Summer Transfer Window 2025/26

[skintsaint]

6 hours ago, Willo of Whiteley said:

Watford signing Nestory Irankunda from Bayern is a coup.

The type of player we should’ve been all over, this guy is so quick and technically good. He’ll walk the Championship and go on to bigger things.

Was decent enough in the A league when saw him a few years ago but the standard is rubbish. Not sure what you have seen in him since but lets see.

[Dusic]

Quite an interesting piece about how Norwich (and our now Head of Talent Acquisition in the 16-19 age group Mariela Nisotaki) identified Buendia through a mixture of data and eye-test.

[SuperSAINT]

17 minutes ago, Dusic said:

Quite an interesting piece about how Norwich (and our now Head of Talent Acquisition in the 16-19 age group Mariela Nisotaki) identified Buendia through a mixture of data and eye-test.

Saw that the other day - great story.  Basically created loads of chances but for a rubbish striker 😂

Edited 8 hours ago by SuperSAINT

[Saint Fan CaM]

3 hours ago, Chez said:

Not many sides get better after relegation.

We have lost KWP, Onuachu, Sulemana and Lumley. Downs and Quarshie have come the other way. Is the squad strengthened? difficult to know until we see those two players play a few games.

I think it's fair to say we will lose a couple of our `wanted' and better quality players (let's say Ramsdale and Fernandes for argument's sake). So, to stand still (in terms of squad quality) we need to find two players as good as those, which is very unlikely.

We then need to see maybe 6 more players depart (let's say ABK, Taylor, BBD, Armstrong, Bednarek and Edwards) and then bring in, maybe, 3 to replace them. All three replacements will need to be improvements for the squad to be strengthened. 

In reality, the quality is not going to increase. We might be stay about the same, if we are lucky, and that would be a win. 

The context I’m thinking about is over several seasons - not just last seasons relegation. I would argue that overall squad quality has drifted in a downwards spiral since the days of Koeman’s departure (roughly speaking). Yes, we’ve added some individual quality where needed on occasion (Ramsdale / Fernandes) and that has helped to boost the overall squad quality, but those additions have been restorative - not building an improvement. Take them out and overall squad quality will plummet again. On the flip side, retaining Stephens, Manning, Aribo, Taylor, BBD etc, diminishes overall squad quality but they’re still with us.

Each successive season squad quality has been depleted to the point where last season the deficiencies were displayed in all their graphic ugliness. I would argue that to get promotion this season and then stay up, there is an significant improvement in squad quality required (without the loss of our best players). Whether that transformation happens this window, the next two windows or atall is questionable. Is it too much to expect a decent sized club like SFC to retain 7 to 9 players of Ramsdale / Fernandes quality, even in the Championship? I don’t think so…

[VectisSaint]

4 hours ago, Chez said:

Not many sides get better after relegation.

We have lost KWP, Onuachu, Sulemana and Lumley. Downs and Quarshie have come the other way. Is the squad strengthened? difficult to know until we see those two players play a few games.

I think it's fair to say we will lose a couple of our `wanted' and better quality players (let's say Ramsdale and Fernandes for argument's sake). So, to stand still (in terms of squad quality) we need to find two players as good as those, which is very unlikely.

We then need to see maybe 6 more players depart (let's say ABK, Taylor, BBD, Armstrong, Bednarek and Edwards) and then bring in, maybe, 3 to replace them. All three replacements will need to be improvements for the squad to be strengthened. 

In reality, the quality is not going to increase. We might be stay about the same, if we are lucky, and that would be a win. 

We also lost Ugochukwu (loan), Lallana (retired), probably some others, and gained BBD (if that's a gain), Edozie,.Armstrong and others?

[Chez]

3 hours ago, Turkish said:

Brought is Hooliveld as well didnt we? Started the first few games but out of his depth in the premier league. Yoshida came in and partnered Fonte for the rest of that season before we got Lovren a year later who made a difference. 

He was with us in the championship. I thought we bought him in January but it was a loan. 

I dint really have a point to my post, other than to see if we bought players in the championship promotion season and then immediately offloaded in the summer prior to the PL season. We didn't, although clearly the manager did recognise that three of the signings we not up to it, so didn't get a chance to play. We clearly couldn't offload them, and if we do the same - buy championship players this summer, we will be stuck with them for three years.

[Turkish]

36 minutes ago, Chez said:

He was with us in the championship. I thought we bought him in January but it was a loan. 

I dint really have a point to my post, other than to see if we bought players in the championship promotion season and then immediately offloaded in the summer prior to the PL season. We didn't, although clearly the manager did recognise that three of the signings we not up to it, so didn't get a chance to play. We clearly couldn't offload them, and if we do the same - buy championship players this summer, we will be stuck with them for three years.

That was the point I was replying to, we signed Sharp, Fox, Lee, Hooliveld who all played a big part in our championship promotion but barely played again when we went up. 
 

we signed Hooliveld back end of the summer window in the championship after we’d missed out on our top 3-4 targets I forget their names now but one of them we from Bristol City thought it was a done deal then collapsed at the last minute 

[hypochondriac]

19 minutes ago, Turkish said:

That was the point I was replying to, we signed Sharp, Fox, Lee, Hooliveld who all played a big part in our championship promotion but barely played again when we went up. 
 

we signed Hooliveld back end of the summer window in the championship after we’d missed out on our top 3-4 targets I forget their names now but one of them we from Bristol City thought it was a done deal then collapsed at the last minute 

Precisely. All this stuff about having to sign players who can only play in the division higher is a load of nonsense. You wouldn't possibly be able to afford that so you need a mix. Maybe 4 first team players who could be good prem players and the rest get binned or maybe squad players at best. 7 or 8 prem starters needed once you get promotion. 

[ChrisPY]

23 minutes ago, Turkish said:

That was the point I was replying to, we signed Sharp, Fox, Lee, Hooliveld who all played a big part in our championship promotion but barely played again when we went up. 
 

we signed Hooliveld back end of the summer window in the championship after we’d missed out on our top 3-4 targets I forget their names now but one of them we from Bristol City thought it was a done deal then collapsed at the last minute 

Not a defender but think we were heavily linked with Nicky Maynard?

Ended up as one of about 10 strikers West Ham played that season.

[John B]

4 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

Precisely. All this stuff about having to sign players who can only play in the division higher is a load of nonsense. You wouldn't possibly be able to afford that so you need a mix. Maybe 4 first team players who could be good prem players and the rest get binned or maybe squad players at best. 7 or 8 prem starters needed once you get promotion. 

That may have been the case a few years ago but nowadays the teams finishing in the top 17 in the PL are much better than similar teams in previous years.

For instance Man U and Spurs finished nowhere with squads we can hardly compete with

Perhaps it will change but teams like Nottm Forest Crystal Palace Brentford Fulham Brighton and Brentford are contantly producing £50m players which we and other ex Premier Leauge clubs have failed to do over the last few years.

It will be interesting how much we get for Fernandes and Dibling if they leave

Ramsdale and THB may go for what we paid for them like most of the players we have off loaded

[hypochondriac]

5 minutes ago, John B said:

That may have been the case a few years ago but nowadays the teams finishing in the top 17 in the PL are much better than similar teams in previous years.

For instance Man U and Spurs finished nowhere with squads we can hardly compete with

Perhaps it will change but teams like Nottm Forest Crystal Palace Brentford Fulham Brighton and Brentford are contantly producing £50m players which we and other ex Premier Leauge clubs have failed to do over the last few years.

It will be interesting how much we get for Fernandes and Dibling if they leave

Ramsdale and THB may go for what we paid for them like most of the players we have off loaded

It's the only realistic chance you have. Maybe you can get lucky with a couple of younger players. Say we kept for example Dibling, Downes, Fernandes and THB (unlikely but let's imagine). Under a Still system and with a bit more experience they might be good enough for the prem. You'd then look to sign a starting gk, rb, CB, lb, cm, lm and striker. Maybe 150-200 million and cross your fingers that another prem team implodes and that you beat the two teams who come up with you so you finish 17th. It's unlikely but that's the only chance you have under this system. 

[Paul Chuckle]

1 hour ago, Turkish said:

That was the point I was replying to, we signed Sharp, Fox, Lee, Hooliveld who all played a big part in our championship promotion but barely played again when we went up. 
 

we signed Hooliveld back end of the summer window in the championship after we’d missed out on our top 3-4 targets I forget their names now but one of them we from Bristol City thought it was a done deal then collapsed at the last minute 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/14645578

 

Liam Fontaine. Seems we didn't sign him as he had an ankle issue.

[John B]

8 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

It's the only realistic chance you have. Maybe you can get lucky with a couple of younger players. Say we kept for example Dibling, Downes, Fernandes and THB (unlikely but let's imagine). Under a Still system and with a bit more experience they might be good enough for the prem. You'd then look to sign a starting gk, rb, CB, lb, cm, lm and striker. Maybe 150-200 million and cross your fingers that another prem team implodes and that you beat the two teams who come up with you so you finish 17th. It's unlikely but that's the only chance you have under this system. 

I agree we should keep Ramsdale Fernandes THB and Dibling get in some good loans and give it a go cannot see any other way to eeturn to the PL and stay there.

 

But the agents will not help us

[Give it to Ron]

12 minutes ago, Paul Chuckle said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/14645578

 

Liam Fontaine. Seems we didn't sign him as he had an ankle issue.

In 2011

[Turkish]

17 minutes ago, Paul Chuckle said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/14645578

 

Liam Fontaine. Seems we didn't sign him as he had an ankle issue.

Thats the fella, cheers. There were at least a couple more as well and Hooliveld was very much a last minute move. He turned out alright in the championship despite and infamous scouting report from a poster who TUI who claimed he had seen him play for Celtic and had scored an own goal, given away a penalty and got sent off in a match for Celtic, on further investigation it turned out it was a completely made up 😂😂

[The Kraken]

3 minutes ago, Turkish said:

Thats the fella, cheers. There were at least a couple more as well and Hooliveld was very much a last minute move. He turned out alright in the championship despite and infamous scouting report from a poster who TUI who claimed he had seen him play for Celtic and had scored an own goal, given away a penalty and got sent off in a match for Celtic, on further investigation it turned out it was a completely made up 😂😂

Patred 🤣 the infamous Inverness game that was immediately exposed as complete bullshit but the silly sod carried on his lie for years. Forgot about him, what a sausage.  

[S-Clarke]

There were a few in those years - John Sheids in our Burley years (or before), he was at Staplewood don't you know!

Elliott Ward was another in that Fontaine year, created a lot of noise that we didn't get him. Then we had Amar Jemal another CB we missed in our Champ season, and then Alexander Butner in our PL season who 'slipped through our grasp'. I guess if we go even further, Les Reed went on a flight to try and persuade Marcos Rojo to join us!

 

Edited 5 hours ago by S-Clarke

[goodymatt]

 

[hypochondriac]

39 minutes ago, John B said:

I agree we should keep Ramsdale Fernandes THB and Dibling get in some good loans and give it a go cannot see any other way to eeturn to the PL and stay there.

 

But the agents will not help us

Yeah it's not going to happen and almost insurmountable without a load of luck and being able to spend big. Once you stay up life should become much easier

[chivvy]

15 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

There were a few in those years - John Sheids in our Burley years (or before), he was at Staplewood don't you know!

Elliott Ward was another in that Fontaine year, created a lot of noise that we didn't get him. Then we had Amar Jemal another CB we missed in our Champ season, and then Alexander Butner in our PL season who 'slipped through our grasp'. I guess if we go even further, Les Reed went on a flight to try and persuade Marcos Rojo to join us!

 

Butner played 28 games for vitese Arnhem last year !!

[S-Clarke]

3 minutes ago, goodymatt said:

 

Not bothered about that, he'd cost a fortune, would spend most of the season in the physio room and offer us very little.

Good player in his day, cannot deny that. But injuries totally ruined him, he's not done anything over in Turkey. It smells like the sort of hollywood signing Wrexham may try to make.

[Turkish]

33 minutes ago, The Kraken said:

Patred 🤣 the infamous Inverness game that was immediately exposed as complete bullshit but the silly sod carried on his lie for years. Forgot about him, what a sausage.  

IIRC he first claimed it was a cup game, then a friendly, then when absolutely no record anywhere of the game could be found he said it was a behind closed doors friendly 😂😂

He came out some absolute bullshit over the years 

[Turkish]

31 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

There were a few in those years - John Sheids in our Burley years (or before), he was at Staplewood don't you know!

Elliott Ward was another in that Fontaine year, created a lot of noise that we didn't get him. Then we had Amar Jemal another CB we missed in our Champ season, and then Alexander Butner in our PL season who 'slipped through our grasp'. I guess if we go even further, Les Reed went on a flight to try and persuade Marcos Rojo to join us!

 

Elliot Ward was the year before in league one and we completely mugged him off. He’d said his goodbyes at whatever club he was at was about to travel down to sign and got a call to say we’d signed Dan Seabourne instead. 
 

yeah Jamal was championship season there was definitely one more as well we thought was over the line only for it to collapse at the 11th hour 

[The Kraken]

10 minutes ago, Turkish said:

IIRC he first claimed it was a cup game, then a friendly, then when absolutely no record anywhere of the game could be found he said it was a behind closed doors friendly 😂😂

He came out some absolute bullshit over the years 

I believe that it immediately came out that Celtic did actually played a game on the very same day that he said he was there, and that game was indeed against Inverness. But the lineup was published online and Hooiveld wasn’t in it. After that Bullshit Pat claimed that the game that he attended was actually a behind doors friendly that he had been especially invited to, a Celtic XI vs an Inverness XI (coincidentally the same day as the other game was played), and Hooiveld did indeed play, give away a penalty, score an own goal and get sent off. Such a silly man.

[Pat from Poole]

10 minutes ago, Turkish said:

Elliot Ward was the year before in league one and we completely mugged him off. He’d said his goodbyes at whatever club he was at was about to travel down to sign and got a call to say we’d signed Dan Seabourne instead. 
 

yeah Jamal was championship season there was definitely one more as well we thought was over the line only for it to collapse at the 11th hour 

Craig Mackail-Smith?????

[CSA96]

55 minutes ago, Turkish said:

Elliot Ward was the year before in league one and we completely mugged him off. He’d said his goodbyes at whatever club he was at was about to travel down to sign and got a call to say we’d signed Dan Seabourne instead. 
 

yeah Jamal was championship season there was definitely one more as well we thought was over the line only for it to collapse at the 11th hour 

I think that other CB you're on about was Kaspars Gorkss? The Latvian CB from Queens Park Rangers, ended up going to Reading instead, just a week before the deadline. That would make sense as it lines up with Hooiveld being a late grab as the window was closing after missing out on Fontaine and Gorkss

[CSA96]

Neil Danns was another one back in the day where it seemed like he was coming and then he wasn't. Palace were trying to balance the books, it was a year on from us signing Jose Fonte from them and he chose to go to Leicester instead as he had family in the Midlands and came from Liverpool, I think

I read Neil Warnock's autobiography a while ago and he mentions being told by Simon Jordan (I think) that they'd had to accept a bid from Southampton for Neil Danns, but then it ended up being that he chose Leicester instead

[Turkish]

2 minutes ago, CSA96 said:

I think that other CB you're on about was Kaspars Gorkss? The Latvian CB from Queens Park Rangers, ended up going to Reading instead, just a week before the deadline. That would make sense as it lines up with Hooiveld being a late grab as the window was closing after missing out on Fontaine and Gorkss

That’s the fella thanks, yes. We were in for him and he chose Reading instead. After missing our on Jamal, Gorkss and Fountaine it was a mad scramble right at the end of the window and we got Hooliveld 

[Turkish]

2 minutes ago, CSA96 said:

Neil Danns was another one back in the day where it seemed like he was coming and then he wasn't. Palace were trying to balance the books, it was a year on from us signing Jose Fonte from them and he chose to go to Leicester instead as he had family in the Midlands and came from Liverpool, I think

I read Neil Warnock's autobiography a while ago and he mentions being told by Simon Jordan (I think) that they'd had to accept a bid from Southampton for Neil Danns, but then it ended up being that he chose Leicester instead

We were very close to getting Jamie Vardy too. The fletwood chairman had told people at a game it was Vardys last game as they’d got an offer they can’t refuse from Southampton, something happened and as we knew he ended up at Leicester 

 

 

[Turkish]

55 minutes ago, The Kraken said:

I believe that it immediately came out that Celtic did actually played a game on the very same day that he said he was there, and that game was indeed against Inverness. But the lineup was published online and Hooiveld wasn’t in it. After that Bullshit Pat claimed that the game that he attended was actually a behind doors friendly that he had been especially invited to, a Celtic XI vs an Inverness XI (coincidentally the same day as the other game was played), and Hooiveld did indeed play, give away a penalty, score an own goal and get sent off. Such a silly man.

Another classic was he’d been at Norwich training ground that morning and heard we were trying to sign Gary Cahill. When a link to that hotbed of bullshit football insider was posted with a story that morning that saints were interested in signing Cahill he made out it confirmed what he’d heard 😂😂😂