Fantasy Premier League gives you two FPL transfer windows whenever you choose – so you can switch up your entire team without points deductions
(Image credit: David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
Luckily for Fantasy Premier League players, you have two FPL wildcards to use. It's natural to want what your friends have, right?
Let's go back to basics on how FPL transfers work, though. You're permitted one free transfer per gameweek for your FPL team, which any other additional transfers allowed - but with at a cost: you'll be deducted four points.
A wildcard is a bonus chip, used in the transfer section, however. It allows you to make as many transfers as you like up until that deadline, all within the standard budget of £100.0m. Even if you've made transfers that were going to come with points deductions, use the wildcard and you won't lose any points at all.
The Wildcard chip can be used twice a season. It's only bonus chip that you can use twice – but you can't use any other chip, such as a Bench Boost or a Free Hit on the same week that you employ a Wildcard.
The Wildcard is the only chip that can't be rescinded, either. Once you've chosen to play it, there's no going back: but you don't have to make all your transfers at once and can still move players in and out before the deadline. It's a little like the game state at the start of the season.
When playing a wildcard, any saved free transfers that you made will be lost. You will be back to the usual one free transfer the following gameweek.
Fantasy Premier League: When should I use my Wildcard in FPL?
He knows when to make changes, doesn't he? (Image credit: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
There's no perfect time to use the Wildcard. Some users find it useful to have a gameweek of unlimited transfers when they've got a number of injuries; others find they've totally misjudged players and want to play their hand early on in the season.
Get the FourFourTwo Newsletter
The best features, fun and footballing quizzes, straight to your inbox every week.
It's worth seeing what happens with international breaks, too. If an international break is only a week away, it doesn't make much sense to make wholesale changes to your teams based on injuries – you might well find that the injured players simply picked up knocks and were kept out of international squads as a precaution.
One thing that might tempt you, however, is a change in manager. If, for example, a team switches their boss midseason, it could give a new manager bounce to some of their attackers and allow them to flourish.
Remember, there's no need to use the Wildcard at all, should you feel you don't need to. Don't feel pressured to employ a bonus chip, just because it's there.
Mark White is the Digital Content Editor at FourFourTwo. During his time on the brand, Mark has written three cover features on Mikel Arteta, Martin Odegaard and the Invincibles, and has written pieces on subjects ranging from Sir Bobby Robson’s time at Barcelona to the career of Robinho. An encyclopedia of football trivia and collector of shirts, he first joined the team back in 2020 as a staff writer.
