Summer Transfer Window 2026

[James]

Just now, hypochondriac said:

We will very obviously replace him.

Hopefully they have something lined up to happen a bit more quickly than the Charles replacement. We need to make sure we are not cut adrift.

[Harry_SFC]

2 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

Fair enough that's him off then. You can't do much if a team like that are in for him. Get as much as possible and we will have to move on. Big blow though.

Even bigger blow that Burnley have just signed our (seemingly) number 1 replacement for him.

[James]

1 minute ago, Harry_SFC said:

Even bigger blow that Burnley have just signed our (seemingly) number 1 replacement for him.

Don’t think they’ve actually signed him but agreed, sounded like a very decent option as a replacement. 

[CSA96]

8 minutes ago, freshen up said:

I'm not sure he's good enough to play for Villa tbh

That was my initial reaction too

[tdmickey3]

2 minutes ago, CSA96 said:

That was my initial reaction too

All a bit Irrelevant if they want him they must rate him.

We (sfc) rate Stephens so there are so very odd views out there 

[Matthew Le God]

4 minutes ago, Harry_SFC said:

Even bigger blow that Burnley have just signed our (seemingly) number 1 replacement for him.

Not yet they haven't.

[SaintsLoyal]

Someone email THB agent and ask them what's the agenda with telling Ornstein, some laughable offer to put out.

[Toussaint]

28 minutes ago, Football Special said:

Tell them to double it 

And throw in McGinn

[Toussaint]

31 minutes ago, Willo of Whiteley said:

Villa have been bidding for everyone this window.

They'd be effectively paying £20M for a back up CB. 😂

Not a back up so much as one for the future, he’s a very good player with time on his side. 

Edited 1 hour ago by Toussaint

[UpweySaint]

25 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

That's one hell of a downgrade on Konsa.

I can see why you would say that but I really rate TBH. Seeing England’s relative lack of depth at CB over the summer I genuinely wondered how far away TBH would be from selection if he can have a decent season in the prem.

[SNSUN]

THB may be off soon but he will be replaced, the problem is getting someone in of a better quality than Jack and Wood. 

Also it still surprises me that quite a bit of time has passed since Shea left and we haven't yet made a move for a midfielder to replace him, especially since Jander has been injured. You'd like to think SR have contingency plans in place for such eventualities. 

I still wouldn't be surprised to see late moves for Jander and Leo. The transfers in would have to be amazing. Spors and co have a lot of work to do. You can't just expect people to swoop in and buy/loan our unwanted players before we make moves. 

[saint michael]

I think Jack always looks worse when the midfield isn’t right. This was particularly so under Martin. He seems to try and fill the void and gets caught between being a cb and midfielder. He also isn’t the most skill full player (understatement) so really shows up his often produced mistakes. 
 

losing THB not only loses us a competent cb but also loses us his goals as did Charles from midfield. 
 

worries me a lot. The erosion of quality we are seeing and then buying untested or undemonstrated quality in replacements. I do fear that too much of this will put pressure on players left in the side that they didn’t have at the time we were good last season.
 

Bragg is a good example.. play in a side functioning well is very different to being it this year in midfield in a side that might struggle  

feels like another rollercoaster moment where we have to wait and see what happens next.
 

 

Edited 1 hour ago by saint michael

[Badger]

22 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

We will very obviously replace him.

No doubt we will, the worry is who with and what standard

[LGTL]

Villa have bid that to further unsettle THB. They’ll get him for a reduced fee, Saints will argue we did everything we could to keep him blah blah. Tale as old as time. 

[hypochondriac]

2 minutes ago, Badger said:

No doubt we will, the worry is who with and what standard

Of course but it's silly to say we will be left with Wood and Stephens 

[hypochondriac]

25 minutes ago, Harry_SFC said:

I think we should be looking at getting £30m for him. £25m with £5m achievable add ons as absolute minimum. I get that he only has 2 years left but he's arguably our best player.

Yep. 25 with addons to 30 and he's off.

[Chez]

27 minutes ago, tdmickey3 said:

It will be 20 plus add ones and we are left with Stephens and Wood…..🙄

We never say no….
 

Who’s next?

who ever does say no? 

Selling players is fine so long as the recruitment is department knows what they are doing. 

[Badger]

24 minutes ago, Harry_SFC said:

I think we should be looking at getting £30m for him. £25m with £5m achievable add ons as absolute minimum. I get that he only has 2 years left but he's arguably our best player.

Partly agree, but having seen them get £60m for a CB we should be looking at £30m plus the add-ons. 
 

Just get the fucking adequate replacements in. Other than Anel no names have really emerged (not impressed by the Estoril bloke with a fairly limited career to date). 

[RedArmy]

2 minutes ago, LGTL said:

Villa have bid that to further unsettle THB. They’ll get him for a reduced fee, Saints will argue we did everything we could to keep him blah blah. Tale as old as time. 

They can fuck off. When the Konsa sale goes through, they’ll have sold north of £250m worth of players this summer. Put up or fuck off. 

[Wade Garrett]

1 hour ago, lambtiss said:

Stevens and THB was Tondas preferred pairing last season and for good reason. It should be this season too until the partnership is broken up by injury or form. Certainly not after the first match of the season, even if Jack had a poir match. 

Sorry Jack, I just don’t rate you.  Never have done.  Remember you losing Ibrahimovic in the box in the League Cup Final and you’re still doing it.

[Oldandtired]

4 hours ago, Little Lat Pahars said:

We dropped him when we were in the Prem. We are not in the Prem anymore. Stephens is perfectly fine in the Championship as shown last season. 

 

but not as shown in the first match of this season.

 

Edited 1 hour ago by Oldandtired

[Chez]

26 minutes ago, Harry_SFC said:

I think we should be looking at getting £30m for him. £25m with £5m achievable add ons as absolute minimum. I get that he only has 2 years left but he's arguably our best player.

If we had got promoted to the PL, would you be happy to pay that for him?

[spyinthesky]

If a player has the option to move to a Prem or top European Club and double his wages (with his Agent aware he will have a few extra Sovs too) no lower League club is going to win that battle.
Only thing that can be done is to stick out for the best transfer fee and hope a cheaper replacement will be OK

[hypochondriac]

6 minutes ago, LGTL said:

Villa have bid that to further unsettle THB. They’ll get him for a reduced fee, Saints will argue we did everything we could to keep him blah blah. Tale as old as time. 

Except that isn't true under this leadership. There's a lot to criticise them for but they tend to get maximum value from their sales. He will go but we will get our 30 million imo.

[Wade Garrett]

32 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

We will very obviously replace him.

Like Charles?

[CSA96]

12 months is a long time in football. THB was a bad influence, negative moaner and not good enough last summer, with many fans happy to move on from him and leave him on the bench / sell him on while giving more opportunities to Ronnie Edwards and the other defenders who hadn’t been so involved in our PL relegation

A year later and you have people saying he should be for sale at no price or we should be aiming for a huge fee. I like him, he’s a bit fiery and passionate and his attitude gets him into trouble at times but overall he’s been a good player to have and it’ll be interesting to see what the view on him is in another 12 months 

[Chez]

13 minutes ago, SNSUN said:

THB may be off soon but he will be replaced, the problem is getting someone in of a better quality than Jack and Wood. 

Also it still surprises me that quite a bit of time has passed since Shea left and we haven't yet made a move for a midfielder to replace him, especially since Jander has been injured. You'd like to think SR have contingency plans in place for such eventualities. 

I still wouldn't be surprised to see late moves for Jander and Leo. The transfers in would have to be amazing. Spors and co have a lot of work to do. You can't just expect people to swoop in and buy/loan our unwanted players before we make moves. 

Maybe the Charles money balanced the books, while the THB money frees us to buy a CB and a CM?

[pingpong]

Not too worried as we can replace him with someone championship standard.  It'd be nice to spend the money on some quality up the centre of the pitch, no more wingers please 

[Chez]

10 minutes ago, LGTL said:

Villa have bid that to further unsettle THB. They’ll get him for a reduced fee, Saints will argue we did everything we could to keep him blah blah. Tale as old as time. 

We have got pretty good fees in recent times, so not sure why you are suggesting we will simply fold like pack of cards even though money is always tight when you have been relagted. 

[LeG]

Quite a few things are now in play.

A low ball offer to unsettle the player. Makes sense from their point of view.

Money we may still owe for Dobbin

The sell on % we will owe City when this goes through.

I think £28m + £5 add ons gets it done...we must be desperate for the money because we can't shift Ramsdale, Suga, Bazunu, BBD, Downs, JQ etc.

I do think this is now a great opportunity to buy two brilliant CB's for this league and pair them up though. The only thing i would miss from THB is his passing and goals. He will have a lot to do if he wants to make the step up and play for Villa IMO. He will need exp next to him. Only time will tell if he can do it.

I'm sure Spors has a few gems up his sleeve. They know the fanbase will be on edge, and they promised us an exciting squad. Peretz, Larin and Bree was an incredible start...but now they will be judged on who they bring in to replace Charles, THB and hopefully another CB + Striker.

I'm still worried that Jander will also go.  


 

[LGTL]

4 minutes ago, hypochondriac said:

Except that isn't true under this leadership. There's a lot to criticise them for but they tend to get maximum value from their sales. He will go but we will get our 30 million imo.

True, but I’ll be stunned if we get £30m straight up. That’s the least we should be hoping for, but it’s a massive jump from £18m and Villa would have bid that knowing the wishes of THB. Here’s hoping. 

[Chez]

6 minutes ago, spyinthesky said:

If a player has the option to move to a Prem or top European Club and double his wages (with his Agent aware he will have a few extra Sovs too) no lower League club is going to win that battle.
Only thing that can be done is to stick out for the best transfer fee and hope a cheaper replacement will be OK

spot on. It's a football pyramid and until we finally make it to the top, we will always have to sell our best players. It's not ideal, but at least we have good players to sell. When that stops, you are fucked.

[Suhari]

59 minutes ago, HarvSFC said:

Nooooo, it's happening.

He's clearly going to go. Key is to get the max ££ and a quality replacement in. Some big decisions for Spors.

Is Anel out of the question?

[Chez]

3 minutes ago, LeG said:

I'm still worried that Jander will also go.  
 

The long contract is in our favour with Jander, unless he kicks up a fuss. No reason to think he will.

[Yorkshire Saint]

1 minute ago, Suhari said:

He's clearly going to go. Key is to get the max ££ and a quality replacement in. Some big decisions for Spors.

Is Anel out of the question?

ASL?

[Teamsaint1]

41 minutes ago, bugenhagen said:

Yeah - in my book, a team of players "fine" for the Championship finishes the season between 12th and 16th somewhere...

We should aim for better than "fine"

This is true , but you can definitely get away with a few who are “ fine” if you have all the other attributes of a promotion side, including a number of players who are much better than “fine. “

[RedArmy]

Just now, Suhari said:

 

Is Anel out of the question?

[hypochondriac]

17 minutes ago, Wade Garrett said:

Like Charles?

We will replace Charles too.

[CSA96]

On 19/08/2026 at 12:10, CSA96 said:

Champions League Aston Villa who already have Pau Torres, Lindelof and Mings? I doubt that THB is on their shortlist, but never say never I guess

And that's why you never say never 

I am still a bit surprised they are considering him as a serious option to be honest, but good luck to him if it happens

[hypochondriac]

I'm over it. Was obvious he was going to go when all this interest was coming in and nothing we can do when a top prem team bids. I wonder if we will have a last minute flurry like last year when Azaz, Fellows, Scienza, Jander etc came in. We will likely need it with our best players being sold. Once it happens I'll be downgrading our chances from an outside bet at the automatic places to lower playoffs. Maybe a squad refresh is for the best after the trauma of last year.

Edited 35 minutes ago by hypochondriac

[Challenger]

Sending that pillock up to Boro to get easily caught with his nokia is paying more dividends by the week.

[SouSaint]

Absolutely no way Solak was lying here. 

🫠

[Baird of the land]

If Thb leaves will we get the same no imminent replacement bs.

[SouSaint]

2 minutes ago, Challenger said:

Sending that pillock up to Boro to get easily caught with his nokia is paying more dividends by the week.

It is the biggest own goal of all time and the fan base are the one's who will pay the price. 

The Championship is far stronger this season than it was last season. 

[egg]

34 minutes ago, Chez said:

Maybe the Charles money balanced the books, while the THB money frees us to buy a CB and a CM?

We owed £99m in transfer fees. The books are out of balance. 

[HarvSFC]

Just now, SouSaint said:

Absolutely no way Solak was lying here. 

🫠

Last summer he said we would sign a centre-back, a centre-forward and an attacking midfielder without the need of selling anyone. He delivered Joshua Quarshie, Damion Downs and nobody, until we signed Azaz following the sales of Dibling and Fernandes (+Onuachu, Sulemana, Bednarek and Amo-Ameyaw).

I believed him last summer, I believed him this summer. Maybe I need to stop and accept he's chatting shit to build hope and sell season tickets. 

[hypochondriac]

4 minutes ago, SouSaint said:

Absolutely no way Solak was lying here. 

🫠

TBF that could be true however our squad ends up. Working towards something isn't a promise of anything.

[qwertyell]

Just now, SouSaint said:

It is the biggest own goal of all time and the fan base are the one's who will pay the price.

The people responsible for utterly torpedoing last season, with the knock on effects drastically undermining this one as a consequence, got the club's full backing - to the cheers of that fan base, wibbling on about sticking two fingers up to Henry Winter or something. 

 

 

[James]

Of course Solak had to say that at a time when the fan base was on the floor. There are still a couple of weeks left of the window so we have to wait and see but, so far, the Stewart replacement is a massive gamble, there’s nothing imminent on Charles replacement and the reported THB replacement is reportedly off to Burnley so it’s a wait and see. As I’ve said, in any other season there’d be no reason to worry re timing of replacements but this season a slow start will do some damage.

[CSA96]

5 minutes ago, HarvSFC said:

Last summer he said we would sign a centre-back, a centre-forward and an attacking midfielder without the need of selling anyone. He delivered Joshua Quarshie, Damion Downs and nobody, until we signed Azaz following the sales of Dibling and Fernandes (+Onuachu, Sulemana, Bednarek and Amo-Ameyaw).

I believed him last summer, I believed him this summer. Maybe I need to stop and accept he's chatting shit to build hope and sell season tickets. 

Fans obsess over this 'sell season tickets' a bit too much I think. The owner doesn't go out and make comments to sell season tickets. Also how can it be 'nobody until we signed Azaz' - so we signed Azaz then 

Downs was pants but I can see why they punted on him. They rectified it with Larin at the next available opportunity and that has definitely paid off. Quarshie I remain unsure of how good/bad he actually is, but the upgrade from Bazunu/McCarthy to Peretz was also substantial