FPL Transfers GW35: Buy the City DGW, Sell the Salah Hole

Data current as of: 2 May 2026 Window covered: GW35 to GW38 Assumptions: Salah ruled out for the rest of the season (return date 24 May per FPL API). Manchester City have a confirmed double in GW36. Prices reflect the latest price-change snapshot.

Three things are true going into the GW35 to GW38 window. Salah is out for the season. City have a double in GW36 against opposition that includes Crystal Palace at the Etihad. And the price-change market has decisively turned: Crystal Palace and City assets are rising, Liverpool attackers and Cole Palmer are bleeding ownership.

If you still own Salah, your transfer is forced. If you don’t, your decision is whether to chase the City DGW with one or two moves, or to hold a free transfer for GW37 setup. Below is the case for each.

Top transfer target 1: Erling Haaland (FWD, £14.6m)

Fixture run: GW35 (1 fixture) | GW36 (2 fixtures, double) | GW37 | GW38 Ownership trend: Net transfers in 13,420 (high) Projected total GW35-38: 22.6 pts (model, 7.60 + 7.60 average across DGW + 3.37 + 4.07)

Haaland is the cleanest transfer in the window. The model has him at 7.60 expected points for GW35, then a combined 7.60 across his two GW36 fixtures (3.64 + 3.96), then 3.37 in GW37 and 4.07 in GW38. That’s roughly 22.6 expected points across four GWs, which is what you’d want from a £14.6m investment.

The price is also moving. Net transfers in are 13,420 high, which is rise-territory tonight or tomorrow. If you’re going to buy Haaland for the DGW, buy now.

Why now: GW36 DGW is the Triple Captain spot for many managers. Owning Haaland for that spot is the difference between catching a swing and watching one go by.

Top transfer target 2: Tijjani Reijnders or Rayan Cherki (MID, MCI)

Cherki projection: 7.93 pts GW35, 8.14 across GW36 DGW (3.79 + 4.14), 3.40 GW37 Cherki price: £6.5m, net transfers in 13,632 (high, leading the table) Underlying: xG 0.29, xA 0.48, season xA 10.06

Cherki is the other side of the City DGW play. At £6.5m he’s the highest-projected midfielder this week (7.93 pts) and his GW36 double adds another 8 points to the line. Season xA of 10.06 is elite for the price, and he’s the leading riser in the price market. If Haaland is out of budget, Cherki is the cheaper way to buy the same DGW exposure plus a higher-ceiling creative profile.

Squad fit: Best as a Palmer or Saka downgrade. Sub-£7m midfielders rarely project at 7.93 pts. Take the offer.

Top transfer target 3: Crystal Palace defender (Guéhi, Lacroix, Richards, all £4.4m to £5.1m)

Guéhi: 10.05 projected GW35 (xG 0.24, xA 0.05, pStart 84%) Lacroix: 6.54 projected (xG 0.11, pStart 73%) Richards: 6.52 projected (£4.4m, pStart 84%)

Three of the five highest-projected defenders this week are Crystal Palace centre-backs. They share a winnable home fixture, all carry penalty-area attacking threat from set-pieces (the 2025/26 set-piece taker reference lists Mateta as the locked Palace pen #1 and the corner profile that feeds the centre-backs), and the cheapest of them (Richards at £4.4m) is functionally a bench-flip option for any squad still running a 4.0 placeholder.

Crystal Palace are also riding net transfers in (Muñoz already rose £0.1m today, Lacroix 5,722 net high). Buying any of these defenders means buying into both this week’s clean-sheet odds and the GW36 DGW upside if Glasner rotates the same back four.

Squad fit: Replace any £4.5m defender who isn’t starting. Replace any £5m defender on a bad fixture run.

Sell candidate 1: Mohamed Salah (MID, £14.0m)

Status: Muscle injury, expected back 24 May (post GW38) Why now: He will not play another GW this season

This is the forced move. If your team still has Salah, the £14.0m sitting on your bench is the most expensive non-asset in FPL. Sell him for Haaland (a £0.6m sidegrade), Cherki plus an £7.5m upgrade elsewhere, or split the funds across a Cherki plus a Crystal Palace defender for the DGW. Anything is better than holding.

The only reason not to sell Salah is if you’re already carrying a hit and would need a second one to fund the move. In that case, captain elsewhere and use your free transfer next week to start the rebuild.

Sell candidate 2: Cole Palmer (MID, £10.5m)

Form: 1.5 (collapsed) Underlying GW35: 2.72 projected, xG 0.14, xA 0.10 Price: Net transfers minus 3,879 (high), price falling risk

Palmer’s projection is now in line with sub-£6m midfielders. Form 1.5, GW35 expected 2.72 pts, GW36 (single) 2.16 pts. The fixture profile from GW35 to GW38 doesn’t include a single matchup that flips the model in his favour. If you’re holding Palmer because he was the team’s third premium, the position is gone.

Best replacement: Cherki at £6.5m frees £4.0m for elsewhere. Bruno at £10.4m is a like-for-like alternative if you want to keep the heavy creative midfielder slot.

Sell candidate 3: Liverpool attackers (Ekitiké, Szoboszlai, Wirtz)

Ekitiké: £9.0m, net transfers minus 3,760 (high), price falling today Szoboszlai: £7.0m, net transfers minus 3,497 (high), price falling today Wirtz: £8.3m, GW35 projected 3.33 pts

Liverpool’s attack without Salah hasn’t held up. Ekitiké’s price fell today, Szoboszlai’s price fell today, and Wirtz projects under 3.5 pts despite a £8.3m price tag. If you bought any of these as a Salah hedge earlier in the year, the hedge is no longer hedging.

Why now: Two of these three already lost a price tonight. Selling tomorrow costs you another £0.1m if the trend continues.

The hold call: Bryan Mbeumo (MID, £8.4m)

GW35 projected: 2.45 pts (single) GW36 to GW38: 2.60 + 2.25 + 2.22

Mbeumo is the player you do not need to move on yet. The projections are pedestrian (sub-2.6 across the run) but he’s not in the price-fall danger zone, his minutes at Manchester United are stable (74% pStart), and the bonus profile is intact. If you own him and your free transfer is best spent on Cherki or Haaland, leave Mbeumo in the squad. The model says don’t pay a hit to upgrade him.

Why hold: The downside on Mbeumo is capped, the upside on the alternative (a hit to fund a marginal upgrade) is negative.

Transfer strategy by squad shape

One free transfer, own Salah: Salah out, Haaland or Cherki in. No hit.
One free transfer, no Salah, no Haaland: Haaland in for any £14m+ premium that isn’t named Bruno. If you already own a £14m premium that’s hauling, spend the FT on Cherki or a Crystal Palace defender.
Two free transfers: Salah and Palmer out, Haaland and Cherki in. Build the City DGW core.
Wildcard considered: If you’ve held your wildcard this long, the case to play it now is real. The City DGW is a wildcard-worthy event. See our wildcard chip guide for the full timing logic.

Pair this with our GW35 captain picks for the armband side, and the final 4 gameweeks rank recovery playbook for how to spend chips against this calendar. The previous deadline’s read on the same overlapping names (B.Fernandes, Semenyo, Saka) sits in the GW34 transfer watchlist if you want the lineage. The case for the City DGW as a Triple Captain target is in the Triple Captain final gameweeks guide.

Get transfer suggestions tailored to your actual squad and budget.

Prices, ownership, and projections from FPL Pilot production data as of 2 May 2026. Salah injury and DGW36 confirmed via FPL API. Price-change net-transfer numbers update hourly, sub before deadline if the trend has held.