Club: Bristol City
Position: Midfield
Price: £7.5m
Last Season Points: 146
Many Fantasy players will be considering the merits of the midfielder after she sparkled for Bristol City last season. Here’s a closer look at her numbers…
Syme in demand ahead of 2026-27
After producing the best season of her career in 2025-26, Bristol City midfielder Emily Syme has been rewarded with a £7.5m price tag in Fantasy.
The Robins’ captain recorded four goals and nine assists last term, earning an incredible 146 points – the seventh-highest total across the BWSL and the BWSL 2.
With the three teams who finished above City last season having been promoted, are Syme and her team-mates set to dominate as ‘the best of the rest’ in the second tier?
All-round quality
Having signed a new two-year contract with City earlier this month, Syme – aged 26 and in the prime of her career – is in great spirits ahead of the 2026-27 campaign.
Marauding, two-footed and adept at setting team-mates clear as well as crashing the box herself, she has an all-round game which includes crisp, well-taken corners.
After Ashleigh Weerden (17) and Lily Crosthwaite (14) earned promotion with Crystal Palace and Birmingham City respectively, no current BWSL 2 player recorded more goal contributions (13) than Syme did last season.
In fact, following promotions and summer transfers, the City skipper is now the second-highest points-scoring midfielder (146) left in the second division.
Always available
Another quality that stands out in Syme’s game is her dependability, having made 20+ league appearances in each of her four seasons with Charlotte Healy’s side, including starting every single game (22/22) in 2025-26.
And in all but one of those campaigns (2023-24 - no goals, one assist), Syme produced the goods for City, meaning her exploits last season were not a one-off.
She recorded six goal contributions (three goals, three assists) in the league in 2024-25, and five (three goals, two assists) in 2022-23.
Will Lloyd-Smith’s departure have an effect?
However, there will be some Fantasy managers wondering what’s the catch to spending big on Syme – something we try to cover as best as possible below.
Behind every great assister there is a great goalscorer, and Syme is having to adjust to life without the latter after Lexi Lloyd-Smith joined Crystal Palace this summer.
Yet only two of Syme’s nine league assists were for Lloyd-Smith - who scored 11 times en route to winning the BWSL 2 Golden Boot last season - while she still has 10-goal Rio Hardy for company at City.
City have also signed Lotta Lindstrom this summer, with the 21-year-old netting a hat-trick for promoted Birmingham against Nottingham Forest in February.
In terms of discipline, Syme did receive one red card last season after collecting two cautions in the 4-0 home win over Sheffield United last December.
She was also booked in the 3-0 loss at Arsenal in the FA Cup in February and in the 2-1 home win over Charlton in the BWSL 2 in March.
Syme’s 2025-26 season at a glance
- Goals: 4
- Assists: 9
- Appearances: 22
- Starts: 22
- Shots: 34
- Shots on target: 12
- Yellow/Red cards: 1/1
Noteworthy start for promotion contenders
Syme will be hoping to pick up from where she left off last season after collecting two assists in the final-day victory at Sheffield United in May.
City have an interesting start to the new BWSL 2 season with clashes against Sunderland and Newcastle United in their opening two games.
Syme and her team-mates were unbeaten against the north-east duo last season, however, which will give them confidence beforehand.
City will then lock horns with newly-promoted sides Watford and Burnley on matchdays three and four, with both fixtures away from home.
And then Healy’s charges will play host to Southampton on matchday five – a team who finished just one place and two points behind them last season.
- Sunderland (A) – Sunday 6 September
- Newcastle United (H) – Saturday 12 September
- Watford (A) – Sunday 20 September
- Burnley (A) – Saturday 26 September
- Southampton (H) – Sunday 4 October
