Summer 26 Transfer Window - hopes, speculation, rumours etc.

[Dogtanian]

I just saw he was 'unlikely' to play in the quarter final.

[Mister E]

The rules are clearly restrictive for what we are trying to achieve, but by golly we have spaffed a fair bit of cash over the last few seasons.

We have, but last season I think we spent a net £31m. Compared to Redscouse or Spuds, it's nada.
Olabe and Emery only need to improve a little bit for us to push on a lot.
We're still in the bullshit n'bollox part of the close-season ...

[pauliewalnuts]

There is no doubt we are operating under punitive restrictions, and there is no doubt we do great business selling youth products (how do the likes of Newcastle or Everton do by comparison? Badly).

However the money we have spunked up the wall is infuriating. That needs to change.

See also the likes of Nedjelkovic, the Turkish CB lad, Barrenechea.

Buy them, sell them, get more or less what we paid for them usually. What is the point is the distraction of deals like that? And as for Elliot - what a monumental screw up.

Incredible that we do so well - largely despite our transfer activity rather than because of it.

[PaulWinch again]

There is no doubt we are operating under punitive restrictions, and there is no doubt we do great business selling youth products (how do the likes of Newcastle or Everton do by comparison? Badly).

However the money we have spunked up the wall is infuriating. That needs to change.

See also the likes of Nedjelkovic, the Turkish CB lad, Barrenechea.

Buy them, sell them, get more or less what we paid for them usually. What is the point is the distraction of deals like that? And as for Elliot - what a monumental screw up.

Incredible that we do so well - largely despite our transfer activity rather than because of it.

Agree entirely. I also understand the point that on balance the more you’re able to spend the higher certainty in terms of quality. But I would suggest that our talent identification for the money we spend of late is pretty poor. We absolutely have to be better at it.

[cdbearsfan]

I think if you buy a player, then sell them for more or less what you get for them, that means you're up in FFP terms. No real issue with signing the likes of Nedeljković or Barrenechea. Neither were particularly expensive gambles. And we spent relatively little on Durán and Rogers and made/would make a fortune on them.

We need to be better at buying/loaning our "now" players, though. Guessand, Sancho and Elliot were probably our main three incoming deals last summer and all contributed next to nothing.

[Beard82]

I think though for every 10 £15m or less young player - we come good or 1 or 2 of them.  Rogers & Duran profit should be seen in light of the others ones we bought that didnt quite cut it

I thought that Alyson chap looked good - but couldnt really stay fit.

I agree on buying for now - we cant really afford to get those as wrong as we have done over the last couple of seasons - as it has effectively meant we have to sell 1 of our good players to then replace them with worse. 

[cdbearsfan]

I liked the look of Alysson, too. Didn't take him long to catch the Villa injury curse.

[VancouverLion]

Did Palace pass on the option to buy Guessand?

[PeterWithesShin]

If we can't spend much after a few years of: CL twice, winning a trophy, selling youth players, dodgy mutual transfers, trading players around like they're Pokemon cards, selling the warehouse, selling the women's team, screwing every penny out of fans with piss take prices then maybe we have to look at what we're doing wrong rather than just blame the rules.

[cdbearsfan]

Did Palace pass on the option to buy Guessand?

After getting injured he didn't meet the criteria required to make the move compulsory. I'd imagine it isn’t impossible that they come back in for him later in the window, possibly at a lower rate. But with a new manager in place, who knows.

[Dogtanian]

If we can't spend much after a few years of: CL twice, winning a trophy, selling youth players, dodgy mutual transfers, trading players around like they're Pokemon cards, selling the warehouse, selling the women's team, screwing every penny out of fans with piss take prices then maybe we have to look at what we're doing wrong rather than just blame the rules.

We're the first club to be doing this under these rules, as only us and Newcastle have really sustainably challenged the pecking order.

So the rules have never really had as big an impact before because they were never really tested, and it's only now people can see two clubs being hammered and not allowed to compete that it is becoming so apparent that it's an absolute arse of a system.

[cdbearsfan]

If we can't spend much after a few years of: CL twice, winning a trophy, selling youth players, dodgy mutual transfers, trading players around like they're Pokemon cards, selling the warehouse, selling the women's team, screwing every penny out of fans with piss take prices then maybe we have to look at what we're doing wrong rather than just blame the rules.

Not really, as we have spent very little, in nett terms. The rules are quite clearly designed to restrict us and clubs like us. We have come closer to regularly challenging the established elite than any other team in England, Spain, Germany or France.

I'd say we get a lot more right than wrong.

[Percy McCarthy]

If we can't spend much after a few years of: CL twice, winning a trophy, selling youth players, dodgy mutual transfers, trading players around like they're Pokemon cards, selling the warehouse, selling the women's team, screwing every penny out of fans with piss take prices then maybe we have to look at what we're doing wrong rather than just blame the rules.

Basically, what we’ve done wrong is spend every penny we can on getting right up to the legal limits (and overstepping the UEFA legal limits) in order to assemble and keep a competitive squad.

[Beard82]

I dont think we have really done much wrong - bar poor purchases of now players - but that must be really tricky given all the balancing that is needed.

I still think the rules need updating - so youth players can be given a chance at there boyhood clubs, and debt is ratioed into it. 

If we do manage to sustain this success for long enough - well be in the position where they start benefiting us.  So there is that to it. 

[cdbearsfan]

Unless we move to a posh part of London like Arsenal did, or invent a time machine and go back and have loads more success than Liverpool and Man U in the 80s and 90s, or win the lottery before Chelsea or Man City did, the rules are never going to benefit us more than those teams. Or more than Tottenham, probably.

It is true that if we continue to overachieve despite the regulations we may be better able to mitigate said regulations.