January Transfer Window 2026

[Danbert]

JWP got 7 goals and 7 assists for West Ham in 2023-2024 and 9 goals and 4 assists for us the season before. He's played for England. Clearly he has a higher ceiling than Downs, who I thought was one of our least shit players last year and was very good for us in the Championship in 2023-2024.

[HarvSFC]

I always thought JWP held us back a bit. We were very content with having him in the middle of the park and never looked to upgrade, or we couldn't afford to upgrade with him still in the squad. Similar to the goalkeeper position of recent years. Our best midfield of Schneiderlin, Wanyama and Davis, which should have and should be our ambitions to get back to that level, he wouldn't get in. Also seen with his two Premier League moves (West Ham and Notthingham Forest) that he hasn't shown to be anything more than a bog standard, possibly below average Premier League midfielder. And, apparently he doesn't even score free-kicks anymore.

[Matthew Le God]

15 minutes ago, HarvSFC said:

I always thought JWP held us back a bit. 

He scored 27 league goals from central midfield in his last 3 Premier League seasons for us. That is a very good return, especially given we weren't a good team for a lot of that time.

[spyinthesky]

2 hours ago, Matthew Le God said:

He scored 27 league goals from central midfield in his last 3 Premier League seasons for us. That is a very good return, especially given we weren't a good team for a lot of that time.

I think he was one of our stand out players for a while but think that ship may have sailed now unfortunately.

Will be interesting to see where he ends up post West Ham

[StrangelyBrown]

13 hours ago, Holmes_and_Watson said:

With the caveat of me not seeing him much since he left, JWP for me.

Downes was our MVP in our last Championship season. That was after JWP had left, and JWP raised the game of the others in those opening games.

For me, it's not a direct swap. Jander is the one replacing Downes, and I'd have JWP further forward. Downes has become so comfortable with RussBall, he looks lost going forward now. JWP looked better moved up, just a bit.

JWP looked like he was shoulders and head above everyone else in the few games he played for us in the championship.

However, we ought to just move on from players past...

[StrangelyBrown]

On 30/09/2025 at 12:26, Dusic said:

Clever to have left ourselves with PL loan spots free. Thats usually where the value is in January.

Maybe we could loan Ramsdale back

[Whitey Grandad]

14 hours ago, StrangelyBrown said:

JWP looked like he was shoulders and head above everyone else in the few games he played for us in the championship.

However, we ought to just move on from players past...

 

14 hours ago, StrangelyBrown said:

Maybe we could loan Ramsdale back

Coincidence?

[Hawkswood]

I wonder if other fans forums have this infatuation with having old players back. Maybe they do, I really dont know, but ffs can we please stop doing it. Does it ever work out when it's a player ? If it does it must be very rare. Yes, he did a job for us ( as such) but he never drove the midfield on, it was always going square, he held our game back, he slowed us down. Yes a good " club man" but a very limited player, who, lets be honest, were it not for his set pieces would've struggled to get into the starting 11. Hes not a defensive midfielder, most definitely not an attacking midfielder, he just recycles the ball. That's it. That's not a good midfielder but most importantly we really need to stop old players coming back here. Enough of the nostalgia.

[Willo of Whiteley]

It’s almost become a habit of young promising players going to have their big money move and then returning to their boyhood club after they’ve had their peak or aren’t at the level they once were.

I’m sure Grealish will go back to Villa, Trent will go back to Liverpool etc one day.

[AlexLaw76]

 

[Gloucester Saint]

22 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

 

If true, weird stuff as he did well at Liverpool and hardly seen since. Still doesn’t seem to  like the look of him at all.

[SuperSAINT]

56 minutes ago, Gloucester Saint said:

If true, weird stuff as he did well at Liverpool and hardly seen since. Still doesn’t seem to  like the look of him at all.

Can he play up front?

[disconnect]

1 hour ago, Gloucester Saint said:

If true, weird stuff as he did well at Liverpool and hardly seen since. Still doesn’t seem to  like the look of him at all.

Which is strange as seemed to be miles ahead of Manning.

[trousers]

Yep, utterly bizarre... both the timing of this report (i.e. way too soon for the club to making such a decision, so likely BS anyway) and the fact that Jelert seems to be down the pecking order when he was a Man of the Match candidate vs Liverpool and showed he was a much more accomplished player than those higher in said order. What's the point of loaning someone in who then doesn't feature? Same with that other fella who came in last January transfer window. Yet more Sport Republic randomness and money frittery.

Edited 7 hours ago by trousers

[Badger]

4 hours ago, Gloucester Saint said:

If true, weird stuff as he did well at Liverpool and hardly seen since. Still doesn’t seem to  like the look of him at all.

Agree, but if he was defensively sound, making runs deep into the opposition half, and passing the ball to blokes in the same colour shirt then he's not going to fit in. That'll teach him and be an example to others. 

[benjii]

Probably can't afford him, now we're not getting promoted and will have to pay off a dud manager.

[HarvSFC]

He's probably our best full-back currently at the club, based purely on his only substantial minutes at the club against Liverpool. Buyout clauses also don't get decided in October. Although, we don't follow the norms of football, so could well be true.