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

[PaulWinch again]

Apologies if this has already been asked/answered as I haven't read the whole thread but didn't Chelsea get a more severe punishment than us, as their offences were deemed more serious than ours, yet they carry on as if nothing has happened while we carry on as a paupers with no end in sight to this ongoing bullshit.

Deferred it didn’t they?

[brontebilly]

Would be great to get in Tammy, or in case he's a smokescreen, another forward in asap. Like ahead of the Everton game. To state the obvious if we are looking for a goal at the weekend, or Watkins is struggling, Emery turns to be bench to look at Guessand and Sancho. Let's face it that's a big issue. Rogers might have to go up top. With Gallagher turning us down, back to that same duo to cover the wide midfield positions.

[VILLA MOLE]

Apologies if this has already been asked/answered as I haven't read the whole thread but didn't Chelsea get a more severe punishment than us, as their offences were deemed more serious than ours, yet they carry on as if nothing has happened while we carry on as a paupers with no end in sight to this ongoing bullshit.

Deferred it didn’t they?

I think they paid a bigger fine to get longer or something ?

[Chris Smith]

Would be great to get in Tammy, or in case he's a smokescreen, another forward in asap. Like ahead of the Everton game. To state the obvious if we are looking for a goal at the weekend, or Watkins is struggling, Emery turns to be bench to look at Guessand and Sancho. Let's face it that's a big issue. Rogers might have to go up top. With Gallagher turning us down, back to that same duo to cover the wide midfield positions.

Did he turn us down?

[TheToffnar]

Would be great to get in Tammy, or in case he's a smokescreen, another forward in asap. Like ahead of the Everton game. To state the obvious if we are looking for a goal at the weekend, or Watkins is struggling, Emery turns to be bench to look at Guessand and Sancho. Let's face it that's a big issue. Rogers might have to go up top. With Gallagher turning us down, back to that same duo to cover the wide midfield positions.

We've spread the goals well enough to not have to worry in the short term. May need to do a bit of juggling in the mean time, but they'll have it planned out (you'd hope...).

It's a home fixture against a relatively out of form side. We could do worse.

[brontebilly]

Would be great to get in Tammy, or in case he's a smokescreen, another forward in asap. Like ahead of the Everton game. To state the obvious if we are looking for a goal at the weekend, or Watkins is struggling, Emery turns to be bench to look at Guessand and Sancho. Let's face it that's a big issue. Rogers might have to go up top. With Gallagher turning us down, back to that same duo to cover the wide midfield positions.

Did he turn us down?

Sadly, yes. Not good looking enough for our team was the other conclusion.

[Sexual Ealing]

I can't believe it's already time to ask this question again: has any club ever used a decoy or smokescreen to hide their real transfer targets, and if so, why do they bother doing that?

[London Villan]

According to TalkSport, gallagher wanted to come to villa but we wanted a loan to buy deal where spurs offered a straight transfer.

[Dave]

I can't believe it's already time to ask this question again: has any club ever used a decoy or smokescreen to hide their real transfer targets, and if so, why do they bother doing that?

I guess you never find out. But I assume if someone were to do it, it's to pressure the selling club into selling to you.

"We'd like to buy player X from you, but we'll only offer £20m"

"We think he's worth £30m"

"Fine, we're going to go and buy our second choice, player Y from that club over there then as they will sell him to us for £20m"

"Alright, £20m then"

[Somniloquism]

Would be great to get in Tammy, or in case he's a smokescreen, another forward in asap. Like ahead of the Everton game. To state the obvious if we are looking for a goal at the weekend, or Watkins is struggling, Emery turns to be bench to look at Guessand and Sancho. Let's face it that's a big issue. Rogers might have to go up top. With Gallagher turning us down, back to that same duo to cover the wide midfield positions.

Did he turn us down?

Sadly, yes. Not good looking enough for our team was the other conclusion.

No. It wasn't a straight choice in the end as Spurs did a direct buy and we were doing a loan to buy. Initially both were being offered similar deals when it would have been a straight choice.

[brontebilly]

Would be great to get in Tammy, or in case he's a smokescreen, another forward in asap. Like ahead of the Everton game. To state the obvious if we are looking for a goal at the weekend, or Watkins is struggling, Emery turns to be bench to look at Guessand and Sancho. Let's face it that's a big issue. Rogers might have to go up top. With Gallagher turning us down, back to that same duo to cover the wide midfield positions.

Did he turn us down?

Sadly, yes. Not good looking enough for our team was the other conclusion.

No. It wasn't a straight choice in the end as Spurs did a direct buy and we were doing a loan to buy. Initially both were being offered similar deals when it would have been a straight choice.

He could have kicked up and said he was only interested in going to Villa or staying in Madrid. Seemed to me he was keener on almost guaranteed starts for a crap Spurs team rather than fighting for his spot with us. No doubt Madrid/Spurs threw some extra cash to sweeten the deal for him but he's not a slave. Anyway, on to the next one.

[ChicagoLion]

If we had offered Athletic the same deal as Spurs we would have got him.

[Dante Lavelli]

Selling him gives us the chance to sign somebody for up to £29m and still be in a neutral position cost wise for the sanctions.

Even though he wasn’t in the CL squad last year?

[paul_e]

The ruling gives all the details but the short version is that there were steps to resolution that we need to meet which effectively end up with us operating within the standard regulations for the 2027 reporting year.

I've read the ruling. My question was in your reading of it, do you think we need to have a position transfer balance at the end of this window?

My reading of it is that we do, or we risk summer '26 having the same issues as summer '25.

However - if we decided to, we could go and chuck £150m on superstars to win us the league. But then UEFA say that we've not met the requirements of the settlement agreement, the currently conditional punishment becomes unconditional and they don't let us add those superstars to our European squad next season.

Have I got any of that wrong?

Yes, you have, again clause 7 and 8 explain what the sporting sanction conditions are and what the settlement criteria is and what you're suggesting isn't covered so they can't do it.

We do need to have a positive transfer balance for this window but that only applies to the UEFA list A squad, it is stated very clearly as such:

The Club agrees to be subject to a sporting restriction and, as a consequence, may not
register any new player on its List A to UEFA club competitions unless the List A Transfer
Balance is positive.
• The List A Transfer Balance is defined as the difference between the cost savings from
outgoing players (“Cost savings”) and the new costs from incoming players (“New costs”) at
any applicable deadline for the Club’s submission of its List A.

There is no way for them to change that to include players that we don't register for that squad.

We do also need to ensure that whatever business we do doesn't cause us problems for the 2026 reporting year so £150m on superstarts with the wages and signing fees to match is probably out of our range but a couple of players for £30-40m each might well be reasonable, it dependson how the turnover is looking and our data for that is 18months out of date now.

[Toronto Villa]

If we had offered Athletic the same deal as Spurs we would have got him.

Maybe. It appears though that we offered a lesser deal but loan with obligation that Atletico accepted and so did the player. That is until Spurs came in at the last minute prompted by Bentancur being out for the season, offered more up front and the player decided it was a better career move to be at Spurs and in London. So even if we could have upped and matched the personal side of it, being close to family, and the chance to start more games likely ends in the same result.