more room to manoeuvre later, but chasing price rises at the expense of points is backwards.
• Price changes usually process overnight. The Price Changes tool tracks daily risers and fallers.

Never take a hit purely to catch a price rise. The rise is worth a fraction of a point in practical terms; the hit is not.

Transfers and chips

Two chips change the transfer rules entirely for the week you play them:

• Wildcard — unlimited transfers with no points deduction, and the new squad is permanent. Use it when your team needs rebuilding rather than repairing.
• Free Hit — unlimited transfers for one gameweek only, after which your squad reverts to exactly what it was. Built for blank and double gameweeks.

Both still enforce the standard squad rules: 15 players, the same positional split, the budget, and a maximum of three players from any one club. Full detail on the chips guide.

Planning ahead

Good transfer decisions rarely start on deadline day. They come from noticing a fixture swing three weeks out and moving before everyone else does — which is also cheaper, because you buy before the price rises.

Two tools help directly: the Fixture Planner shows the difficulty matrix over coming gameweeks, and the Fixture Ticker & Rotation finds pairs of cheap players whose fixtures alternate well so one of them always has a good match.

A simple weekly routine

1. Check availability first. Injuries and suspensions in your starting XI outrank everything else.
2. Then look three to six gameweeks ahead, not just at the next one.
3. Decide whether any move clears the bar. If nothing does, roll the transfer — that is a decision, not a failure.
4. Revisit before the deadline for late press-conference news.

Team news through the week is on the Team News hub.

Frequently asked questions

How many free transfers do I get?

One per gameweek, and unused ones bank up to a cap. Playing a Wildcard or Free Hit gives unlimited transfers for that week instead.

Do transfers reset if I do not use them?

They do not vanish — they roll over, subject to the cap on how many you can hold at once.

Why can I not afford a player who looks within budget?

Almost always the selling price of the player you are moving out is lower than his displayed price. Check the selling price shown in your squad, not the market price.

Does a hit apply to future gameweeks too?

No. The deduction applies once, to the gameweek in which you made the transfer.

Should I take a hit to fix an injured player?

Usually yes if he was a starter and the alternative is fielding an unavailable player. A non-playing starter scores nothing, which is a bigger loss than the hit.