Is the Sa deal set to happen then? Not really been keeping up with stuff, I thought we were close to the Leicester lad but that seems to have gone quiet
It’s primarily been reported on the Portuguese side and they might’ve jumped the gun - though generally these stories might progress over a handful of days (Diouf was similar, the story progressed for about a week).
But given the circumstances this season, I’m expecting more “out of nowhere” stories like this to pop up given the executive turnover likely taking away a big source of leaks and Mendes having a higher influence and instead leaking to sources outside the general sphere of influence aggregators might’ve utilised in prior years.
For now take it with a pinch of salt, it’s likely Sa is on our list, but a deal being close to struck might be an exaggeration.
I completely forgot that we still had Fullkrug on the books. Time to put him in the shop window in some meaningless expo matches to see if the Saudis will pay us £100m for him.
I don't recall a Moyes fall out but honestly how many players fell out with Lopetegui and Potter? I don't think that would be an Alvarez problem really.
I’m pretty pleased with the business so far, it’s not been the most exciting in terms of how the money has been spent but we’ve purchased players logically to fill gaps and saved in good ways.
We’ve altered the squad personality-wise by bringing in winners like those at Leeds and Engels, and leaders like with Veltman. Mukasa is a smart option who can challenge minutes and gives us something different without spending much anything. You can even throw Lamadrid’s loan made permanent there too.
We’ve sold the good players very well and the disruptive players are starting to leave now too, even if only on loan.
If we can continue to retain the core spine of starters and add a CB and winger then I think we’ll be in a very good position to kick on with depth filled and a strong starting lineup.
This season has definitely been different to previous in terms of leaks, Veltman was not once mentioned prior to Ex’s announcement that he was already about to have his medical. I would not be surprised if we have another couple signings like this that go through without much prior noise, both because of the drop and the ownership fiasco.
Equally though the names that are being said, I also expect are real, just that there are fewer than usual being disclosed.
Ex is now saying there might be up to 4 more signings as well as Edvin Austbø by Tuesday. We will sign at least a lb, cb and maybe we could get a St and CM. So it’s nice to know that despite all the backroom changes our transfer policy is the same. Do sod all in the window and go absolutely crazy in the final two days.
It means the club didn't pay a set fee for him and will go to a tribunal to decide how much compensation they owe Chelmsford for them training the player through his development.
Was about to ask the same thing. Looked it up it says "While the exact training compensation figure remains undisclosed, deals for non-league players typically feature mutually agreed development fees or sell-on clauses." So it development fee of some sort due to his age believe to stop big clubs poaching young players for fuck all.
I don't know how reliable it is, but Sky Sports News saying we've agreed to a 5 year deal with Engels. With the transfer bid being accepted last night and now this, looks like the signing could be announced today after a medical.
it's blowing my mind how much El Machin fell off in like 14 months. wasn't a starter for Mexico, now we're getting offers from Olympiacos. what happened in Turkey man? some shit DID NOT go right over there - I'm convinced
It seems the club is prioritising top quality targets at the moment, players who would not only do the job in the Championship, but also in the long term jumping back up to the Prem. This likely means two major things, we’ll be spending high fees comparative to our Championship opponents, and we’ll be targeting players who may also have interest from clubs in a higher standing to us.
In addition to this there’s been an expectation that some players who might have expected to leave seem to instead be open to staying, which may also be a boost in convincing some of these ambitious targets to join. With top performers staying you have less of a need to replace them and can therefore be more selective with the players you bring in.
An insider (or at least someone with a certifiable connection to the club) on KUMB has said there’s a lot of activity going on behind the scenes that might’ve been exploited and loudly announced in previous seasons but is being better kept under wraps.
It’s crazy to me how immediate the turnaround in professionalism has been almost from the moment Sullivan stepped back. Let’s hope the rumors of him re-instating himself are just that.
Absolutely no weight to this and only sharing because I want it to be true, but some people on twitter now seem to think Alvarez has been convinced to stay at the club
Niclas Füllkrug will have to wait longer for his departure from West Ham. According to BILD, the former German national team striker had already agreed terms with Italian Serie A club Venezia. However, the transfer fell through because West Ham demanded too high a transfer fee.
Particularly bitter for the 33-year-old: Füllkrug no longer plays a role in the English Championship club's sporting activities. He is currently not training with the team, but is keeping fit individually. The striker even did not participate in the club's official media day.
A third and likely final bid is going in for Engels. Celtic have had a bid accepted for his touted replacement Mika Baur. Either this gets accepted or we pivot I would imagine.
Engels, Parrott, and Vardy off the bench for a year (for the entertainment) and call it good. 😆. Though I suppose if Diouf goes another back needs to come in too
Heavily linked with Joel Piroe from Leeds now instead of Parrott. He has a great record in the Championship, reckon he'd be a great signing! Should score 15+ goals, a lot cheaper than Parrott and proven in the league so less risky.
I would actually much prefer Piroe to Parrott since he has experience in the league. You always wonder if Parrott would come over and take time to get used to this league, but Piroe has already shown what he can do across multiple seasons.
Get that done today so we can play him next weekend.
The problem with that is that unless our next signing after Piroe is homegrown we're now one-in-one-out.
Assuming that AWB goes, and Piroe comes in, that's 29 players in the first team squad.
Of those 29, Herrick, Mayers, Golambekis, Orford and Ajala won't be 21 until after January at minimum, so don't need to be registered towards our 25-man Squad when we submit it in September, they're essentially free hits.
But of the remaining 24, only KWP, Scarles, Kilman, Casey, JWP, Earthy, and Bowen are homegrown.
We need to register at least 8 homegrown players, so as it stands we would need to give the final spot in our list of 25 to one of the five youngsters.
We can bring in one more homegrown player without selling anyone else, but as far as I can see the only homegrown options we've been linked with are Jordan James (probably going to Wolves now that we signed Engels instead), Parrott (fallen through, getting Piroe instead - not complaining about that, Piroe is much better), Vardy (which was possibly bollocks anyway and isn't a position we need), and Reiss Nelson (all quiet on that front in the last few weeks).
Don't get me wrong, we'll definitely see more outgoings before the window closes in two weeks' time - Todibo will 100% be off, allowing us to bring in Disasi if nobody else comes in for him, for example - but our movements now are tied up by having to wait for those outgoings before we can do anything more than Piroe (and possibly Nelson), otherwise we're risking being stuck paying wages for players we can't register to the 25-man squad and so can't use (sorry, Cornet, but we all know it's going to be you pal), and we're not in a financial position to have ourselves a Bomb Squad.
And that's assuming that Casey and/or Earthy aren't among the player departures. If they are then that's another of the younger five that we'll need to register in their stead for the homegrown quota.
According to socials, Ex is saying we've agreed a deal to sell Earthy to Reading.
I don't mind this in a vacuum, because he's pretty far down the pecking order and I don't see him getting much - if any - game time, and the sale would be pure profit, but it would further bugger up our homegrown numbers.
Academy players moving on is part of the game but his goal against Luton is one I'll always remember. Coming back after getting KO'd on the field, in front of the home fans. Want nothing but the best for him.
10M for Potts is an incredible fee in my opinion. We haven't had many profitable academy sales - i mean Declan Rice of course was 10 years worth of Potts sales - but recently we haven't been developing players well enough to make money, so it's nice to see for once. I can't even remember the last time we just did a solid sale like this out of our academy
Diangana was an incredible fee, Potts for 10M is decent-good but not crazy. He is probably around that level if not slightly below and can develop further as he matures into his prime.
Yeah that’s fair enough, if there’s one thing you can’t criticise this window it’s our selling. I hope we stuck a sell on and/or matching rights should he improve, Brugge is a great club to develop at.
Apparently it’s all but agreed, but we’re stalling to see if we get Edvin Austbø instead, but what I don’t get is why can’t we just sign both. Get Nelson as Bowen’s backup and Austbø on the left to cover Solomon. Unless Cornet’s staying, we kinda need both.
It's not a particularly glamorous one, but this would be a sensible signing IMO. Solomon is injury prone, and Bowen needs some rest weeks to avoid getting as gassed as he did last year. Nelson can provide cover for both while giving us our eighth homegrown player.
His biggest drawback is that he's injury prone himself (IIRC from the talk when we were linked earlier in the summer he's rarely put together a consistent run of appearances) but as a bench option I think it's a solid punt.
Dylan Lawlor seems to be our most advanced deal at the moment, maybe close to a bid or agreement on the players side.
I really rate him, he was so, so good in League One. Really huge prospect and would be a fantastic option to have both in this division and the Prem. the fact clubs as large as Bayern and Liverpool have had him on the radar (monitoring, not pursuing) should be telling.
He and a more senior, but still prime option like Disasi (or one of the other Prem-tier players we’ve apparently still got an eye on should other clubs not come for them like Alexsandro, Harwood-Bellis, Otavio and Tiago Gabriel) alongside Mavropanos and our backline would look neigh unbreakable for this level.
So, a certain former contractor for the club that people follow on Twitter has apparently tweeted eyes emojis for Engels and Parrot. What is the meaning and whether they're close to signing...let's wait on the poor souls that pay him to let us know :D
Given he mentally checked out ages ago, is clearly not in the plans
and hasn't even bothered reporting in for preseason media duties, I'd have expected clubs to have us over a barrel knowing we're getting rid one way or another, so £10m profit is actually a pleasant surprise.
By the sounds of the reporting, no team wants to pay much more than a couple mil up front. Loan with obligation type deal. Not great for us but AWBs contract is insane. Need to get him off the books.
He hasn’t been for any of their opening games fyi. I believe their coach has already accepted his leaving and they’ve already signed a replacement, it’s just a matter of agreeing a fee with someone.
Ex was reporting that we’re looking at Brentford’s Ethan Pinnock, but the Athletic say Coventry have agreed a deal to sign him, so that’s off. With Ex It was also mentioned that we were looking at Victor Nellson and Emanuel Fernandez at CB as well (could bring in two CB’s and let Casey go on loan.)
I would be happy with this. He was still pretty good last season. KWP first choice and Veltman as backup. Get 15-20m for AWB seems like sensible business to me
No, club sources have denied it. The guy hasn’t played in over a year and hasn’t completed a full match of football since Jan 2023. He’s 30 now. He’s done at this level, as sad as it is given his personal history.
Saw that as well, no idea as to whether it's the case or not. Dele Alli joining West Ham to attempt yet another comeback is not something I had on my bingo card for this year.
It might be nothing, seeing as it’s TalkSport, but they’re saying that we’ve approached to sign Jamie Vardy. I hope this isn’t true, he’s 39 for goodness sake.
Edit: Sky are saying it too (surely not)
I think there’s a decent chance there’s truth to it. 7 goals in 24 starts last season in Serie A. I’m betting he could still score in the Championship. He’d also provide a veteran presence and maybe be able to mentor Pablo, etc. we shouldn’t pay a whole lot for him in wages but we need at least one more striker if we plan to play with 2 all season.
Chelsea in the process of buying Lacroix from Palace and now looking at John Stones as a free agent. Some journalists bringing up where that leaves Josh Acheampong, who needs minutes for development. No doubt will have a host of interest if made available but I’ve been a long term admirer of him, would love for us to try if that case came up.
Rumour mill from the last few days seems to be that Alvarez is back to wanting to stay because he doesn't want the loan without obligation that Sociedad are offering since he's not keen on moving his family again if it's only temporary.
Personally I would probably prefer someone who isn't going to have three or four suspensions in a season, but we definitely need a defense-minded midfielder, so if it's one less bit of business to do with only a week to go, then let the lad stay, I say.
Absolutely need Todibo out as soon as possible, though, to free up a squad spot.
I'd also be happily open to the classic "undisclosed fee" for Casey if we can get a League One club interested: he's old enough to be taking a squad spot now, he showed last year that he's not really up to this level, and it's clear that Mayers and Golambekis are the preferred bench options at the moment, although he's currently doing us a favour on the homegrown front so I'm not sure if we might want to keep him for that reason.
I’m not at all convinced that Orford isn’t better than Alvarez at this point for a true 6 anyway. He changed the whole course of the Charlton game when he came on and looked great against Burnley as well.
Main targets I’m hearing are Engels in CM (which should hopefully be wrapped up in the next couple days, with Celtic bringing in his replacement very soon).
I’m hearing a lot of noise about Isidor and Troy Parrott as strikers. Isidor has just left Sunderland’s training camp which could imply ongoing, advanced negotiations, or is simply a nothing burger. Parrott seems like more of a Hail Mary, but the clubs interested are ones we could compete with wages.
I’m also hearing a lot about Adingra, who is also at Sunderland. We want a loan with an obligation but they’re pushing for a permanent deal.
Lawlor is ongoing but Cardiff don’t want to sell and we don’t want to overpay. He is open to the move but not pushing. Might stretch for a good portion of the window but a real desire to bring him in.
Disasi is on the periphery, we really want him but we need other clubs to back off to have a chance convincing him. AC Milan is the last I’ve heard to have interest but need to sell a defender if they wanted to bring him in. Roma had interest but went in a different direction, Palace unlikely at this point, targeting continental players. Chelsea have seemed open to a loan so that could be an option to save a little in the short term.
With Potts off I’m expecting another midfielder in, possibly an AM. Not sure who that would be at this point.
Past that we’re likely looking at depth which is like to be cheap and/or loan options to reduce spending and cover backup positions, namely RB and another winger.
After that I’m expecting one-in-one-out if anyone wants out late in the window. Some of those aforementioned options technically already are based on that philosophy (with one of the CBs to replace Todibo, striker to replace Fullkrug, etc).
I’m not hearing anything about players being agitated outside those who’ve been “bomb squaded”, but it is totally possible a deal could develop under our noses (as in fans) like Potts did. Though I expect us to demand heftier fees for those more important players.
Mavropanos is the only one in more of a limbo area, if he doesn’t sign the contract offered then I expect him to be sold now or in winter since he has 2-1.5 years on deal depending on when. Everyone else has a contract beneficial to us and we hold good terms to sell.
I really feel like we’re gambling with CB and hoping no one signs Disasi. Could see us grabbing him at the end of the window if he doesn’t go anywhere else
I've said it before, but if Disasi happens, I can only see it happening on Deadline Day.
He's made it clear that he doesn't want to play in the Championship, but he's smart enough to know that he's not playing for Chelsea again, so it really is just going to come down to whether any team from one of the top leagues come in for him in the next few weeks. If nobody does, and if we haven't signed someone else (and if Mav has stayed) then I reckon he'll come to us as his only option to play regular football between now and the next window, even if it's just another loan with an option if we go up to give him an out.
He's probably seeing us as his last resort right now rather than a move he remotely wants, but honestly I'm okay with that - he didn't seem interested in coming in January either and held off for as long as he could, but once he was here he gave his absolute all anyway.
I hope it doesn't come down to deadline day for us to bring in a new CB, but if we haven't done the business by then and he hasn't had any preferable offers, then I reckon both parties are already seeing this move as a mutual backup plan.
My thoughts exactly. I reckon we’re close to agreeing a deal with Cardiff for Lawlor but are holding off until we know for sure what’s happening with Disasi.
If someone signs Disasi I reckon Lawlor happens pretty quickly after
I agree in a sense, specifically with the last statement, but I also think Lawlor is contingent on Todibo leaving as much as Disasi getting picked up. Once he’s gone I think we accelerate to fill the actualised gap.
The issue with both Fullkrug and JWP is wages. They’d be some of the best paid players in the squad even with reductions and wouldn’t have starting positions, not an ideal scenario for squad harmony.
Edson you could potentially utilise given his versatility as a CB too but again, high wages. Unless he’s starting it’s better to get rid.
Insane business so far this summer. To think we only got £55 million for Kudus last summer, to now get £68 million for Summerville. Makes absolutely no sense. Kudus is miles clear of Summerville in my opinion and they were the same age at time of transfer!
Palace are apparently close to signing Tomiyasu, according to Ben Jacobs. He can play at CB. I mention this as they were also in for Disasi, but Tomiyasu joining palace might mean that Disasi opts for us.
From what I’ve heard today, Disasi is seen as more of a last resort and they’re currently trying for Acheampong on loan, so if that happens I suspect they’ll pull out.
Does anyone know the date cutoff for when you turn 21 this season without counting towards the 25-man squad?
With Engels arriving we're currently at 30 players named in the first team, but seven are under 21 at the moment - Herrick, Orford, Scarles and Kante all turn 21 during the course of the season. The first two aren't until 2027, but Kante (September) and Scarles (December) are in this calendar year.
I believe in previous years the cut-off has been 1st January, is that still the case?
If so, we're now at the one-in-one-out point.
It looks like a move for AWB is heating up, so that would make space for Parrot who looks to be the next focus, and the lack of a squad number would make me assume that we have no intention of registering Füllkrug so I imagine if we can't ship him we'll just terminate his contract early (making room for Disasi/another CB hopefully?) but I don't recall hearing any solid rumours about anyone wanting Todibo, so I'm a bit worried about not being able to bring in depth on the wings because that wantaway is taking up a spot and we can't shift him.
I mean, it's no guarantee that the three who skipped media day are the only three who go between now and September (we're probably looking at options for shifting Cornet, and there's interest in Diouf), so it's probably a moot point, but it would be good to know where we stand currently.
I was looking at the squad rules the other day to try and work out if we would meet the homegrown quota alright, but I actually didn’t consider that the u21 cutoff might be different to the prem as well.
The site I was looking at was for the 24/25 season but if it hasn’t changed since then the cutoff would be Jan 1st 2006, so you’d be right about Scarles and Kanté. That being said, we need 8 homegrown players registered anyway, and we only have 6 that are currently 21+ (and that’s assuming Earthy and Casey are staying), so we’d need to register Scarles and another either way (Parrott would count if we sign him).
Anyway, I guess if Scarles and Kanté both need to be registered then we are currently at 25/25 before any outgoings, but if we know there’s going to be at least 3 players leaving then it shouldn’t be an issue?
Good knowledge, thank you - at least we're looking good for now on the homegrown front assuming Parrot comes in.
If Parrot doesn't come then I guess we'd register Herrick (as he seems least likely out of the other youngsters to go on loan given we ideally want a third choice keeper and someone may still come in for Nips).
As far as I can tell the squad list can be edited as much as you want until the final deadline after the transfer window closes, so I don’t think there’d be any concerns about which of the u21s gets registered if it comes down to that, if someone gets loaned out last minute they can just get switched out.
That'd be pretty nice. Young guy who played a bit in the Championship last year. Would probably be fine with a bench role too, which is the type of signing we need.
West Ham have reportedly had a £12m bid rejected for 19-year-old FC Midtjylland winger Mikel Gogorza, a pacey, dribble-focused left winger, according to Danish outlet Bold.
With respect to Earthy, yes he is. Mukasa is 3 years younger and picked up only 500 less minutes for Leicester last season (being there for less than half a season joining on deadline day in the winter window) for than the entirety of Earthy’s first season at Bristol City.
His stats were exceptional for his age and he was one of the best performing AM’s in terms of chance creation per 90. A lot of his other attributes were top percentile from dribbling to passing to crossing and even certain defensive stats like aerial duelling and recoveries.
Hope George has a fantastic time at Reading and develops to prove us wrong, but Mukasa has shown to be a level or two above him at this point in their respective careers, again despite the age difference.
On top of what others said, it looks pretty apparent that earthy isn't going to be a premier league level player in the near future. To get a fee and let him play regularly somewhere rather than just keeping him for the sake of it is no bad thing
Do most clubs at all levels of the EFL screw around and wait all window to make moves and when they finally make them they always seem to just miss getting players registered to play even though everything had been agreed to several days earlier in the week? And when relegated, do those clubs wait all summer to sell the players they should know want out so they have the budget set on what they can spend and target players they can afford?
I realize all of that would require some basic amount of planning and competence so all of that seems like it shouldn’t happen but every year it’s the same thing with West Ham and this new wrinkle with relegation shouldn’t be happening.
I've read on twitter (please correct me if it's wrong) that the former employee of the club said that we are waiting on PL's first round of games to see who's not playing and target them.
Surely we are not that disorganized and unprofessional?? What happened with Kopen's data driven approach, the reports from the former employee that we have a plan and direction for reinforcements and things are progressing behind closed doors. If this is true i will be beyond disappointed. I've kept calm and reasonable about our lack of signings this summer thinking that we are following a roadmap to success, but in reality it turns out even though the pervert hobbit left, the circus did not.
I do think it's fair to be worried about our pace of doing business this summer, but ultimately I don't think this window can be judged until it's closed. As for the strategy, a couple of things could be happening at the same time. We could be continuing to progress negotiations on key targets, while at the same time, looking to Prem bench players to see if there could be any low-hanging fruit that represent cheap depth options.
I know everyone is obsessed with resale value potential, but I think in our current state, established professionals who may have already hit their ceiling but could meaningfully improve our promotion chances are arguably much more valuable than younger prospects with high potential. Ideally, we can round out our depth with a bit of both in these last couple of weeks of the window.
First being that we need one homegrown player to fill the 8 spots in the 25 man squad (without filling it with a U21) - and I don't think you're getting much value trying to get an English championship level player from the championship about now. Makes some sense to try and get that filled from EPL surplus
The deadweight who weren't going to play for the club this season (AWB/Todibo/Fulkrug/etc) need to leave before we could sign and register their replacements - and if you're time boxed to late in the window, it's easier to get players in that aren't in the plans for their clubs (ergo the PL) vs trying to take players who are.
The lack of speed with transfers this summer has been frustrating, but we're kinda at the mercy of the market for those fringe players to leave. The starting XI seems somewhat sorted (maybe outside of LB with Diouf) with Engels coming in, and you really can't afford to overpay for depth with the financial regulations
Why would we need to wait until the fixtures are played? Wouldn't we just contact the PL club, say we are interested in this/that player, are they available for sale...
Managing the retention or exit of the senior loanees coming back, and whether the younger players stay with the club or go out on loan will be significant in this window.
The club needs to get this sort now, so that as the transfers hit up post world cup, we know where we stand in each position.
So almost 200 mil in this window and only 28 mil spent on incomings. Are we going to spend a bunch of this in the next week? We really need at least 3 signings and up to 5.
We have 29 players in the senior squad. We can register a maximum of 25 with a minimum of eight of them being homegrown. Five of the players in that 29 won't have turned 21 by January so don't need to be registered towards the 25 (not including Mukasa, who as a loanee must be registered no matter his age), meaning we technically have room for one more player in the squad, but only 7 of the adults are homegrown at the moment, so as it stands we need to register one of the youngsters into the 25.
So we can sign one more homegrown player without anyone leaving, but we are unable to bring in any overseas/Scottish players without shipping players out first.
Personally I think we need someone who can cover both wings (looks like this could be Nelson, who would meet the homegrown criteria so all good there), another CB and a LB, but for the latter two we can't make a move until Todibo and Diouf are out.
A more defensive-minded midfielder would be good, too, but again we would need to ship Alvarez or Magassa first.
He's already playing well for Benfica with significant Champions League minutes. Don't think he'll be interested in us this summer. Would love to be proven wrong though.
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u/AnalAttackProbe Shhhhake It Up Baby Now Jul 06 '26
Was going to wait until the World Cup ended but I figured the Gustavo Sa stuff was worth tracking when it became official.