Winter 25-26 Transfer Window - hopes, speculation, rumours etc.

[eamonn]

Turning to thecquestion of signing Conor Gallagher:

Barkley won't be contributing much next season (if he's still here) and if we can bring Gallagher in now, we might be able to offload him for a modest fee to a club that will hive him a two or two and a half year contract - attractive to him if it gives him more money overall; then getting his wages off the books will also help...

I'm sure I've read that Barkley is out of contract in June, think there's an option for a third year but he's been injured half the time and I doubt we'd take it up just to sell him on. More likely we'll be fair to him and let him get one more signing-on fee contract with Fulham or someone. He can replace Harry Wilson coming our way.

[eye digress]

Quite intriguing - it feels like he’s been abroad forever, and with the passage of time, it’s hard to gauge his level is in today’s Premier League currency.

[olaftab]

Tammy Wynette is preferred choice compared to Tammy Abraham however I believe she's not available.

[Somniloquism]

Not sure on the downer for Abraham. I doubt we are getting him in as first choice replacement for Watkins and as striker cover on loan or cheap he can do a job for us.

[Clive W]

Tammy Abraham career club record

Season   Club   Apps   Goals
2016–21   Chelsea   82   30
2016–17   Bristol City (loan)   48   26
2017–18   Swansea City (loan)   39   8
2018–19   Aston Villa (loan)   40   26
2021–   Roma   120   37
2024–25   AC Milan (loan)   44   10
2025–   Besiktas (loan)   24   12
Total   397   149

It’s a pretty impressive scoring record
Sorry about the formatting

[Percy McCarthy]

I’d love us to get Tammy back.

[SaddVillan]

Turkish sources on Twatter reporting that we've begun negotiations for Abraham, although given Bailey's "success" at Roma, will they be happy to deal with us unless we take Leon back?

[Clive W]

I’d love us to get Tammy back.

And from what I remember I also think he “gets” us

[KevinGage]

He's coming home.

[KevinGage]

If I remember correctly Tammy was excellent defending set pieces, I wonder if this is a factor.

Good point.

Also v useful attacking them in the final third n'all, which is an important component to our play.

[Smithy]

Tammy was great for us, but it was in the Championship.  He did, however, prove he can perform at Premier League level with Chelsea during our first two years back up, and he did well in Serie A in his first season, but his goalscoring hasn't been as good since 2023, and after his ACL injury.  Since his return from injury he's played about 80 games for Roma, AC Milan and Besiktas, and has about a 1 in 4 goal return.   Pre-injury he was slightly better than 1 in 3.

I think he'd be a great squad option, but I don't think he's the missing piece of a long-term jigsaw for us.

[Sexual Ealing]

Aren't all jigsaws long-term?!

[LeeB]

I would imagine given what Emery said about consulting Mata over Lindelof that McGinn and Mings would have been asked to offer their thoughts, and I also presume they'd be very positive.

[Matt C]

Sounds like a complex deal, on loan at Besiktas from Roma with an obligation to buy when certain terms are met. So we’ll need to negotiate with two clubs with the added complication of Roma wanting to get out of the Bailey loan they have with us. Complex.

[eye digress]

Aren't all jigsaws long-term?!

You get those ones with just 6 pieces or so for infants aged 6-12 months, that generally don’t take more than an hour or so if you concentrate.