The 5 most-expensive players yet to reach 100 points this season

Swerving trapdoors is just as important as unearthing hidden gems in the world of Dream Team.

Generally speaking, the higher a player’s price the better they are but this is just a trend, not an unbreakable rule.

As the season progresses, some of the budget-busting stars reveal themselves to be a waste of resources, for one reason or another.

At this late stage of the campaign, the 100 Club is anything but exclusive with 64 players having amassed a century of points — six players have doubled up and one of those, Harry Kane (£7.0m), has even breached the 300-point mark.

We’ve identified the five most-expensive players yet to reach 100 points to prove that all glitters is not gold…

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Danny Ings (£4.1m) – 98 points

It hasn’t been a bad season for Southampton’s No9 by any stretch of the imagination.

Ings has scored 11 goals and provided four assists in all competitions from 29 appearances.

The 28-year-old is Saints’ top scorer and only James Ward-Prowse (£3.1m) has registered more points from St Mary’s in 2020/21.

So while Ings has enjoyed a respectable campaign, it doesn’t measure up to his extraordinary 2019/20, when he bagged 25 goals in all competitions, becoming a Dream Team cult hero in the process.

In fairness, his campaign has also been disrupted by injury.

Raul Jimenez (£4.3m) – 37 points

No blame can be attached to the Mexican here as his season was cut short be a sickening head injury.

Jimenez suffered a fractured skull after a collision with David Luiz (£2.4m) back in November and hasn’t played since.

Wolves have struggled without their target man this season — they’ve scored fewer goals than Crystal Palace, Newcastle and Brighton.

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Emerson Palmieri (£4.8m) – 94 points

All is not as it seems with this one.

The Italy international is a peripheral figure at Stamford Bridge but he’s fallen into puddles of points whenever he’s been given a run out.

In fact, Kane is the only player to average more points-per-game than Palmieri this season (minimum three appearances) – hence his ballooned price.

It’s amazing he’s so close to 100 points given he’s only featured in 15 games for Chelsea in 2020/21.

Aymeric Laporte (£4.9m) – 94 points

Someone had to pay the price for John Stones’ (£5.1m) resurgence.

Before a ball was kicked this season, most fans probably would have named Laporte in their top three Premier League centre-backs.

Pep Guardiola felt the Frenchman was to blame for Man City’s unconvincing start to the campaign and the success of the Stones/Ruben Dias (£4.2m) partnership suggest the master tactician was correct.

Previously one of the first names of the team sheet, Laporte has been an understudy in recent months and his point returns have suffered as a result.

His ownership is the lowest it’s been since he first graced English shores.

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Virgil van Dijk (£5.1m) – 10 points

And finally, one of the most-expensive players in the game who barely made double figures.

Everyone knows how this situation occurred, Liverpool’s talismanic defender has been sidelined for months after his knee was rearranged by Jordan Pickford (£2.0m) in the Merseyside derby.

Van Dijk mustered just ten points before his campaign was curtailed, a devastating blow to Dream Team bosses as the Dutchman was understandably popular after his magnificent 2019/20.

It will be interesting to see how many gaffers select Van Dijk the moment he regains fitness…