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Summer Window 2026 - Rumours and Discussion
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Sounds like a sign or sell deal to me. If we sold, is Burke, Sichenje, Bell, Koumetio and Gough enough? I doubt itstjohnshill said:It’s looking very likely Lloyds contract situation will be sorted before the season starts one way or another
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OhLaddick01 said:
Ah fuck.stjohnshill said:It’s looking very likely Lloyds contract situation will be sorted before the season starts one way or another0 -
Sichenje/Bell/Koumetio actually looks pretty solid, however all 3 are plagued by injury.sam3110 said:
Sounds like a sign or sell deal to me. If we sold, is Burke, Sichenje, Bell, Koumetio and Gough enough? I doubt itstjohnshill said:It’s looking very likely Lloyds contract situation will be sorted before the season starts one way or another
Feels like we’d be repeating the LB issue from last year in a much more important position.
Also - we’d be losing our best player.
Sounds ominous.3 -
My concern is that it is becoming harder and harder to be competitive in the Championship as the years pass. Parachute payment paid to clubs relegated from the Premiership is part of it but also a number of clubs have attracted owners who are willing/able to invest significantly more than ours. As I stated in a more detailed post earlier, I hope I am wrong but I suspect the target of slow, steady growth and sustainability underestimates what it will take to simply retain Championship status.Henry Irving said:
Agree delivery is key and while I'm positive about the owners I had concerns about some issues such as the lack of a CEO.Braziliance said:
Ok, I like the analogy and understand.Henry Irving said:
If the owners wanted to purely make money the would have been much better off just investing in Friedman's hedge fund or even a building society account.Braziliance said:
Joshua Friedman alone has triple the networth of Birmingham and Wrexhams owners combined almost. It isn't going to swallow his cash like it did Sandgaard or any other multi-millionaire. He is a multi-billionaire.NabySarr said:
This doesn’t make sense. The money they’ve lost already means they won’t make a profit by selling us unless we make it into the premier league.Braziliance said:
I don't believe the owners are here for the long run, they're here to just try and flip a profit at some stage, and it appears their strategy is to do the bare minimum in doing so, which to be fair so far has worked.mcgrandall said:
Sorry, but no they aren't. They were demerged from Bet365 in 24/25, transferred to Stoke City Holdings, and their debts wiped. Which is why their have been able to spend as they have.TheHerminator said:
They are owned by Bet365 essentially who keep investing in equity stakes in the football club. It isn’t a sustainable model but it means short term they can spend big on playersmcgrandall said:
I'm not advocating our owners spend more, but how come Stoke have spent so much this year? Not sold any players for large transfer fees in years and have a similar turnover to ours. Could be their owner selling the club to themselves and wiping £80m of debt, so they ended the year in "profit". There is always a way around the rules.SouthLincsAddick said:
Well said!elbiglad said:I am getting a bit bored of some of the negative and short sighted comments being posted on here. I don’t know what people were expecting.
I hate that we have so much squad turnover every year but we desperately needed reinforcements. The transition the club has gone through necessitates this overhaul. The depth wasn’t there and the loans ending meant we lost four or five starters. So it was clear a massive influx of players was needed.
Let’s say we needed to bring in a minimum of seven players. When you need this many and only have a budget of around £10m, then you have to be clever in how you spend your money. Really basic stuff. So, it makes sense to spend no money on a back up right back who has good champ experience. It makes sense to bring in a decent striking option for no money when you have decent depth there already and have assessed that other options are likely too expensive. It makes sense to concentrate your spending on positions of most serious need to to bring in extra quality where t matters when decent, cheaper options are available in other positions. This is just common-sense squad building.
It seems to me that some people didn’t understand what slow, sustainable and sensible growth meant. It never meant that if we stay in the Championship for one year we will then blow the league out the water. It won’t happen next summer either, by the way. As a side note, it’s also not how football finances work so it’s no good talking about how rich our owners are. At this moment in time, unless we sell someone for big money or agree a huge sponsorship deal with an American airline or streaming service, this is the only feasible way for us to improve.
Jones has made a rod for his own back (for some) with the ‘ruthless’ comments. When, in reality, he was most likely just talking about some of the business that needed to be done, not all. Letting a midfield prospect who is a hard worker and, by all accounts, amazing character that has been with the club since the age of 8 leave is quite ruthless. Letting a reliable squad option who scored the goal to promote the club leave is quite ruthless. The likely exit of a young academy striker who won League 2 player of the year is quite ruthless. Any additions in centre mid that move Coventry or Docherty down the pecking order should be considered ruthless. Why does signing a back up right back have to be judged by this metric? Who can name all of the Luke Young backups from the Curbishley years? It’s not an overly important position.I am not an ITK. But the signing of Alli for £1m shows, to me, that there is money to be spent. This was not necessarily a position of need and there are plenty of free agent wingers available. So to spend money on this player shows that firstly, they rate him, and secondly, it suggests there is money available for the right targets. It signals there is more to come.Jones is an outspoken man who finds it borderline impossible to bite his tongue. If there was no money or the board had let him down I think we’d have heard something, or picked up on a sly comment. It’s been quite the opposite. He has told fans to be patient. The season starts in just under three weeks and the window shuts in five. He has repeatedly said there is more to come and quality takes time.
We all want more in. We all want improved quality. I definitely don’t enjoy watching us hoof it up to Dykes. But the window isn’t done. They are implementing a formation change. Let’s just give things some time.
I think the negative posters don’t want to understand the financial situation we’re in. A small but vocal minority have always created a lot of noise mostly through wilful ignorance. Professional football people would wet themselves at some of the comments on here, it’s so far from reality. Remember, this is only a fans forum, none of us have any pro experience at coaching a football team or even understand the basics of football finance.
If the owners wanted to put more money in, they could find a way. I've seen it suggested that the recent change in the rules is a way to drive down players wages in the Championship. Which, considering the state of finances in the Championship, seems quite sensible.
As I said, if the owners wanted to spend big they could find a way. I think @Doucher is bang on the money and, unless we have some incredible recruitment, consigned to circle the drain.
It was heavily hinted at one of those Addicks meetings that Roland still owning the club held us back from improving the matchday experience and our plan is essentially waiting for an old man to die and hope his son offers a better deal for the stadium. You then look at Birmingham City and Wrexham's owners (who combined have a lower networth than one of ours) yet they're willing to pump millions into the infrastructure of the club. (A billion in Birminghams case)
The plan will be to keep using the TV money and whatever else to keep us afloat until someone comes along to buy us.
I don't mind by the way, as the alternative for us was a lot worse, but no one can convince themselves they're doing everything in their power to make us a competitive championship side, it is the bare minimum to avoid relegation.If the quick flip theory was correct they’d have sold us once we were promoted to the championship
There still wasn't much to flip as we still don't own our own ground. It's a hard sell selling a Championship club in debt, but someone eventually will come along and see the vision and that's what I believe they are waiting for. Time will tell.
Instead, they are losing money, around £10m to £13m, a season with no sign of that changing.
I think the more likely scenario is that they wanted some fun while having a possible pay day somewhere down the line.
It's like four or six of us on here buying a racehorse. It costs us, say, £5k a year but we can afford that. We go to races, enjoy the thrill of being an owner while sipping champagne but it's not going to bankrupt us. It's money we can afford to spend just as Josh Friedman can lose £3m pa
Sure, our horse might win a big race or go to stud and then we'd be quids in but it's not the whole plan.
I believe the owners agreed the amount to which they would subsidize the club each year ie their version of £5k a year, and are sticking to it.
We're not Wrexham or Birmingham, we have a completely different business model and funding streams regardless of how rich our owners are.
All the messaging, post Charlie, has been clear. Slow, steady growth and sustainability. It's not sexy and it requires patience.
We can be happy with that or not but it looks nothing like a quick flip model, to my eyes anyway.
The bold is my concern. I would feel a lot more comfortable if our assets were being signed to longer deals, but it just hasn't happened yet, but there is time.
Until we see that, I will always be a touch skeptical, but that's just my personality I suppose.
What I am worried about, is the execution of the plan. I think the idea is fine, and like I have said, am more than happy seeing us remain a average champ club for a long time, just a bit concerned the higher ups are underestimating that task.
For now though as you like to say, the proof of the pudding is in the eating.
Hopeful of the best, expecting the worst. 😂
Apologies for the derail, back to the rumours. I now desperately want Kamara to sign not because I rate him, but it seems like it will wind Pompey fans up
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fenaddick said:Lincoln have Matt Smith on trial tonight, the Matt Smith who joined us one January and made no appearances
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Has there been an offer that we will listen to?sam3110 said:
Sounds like a sign or sell deal to me. If we sold, is Burke, Sichenje, Bell, Koumetio and Gough enough? I doubt itstjohnshill said:It’s looking very likely Lloyds contract situation will be sorted before the season starts one way or another1 -
Bell is not a back 4 centre back really. Koumetio paired with Sichenje or Burke would be ok, but obviously a big downgrade on having JonesLaddick01 said:
Sichenje/Bell/Koumetio actually looks pretty solid, however all 3 are plagued by injury.sam3110 said:
Sounds like a sign or sell deal to me. If we sold, is Burke, Sichenje, Bell, Koumetio and Gough enough? I doubt itstjohnshill said:It’s looking very likely Lloyds contract situation will be sorted before the season starts one way or another
Feels like we’d be repeating the LB issue from last year in a much more important position.
Also - we’d be losing our best player.
Sounds ominous.
If we sell Lloyd Jones this window we will be relegated this season so it shouldn’t even be considered an option. Rather lose him on a free if he won’t sign10 -
As long as he don’t down tools or performances dropNabySarr said:
Bell is not a back 4 centre back really. Koumetio paired with Sichenje or Burke would be ok, but obviously a big downgrade on having JonesLaddick01 said:
Sichenje/Bell/Koumetio actually looks pretty solid, however all 3 are plagued by injury.sam3110 said:
Sounds like a sign or sell deal to me. If we sold, is Burke, Sichenje, Bell, Koumetio and Gough enough? I doubt itstjohnshill said:It’s looking very likely Lloyds contract situation will be sorted before the season starts one way or another
Feels like we’d be repeating the LB issue from last year in a much more important position.
Also - we’d be losing our best player.
Sounds ominous.
If we sell Lloyd Jones this window we will be relegated this season so it shouldn’t even be considered an option. Rather lose him on a free if he won’t sign0 -
There are players you sell instead of losing on a free and there are players whose value to the squad is larger than any fee you might receive. Jones is obviously in the latter category19
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Would be some meltdown on here (and rightly so) if we lost Lloyd Jones before the start of the season.18
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If he doesn't sign I would just let him walk away for free next summer, unless it's a ridiculous offerstjohnshill said:It’s looking very likely Lloyds contract situation will be sorted before the season starts one way or another15 -
Would be amazed if that was in his characterSword65pf said:
As long as he don’t down tools or performances dropNabySarr said:
Bell is not a back 4 centre back really. Koumetio paired with Sichenje or Burke would be ok, but obviously a big downgrade on having JonesLaddick01 said:
Sichenje/Bell/Koumetio actually looks pretty solid, however all 3 are plagued by injury.sam3110 said:
Sounds like a sign or sell deal to me. If we sold, is Burke, Sichenje, Bell, Koumetio and Gough enough? I doubt itstjohnshill said:It’s looking very likely Lloyds contract situation will be sorted before the season starts one way or another
Feels like we’d be repeating the LB issue from last year in a much more important position.
Also - we’d be losing our best player.
Sounds ominous.
If we sell Lloyd Jones this window we will be relegated this season so it shouldn’t even be considered an option. Rather lose him on a free if he won’t sign2 -
Makes no sense at all to sell the older, less valuable, Lloyd and let TC and Kayne run down their deals.1
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Would Jones protect himself a bit injury wise if we didn’t sell him though, in preparation for a move next summer.
that man is all commitment and we might lost some of that if he’s staying out of trouble ahead of a move0 -
If we aren’t competing financially and it’s become a big issue, and the offer allows us to change that, maybe they are considering it.MrBurns said:
If he doesn't sign I would just let him walk away for free next summer, unless it's a ridiculous offerstjohnshill said:It’s looking very likely Lloyds contract situation will be sorted before the season starts one way or another0 -
Croydon said:Would be some meltdown on here (and rightly so) if we lost Lloyd Jones before the start of the season.
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Surely by doing that though his performance level would drop and nobody who can offer a payday would be interested?TheHerminator said:Would Jones protect himself a bit injury wise if we didn’t sell him though, in preparation for a move next summer.
that man is all commitment and we might lost some of that if he’s staying out of trouble ahead of a move1 -
True, would be a balancing act wouldn’t itLittleAddick said:
Surely by doing that though his performance level would drop and nobody who can offer a payday would be interested?TheHerminator said:Would Jones protect himself a bit injury wise if we didn’t sell him though, in preparation for a move next summer.
that man is all commitment and we might lost some of that if he’s staying out of trouble ahead of a move0 -
Think we should offer Chalbah a contract if he impresses on trail, very good experienced player7
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Yeah my bad, meant that would be our only real option for a back 3 unless we wanted to lean heavily on Gough (needs a loan imo) or Burke (lol). Bell would be very dangerous as a 2.NabySarr said:
Bell is not a back 4 centre back really. Koumetio paired with Sichenje or Burke would be ok, but obviously a big downgrade on having JonesLaddick01 said:
Sichenje/Bell/Koumetio actually looks pretty solid, however all 3 are plagued by injury.sam3110 said:
Sounds like a sign or sell deal to me. If we sold, is Burke, Sichenje, Bell, Koumetio and Gough enough? I doubt itstjohnshill said:It’s looking very likely Lloyds contract situation will be sorted before the season starts one way or another
Feels like we’d be repeating the LB issue from last year in a much more important position.
Also - we’d be losing our best player.
Sounds ominous.
If we sell Lloyd Jones this window we will be relegated this season so it shouldn’t even be considered an option. Rather lose him on a free if he won’t sign
If we sell Lloyd Jones I agree - we’re probably gone.0 -
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Garrymanilow said:The general word is that we should have something like the transfer budget we had last year, which was around £10-12m. So far this season we've apparently spent £1-1.5m on Alli and £500k each on Mesik and Koumetio. You can also take the apparent £1.7m for Sichenje as that was pulled from this year's budget. So if we take the biggest amounts reported then we've spent £4.2m on transfers. We don't know if the wage budget is higher this season or if we've taken some money out of the transfer budget to offer Grant a higher salary but in theory we should have anywhere from £5.8m-£7.8m still to spend on players. Anything above £4.75m would be a record signing for the club.
I think we still need two new first choice centre mids but you would like to imagine that for £5m we could at least improve on what we currently have. We might only be in for one if we are persevering with JRC and it's written into his contract that he can legally kill Carey if we play him at RB, but then you'd think that's even more budget to go into just one player. As we've apparently seen with Holsgrove what we might be coming up against is the wage or level requirements of the kind of players who cost that amount of money. Not much point being able to get a £6.5m bid accepted if the player wants £35k a week and to challenge for the Playoffs. Bigger transfers like this typically take longer as well and you sometimes have to wait for other clubs to move on or for the selling club to have a replacement lined up. I'm fairly calm that the most important position might be the one that requires the most work and money to complete, but the caveat there is obviously that the deal has to get done. Not really much point stressing until the window closes
The player budget isn’t split into fees and the wages, it’s all one pot. We might sign Grant on a free but his wages will be higher than other players we’ve spent millions on, and that counts. If Grant is on say £25k a week that’s £1.2m a year, that would be a big chunk of the budget. That’s also dead money, with a fee, there’s at least a chance some will recouped when they are sold. Fees are also split over the duration of the players contract, so this season we’re paying a third or a quarter of last year’s transfers.2 -
Subconsciously it’s not out of the ordinary to think it could happen, if he wants to be ok going forward he’s not taking risks on his last big contract, seem to remember a certain striker didn’t even want to play🤷🏻♂️fenaddick said:
Would be amazed if that was in his characterSword65pf said:
As long as he don’t down tools or performances dropNabySarr said:
Bell is not a back 4 centre back really. Koumetio paired with Sichenje or Burke would be ok, but obviously a big downgrade on having JonesLaddick01 said:
Sichenje/Bell/Koumetio actually looks pretty solid, however all 3 are plagued by injury.sam3110 said:
Sounds like a sign or sell deal to me. If we sold, is Burke, Sichenje, Bell, Koumetio and Gough enough? I doubt itstjohnshill said:It’s looking very likely Lloyds contract situation will be sorted before the season starts one way or another
Feels like we’d be repeating the LB issue from last year in a much more important position.
Also - we’d be losing our best player.
Sounds ominous.
If we sell Lloyd Jones this window we will be relegated this season so it shouldn’t even be considered an option. Rather lose him on a free if he won’t sign0 -
one way or another could mean he signs a new deal and stays, doesn't sign a new deal and stays or is sold - 1 of 3 - i agree that if he's sold it will be a big blow but if WHU want to give us £10m and we spend that on the midfield?0
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The older, less mobile but admittedly less injury prone Coady did a job for us last season so who knows about Chalobah. I haven't got any issue with him having a trial unless he's our only midfield target, which I doubt very much.5
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Polish ?€7&ing Pete.thai malaysia addick said:
Barry Endean will take some beating.wolfgang said:
I think it was mainly Karl Robinson who was bigging up Ben Reeves.gilbertfilbert said:
I was thinking Kirk, Ben Reeves, McGrandles… And so on.
Charlie Kirk was indeed eagerly anticipated. Was he the biggest let-down in our club's history?
McGrandles has largely fulfilled expectations, just not with us.0 -
Is it me or do we seem to be signing quality players that have injury concerns ? Obviously they are available at a low cost compared to the quality they offer but it’s a massive gamble if a few of them are crocked at the same time0
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Chalobah is good (and was good against us at Hillsborough, albeit we were horrific on the day) but trialling him swings the ‘we don’t have any money’-ometer into overdrive.Sleepwalking to L1 at this rate.13
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Jones not happy with the transfer business then.1
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I actually don’t mind Challobah on trial. Was supposedly quite good in the Championship.
Once again though, only 29 games in 2 seasons worries me.2 -
Food for thought - despite my opposition to selling Lloyd.
Summer 2019, we turned down £4m from Brentford for Lyle Taylor, in the last year of his contract. Thus turning down the chance to replace him with a young Ivan Toney.
Most fans, including myself, were pleased we kept Lyle in the end. But, looking back, Taylor went on to get injured and never reach the same heights again. Meanwhile, Toney went on to play in major tournaments for England and become one of the most valuable strikers in the Premier League.
Just goes to show that sometimes every player has their price, especially an aged one.8
