Summer Transfer Window 2025/26

[hypochondriac]

5 minutes ago, Sheaf Saint said:

Wasn't he a homegrown player though?

If that's the case then even better. 

[trousers]

13 minutes ago, Charlie Wayman said:

I've thought often that people use initials because;

a) they can't remember the player's names

b) they can't spell the player's names

c) they can't pronounce the player's names

Isn't it just laziness?

It is indeed Charlie old boy. The number of things we agree on is boundless 😁

[S-Clarke]

Didn't expect that Edozie move, but he's the sort of player I'd put in the bracket of being given a chance - but never really quite good enough to cut it. He had a loan last year to give it a good go but still didn't make a mark.

He can beat a man and then do nothing with it. My haunting memory of him came from the game he played under Jones, on the back of our 'mid-season pre-season'. A cup game against a lower league team, somehow he produced the worst miss I've ever seen in my entire life from a professional footballer - well, Adams against Wolves comes close tbf.

At that point you could label him as a young player still learning, but 3 years on....nothing has changed, he's still as erratic and rash as he was when we got him. Talented, sure, but will probably never fulfil his potential. There's just something missing in his makeup.

This certainly accelerates the need for wide players though, which is somewhat exciting as this will force it as our options are simply horrific on the left side now.

[Saint86]

11 hours ago, Danbert said:

Seems strong and mobile with good close control and JWP free kick skills. 

 

Refuse to get invested in this as he would actually be quite a "ridiculous" signing for us in the champ. Someone i've thought was a very talented player for a few years now and couldn't believe no one had moved for him - never did i consider we'd be getting him in the 2nd tier. If we do sign him, enjoy him whilst we have him, it won't be for long.

[Sheaf Saint]

3 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

If that's the case then even better. 

From a PSR perspective, undoubtedly. But it's looking more and more like Lavia will be the only signing from the Man City academy that window that we actually turned a profit on (because let's face it, we're never getting our investment back on Bazunu or Larios). So it's a good job he turned out to be decent and we were able to pull Chelsea's pants down on that deal otherwise the entire enterprise would have been an utter farce.

[CSA96]

20 minutes ago, Sheaf Saint said:

Kind of pisses all over the 'sign promising young talent, develop them and sell for a handsome profit' philosophy that drove our transfer strategy that summer though, cos that's basically what we paid for him. 

Kind of, but it speaks to a point someone made on here too where you can almost get your money back on young talent if you sign them and they don't work out, because somebody else will take a punt on realising the potential. I think we paid £10m in 2022, so we're three years down the line, he's not what the manager wants and we're getting somewhere around £7.5m back for him, with another two years left on the contract

In terms of book value, amortisation and PSR (which there will be someone else on here who can explain far better than my pretty basic understanding) that isn't damaging. So when you mix these sales with the likes of Lavia, Livramento, Dibling (soon, presumably) then it does work out financially

Just now, Sheaf Saint said:

From a PSR perspective, undoubtedly. But it's looking more and more like Lavia will be the only signing from the Man City academy that window that we actually turned a profit on (because let's face it, we're never getting our investment back on Bazunu or Larios). So it's a good job he turned out to be decent and we were able to pull Chelsea's pants down on that deal otherwise the entire enterprise would have been an utter farce.

Won't catch me disagreeing with this bit!

Edited yesterday at 18:25 by CSA96

[S-Clarke]

Just now, Saint86 said:

Refuse to get invested in this as he would actually be quite a "ridiculous" signing for us in the champ. Someone i've thought was a very talented player for a few years now and couldn't believe no one had moved for him - never did i consider we'd be getting him in the 2nd tier. If we do sign him, enjoy him whilst we have him, it won't be for long.

Yeah I'm in the same boat, I've seen him play Internationally and he is way too good for our level. Mid-PL quality at least.

So I refuse to get worked up about this yet until there is more concrete noise behind it. This is just hopeful rumour.

[hypochondriac]

1 minute ago, Sheaf Saint said:

From a PSR perspective, undoubtedly. But it's looking more and more like Lavia will be the only signing from the Man City academy that window that we actually turned a profit on (because let's face it, we're never getting our investment back on Bazunu or Larios). So it's a good job he turned out to be decent and we were able to pull Chelsea's pants down on that deal otherwise the entire enterprise would have been an utter farce.

I don't personally mind a policy of signing some promising youngsters. Our issue has always been the amount of them we bought all at once without also investing in enough experience and quality. 

[S-Clarke]

20 minutes ago, Sheaf Saint said:

Kind of pisses all over the 'sign promising young talent, develop them and sell for a handsome profit' philosophy that drove our transfer strategy that summer though, cos that's basically what we paid for him. 

This is quite depressing to read, but this is the outcome of our ill-fated 22/23 splurge (Summer and January).

Kamaldeen Sulemana - £22m. Not great, shipped off to Atalanta at a loss. GONE

Romeo Lavia - unprecedented success. No arguments. Signed for £10m, sold for £50-60m. GONE

Paul Onuachu - Another big fail, signed for £18m, now sold to Turkey at a loss. GONE

Gavin Bazunu - I think we've all said enough about him. Still here.

Charly Alcaraz - Good addition, but poorly managed. Sold for what we bought him for, so no loss. GONE

ABK - Hmm. We'll get lucky to get a roll of tissue for him. Still here (just about hanging on)

Sekou Mara - Signed for £12m, sold to for £9-10m. Another slight loss. GONE

Joe Aribo - Not 'terrible', but not great. £8m spent - may get that back. Still here

DCC - Didn't work for him here. Loaned out, and then let go to Lyon for a nominal fee - another loss. GONE

Samuel Edozie - Looks like he's now off, might just about get what we paid originally. Almost GONE

Juan Larios - Doesn't look like a pro footballer, now out on loan in the lower Spanish leagues. GONE to all intents

Orsic - Yeah, umm.. GONE

Bree - Average, nothing special. £800k isn't really anything to moan about though. Still here

Lis - umm yep. GONE

AMN - Again, awful. GONE

So of both transfer windows that summer, only Bazunu, ABK, Aribo and Edozie remain (I'd expect Edozie, Aribo and ABK to be off in the coming weeks too)

Around £154m spent, made back around £90m - and the core of that was clawed back from the Lavia buy. The rest of the efforts by the recruitment team that year doesn't even equate to words really.

 

 

[hypochondriac]

5 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

This is quite depressing to read, but this is the outcome of our ill-fated 22/23 splurge (Summer and January).

Kamaldeen Sulemana - £22m. Not great, shipped off to Atalanta at a loss. GONE

Romeo Lavia - unprecedented success. No arguments. Signed for £10m, sold for £50-60m. GONE

Paul Onuachu - Another big fail, signed for £18m, now sold to Turkey at a loss. GONE

Gavin Bazunu - I think we've all said enough about him. Still here.

Charly Alcaraz - Good addition, but poorly managed. Sold for what we bought him for, so no loss. GONE

ABK - Hmm. We'll get lucky to get a roll of tissue for him. Still here (just about hanging on)

Sekou Mara - Signed for £12m, sold to for £9-10m. Another slight loss. GONE

Joe Aribo - Not 'terrible', but not great. £8m spent - may get that back. Still here

DCC - Didn't work for him here. Loaned out, and then let go to Lyon for a nominal fee - another loss. GONE

Samuel Edozie - Looks like he's now off, might just about get what we paid originally. Almost GONE

Juan Larios - Doesn't look like a pro footballer, now out on loan in the lower Spanish leagues. GONE to all intents

Orsic - Yeah, umm.. GONE

Bree - Average, nothing special. £800k isn't really anything to moan about though. Still here

Lis - umm yep. GONE

AMN - Again, awful. GONE

So of both transfer windows that summer, only Bazunu, ABK, Aribo and Edozie remain (I'd expect Edozie, Aribo and ABK to be off in the coming weeks too)

Around £154m spent, made back around £90m - and the core of that was clawed back from the Lavia buy. The rest of the efforts by the recruitment team that year doesn't even equate to words really.

 

 

Actually didn't do too badly in terms of making back money. Just a shame they were all shite. Add Tino in from the previous year and that's probably not too far off breaking even remarkably! 

[S-Clarke]

Just now, hypochondriac said:

Actually didn't do too badly in terms of making back money. Just a shame they were all shite. Add Tino in from the previous year and that's probably not too far off breaking even remarkably! 

But that was primarily from the sale of Lavia really, we were lucky we got the income from him! The losses we made on the rest of them are pretty shocking tbh. Without Lavia we'd have been right up the creek.

[Sheaf Saint]

6 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

This is quite depressing to read, but this is the outcome of our ill-fated 22/23 splurge (Summer and January).

Kamaldeen Sulemana - £22m. Not great, shipped off to Atalanta at a loss. GONE

Romeo Lavia - unprecedented success. No arguments. Signed for £10m, sold for £50-60m. GONE

Paul Onuachu - Another big fail, signed for £18m, now sold to Turkey at a loss. GONE

Gavin Bazunu - I think we've all said enough about him. Still here.

Charly Alcaraz - Good addition, but poorly managed. Sold for what we bought him for, so no loss. GONE

ABK - Hmm. We'll get lucky to get a roll of tissue for him. Still here (just about hanging on)

Sekou Mara - Signed for £12m, sold to for £9-10m. Another slight loss. GONE

Joe Aribo - Not 'terrible', but not great. £8m spent - may get that back. Still here

DCC - Didn't work for him here. Loaned out, and then let go to Lyon for a nominal fee - another loss. GONE

Samuel Edozie - Looks like he's now off, might just about get what we paid originally. Almost GONE

Juan Larios - Doesn't look like a pro footballer, now out on loan in the lower Spanish leagues. GONE to all intents

Orsic - Yeah, umm.. GONE

Bree - Average, nothing special. £800k isn't really anything to moan about though. Still here

Lis - umm yep. GONE

AMN - Again, awful. GONE

So of both transfer windows that summer, only Bazunu, ABK, Aribo and Edozie remain (I'd expect Edozie, Aribo and ABK to be off in the coming weeks too)

Around £154m spent, made back around £90m - and the core of that was clawed back from the Lavia buy. The rest of the efforts by the recruitment team that year doesn't even equate to words really.

 

 

A truly shocking indictment of the SR 'model'. 

[S-Clarke]

2 minutes ago, Sheaf Saint said:

A truly shocking indictment of the SR 'model'. 

Our window last year wasn't much better either, even including that Albert guy we got on loan in Jan.

I'm still hoping that Spors will change that dynamic soon, might take a couple of windows to shift the dross we've accumulated...but it would be good to see some 'signs' this window.

[verlaine1979]

The winners like Lavia and Livramento pay for the losers. That's how investment/trading is meant to work.

Our problem over the past decade was twofold. a) Our scouting was poor, so we picked fewer winners than our similarly-sized peers, b) we were cash-constrained under Gao (and presumably PSR etc. after a few disastrous big-money signings) and so couldn't take quite as many rolls of the dice on recruiting early and loaning out. For the most part we recruited on 1 in 1 out, which aren't the right odds for this model to work.

[Lee On Solent Saint]

18 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

This is quite depressing to read, but this is the outcome of our ill-fated 22/23 splurge (Summer and January).

Kamaldeen Sulemana - £22m. Not great, shipped off to Atalanta at a loss. GONE

Romeo Lavia - unprecedented success. No arguments. Signed for £10m, sold for £50-60m. GONE

Paul Onuachu - Another big fail, signed for £18m, now sold to Turkey at a loss. GONE

Gavin Bazunu - I think we've all said enough about him. Still here.

Charly Alcaraz - Good addition, but poorly managed. Sold for what we bought him for, so no loss. GONE

ABK - Hmm. We'll get lucky to get a roll of tissue for him. Still here (just about hanging on)

Sekou Mara - Signed for £12m, sold to for £9-10m. Another slight loss. GONE

Joe Aribo - Not 'terrible', but not great. £8m spent - may get that back. Still here

DCC - Didn't work for him here. Loaned out, and then let go to Lyon for a nominal fee - another loss. GONE

Samuel Edozie - Looks like he's now off, might just about get what we paid originally. Almost GONE

Juan Larios - Doesn't look like a pro footballer, now out on loan in the lower Spanish leagues. GONE to all intents

Orsic - Yeah, umm.. GONE

Bree - Average, nothing special. £800k isn't really anything to moan about though. Still here

Lis - umm yep. GONE

AMN - Again, awful. GONE

So of both transfer windows that summer, only Bazunu, ABK, Aribo and Edozie remain (I'd expect Edozie, Aribo and ABK to be off in the coming weeks too)

Around £154m spent, made back around £90m - and the core of that was clawed back from the Lavia buy. The rest of the efforts by the recruitment team that year doesn't even equate to words really.

 

 

Was Lyanco part of that window too? 

[Gloucester Saint]

15 minutes ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

Was Lyanco part of that window too? 

No, he was 2021 I think from Torino.

[hypochondriac]

34 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

But that was primarily from the sale of Lavia really, we were lucky we got the income from him! The losses we made on the rest of them are pretty shocking tbh. Without Lavia we'd have been right up the creek.

Well it wasn't luck really was it. It was good scouting in that instance. Same with Tino. 

[Gloucester Saint]

2 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

Well it wasn't luck really was it. It was good scouting in that instance. Same with Tino. 

True, but part of the stupidity was making those two transfers into a whole recruitment strategy and that becoming what seemed like 75% of the players purchased, completely forgetting about building a team and a spine to compete properly. 

[Matthew Le God]

 

 

[Patches O Houlihan]

1 hour ago, Sheaf Saint said:

Wasn't he a homegrown player though?

I thought we pinched him off Spurs along with a defender of the same age (name escapes me)

[UpweySaint]

1 minute ago, Patches O Houlihan said:

I thought we pinched him off Spurs along with a defender of the same age (name escapes me)

Him and Meghoma who went to Brentford. Both from Spurs. I think we paid compo for them both but may be misremembering.

[Patches O Houlihan]

1 minute ago, UpweySaint said:

Him and Meghoma who went to Brentford. Both from Spurs. I think we paid compo for them both but may be misremembering.

That's right - wasn't the fee decided by a tribunal and was pretty low considering their talent

[hypochondriac]

13 minutes ago, Gloucester Saint said:

True, but part of the stupidity was making those two transfers into a whole recruitment strategy and that becoming what seemed like 75% of the players purchased, completely forgetting about building a team and a spine to compete properly. 

Yes I essentially said that higher up the thread. Buying youngsters with potential is a great strategy as long as its a handful supplemented by experienced quality to allow them to be introduced slowly. Buying Bazunu for instance and then making him first choice was absolutely insane. 

[Badger]

11 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

 

 

Strasbourg. I assume this could  be a Joe Shields inspired move then if he’s still part of Chelsea (as owners of Strasbourg).

Edozie always seemed to fall within the ‘all fart and no shit’ category for me so pleased to see him go. But hope we have a healthy sell on % should he ever discover an end product. 

[Chez]

1 hour ago, Sheaf Saint said:

Wasn't he a homegrown player though?

Not wanting to reignite the argument about what percentage of time spent in a particular youth development constitutes home grown, he was at Spurs until he was 16, before we spent a massive sum (for us) to bring him here. He effectively did his two year apprenticeship (in old money) here and youth development (old money) at Spurs. Personally, I think the "home grown" tag is a stretch, but it obviously counts from a PSR perspective. 

[Chez]

13 minutes ago, UpweySaint said:

Him and Meghoma who went to Brentford. Both from Spurs. I think we paid compo for them both but may be misremembering.

We spent a million on each I think. Not small beer, but top quality youngsters are being traded for massive sums these days.

[CB Fry]

Shaping up to be yet another window where we are absolutely supreme at selling players but when it comes to buying anyone you have to understand where we are in the food chain, we are up against unscrupulous agents, the clubs have their own agenda, we have to wait for the dominos to fall, I think you will find it is much more complicated than that, don't believe all you read in the media, we have to be patient and things are happening behind the scenes, these things take time oh but by the way SOLD Atalanta SOLD Porto SOLD Strasbourg SOLD Trabzonspor 

Edited 22 hours ago by CB Fry

[AlexLaw76]

4 minutes ago, CB Fry said:

Shaping up to be yet another window where we are absolutely supreme at selling players but when it comes to buying anyone you have to understand where we are in the food chain, we are up against unscrupulous agents, the clubs have their own agenda, we have to wait for the dominos to fall, I think you will find it is much more complicated that than, don't believe all you read in the media, we have to be patient and things are happening behind the scenes, these things take time oh but by the way SOLD Atalanta SOLD Porto SOLD Strasbourg SOLD Trabzonspor 

you forgot to add that we are all impatient, unrealistic etc for wanting a top championship side this season

[SuperSAINT]

 

[sockeye]

Just now, SuperSAINT said:

 

Bye.

[Matthew Le God]

£4m loan fee

 

[Harry_SFC]

3 minutes ago, SuperSAINT said:

 

£4m loan fee apparently. 

[sockeye]

Just now, Matthew Le God said:

£4m loan fee

 

Bit of money for the Spertsyan kitty before that falls through and we panic buy a midfielder from Stoke.

[Harry_SFC]

Felt Ramsdale going was inevitable, same goes for Fernandes.

Very important that we get a decent replacement in now. 

[Teamsaint1]

Can’t be right, he loves the ( our ) club. I’m sure I read that.

Anyway, £4m sounds like one year of repayments of the fee we paid, so just getting him off the books really ? Which was as good as it was going to get I suppose. 

Edited 22 hours ago by Teamsaint1

[Suhari]

Insane loan fee.

[sockeye]

46 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

you forgot to add that we are all impatient, unrealistic etc for wanting a top championship side this season

The club don't actually want to go up this season don't you know.

[saintant]

2 hours ago, S-Clarke said:

But that was primarily from the sale of Lavia really, we were lucky we got the income from him! The losses we made on the rest of them are pretty shocking tbh. Without Lavia we'd have been right up the creek.

It's not just the monetary losses we made it's the fact that our recruiters signed sub-standard players that didn't help the team progress.

[SouSaint]

It's a shite deal if we have to deal with Bazunu being number 1. 

[CB Fry]

Would have been far better to just get the guy sold now. Even if we go up why would he want to come back. Just gives the club an excuse not to buy a replacement.

[UpweySaint]

1 hour ago, Chez said:

We spent a million on each I think. Not small beer, but top quality youngsters are being traded for massive sums these days.

Not small beer indeed but they felt like decent deals at the time especially given the relative barren spell for our academy. Both moved on for a reasonable profit after not getting too much chance to play first team football for us.

Hopefully with Dibling, Robinson, Sesay and the striker we got from Port Vale (name escapes me) we will have a run of bringing through first team players from our own academy on a consistent basis again.

[CB Fry]

Anyway I'm sure we are going to buy someone any week now.

[Matthew Le God]

1 minute ago, CB Fry said:

Would have been far better to just get the guy sold now. 

Perhaps they tried, but no-one was willing to pay this summer.

[saintant]

13 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

£4m loan fee

 

4m loan fee and big wages saved is a decent deal so long as we replace him with a new number one who has suitable talent. However, fear we'll be bringing in a number 3 behind Baz and McCarthy.

[Matthew Le God]

 

 

[sockeye]

5 minutes ago, UpweySaint said:

Not small beer indeed but they felt like decent deals at the time especially given the relative barren spell for our academy. Both moved on for a reasonable profit after not getting too much chance to play first team football for us.

Hopefully with Dibling, Robinson, Sesay and the striker we got from Port Vale (name escapes me) we will have a run of bringing through first team players from our own academy on a consistent basis again.

Doyle, Morgan, Amo-Ameyaw, Meghoma, and Gomez-Rodriguez all wasted because SR wanted to pay above rate for City kids. Appalling. Our academy was once one of our greatest strengths. 

[SuperSAINT]

4 minutes ago, Matthew Le God said:

 

 

Mendes working his magic

[coalman]

At least we know two of the starting 11 for Wrexham now. Bazunu because Ramsdale is off and Stephens because I still don't know the fuck why. 

[Gloucester Saint]

Just now, SuperSAINT said:

Mendes working his magic

Did well working with Wolves. Solak having a similar tie-up to a top agent would’ve made a boat load more sense than relying on Ankerson, and made him money not lose it hand over fist.

[Matthew Le God]

5 minutes ago, sockeye said:

Doyle, Morgan, Amo-Ameyaw, Meghoma, and Gomez-Rodriguez all wasted because SR wanted to pay above rate for City kids. Appalling. Our academy was once one of our greatest strengths. 

The first two wouldn't be near our first team last season even though we were appalling. They are currently at the level of 3rd and 4th tier loans. We have other youngsters performing at a higher level than both of them.

Edited 21 hours ago by Matthew Le God