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

[Mister E]

Really? Based on watching him for Valencia?

Yeah, he was arguably their best player in the second half of the season. Maybe it's because he stood out in a weaker team, but I like his composure in that position. He stood out similarly for Frosinone (although I didn't see any of those games) but it was a similar situation. My gut is telling me something about him. I just think injuries when he was younger have delayed his career. Like I said, I understand it's not a position we need.

Arguably, he'd be doing a better job alongside Kamara than Onana at the moment ...

[pauliewalnuts]

It’s hard to not find yourself getting a bit down at the moment, there don’t seem to be any actual links let alone signings and there’s only one week to go.

What an absolutely shit window thus far.

[DB]

It’s hard to not find yourself getting a bit down at the moment, there don’t seem to be any actual links let alone signings and there’s only one week to go.

What an absolutely shit window thus far.

Lack of links, not worried about...Guessand came in from nowhere. That's not a guarantee we will sign anyone though. I think 2 more.

[PaulWinch again]

To date it has been a shite window and we are weaker than we ended the season.

[steamer]

where is Vinny with the news ?

[Drummond]

We don't generate enough income to be in a position to finance the sort of deals that make a huge difference to us on the pitch. That's nothing to do with Emery, Monchi or Vidagany. They are trying to raise the funds themselves by wheeling and dealing.

If they turn a million pound profit on a youngster, they've increased their budget and done well. It's shit that football has turned into this but that's where we are.

Others in the club are doing their best to increase revenue, but in some ways we don't like. Ticket prices, GA+, numerous ranges in the club shop etc. But deals with Red Bull, Adidas, Coke, Guinness are all profile raisers and all help.

We've not done too many bad deals player wise,  we're not losing money on them, but some of them aren't as good as we'd hope.

Maatsen is doing just fine and has pushed Digne on to greater things. Torres is a great player, Rogers has been awesome, Malen shows great promise, as does Onana.

We've tried for players that have made other bad choices (Jackson, Rashford etc) but when you look at where they chose to go it's not like we lost out to a team we shouldn't have lost out to.

[ROBBO]

Worried that we will panic and buy benchwarmers.

[kippaxvilla2]

Leonhardsen is available.

[algy]

Signing a promising 18 year old for £6m is a decent strategy, the issue I have is that rather than them spending a couple of years out on loan to get ready for our first team modern football has us send them on loan for a year or two to fatten them up for selling.

The thing is, we are after players who are good enough to play for maybe the top 10 clubs in Europe, as that realistically is the group we have to be in to qualify for the Champions League. So it’s a good thing to sign youngsters for those sort of prices, but we have to be realistic with it - making it as a mid-table Premier League player even isn’t enough. We’re better off selling those players on at a profit and moving on to the next promising young thing than dwelling on players who will never be in that probably top 200-250 players in the entire world at any age level bracket.

We don’t want to end up like Manchester United where they hoard players like Tuanzebe well after the point where it’s obvious they’re not going to make it. Just sell and move on our money, time, and effort to a player who might.

[Toronto Villa]

It’s hard to not find yourself getting a bit down at the moment, there don’t seem to be any actual links let alone signings and there’s only one week to go.

What an absolutely shit window thus far.

It’s impossible not to be a bit glum. While we will spend the week arsing around the loan market and maybe scrape up a low cost permanent deal, Arsenal are about to take their net spend north of £350M if they sign this defender from Bayer. We ended the season behind them but in sight. Now it feels like them and many other clubs have raced ahead or at least closed the gap to us.

[AV82EC]

Ultimately like any “market” once the established names feel threatened or are losing “market share” in this case potential PL and Champs League income they will start to mobilise to protect their position. Ourselves and Newcastle and latterly Forest have now upset the apple cart for the last 3 seasons and they’re reacting as I would expect. I think it was Ads who a couple of years ago spoke about how we may be improving rapidly but we don’t exist in a vacuum and our competitors will be striving to move forwards as well. As Percy Mc said all we can keep doing is what we’ve been doing for the last 3 seasons, investing where we can and improving our performance on and off the pitch. The rules don’t make it easy in fact they’re manifestly unfair but it’ll make it all the sweeter if we achieve something under those conditions.

[N'ZMAV]

The morale of the story will have to be develop young kids to flog them for big money - as we have a ceiling to our revenue and a massive wage bill

Unai might have to turn to the kids to fill the bench and hopefully he stumbles across one he can flog for £50mil in 2 years.

[Toronto Villa]

The sad thing is we only seem to be buying young to sell again and not to develop for our own use. And even then it’s not to get ahead but to stand still. So that our best players don’t have to be sold. So we are doing them a disservice too by not getting them help. Under the current rules the best players on the best wages will never come to us. We will never even be linked with them. The Super League is being formed before our eyes. Just that those teams are playing in our division and the major ones elsewhere.

[Steve67]

Linked with Adrien Rabiot.  Not sure why or where.

[brontebilly]

The morale of the story will have to be develop young kids to flog them for big money - as we have a ceiling to our revenue and a massive wage bill

Unai might have to turn to the kids to fill the bench and hopefully he stumbles across one he can flog for £50mil in 2 years.

Finds like Rogers are a bit of a miracle though. Do we have an academy prospect in the next couple of years anywhere near the level JJ was at? In any case they are balanced out by expensive flops which Onana, Maatsen and Malen all appear to be at this time. Every club has them but the timing couldn't be worse for us.

The time to announce proper stadium expansion plans was when we were rising the crest of the wave with Emery. We simply need to get revenue up. Everton will do well to stay up again this season but they can see light at the end of the tunnel now with their new stadium and exciting signings like Grealish and Dibbling. We are in a sticky spot with a declining team and squeezing VP regulars harder for every cent.