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

[London Villan]

Did he play centre half in the brentford match?

[Dave]

No, right-back with Konsa and Mings in the middle.

[Smithy]

Of course, we’ve also spent a fair chunk of our money pretty bloody badly. I mentioned a few pages back, or on another thread, we have made some really good signings in the last few years but it doesn’t feel like our strategy is coherent and we’ve made some poor errors - at least in terms of whether the manager rates the players we’re signing.

There is obviously some really good examples of really bad transfer strategies, Everton a few years back, Man utd for ever, but other than the Brentford & Brighton model, it feels like most team have a degree of chance about it all. Just some clubs waft more money about.
Im not overly concerned about our transfer strategy in terms of coherency, i think we’ve had more hits than misses, not including kids bought.

Off the top of my head in Emery’s time, hits include Duran, Rashford, Asensio, Rogers, Torres,Maatsen, Lindelof, Diaby (for a time), Tielemans, Onana (when fit), Bizot, Malen.

Misses, Elliot, Sancho (so far), Guessand (so far), Disasi,

Somewhere in between -Barkley.

No one ever gets it perfect in the transfer market, it's impossible.  The best you have hope for, is more hits than misses, and that the misses don't prove TOO expensive.  The very fact that our squad today is better than the one Emery inherited when he joined, and his net transfer spend over those three years is basically a couple of buttons, suggests to me that we're one of the better movers in the transfer market.

We make mistakes, all clubs do, but our transfer business since Unai came in has been pretty bloody good in my opinion, and certainly better than it's been generally in the last 20 years. 

There may come a time when we can afford to throw cash at as close to a 'sure thing' as it's possible to get, but we're just not in that market right now, which means the odd misstep.  But I am comfortable with that, knowing we'll pick up a few bargains along the way as well.

[Villatillidie25]

Think that’s about right tbh. You also cant judge success just by how many of your players become stars. It’s about ensuring that you sell at the optimum points, don’t let players wind down contracts and value in conjunction with your purchases delivering value either by growing in worth or delivering on the pitch. I’d say we’ve been very good at selling in the recent era, good at growing the value of our players and pretty good at players delivering on the pitch.
That will be a LOT better than most.

[aj2k77]

Didn't we go through a period under Lerner where we never sold anyone for any actual money, like years? At least we're very good at optimising our sales now.

[Dave]

Didn't we go through a period under Lerner where we never sold anyone for any actual money, like years? At least we're very good at optimising our sales now.

It definitely felt like that, but there was usually a couple going out for decent money every other year.

The last Championship season and the first Premier League season we didn't really sell anyone for more than buttons, but the years prior to that there was usually a couple that brought in decentish money.

[Steve67]

Didn't we go through a period under Lerner where we never sold anyone for any actual money, like years? At least we're very good at optimising our sales now.

This is true until the point Martin O’Neill walked out. After that, the fire sale began so he could recoup some of his money with Barry, Milner Downing all going.

[brontebilly]

Didn't we go through a period under Lerner where we never sold anyone for any actual money, like years? At least we're very good at optimising our sales now.

It definitely felt like that, but there was usually a couple going out for decent money every other year.

The last Championship season and the first Premier League season we didn't really sell anyone for more than buttons, but the years prior to that there was usually a couple that brought in decentish money.

MON sold most of our young players, some warranted (Moore, Ridgewell), other less so (Cahill, Davis, Gardner). Not being able to quickly move on the likes of Shorey and Beye was a huge problem for our wage bill when he gave up on them after a few games.

[paul_e]

No hits and misses I think it's also worth noting that if you'd asked this time last year I suspect most people would've had Maatsen and Onana as either misses or at best average signings and now they're looking like players we can rely on for a long time. It's easy to forget that they were both still very young and were always going to improve.

My hope is that Guessand will go the same way but to do so he really needs to start believing he deserves to be here because I think a huge part of his problem is confidence related. Maybe Malen going means he'll be used a little more centrally for a few games and that might help him.

[Dave]

Of course, we’ve also spent a fair chunk of our money pretty bloody badly. I mentioned a few pages back, or on another thread, we have made some really good signings in the last few years but it doesn’t feel like our strategy is coherent and we’ve made some poor errors - at least in terms of whether the manager rates the players we’re signing.

There is obviously some really good examples of really bad transfer strategies, Everton a few years back, Man utd for ever, but other than the Brentford & Brighton model, it feels like most team have a degree of chance about it all. Just some clubs waft more money about.
Im not overly concerned about our transfer strategy in terms of coherency, i think we’ve had more hits than misses, not including kids bought.

Off the top of my head in Emery’s time, hits include Duran, Rashford, Asensio, Rogers, Torres,Maatsen, Lindelof, Diaby (for a time), Tielemans, Onana (when fit), Bizot, Malen.

Misses, Elliot, Sancho (so far), Guessand (so far), Disasi,

Somewhere in between -Barkley.

No one ever gets it perfect in the transfer market, it's impossible.  The best you have hope for, is more hits than misses, and that the misses don't prove TOO expensive.  The very fact that our squad today is better than the one Emery inherited when he joined, and his net transfer spend over those three years is basically a couple of buttons, suggests to me that we're one of the better movers in the transfer market.

We make mistakes, all clubs do, but our transfer business since Unai came in has been pretty bloody good in my opinion, and certainly better than it's been generally in the last 20 years.

I think there is something uniquely odd about last summer, across the whole league and how successful the big transfers made have been.

I reckon the hits (and restricting it to outfield players who went for say, £25m or more) reads something like:

Ekitike, Zubimendi, Cherki, Dewsbury-Hall, Cunha, Mbuemo, Woltemade, Kudus. And I think the last five of those eight are still not exactly explosive in how successful they've been, more a "yeah, they've been fine".

The (selected) list of misses as things currently stand, while obviously accepting that lots of them have had their moments and could still go on to improve:

Eze, Madueke, Gyokeres, Guessand, Delap, Joao Pedro, Gittens, Garnacho, Hato, Barry, Dibling, Frimpong, Wirtz, Kerkez, Isak, Sesko, Elanga, Wissa, Ramsey, Ndoye, Hutchinson, McAtee, Kalimuendo, Bakwa, Xavi Simons.

That feels a lot worse than it usually would be across the league.

[eamonn]

What was your new name for Kiernan again? It should be changed to that forever.

[algy]

What was your new name for Kiernan again? It should be changed to that forever.

Stately-Home.  It made me LOL out loud anyway

[SoccerHQ]

No hits and misses I think it's also worth noting that if you'd asked this time last year I suspect most people would've had Maatsen and Onana as either misses or at best average signings and now they're looking like players we can rely on for a long time. It's easy to forget that they were both still very young and were always going to improve.

My hope is that Guessand will go the same way but to do so he really needs to start believing he deserves to be here because I think a huge part of his problem is confidence related. Maybe Malen going means he'll be used a little more centrally for a few games and that might help him.

Guessand absolutely needs to step up now. He's had six months to settle in and he's shown nothing bar basically taking out right back duties to help out Cash in his early prem games and a scruffy close range finish in the Europa league.

I have no idea what sort of wide player he is. Is he a Diaby who played it as inside forward and cut in constantly to get shots. Or a Bailey who at least in 23/24 looked a very good winger for six months skinning full backs.

Watch him in AFCON and his National team play him as a CF and he actually scored a good header from a corner so that suggests he could thrive in team that puts in 30-40 crosses a game but we simply don't play like that.

Still he'll be back on the bench on Sunday so up to him to show something when he comes on. 25m isn't an excessive fee in the modern game but we still need to show more as he was a ghost out on the right at Brighton which is my most recent memory of him in prem action for us.

[aj2k77]

Guessand, apart from his limited abilities on the ball looks too slow in making decisions. Part of that might be confidence but there's been a couple of times where he's been virtually through one on one and slowed down to such a degree he was closed down and didn't even get a shot off.

He's been horrendously poor. He does try though.

[Chip Butty 111]

What's with the smoke and mirrors around the Malen deal? Villa saying gone for an undisclosed fee, Roma saying its a loan with an option to buy?