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

[Le Lapin]

Hope we get the good version of Doug, not the exhausted version we had for the last half season he was with us, giving away fouls in dangerous areas. Great to see the old band get back together.

[Dave]

Get him in for Brentford.

[jwarry]

Can't help feeling Luiz and Abraham signings are a sign Unai fancies his chances this season so trying to plug cracks with experience

[Brazilian Villain]

It will be. They've split up, I think.

If Tammy and Dougie can come back to Villa, there's no reason why the latter can't be reunited with Alisha. Maybe I'm just a hopeless romantic.

[jwarry]

Hope we get the good version of Doug, not the exhausted version we had for the last half season he was with us, giving away fouls in dangerous areas. Great to see the old band get back together.

He can't be exhausted he's hardly played

[Ads]

Having Bailey, Dougie and Tammy as options, with Sancho actually improving too, a fit again Mings and the really impressive Lindeloff and Bizot, maybe Barkley again one day and finally we have some depth that looked absolutely beyond that striken bench against Everton.

[Dave]

It will be. They've split up, I think.

Without wanting to all "eastie", if they have then it's bit weird that their respective football careers are still following each other around the world.

[Dante Lavelli]

Swapping a soon out of contract Barkley for Luiz is a squad upgrade in my humble opinion.

I agree.  He covers two positions excellently and a third to some extent, maybe home games. It was a coin toss between Luiz and Tielemans last time so hopefully he’s can get back to that sort of form.

The assumption is he hasn’t done great at Forest yet a couple of people on here have said he passed the eye test and that their fans like him.  Anyone got any intel on this?

[itbrvilla]

Swapping a soon out of contract Barkley for Luiz is a squad upgrade in my humble opinion.

I agree.  He covers two positions excellently and a third to some extent, maybe home games. It was a coin toss between Luiz and Tielemans last time so hopefully he’s can get back to that sort of form.

The assumption is he hasn’t done great at Forest yet a couple of people on here have said he passed the eye test and that their fans like him.  Anyone got any intel on this?

Apparently has a similar issue to Harvey if comments to be believed.

[Dave]

The assumption is he hasn’t done great at Forest yet a couple of people on here have said he passed the eye test and that their fans like him.  Anyone got any intel on this?

A quick browse of their forum suggests it's a mixture between "it's not like he's done anything for us to give a toss about losing him" and "he's clearly good, but he's never going to work in a Dyche team".

[cdbearsfan]

Not sure about this, but can live with it so long as there are no stupid Elliott-style clauses meaning we don't actually pick him.

[Drummond]

We didn't want him to leave in the first place. And now he's coming back to prove himself again, and we made a load of money on him in the meantime.

[brontebilly]

To be fair to Dyche, I watched a bit of Luiz v Braga recently and he didn't really try a leg. Looked half a yard short. In saying all that, Forest weren't even attempting to play and Luiz has never been that all action box to box midfielder that Dyche wants. Luiz kept coming short for passes from the full backs but they kept going long to nobody. Seemed really pissed off after a while.

 Post Villa he looks as if he has a small bit of timber on him, related to constantly picking up injuries no doubt, but that doesn't help to shake them off either.

Would take him back in the morning though. He's a proven elite performer under Emery. Instantly improves our squad.

[john e]

Dougie would be welcomed back by me

[LeeB]

Before the Forest game I noticed one of their subs coming out of the tunnel high fiving kids, took me a second to realise who it was but it then continued up the touchline as he walked to the dugouts, with the crowd getting to to applaud him.

You could feel the love in both directions, I'm not a sentimental man but right at that point I had a bit of a tear in my eye and was thinking 'bring him home'.