The Athletic has brought back Holly Shand and Abdul Rehman as its Fantasy Premier League writers for the 2026-27 season, giving readers a familiar pair to lean on as Friday's Gameweek One deadline closes in. Their advice and analysis will run through the campaign, with Ben Dinnery also returning for a live Gameweek One Q&A.
The deadline arrives on Friday at 6.30pm UK time and 1.30pm ET, which is why the search for a final tweak to a squad is already under way. Dinnery's live Q&A is set for 2pm to 3pm UK time, or 9am to 10am ET, while readers can also join The Athletic FC mini-league using the code jr1oq0. For managers who want more than one late answer, that leaves only a narrow window to settle a bench spot or decide whether to chase a different captain.
Shand brings a background that fits the numbers-heavy side of the game. She is a maths graduate and former maths teacher from Grimsby, Lincolnshire, and she first started playing after the 2014 World Cup before joining the FPL community on Twitter about a year later. Her route into fantasy football stretches back even further, to the late 90s and early 00s, when she entered teams by calling a premium-rate phone number. That old habit now sits alongside the modern version of the game: quick decisions, constant data and a deadline that does not move.
Rehman, known in the community as FPL Salah, adds a different kind of credibility. He is from Dundee, Scotland, and says he has been playing Fantasy Premier League for around 20 years. What makes his story stand out is not just the length of time he has spent in the game but the way he entered his first league a week late, after Gameweek One had already passed, and still won it in his first season. He and his friends reunited that original league two seasons ago, a small reminder that fantasy football is often as much about old rivalries as it is about rank.
That is the friction inside every new season: everyone starts from the same blank page, but not everyone starts with the same experience or the same timing. Shand and Rehman will shape The Athletic's season-long coverage with advice and analysis for readers chasing both mini-league bragging rights and overall success, yet the opening Gameweeks always expose the gap between a tidy plan and the reality of picks, price changes and early points. The immediate next checkpoint is Dinnery's Q&A, and after that, the only test that matters is whether the choices made before Friday hold up once Gameweek One begins.
