Every summer the FPL community goes hunting for cheap gems in the promoted sides. This year our AI Rating has a blunt message: don’t bother. Across all 89 players from Coventry, Hull and Ipswich, only two rise above the model’s floor rating — and every single one of them carries a Sell verdict. Here is what the engine behind our FPL AI Player Rankings actually makes of the promoted teams for 2026/27, live as of the GW1 deadline.
Why the model is so cold on them
The reason is baked into how the rating works: it rewards proven Premier League minutes, and that is exactly what promoted squads lack. Most of these players have never kicked a ball in the top flight, so the model has almost no positive signal to go on and defaults them to the floor. Add three of the toughest opening runs in the league — Coventry, Hull and Ipswich all sit among the hardest GW1–5 schedules in our fixture analysis — and the case for spending real money here evaporates. Promoted sides tend to concede, so clean sheets are unlikely early, and the attacking output is a guess.
The only two above the floor
Tellingly, the only two promoted players the model lifts off the floor are the two with genuine Premier League pedigree. Issa Diop (Ipswich, £4.0, rating 53) is the standout — a centre-back with years of top-flight football at West Ham and Fulham behind him, and at the minimum £4.0 price a defender the crowd expects to start. That is why he is already 19.5% owned, comfortably the most-backed promoted asset in the game. But note the Sell verdict: he is a cheap body who plays, not a points source.
Frank Onyeka (Coventry, £5.0, rating 40) — a Premier League midfielder at Brentford not long ago — is the only other name above the floor, and even he lands on a Sell. The pattern is no accident: the two ex-Premier League players are the two the model half-trusts.
Everyone else: bench fodder for now
The rest of the promoted contingent sits at the model’s floor of 18–19, ownership barely registering. Names FPL managers will recognise — Sammie Szmodics, Jaden Philogene and Daizen Maeda at Ipswich, Oli McBurnie and Chuba Akpom up front — are all rated the same near-bottom number for now. That is not a verdict on their ability; it is the model saying it has nothing to reward yet. The promoted keepers, Jack Butland at Hull among them, exist purely as £4.0–£4.5 non-playing bench filler.
The verdict
The sensible play is narrow. If you need a £4.0 defender to fill your bench and free up cash, Issa Diop is the one the crowd trusts and the only promoted player the model half-rates. Beyond that, keep your money in teams the engine actually backs. Revisit this in a few gameweeks — if Coventry, Hull or Ipswich start well, the ratings will move fast, and we will flag it.
See the whole board in our FPL AI Player Rankings, and read the rest of this series: best goalkeepers, best defenders, best midfielders, best forwards, captain picks and our value picks. New to the number? Start with how our AI Rating works and how to use it to build your team.
Our ratings are generated by an AI model from official FPL data and refreshed every gameweek. Fantasy PL Edge is an independent site and is not affiliated with the Premier League or the official Fantasy Premier League game.