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

[Dante Lavelli]

Didn’t Mings and Digne sign new deals on reduced terms relatively recently?

[Goldenballs]

If we are shopping in the bargain bucket again then Wilson looks pick of the bunch.

Out:
Watkins
Sancho
Bailey
Buendia
Guessand
Malen. Already 99% done anyway but would've love him back. We would have almost certainly picked up more points through this sticky patch with him here.
Onana if Madrid come in for him as he expects with a blockbuster offer.
 
In:
Luiz. May as well, relatively cheap.
Wilson
Fuck knows who else. Impossible to say really, until we know if we're 5th or 6th.

That's a hell of an 'Out' list though. Will be tough to replace all that lot with relative pennies so might have to hang on to some of them and hope they miraculously improve.

Watkins won't be an easy sell bar some kind of uplift in form. Martinez will leave too. I think we need to move on Digne, Mings and Barkley too. 12 months to go on their deals I think so stick or twist time.

Squad needs a pretty big overhaul, going to be tricky with limited funds so I suspect Digne and Mings would be staying. I'd be 100% keeping Martinez unless he kicks up a stink. He'd be very difficult to replace, even without our current financial situation.

[Dante Lavelli]

I’d be inclined to overhaul it in stages. Priority is the attack as we have a long list of players that aren’t doing enough.

Malen, guessand and Sancho are almost out the door. Buendia, Bailey and Watkins should all available for transfer.

That will free up a lot of wages so we should be able to get two or three decent players in.

[Demitri_C]

I don't see the point in selling Mings. He won't raise any money and he can still be useful.

Agree mings should be kept. His leadership is also vital

Digne on the other  hand happy to be sold on

[KevinGage]

I don't see the point in selling Mings. He won't raise any money and he can still be useful.

Agreed.

If he goes along with Martinez, Watkins and Digne that's four of the leadership group all departing in one summer, leaving only SJM.

For that reason I don't see it.

[Demitri_C]

I don't see the point in selling Mings. He won't raise any money and he can still be useful.

Agreed.

If he goes along with Martinez, Watkins and Digne that's four of the leadership group all departing in one summer, leaving only SJM.

For that reason I don't see it.

This season has shown we need to form a new spine of the team. Think 2 of those three will go.

[Mellin]

Just sort the attack out. Anything else is a bonus.

[algy]

Nobody is paying £25m either.

Nah, Ollie's done enough that someone would take a punt at £25m.  That's a budget option for a striker now really, at least for the majority of PL teams.

Not likely to get over £30m for him, though, IMO

[brontebilly]

I don't see the point in selling Mings. He won't raise any money and he can still be useful.

There's too much of a change in playing style when he's in the team.

[PaulWinch again]

He’s fine as a squad player.

[PaulWinch again]

Whatever happens it has to be so much better than last summer. I’m guessing that between them Elliott, Sancho, and Guessand (up until he went - which tells you all you need to know) have been about £350k-400k a week and if I’m right they’ve managed one assist between them in the league. Variety of reasons, but that is unbelievably bad in terms of use of limited resources.

[Drummond]

Win a game, everyone is brilliant. Lose a game, sell the lot.

We don't need personnel changes in defence.

Our midfield is fine, if we don't lose the first choice all at the same time.

Our frontline is where our issues are really. Bailey, Malen, Guessand, Buendia just haven't done enough for long enough. Sancho is an expensive loan, he has talent and is getting better but I'd question a permanent deal on that sort of money.

Watkins divides opinion, he's having a poor season, and has been carrying an injury, the jury is still out for me and I'd not be desperate to move him on.

Abraham hasn't had much time on the pitch yet but I expect him to be more of a back up than first choice.

[Demitri_C]

Win a game, everyone is brilliant. Lose a game, sell the lot.

We don't need personnel changes in defence.

Our midfield is fine, if we don't lose the first choice all at the same time.

Our frontline is where our issues are really. Bailey, Malen, Guessand, Buendia just haven't done enough for long enough. Sancho is an expensive loan, he has talent and is getting better but I'd question a permanent deal on that sort of money.

Watkins divides opinion, he's having a poor season, and has been carrying an injury, the jury is still out for me and I'd not be desperate to move him on.

Abraham hasn't had much time on the pitch yet but I expect him to be more of a back up than first choice.

I disgaree with this. Various posters even when we winning were saying we are not playing particularly well. It shows a lot of these players are not good enough as when we need them they just cant handle it when we have  afew injuries. Its unfortunate  that the injuries  is one position  but 3 injuries is really not a lot. Look at some of the other clubs, if we had those kind if injuries emery might have to play!

If you also look alot of these players are still smith and gerrards. Thats what disappoints me the most its still not really emerys team

[FranzBiberkopf]

Out first choice midfield is top 4 quality and has masked our deficiencies up front for most of the season. Our current midfield is lower mid table quality at best.

The defence is ok. Not great but we can get one more season passable out of it. There's a huge amount of pressure in the scouts to have identified a replacement for Watkins as I personally don't think Abrahams is the answer.