The base price for a midfielder in the EPL fantasy league is £4.5m. Like most other seasons, this year most of the key all-star players have increased in price, meaning a lot of people are looking to squeeze in base price players to accomodate their bigger names.
Today we are looking at the basement priced mids, and trying to find players who are likely to earn enough points to make them worthwhile additions to your team.

Man Utd are likely to be one of the top two best defensive teams in the league, and with their especially easy opening three fixtures, a Man Utd defender - or two - will make a very good choice.
Of their backline, Vidic is the premium choice. Although expensive for a defender, if he can repeat last seasons points haul then he will be worth the price.

Croatian winger Daniel Pranjic is the latest player to be linked with a summer move to Anfield, but is he good enough to enhance the side and help take the club to the next level?
Pranjic's agent revealed Liverpool's purported interest earlier this week:
"I can confirm that several English and Spanish clubs are looking at Pranjic.

Rafael Benitez is reportedly interested in signing Marseille captain Lorik Cana as a potential replacement for Xabi Alonso. Is he a player that would improve the team? Take a look at the clip and decide for yourself.
How many fouls did he commit in the above footage?!
The club already has a tough-tackling central midfielder in Javier Mascherano – is there a pressing need for another player with a similar style?

There has been a lot of discussion recently over the individual merits of Fernando Torres and Wayne Rooney. Both have had great starts to the new season, and both are vitally important to their respective clubs...but who is the better player? It's a tough question to answer objectively, but the following in-depth, objective analysis shows quite clearly that Torres is the more consistently effective performer.

One-time US international forward Eddie Johnson has been deemed surplus to requirements at Fulham FC and is one of several players being shopped around by the Premier League club as they hope to offload payroll during the upcoming transfer window.
The news should come as no surprise to those who have followed EJ's career since leaving Major League Soccer nearly 24 months ago.

To put it bluntly: the L.A. Galaxy fans didn't exactly give David Beckham a warm welcome in his first game back at the Home Depot Center.
It probably didn't help that the opponent was the last team the Englishman played for: AC Milan.
Beckham was booed in the pregame introductions and during every touch throughout the game.

Actually, yes, and the facts prove this. Dirk Kuyt is, for all intents and purposes, undroppable. And what have Liverpool gained this season as a result of Rafa Benitez's favouritism? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.
I'm sorry to belabour this point but favouritism is on the things that I despise the most in football.

Fernando Torres - what a player. Here is his superb hat-trick from today's game at Anfield.
First goal
Second goal
Third goal
Two great assists from Yossi Benayoun too. As I've argued for ages - start Benayoun and he will invariably score or create goals.

Liverpool recently signed ex-Roma midfielder Aquilani. Whilst he is a very good player, Aquilani has an infamous reputation for injuries, and at Roma he was cruelly labelled by fans as 'Swarovski' due to his constant physical problems. In the last three seasons Aquilani has made just 13, 21 and 14 league appearances respectively due mainly to injuries.

Guillermo Franco is a 33-year-old Mexican striker acquired as a free signing for West Ham, and has been a starting forward since Gameweek 10. Over the last 5 games he has scored twice. At £5.0m, he represents a player who may make an excellent cheap third striker. With the long list of injuries hitting the major strikers (Drogba, Van Persie, Torres, and a possible hamstring injury to Darren Bent) and the forthcoming absences of Stoke, Fulham, Everton and Hull from Gameweek 17, active strikers may be thin on the ground.

Teal Bunbury is a player to watch out for. (University of Akron photos)

While the MLS season is about to end it only means one thing, the SuperDraft is just right around the corner. Yes, that means a boat load of college kids will head to the combine for MLS coaches and scouts to pick out and find the very best of the best.

If the title sounds a tad sensationalist, I apologize. The headline is merely there to state my disgust. Few blog posts ago I had said I wouldn't comment extensively on transfer rumours. But when I came across this one, I was annoyed.
Robin Van Persie to Manchester Utd.
Don't worry folks, it isn't real.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

As we hit the quarter pole of the MLS season, it is time to take a first look at some of the races for MLS awards. While there is still plenty of soccer to be played, and candidates can still rise and fall, eight games is enough of a sample size to start getting an early idea about serious contenders and the strength of a field.

According to a Sky Sports report, French club Rennes has expressed interest in acquiring USMNT midfielder Ricardo Clark.
Clark, 26, was a major part of the American squad that made a compelling run all the way to the Confederations Cup final. The Houston Dynamo midfielder started in four of their five matches, missing only the first meeting with Brazil while serving a one-game suspension for a red card offense for a late tackle in the game against Italy.

According to John Arne Riise, new Liverpool signing Alberto Aquilani carries a greater goal threat than the recently departed Xabi Alonso. Whilst that would clearly be fantastic for the team, is it actually true?
In an interview, Riise stated:
"He's [Aquilani] is really good on the ball, with good passing, good movement, he works hard and is a good professional".

The US did not play particularly well, but three points is three points. After the loss at Azteca, the most important thing the US needed to do was put a W up on the board, and they did that. There passing was poor, their link-up play was stilted, and their defense of the wings was a constant worry, but they got that vital win.

Former Drury Panther captain, Cody Reinberg, continues his development by signing with USL-2 Harrisburg City Islanders.

A native of Missouri, Cody Reinberg joins the Islanders after a year with another elite PDL club the Des Moines Menace. Prior to joining the Menace, he was a four-year starter at Drury University in Springfield, MO.

If United had to lose on penalties, I wish it was Carlos Tevez that missed one. We love him and he would have been forgiven. Most likely he will already be forgiven for going AWOL for the entire game today.

Dimitar Berbatov is a different kettle of fish though. For whatever reason, the fans are already against him.

By definition, the Donnety Award goes to the player who has been the biggest disappointment for DC United in 2009. The award's namesake Matias Donnet came to United in 2006 and was seen as a potential all star due to his pedigree after playing for Boca Juniors, as well as spending some time in Serie A.

As found on the Insider, the USSF released the names today for the preliminary Gold Cup roster.

And of course its just the same old names. Why would we expect anything more? It seems that Bradley automatically gives preference to anybody on a team in Europe, regardless of how good that player is, how good that team is, or if that player receives any playing time with that team.

By definition, the Richie Award goes to the most underrated player on the United roster. The award's namesake Richie Williams was probably the hardest working player on our championship teams in the 90s, but flew mostly under the radar when compared to the better known players.
Last year's winner by a wide margin was Clyde Simms, earning over 50% of the vote.

We've covered the forwards, and we've covered the front office. Heck, our front office results actually have been 100% correct so far, with Tom Soehn leaving the team and Kasper and Payne set to return. We'll have to wait a while to find out if our forward results are correct, but in the meantime, let's see what everyone has to say about our attacking midfielders.

Looks like Dominic Cervi, a young American goalkeeper, is set to join Celtic. He had trained with the national team after rejecting a Major League Soccer contract.
It's always nice to see Yanks sign abroad.
Turns out, another young lad is turning heads over in Europe.
15-year-old midfielder Luis Gil has received some interest from Arsenal.

Midfielder joins. D.C. after two years in Spain, Italy
Washington, D.C. (July 15, 2009) - D.C. United today acquired midfielder Danny Szetela via its #2 allocation ranking. Szetela joins the Black-and-Red after spending two-plus years in Spain's La Liga and Italy's Serie B. The 22-year old is currently with the team and will be available for selection upon receipt of his International Transfer Certificate.

Steve Zakuani makes a strong case for ROY. (Getty Images)

Last night in the links and thoughts we discussed the MVP race that is heating up, tonight we shall take a look into an even tougher Rookie of the Year race. We all know how deep this year's rookie class is and right now we could make a serious case for about five or six guys.

Andre Akpan could be a beast on the next level. (Harvard photos)

Last week I threw out some names that you may have already heard in line for next year's MLS SuperDraft and I am back today with a few more. I hope to start making this list at least a twice a month deal up until the draft in January.

We already knew this, but Avoiding the Drop crunches some numbers to show how Guillermo was the most productive and economical designated player in the league last year:

He had more goals (14), more combined goals and assists (17), and – probably the biggest factor for the Crew – was the cheapest on a per-goal basis* ($38,235).

This past week DC United's Jaime Moreno became the only MLS player to reach career marks of both 100 goals and 100 assists. To put that into perspective, there are only four 100-goal scorers in league history (Moreno leads with 122) and just five 100-assist men.
It is possible that two players could join the 100 goal club this season.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

You can add the name Luis Gil to the growing list of young American prospects getting looks from top European clubs.

Gil has been training with English power Arsenal FC since May 11th and could wind up joining the club's youth academy.

Coming on to start the second half, Eddie Johnson set up Erik Nevland on his first and third goals, helping Fulham break open a 1-0 lead en route to a 5-0 victory over Perth Glory. Eddie's now got a goal and two assists in his last two substitute appearances in Fulham's preseason tour of Australia.

Yossi Benayoun's creative contribution over the last year proves that it is in Liverpool's best interests to start him as often as possible, but despite this, he is STILL in and out of the first team. What more does Benayoun have to do to join the list of automatic starters?
I know I've made this point before, but I feel it needs to be made again.

By definition, the Convey Award goes to DC United's rookie of the year. The award's namesake is Bobby Convey, who coincidentally is on the other side today. Convey was very promising in his short time here in DC, and started 18 matches his rookie season, which sounded like a lot until this year.
Last year's Convey Award went to Ryan Cordeiro with a huge 76% margin.

Last week I made a big mistake in reading too much into the results of a win against a weak opponent. Learning my lesson, let's just say that this match was a pleasure to watch. This is the second time this season United has scored five goals, and it looked like the boys were having fun out there.
Does that mean though that they will carry this momentum into the match Saturday against Chivas?

That's right, they get me all hot and bothered. Why you ask? Well if you saw how we played against Manchester City yesterday then they would be making you wet as well. Remember when I was talking about that 4-2-3-1 formation? Well we went with it and it worked incredibly well. The lineup looked like this:
Almunia
Sagna-Gallas-Toure-Clichy
Song-Denilson
Walcott-Cesc-Arshavin
Adebayor
Adebayor and Cesc were both making their returns from long term injury absences and neither one of them was the least bit disappointing.

This 'article' sure is something... Laura Williamson has apparently been keeping tabs on what British players have been doing in MLS. She works some 'subtle' jabs into what initially appeared to be an innocent "What are they up to now?" article. Here are the highlights:

Major League Soccer is on the verge of saying bye to Becks but it remains the resting home for a bunch of British 'talent'.

According to Jamie Redknapp, Ronaldo is into "individual awards" and will be pressuring Sir Alex Ferguson this week because he will want the golden boot for the EPL's top scorer. Obviously. But will Sir Alex listen to C-Ron?
Ronaldo's competitor, Nicolas Anelka, is more likely to feature for the full 90 minutes against Sunderland as Chelsea hope to sneak into 2nd place over Liverpool (incredibly unlikely but possible with a comfortable win over Sunderland and a Tottenham upset at Liverpool.

One of the many reasons for D.C. United's steady start has been the play of Santino Quaranta. The midfielder/forward leads his side in assists, and has notched two goals, including the game tying goal against Chivas USA a few weeks back. His story is one that deserves to be told overcoming addiction and learning how to appreciate life.

Here's a brief update on a story we had speculated on earlier in the day. Toronto FC and Rohan Ricketts have agreed to a deal that will release the winger from his guaranteed contract in a move announced by the club early this afternoon via a brief press release. He had been scheduled to make $165,000 for the 2009 season.

The Galaxy are desperate for goals.

Oft-injured Chivas USA forward Alecko Eskandarian, who has scored just six goals in 18 games since joining the club from Real Salt Lake in January 2008, was traded today to intrastadium rivals the Galaxy.

To make room for the 26-year-old forward, the Galaxy waived midfielder Josh Tudela who has played 23 games for the club since being selected in the 2007 SuperDraft.