Still putting together your Fantasy General Election team? Here's our list of the best bargain players in this year's game.
Although your £100,000 Fantasy General Election budget might sound like a lot, in reality it won't stretch as far as you might think.
All you have to do is pick David Lammy and Nigel Farage, and you've spent well over half your money on two players.
And you lose points for every position you leave unfilled, so to be in with a chance of winning the FGE Champion's Mug, you need to be smart with your money.
With that in mind, here's our list of the top 10 bargain players in Fantasy General Election 2024.
Whether you're looking to fill any last-minute gaps, or free up space for a big-money signing, these are the candidates we think will (probably) deliver the most points for less than £1,500.
10. Kirith Entwistle
Bolton North East | Labour
Almost certainly not the last time we're going to see a Red Wall constituency in this list.
The Conservatives won the seat from Labour by a very narrow margin in 2019 - the first time Bolton North East had returned a Tory MP since 1992.
This time around, it's likely to go red again; and in all honesty it's hard to imagine the margin of victory being all that tight.
According to the polls, you could be on for 10-15,000 points here, which is not bad for an investment of just £1,278.
9. Jo Platt
Leigh & Atherton | Labour
(Probably) joining Kirith Entwistle in the Labour parliamentary party is fellow northern candidate Jo Platt.
Much like Kirith, she's challenging an incumbent Conservative MP, and is on for a pretty big score.
Unlike Kirith, I wasn't invited to her wedding. However, her cost of just £293 more than makes up for that.
She's also a former MP, standing to reclaim the seat she lost in 2019, so will be a familiar name to the good people of Greater Manchester.
We've already seen Jo pop up in quite a few teams this year, making her both a popular and inexpensive choice.
8. Liam Conlon
Beckenham & Penge | Labour
Beginning to detect a bit of a theme here?
Well, nearly. Beckenham & Penge is actually a brand new seat, so there's no imminent threat to the Conservatives here - more an opportunity lost.
According to the notional results, Labour would have won it by just a few hundred votes in 2019, and I'd be pretty surprised if they didn't win it by quite a few more this time around.
Helpfully, as the nominal sitting MP, Conlan can play in goal or defence - unlike our first two entrants on this list.
Another candidate I'd expect to see well into five figures, points-wise, making him a pretty reasonable option at just £631.
7. Sarah Edith Hall
Warrington South | Labour
Sarah Hall is so cheap she might as well be free.
A mere £65 will get you the (technically) incumbent MP for Warrington South, and almost certainly a proverbial sh*t-load of points on Thursday night.
I say technically because, of course, the actual MP for this seat is/was Andy Carter; however, the new boundaries and notional results have handed this seat to Labour for team-selection purposes.
Can't see them letting go of it either.
6. Matt Western
Warwick & Leamington | Labour
Warwick & Leamington has always been a bit of a toss-up, but I'd be surprised if it's quite as close this time around.
Unusually, it was pretty much the only target seat Boris Johnson and The Conservatives didn't manage to flip in 2019.
Five years ago, Western held off the challenge of Conservative candidate Jack Rankin by just a few hundred votes.
Rankin has since headed south to try his hand in Windsor, which feels a bit more like a home fixture for a Conservative candidate. But I can't see his replacement in the West Midlands, James Uffindell, doing any better this time around.
One of the more expensive candidates on this list, at £1,169, but still a pretty good deal.
5. Paul Christopher Kohler
Wimbledon | Lib Dem
Finally, a non-Labour candidate makes the list.
In all honesty, Paul Kohler feels like he's one of those candidates in put your feet up territory.
Kohler actually ran for the seat last time around, and only lost out by a handful of votes, but that's set him up perfectly for a spectacular return in Fantasy General Election 2024, at only £839.
The Conservative candidate, and technical incumbent, is Danielle Dunfield-Prayero
There's a pun to be made there, but I can't be arsed to work out what it is. Either way, she's not going to win.
4. James Frith
Bury North | Labour
This is another of those seats where quite a bit might depend on what Reform UK decide to do in the final week of the campaign.
Reform didn't do astonishingly well in 2019, but they did well enough to suggest that they might have a reasonable level of support this time around.
I'm not sure they're going to do too much damage to Frith's chances - and I'd be pretty astonished if he isn't sitting on the Labour benches in a week or so's time.
However, they might nick enough votes to make his margin of victory a touch less spectacular than it could be.
Or, they could lose enough votes to elevate him into 2024 'humdinger' territory.
Either way, for a mere £1,282 I wouldn't have any concerns at all about picking him. He'll win you some points and then some.
3. Max Wilkinson
Cheltenham | Lib Dem
This result is going to be one of the real biggies on election night, because Alex Chalk - the current Conservative MP - is currently the Justice Secretary.
If(/when) he loses his seat, it's going to be one of those 'let's go live to Mishal Husain in a municipal leisure centre' moments that becomes shown in every news bulletin for the next 24 hours.
But enough about him, what about Max Wilkinson?
Well, he's the odds-on bookies' favourite to win, and at 1/16 you won't get much back sticking down a tenner at your local branch of Paddy Power.
But what you will get is Fantasy General Election points - in abundance.
Easily knocking on the door of 15-20,000 points, which for £1,421 is a decent bet in my eyes.
2. Jonathan Brian Pearce
High Peak | Labour
Jon Pearce (not to be confused with the Robot Wars commentator of the same name) is a local lad standing for Labour in the Derbyshire seat of High Peak.
On his website, he lists his previous positions of employment as a supermarket shelf-stacker, a McDonald's crew member and a car park attendant.
Perhaps he might be able to pass on a few tips to the current Conservative MP Robert Largan, who hasn't got a hope in hell of holding on here.
£590 is a pretty good price for a candidate who could well be knocking on the door of the 20,000 points club come Thursday night.
1. Bobby Dean
Carshalton & Wallington | Lib Dem
Up until 2019, Carshalton & Wallington was a pretty consistently Lib Dem-voting seat.
Then, Elliot Colburn managed to flip it to the Conservatives in 2019, putting a stop to Tom Brake's 22-year parliamentary career.
We are nothing if not brutally honest here at Fantasy General Election so - to put it bluntly - it's hard to see Colburn getting anywhere close to his predecessor's tenure.
In fact, Bobby Dean is the red hot favourite.
He has the highest forecasted points total of any candidate on this list, with 20,000+ a very real possibility.
To be clear - there are plenty of candidates who will score more points than him on Thursday night (151, according to my list). Some of them will score a lot more.
But none of them will do it for a cut-price £629, which makes him a worthy occupant of the number 1 spot on our bargain bin list.
We hope you found that list useful, and you're enjoying putting together your Fantasy General Election team.
For more advice and inspiration, don't forget to take a look at our blog posts page.
And with the big day rapidly approaching, we're excited for you to see our live results page spring into life at 9pm on Thursday night.
Thanks again for playing, and we'll see you then!