Fuller, Stoke City

It can always be difficult in the Preseason to pick players to fill your team, especially from the newly promoted clubs. Many of them will be transferring in new players who have experience playing Premier League football, and this can mean players who played large amounts of gametime in the previous season find themselves out in the cold.

As a newly promoted club, Stoke have lots of discount players on their inventory. However cheap doesnt always equal good; starting at £5.5m Fuller is affordable, but will he be worth having?

One big plus in the Fuller column is that last season he shared penalty taking duties with Lawrence. Its always a good choice to have Penalty takers in our squad, so this is favourable. He also picked up his fair share of cards last season, so this may hinder his tally on occasional weeks.

Stoke open their 2008-2009 Premiership campaign against Bolton away; at home to Villa; then away to Middlesborough. Not a bad draw and they face none of the Big Four early on. The fixture list provides as good a chance as any for Fuller to get a goal or two much like Darren Bent for Charlton three seasons ago; if he does, his value will climb which could be an opportunity to make a quick million early before flicking him off after the third or fourth week.

But most importanty he started nearly every game last season, and is likely to get a large amount of minutes again this season. Add the occasional goal and the plus that he is a penalty taker, and he is probably a good choice as a sub to warm the bench alongside your two big name strikers.