Summer 2025 Transfer Window - hopes, speculation, rumours etc.

[Dave]

I'm pretty sure we won't be buying first-team players from Chesterfield and Crewe this time.

[ozzjim]

I'm pretty sure we won't be buying first-team players from Chesterfield and Crewe this time.

We're in a massively different place. I would argue if Emery bought the equivalents of Vertout, Amavi, Ayew, Traore and Guye in this summer, they would fare rather better with the core group already in place and the manager being so clear with his ideas.

[Toronto Villa]

Those players, given the collective careers they had were so very wasted with us. I’d love to have seen what Emery could have done with them as a coach and via the environment we now have at the club. They came into to such a toxic environment led by chief ******; Gabby and Micah Richards.

[ozzjim]

Those players, given the collective careers they had were so very wasted with us. I’d love to have seen what Emery could have done with them as a coach and via the environment we now have at the club. They came into to such a toxic environment led by chief ******; Gabby and Micah Richards.

They were all good players. Just a shame they can't into a framework of a side that was utterly broken. Not sure Richards was the huge problem people make out, indeed Smith and Bruce praised him for his work with the kids etc, but Lescott, Gabby etc we're miles off what we needed as senior pros and the defence in general was just apocalyptic.

[paul_e]

Those players, given the collective careers they had were so very wasted with us. I’d love to have seen what Emery could have done with them as a coach and via the environment we now have at the club. They came into to such a toxic environment led by chief ******; Gabby and Micah Richards.

They were all good players. Just a shame they can't into a framework of a side that was utterly broken. Not sure Richards was the huge problem people make out, indeed Smith and Bruce praised him for his work with the kids etc, but Lescott, Gabby etc we're miles off what we needed as senior pros and the defence in general was just apocalyptic.

Richards was a problem in the pitch because he was never close to being fit enough to play regularly. Gabby had similar fitness issues but was also a fucking horrible role model and then you had a bunch of players who were either past it or nowhere near good enough.

As above, we'd be fine bringing in a similar set of players with potential this summer because there's so much more quality in the existing squad than we had then, having lost our only 2 genuine quality players in Benteke and Delph.

[Drummond]

Richards was shit on the pitch. He may have had good bantz (sick emoji) with the kids but that's because that's all he is himself.

[kippaxvilla2]

The sight of Richards doing that swan dive in a game still makes me want to vomit.

[kippaxvilla2]

Richards shit on the pitch.

This wouldn’t have surprised me.

[robleflaneur]

I think we're in a bit of transition though. Mings, McGinn, Watkins, Martinez, Digne are all 30 plus or will be during next season. 3-4 younger players to supplement the squad would be about right this summer to integrate and replace a couple of them next summer. Maatsen is clearly that plan 12 months be earlier at left back.

The only immediate problem we have to resolve amongst our elder statesmen is Emi.
Tyrone is a reserve.If we sign a wide player which seems very likely then McGinn won't necessarily be a first choice.As you said Maatsen seems to be replacing Digne who probably had his best season for us.
The club that is in transition is Citeh.Kovacic and Silva in their 30s.De Bruyne has left.And it appears that Jack and Ederson are leaving.They also have the matter of 115 charges to answer.
Van Dijk,Liverpool's best defender is older than any of our players.Salah will be 32 next year and they've lost  a RB to Real Madrid.

[Concrete Tom]

I'm pretty sure we won't be buying first-team players from Chesterfield and Crewe this time.

We're in a massively different place. I would argue if Emery bought the equivalents of Vertout, Amavi, Ayew, Traore and Guye in this summer, they would fare rather better with the core group already in place and the manager being so clear with his ideas.

That's a bit harsh on Westwood in my opinion.

He was hardly the worst player to ever play for us and turned out to be a perfectly serviceable albeit not very exciting Premier League midfielder for Burnley once we finally went down the drain (see also Lowton).

He even won player of the year for Burnley before a bad injury, and Deano has used him regularly since becoming Charlotte manager.

[Dave]

Westwood did perfectly fine for where we were at the time.

But we're still not going to be buying the 2025 version.

[ozzjim]

Westwood did perfectly fine for where we were at the time.

But we're still not going to be buying the 2025 version.

As we sign some kid from Stoke for £20m lol

[eamonn]

I think one of the Athletic articles recently said that the year we went down we had the 7th or 8th highest wage-bill in the league which is usually considered the strongest correlation with finishing position. We broke the mould in those days.

[brontebilly]

Richards was shit on the pitch. He may have had good bantz (sick emoji) with the kids but that's because that's all he is himself.

He was genuinely dreadful under Sherwood. Zero positional sense and thought of himself as a bit of a footballer in possession.

[cdbearsfan]

I think Richards was always capable of a fuck up but his pace generally made up for it. Unfortunately, we signed him when he'd had loads of injuries and his pace had largely gone.