We’re really into injury season now on the Index. After Coman’s knee injury last week, this week it was time for Depay to break hearts. Up until 6 days ago, it would’ve been harder to find a better hold on the Index than him – racking up dividends left, right and centre – but there’s nothing like an ACL rupture to crush your profits in an instant.

ACL injuries are bad news. I tried to IS him but it was turned off within seconds so all I could do was watch his price drop through the floor. I listed him to market, predicting there would be a small bump in price once the ambulance chasers jumped on and sure enough there was. I eventually offloaded him for a profit of £168, which looks good on paper but is a full £190 less than the profit figure if I’d have sold him last weekend. Arghh.

With Depay and Reine-Adelaide both out of the Lyon squad with serious injuries, I saw a chance to offset some of my losses by buying into others in the Lyon team. There were plenty to choose from for quick flips but as long-term holds I plumped for Aouar as a performance hold and Caqueret as a young player showing potential. Aouar hasn’t shown his best form recently but has hit a PB high of 275 in the past and has shown he can compete for PB. If he can step up to fill the Depay-shaped void, and perhaps play further forward, he may catch a decent rise.

Caqueret is a different proposition. He’s not a direct replacement for either of the injured players but he’s recently been starting for the first team and has been getting some rave reviews when he has played. My theory is that he might see more game time if others get pushed on to fill gaps. I guess we’ll see.

So, aside from that clusterfuck, how have my players done this week?

The Premium squad won the week with an increase of £89 over the last 7 days, driven by rises on Neymar and Sancho. Quite remarkably, Neymar made back 4% of his price in PB dividends this week alone. There’s a reason why he’s the highest price player on the Index. There’s also a reason why Sancho is breathing down his neck – coming into a good spell of form just in time for the transfer window!

The Potentials did well too, bringing a rise of £82 in total. Of course, it could’ve been much higher had I not sold Haaland the week before but hey, you can’t win them all. Seriously though, I do think I jumped off too early there as the United links were foreseeable and at that point his price was always likely to touch £5. The lesson here is not to think too long-term during the transfer period as it doesn’t really matter what a player is worth at the end of January, the only thing that matters is what traders are happy to pay for him right now.

Star performers in the Potential fund were Stengs, Kulusevski, Palacios and Berge, mostly driven by transfer rumours. The biggest fall was on Djenepo, a recent addition to the fund, after suffering a hamstring injury. I added Ludovic Blas to the fund after seeing positive sentiment for him starting to build.

Discounting the huge weekly loss on Depay, the Performance fund finished up by £43 for the week, with Kostic (the crossing maestro) and Oyarzabal (linked to Man City) the star performers. Pjanic saw the biggest drop over the week after another below-par PB score push some traders to hit the sell button.

With transfers likely to drive both dividends and capital appreciation over the next month, I added Rebic and Havertz to the fund. Both have the potential to hit high PB scores but seem to be in need of a move, with Rebic looking likely to return to Frankfurt after a disappointing spell at AC Milan, and whispers of Havertz looking for an EPL move in the next few months.

After all of that, the total profit of the three funds sits just below where it was on the 1st December – so not the best month really. Things are looking up though – the deposit bonuses are starting to move the market, with the biggest rises generally on young prospect with transfer links, and I’m pretty well positioned for that. The full breakdown of my funds can be found on the separate fund pages as always. Happy trading!