Summer Transfer Window 2025/26

[Willo of Whiteley]

54 minutes ago, DT said:

Are we going to buy any good players and get rid of our crap ones? Asking for the entire fanbase.

Play FIFA and you’ll be able to do so within ten minutes. 👍🏻

[Chez]

39 minutes ago, TheAlehouseBrawlers said:

If there’s clubs considering the likes of Aribo, Bednarek and ABK then I would think they’ll be waiting to late in the window to try and grab a bargain as we’ll likely be desperate to offload.

And probably the same stance as most buying clubs as is often the case. Little the selling club can do.

Perhaps Bednarek's £6m release clause doesn't actually exist, because you'd think that would be as low as the club would go, so no point waiting until the end of the summer to try and get a bargain.

[S-Clarke]

42 minutes ago, TheAlehouseBrawlers said:

If there’s clubs considering the likes of Aribo, Bednarek and ABK then I would think they’ll be waiting to late in the window to try and grab a bargain as we’ll likely be desperate to offload.

And probably the same stance as most buying clubs as is often the case. Little the selling club can do.

To be fair, Bednarek has a fixed £6m release clause right now. He won't be cheaper at the end of the window, he'll still be £6m and if clubs don't pay that I suspect we'll keep him as a first team player.

He's not a great player, but £6m for an International CB with over 100 PL apps, under 30, is pretty much bargain basement stuff anyway.

[Chez]

3 hours ago, Saint_lambden said:

Dejan Zukic at Wolfsberger in Austria is another we’ve scouted. 24 year-old Serbian attacking midfielder. 10 goals and 8 assists last season. Perhaps Solak can have a word…

Plenty of footage of him here. At Wolfsberger he looks like he plays off the striker and makes a lot of very good runs into the box in an effort to score goals. A few headed goals too I notice. 

[Chez]

3 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

To be fair, Bednarek has a fixed £6m release clause right now. He won't be cheaper at the end of the window, he'll still be £6m and if clubs don't pay that I suspect we'll keep him as a first team player.

He's not a great player, but £6m for an International CB with over 100 PL apps, under 30, is pretty much bargain basement stuff anyway.

Bet his wages are sizeable, although a relegation reduction helps from a buyers point of view.

[Midfield_General]

4 minutes ago, Chez said:

Bet his wages are sizeable, although a relegation reduction helps from a buyers point of view.

If we ended up having to keep Bednarek because no-one else wanted him then he'd be absolutely fine at Championship level. We'd just need to offset it by shipping out Jack Steph... ah.

Oh dear. 

[Mr_Red]

I used to be F5 mad and excited to see who we were linked with in the past during the summer break. I'm now old and don't care for the game as much - I know I'm not the only one.

Still very much a Saint though. Have we a nice simple updatable list somewhere on here to help less frequent flyers like me keep track of who we've sold and who we've bought? I thought it a foregone conclusion that Ramsdale and Fernandes would be quick to go but seems they're still around for now...

[beatlesaint]

11 minutes ago, Midfield_General said:

If we ended up having to keep Bednarek because no-one else wanted him then he'd be absolutely fine at Championship level. We'd just need to offset it by shipping out Jack Steph... ah.

Oh dear. 

In all seriousness if nobody buys Bednarek, THB stays and then on top of that you add Quarshie, Edwards and Wood what the fuck did they give a 3 year contract to Stephens for? Even with 3 (certainly 2) central defenders ahead of him its crazy, if we still had 5 its beyond ridiculous !    

[SuperSAINT]

 

[Midfield_General]

18 minutes ago, beatlesaint said:

In all seriousness if nobody buys Bednarek, THB stays and then on top of that you add Quarshie, Edwards and Wood what the fuck did they give a 3 year contract to Stephens for? Even with 3 (certainly 2) central defenders ahead of him its crazy, if we still had 5 its beyond ridiculous !    

Don't forget ABK still on the books until we can shift him, plus Taylor (ditto) who has played there a lot, plus Sanda coming through. That's nine centre halves. 

There are many reasons why the new contract for Stephens, and the timing of it this early in the window, was an incredibly poor decision, and this is just one of them. Now everyone knows that Stephens is guaranteed to be staying, we've now given ourselves no wiggle room at all if things don't go as planned in terms of people actually coming in for ABK, Bednarek, Taylor etc. The longer that no-one comes in for them, the more likely it is that we'll have to sell them off cheap, give them away or loan them, just to get them off the books because there's no way we can afford to still have them all by the end of the window, and other clubs who do their homework will be very aware of this. They will be able to exploit that by hanging back and then going low with any offers for those players because they know we'll be increasingly desperate to sell. 

So even if the club wanted Stephens to stay, giving him the contract this early in the window was really, really stupid because it totally shows our hand and massively weakens our negotiation position. 

Edited 20 hours ago by Midfield_General

[Challenger]

30 minutes ago, Midfield_General said:

If we ended up having to keep Bednarek because no-one else wanted him then he'd be absolutely fine at Championship level. We'd just need to offset it by shipping out Jack Steph... ah.

Oh dear. 

Perennial turds that just refuse to flush.

[Polegategavin243]

3 minutes ago, Midfield_General said:

Don't forget ABK still on the books until we can shift him, plus Taylor (ditto) who has played there a lot, plus Sanda coming through. That's nine centre halves. 

There are many reasons why the new contract for Stephens, and the timing of it this early in the window, was an incredibly poor decision, and this is just one of them. Now everyone knows that Stephens is guaranteed to be staying, we've now given ourselves no wiggle room at all if things don't go as planned in terms of people actually coming in for ABK, Bednarek, Taylor etc, and the longer that goes on, the more likely it is that we'll have to sell them off cheap, give them away or loan them, just to get them off the books because there's no way we can afford to still have them all by the end of the window. Other clubs who do their homework will be very aware of this and will be able to exploit that by hanging back and then going low with any offers for those players. 

So even if the club wanted Stephens to stay, giving him the contract this early in the window was really, really stupid because it totally shows our hand and massively weakens our negotiation position. 

Or these players are further along the transfer process than we are aware of, or the club have already set very low allowable prices to sell and this means we can simply wait until a club agrees to take these players and we do not need to negotiate (Remember Bednarek’s release clause is a bit like a reserve at auction - no matter when a club buys him it is the minimum they have to pay)

[Midfield_General]

49 minutes ago, Challenger said:

Perennial turds that just refuse to flush.

Imagine, three years ago when we'd finally shipped Stephens off to Bournemouth on loan and Bednarek off to Villa on loan, where he promptly started slagging the club, that someone had told you that there was a chance - however slim - that they'd be lining up together for us on the opening day of the 2025-26 season 🤣 

Edited 19 hours ago by Midfield_General

[saintant]

20 minutes ago, Midfield_General said:

Don't forget ABK still on the books until we can shift him, plus Taylor (ditto) who has played there a lot, plus Sanda coming through. That's nine centre halves. 

There are many reasons why the new contract for Stephens, and the timing of it this early in the window, was an incredibly poor decision, and this is just one of them. Now everyone knows that Stephens is guaranteed to be staying, we've now given ourselves no wiggle room at all if things don't go as planned in terms of people actually coming in for ABK, Bednarek, Taylor etc. The longer that no-one comes in for them, the more likely it is that we'll have to sell them off cheap, give them away or loan them, just to get them off the books because there's no way we can afford to still have them all by the end of the window, and other clubs who do their homework will be very aware of this. They will be able to exploit that by hanging back and then going low with any offers for those players because they know we'll be increasingly desperate to sell. 

So even if the club wanted Stephens to stay, giving him the contract this early in the window was really, really stupid because it totally shows our hand and massively weakens our negotiation position. 

Giving him the contract at all was the really, really stupid thing.

[revolution saint]

34 minutes ago, SuperSAINT said:

 

Fuck!  Was really hoping we'd be in for him.

[sockeye]

6 minutes ago, revolution saint said:

Fuck!  Was really hoping we'd be in for him.

Agreed, club has let us down once again. FFS Spors OUT!

Edited 20 hours ago by sockeye

[Saint86]

41 minutes ago, Challenger said:

Perennial turds that just refuse to flush.

Whilst i understand the analogy, i would say offering Stephens that contract extension would be more akin to flushing a fishing lure and then reeling it back in...

[Saint86]

11 minutes ago, revolution saint said:

Fuck!  Was really hoping we'd be in for him.

Just another example of SR pissing about with Strikers and refusing to just stump up the required amount to get the deal done!!! And now look, gazumped by the dippers!! 😡

[Midfield_General]

49 minutes ago, Polegategavin243 said:

Or these players are further along the transfer process than we are aware of, or the club have already set very low allowable prices to sell and this means we can simply wait until a club agrees to take these players and we do not need to negotiate (Remember Bednarek’s release clause is a bit like a reserve at auction - no matter when a club buys him it is the minimum they have to pay)

There's also no guarantee that anyone pays the release clause though. 

So let's say Bednarek's release is £6m - if no-one has paid that with a week of the window to go, we'll just have to accept the best offer we can get for him. If other clubs don't know we're desperate to sell, they might offer say £4m. But if they know we need to get rid under any circumstances, they might offer a lot less because they know we're over a barrel. 

You're right of course that we don't know what's going on behind the scenes. Maybe clubs are lining up for a bidding war, who knows. Whatever's happening though, I can't think of many situations involving buying and selling assets worth millions where I'd not want the strongest negotiation position possible. I'm not sure we're ever going to be a club that's got so much money that we don't always need to try and negotiate the best possible deal. Onuachu being a case in point - we clearly didn't want him but we still made them up their bid three times rather than just shipping him out at any cost and taking a massive bath* on him.

(*and imagine how massive his bath must be)

Edited 19 hours ago by Midfield_General

[Dusic]

9 minutes ago, Midfield_General said:

There's also no guarantee that anyone pays the release clause though. 

So let's say Bednarek's release is £6m - if no-one has paid that with a week of the window to go, we'll just have to accept the best offer we can get for him. If other clubs don't know we're desperate to sell, they might offer say £4m. But if they know we need to get rid under any circumstances, they might offer a lot less because they know we're over a barrel. 

But we aren't over a barrel with Bednarek. He has a contract til 2027.

In the Championship he was a very good CB.

If he wants to leave thats fine, his agent can earn some cash and persuade a team to make a suitable offer.

If not he can stay and we can loan out one or two of the CBs lower down the pecking order.

Selling Bednarek or not isn't really an issue to be overly bothered about because if he stays he is good enough to be one of the best players in his position in the league.

[Midfield_General]

15 minutes ago, Dusic said:

But we aren't over a barrel with Bednarek. He has a contract til 2027.

In the Championship he was a very good CB.

If he wants to leave thats fine, his agent can earn some cash and persuade a team to make a suitable offer.

If not he can stay and we can loan out one or two of the CBs lower down the pecking order.

Selling Bednarek or not isn't really an issue to be overly bothered about because if he stays he is good enough to be one of the best players in his position in the league.

I know. That's not the point I was making. I was just using Bednarek as an example. The point is, we've got way too many centre backs and now that everyone knows Stephens is staying and probably starting (as he's also captain), they're going to know that that's one starting position gone, so we'll need to sell a load of the others, and the longer the window goes on, the more that weakens our negotiation position for any of those. 

Edited 19 hours ago by Midfield_General

[Oh no Mick Mills]

THB and Bednarek were both superb last time round in the Championship . 

We conceded so many due to a weak left back in Manning.

Baz in goal. 

Martins possession at all cost tactics. 

No decent options at CDM when Flynn was sick. 

 

[HarvSFC]

I thought we may have been able to use Ankersen's brother's transfer get together thing to offload a few of our unwanted. But, doesn't look like we can even add that to the small list of benefits of having Ankersen attached.

[Rowan Gorilla 5]

5 hours ago, Saint_lambden said:

Dejan Zukic at Wolfsberger in Austria is another we’ve scouted. 24 year-old Serbian attacking midfielder. 10 goals and 8 assists last season. Perhaps Solak can have a word…

Think he’s been scouted by us since he was 18 or 19. Definitely been a while.

[Chez]

44 minutes ago, Oh no Mick Mills said:

THB and Bednarek were both superb last time round in the Championship . 

We conceded so many due to a weak left back in Manning.

Baz in goal. 

Martins possession at all cost tactics. 

No decent options at CDM when Flynn was sick. 

 

No arguments with the reasons why we conceded a lot of goals, and yes, THB and Bednarek did pretty well, but they were at fault for goals too. Superb is not the word I'd use. Very good might be a better fit. They were far from perfect. They made an awful lot of mistakes (that you may or may not not have noticed) that thankfully weren't punished. The championship was pretty average and it was only when we came up against some decent outfits that our CBs were tested and showed their limitations.

[Chez]

2 hours ago, Mr_Red said:

I used to be F5 mad and excited to see who we were linked with in the past during the summer break. I'm now old and don't care for the game as much - I know I'm not the only one.

Still very much a Saint though. Have we a nice simple updatable list somewhere on here to help less frequent flyers like me keep track of who we've sold and who we've bought? I thought it a foregone conclusion that Ramsdale and Fernandes would be quick to go but seems they're still around for now...

In: Downs, Quarshie
Return from loans: BBD, Armstrong, Edwards, Charles, Edozie, Matsuki

Out: Samuel Amo-Ameyaw, Onuachu, Sulemana, KWP, Lumley, Lallana (retired)
Ugochukwu and Gronbaek return to their parent clubs
Larios (on loan)

[CSA96]

I see Sugawara has told the Daily Echo today that he wants to stay at Saints and prove himself to the fans by winning promotion

If so, that removes our need for a RB. Unless Bree goes... does he only have one year left on his deal now?

Edited 17 hours ago by CSA96

[sockeye]

2 minutes ago, CSA96 said:

I see Sugawara has told the Daily Echo today that he wants to stay at Saints and prove himself to the fans in the Championship

Happy with that. I think he's pretty handy going forward with his crosses. The test for him will be whether he can cut out his silly defensive errors or not. I also think having him and Matsuki in the squad will be good for young Takaoka

Edited 17 hours ago by sockeye

[Farmer Saint]

Suga will destroy the Championship as he is so good going forward.

[Pwoite]

I wish some on here had more respect for our players. Yes, they were very poor last season, but in a team inappropriately managed and without the right additions to our squad. We clearly have players good enough to challenge for promotion without buying anyone else. (And that’s after potentially selling the Fab Four.)

However, the squad is too big and we do need to sell, or loan, a number to reduce it to a manageable number.

Secondly, and more importantly, we need to bring in some fresh blood to beef up the weaker on pitch positions and to, hopefully, prepare for another Premier League season. I guess holding on to Fernandes, Ramsdale or whoever mitigates against this need.

Finally, if we are serious about winning promotion, then we have to aim for an automatic place, not the playoffs, and to achieve that does mean not just a smaller but stronger squad. However if we have Ramsdale, Quarshie, Sugawara, Edwards, an older Charles, Robinson, Matsuki, Stewart, Fernandes, Down and Archer around for the loss of KWP, Che and Stu and possibly THB,aren’t we a lot better off than two seasons ago?

Edited 16 hours ago by Pwoite

[Chez]

32 minutes ago, Farmer Saint said:

Suga will destroy the Championship as he is so good going forward.

I am starting to think that it's probably only Only Connect contestants that have the brains to get your jokes.

[HarvSFC]

Omari Hutchinson's release clause at Ipswich expired today. It would be good if we had a cut off date soon on Ramsdale's.

[Chez]

Sheff Wed's Gassama has joined Rangers. I thought he looked a real talent and the sort of wide player we need. Less chance of Fraser going there now, if there ever was.

[S-Clarke]

10 minutes ago, HarvSFC said:

Omari Hutchinson's release clause at Ipswich expired today. It would be good if we had a cut off date soon on Ramsdale's.

Good player, but another with a very high premium on his head that's probably north of his true value - even with the release clause. I think it's good that clubs like ourselves and Ipswich can be strong enough to demand top dollar and not be bullied, in many ways it's putting off the clubs as if we're honest there is better value to be had abroad if the clubs scouting is good. (i.e if they picked up Fernandes a year earlier).

[Farmer Saint]

40 minutes ago, Chez said:

I am starting to think that it's probably only Only Connect contestants that have the brains to get your jokes.

 

[Saint NL]

 

This should give everyone a boost

[hypochondriac]

13 minutes ago, Saint NL said:

 

This should give everyone a boost

That's a bit less than I thought. Will they appeal and get less?

[saintant]

15 minutes ago, Saint NL said:

 

This should give everyone a boost

They'll appeal and get out of it like always.

[Saint_lambden]

On 11/07/2025 at 14:40, Saint_lambden said:

We've been persuing Eduard Spertsyan (Armenian attacking midfielder at Krasnodar) but he wants to play European football so that's a bit of a dead end sadly. We didn't make a bid as wanted to establish if it was go-er first. A shame because he's a superb player but probably a bit too ambitious. 

No wonder he turned us down - PSG are now after him 😆

[Doctoroncall]

6 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

That's a bit less than I thought. Will they appeal and get less?

This is only on Sky Sports News, not the Football League. Let’s see what they say and if they take the PL penalty into account. 

[hypochondriac]

4 minutes ago, Doctoroncall said:

This is only on Sky Sports News, not the Football League. Let’s see what they say and if they take the PL penalty into account. 

I was hoping for 12 at least to really remove them as a threat. 

[Saint_lambden]

We’ve offered a contract to Morlaye Sylla who was most recently at Portuguese Premier League side Arouca but now available on a free as his contract expired. 
 

Versatile, can play across the midfield but most common on the left wing. 

[Saint NL]

Never heard of him, so here's a summary

 

Morlaye Sylla (born 27 July 1998) is a Guinean international footballer who plays as a midfielder for Arouca and the Guinea national team.

 

Morlaye Sylla

Personal information

Date of birth

27 July 1998 (age 26)

Place of birth

Conakry, Guinea

Height

1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)

Position(s)

Midfielder

 

 

 

 

[CSA96]

https://twitter.com/africafoot_com/status/1945195410026578368?s=46&t=f0hgNyKSvvOD5qjGLJhsXQ

[chivvy]

Strange signing looking at his stats bit of a suprise surprise..

Edited 14 hours ago by chivvy

[saintant]

1 minute ago, chivvy said:

Strange signing looking at his stats

Should fit in well then.

[Farmer Saint]

Goztepe/Valenciennes

[disconnect]

34 minutes ago, Saint NL said:

Never heard of him, so here's a summary

 

Morlaye Sylla (born 27 July 1998) is a Guinean international footballer who plays as a midfielder for Arouca and the Guinea national team.

 

Morlaye Sylla

Personal information

Date of birth

27 July 1998 (age 26)

Place of birth

Conakry, Guinea

Height

1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)

Position(s)

Midfielder

 

 

 

 

This guy makes Sulemana look prolific.

[SaintlyAnd]

From a quick look on youtube, he seems to have pace, some tricks and absolutely no left foot.

[MindtheGab]

6 hours ago, Midfield_General said:

Imagine, three years ago when we'd finally shipped Stephens off to Bournemouth on loan and Bednarek off to Villa on loan, where he promptly started slagging the club, that someone had told you that there was a chance - however slim - that they'd be lining up together for us on the opening day of the 2025-26 season 🤣 

Add McCarthy to this and you've got the holy trinity potentially starting for us again 5 seasons on from the second 9-0.

If you don't laugh, you'll cry 😅