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

[London Villan]

Blooding our own kids and giving them PL minutes also adds millions to their value.

[VancouverLion]

Why not try and tempt Alex Scott from Bournemouth? - he'd provide excellent MF oomph...

Good shout, looks a cracking player.

[PeterWithesShin]

We definitely need another midfielder that misses loads of games.

[OCD]

By that token, we shouldn't be interested in Wharton either.

[N'ZMAV]

we don't really blood many youngsters that stay in the team - Bogarde has done well, surprisingly better than most imagined

[paul_e]

I don't think so. I suspect what really happened is we signed him 6 months before he joined and in the meantime our U18s won everything and Routh in particular was very impressive in that run I guess he just leap-frogged ahead of Ozcan and we ended up not really having the same need we'd identified this time last year. We did seem to try him at left back more in pre-season which suggested we wanted to see if that could be another plan but in the end we seem to have decided he wasn't what we needed. It's not great but I can see how the academy performances will have changed our thinking. Since then we have seen 4-5 of that team on the bench so there's clearly some plan to give these youngsters a chance to make it with us.
! thing I've noticed with Emery is that he does seem to look at some players and decide he wants to see them in training with his players and then if they don't fit he'll quickly move on from them, there have been a fair few like it now.

There's Routh, TJ and Feeney at CB; all with potential (and the latter with significant experience).

Yep, all 3 look like good talents but, for me, Routh looks like he's got the physicality to handle it as well as the talent, I'm less sure on the other 2.

[LeeS]

I don't think so. I suspect what really happened is we signed him 6 months before he joined and in the meantime our U18s won everything and Routh in particular was very impressive in that run I guess he just leap-frogged ahead of Ozcan and we ended up not really having the same need we'd identified this time last year. We did seem to try him at left back more in pre-season which suggested we wanted to see if that could be another plan but in the end we seem to have decided he wasn't what we needed. It's not great but I can see how the academy performances will have changed our thinking. Since then we have seen 4-5 of that team on the bench so there's clearly some plan to give these youngsters a chance to make it with us.
! thing I've noticed with Emery is that he does seem to look at some players and decide he wants to see them in training with his players and then if they don't fit he'll quickly move on from them, there have been a fair few like it now.

There's Routh, TJ and Feeney at CB; all with potential (and the latter with significant experience).

Yep, all 3 look like good talents but, for me, Routh looks like he's got the physicality to handle it as well as the talent, I'm less sure on the other 2.

Apologies for my ignorance, but where are these kids playing at the moment?

[Percy McCarthy]

I don't think so. I suspect what really happened is we signed him 6 months before he joined and in the meantime our U18s won everything and Routh in particular was very impressive in that run I guess he just leap-frogged ahead of Ozcan and we ended up not really having the same need we'd identified this time last year. We did seem to try him at left back more in pre-season which suggested we wanted to see if that could be another plan but in the end we seem to have decided he wasn't what we needed. It's not great but I can see how the academy performances will have changed our thinking. Since then we have seen 4-5 of that team on the bench so there's clearly some plan to give these youngsters a chance to make it with us.
! thing I've noticed with Emery is that he does seem to look at some players and decide he wants to see them in training with his players and then if they don't fit he'll quickly move on from them, there have been a fair few like it now.

There's Routh, TJ and Feeney at CB; all with potential (and the latter with significant experience).

Yep, all 3 look like good talents but, for me, Routh looks like he's got the physicality to handle it as well as the talent, I'm less sure on the other 2.

Apologies for my ignorance, but where are these kids playing at the moment?

Routh and TJ were in our treble-winning under-18s last season and are still at the club, Feeney is on loan at Huddersfield (unless he’s moved in Jan and I haven’t heard).

Cisse, who we bought from LASK and loaned back to them, is possibly the best centre-back we have bar the four in the first team squad.

[paul_e]

Yep, Routh and TJ Carroll were superb and have both been on a bench this season when we had a few injuries at the back.  All that said though Ozcan is apparently only going on loan so maybe he'll get another look in the summer.

Aside from that I can see us holding off any doing much at right back as well because Rowe looked really good and Burrowes seems to be in the middle of being converted to a fullback. I can see a fair few of these lot getting appearances towards the end of the season if the title is gone but the top5 is safe. They'll all be free to use in Europe so getting them some experience is a great way to add a little extra depth.

[Dante Lavelli]

Why not try and tempt Alex Scott from Bournemouth? - he'd provide excellent MF oomph...

Good shout, looks a cracking player.

We should target the next cab in the rank in the championship rather than buying off PL clubs.  At the risk of starting a taxi pun-fest, Hackney would be my target.

[garyellis]

Yep, Routh and TJ Carroll were superb and have both been on a bench this season when we had a few injuries at the back.  All that said though Ozcan is apparently only going on loan so maybe he'll get another look in the summer.

Aside from that I can see us holding off any doing much at right back as well because Rowe looked really good and Burrowes seems to be in the middle of being converted to a fullback. I can see a fair few of these lot getting appearances towards the end of the season if the title is gone but the top5 is safe. They'll all be free to use in Europe so getting them some experience is a great way to add a little extra depth.

I hope this is the case. The way forward for us is to develop several players who can do a job at this level. The challenge is the level we are at is elite.

[garyellis]

Why not try and tempt Alex Scott from Bournemouth? - he'd provide excellent MF oomph...

Good shout, looks a cracking player.

We should target the next cab in the rank in the championship rather than buying off PL clubs.  At the risk of starting a taxi pun-fest, Hackney would be my target.

Having focussed on Hackney several times now he looks a class act. Would he be a long term replacement for Tielemans the way he dictates the play.