Summer Window 2026 - Rumours and Discussion

charltonbob said:

NabySarr said:

MarcusH26 said:

Think even second season up you're going to need the nous and experience of Godden and Dykes. Invaluable to have around the squad and to bring on the likes of Leaburn and Mbick. 

Kanu new deal and L1 loan , Ahadme and Tanto sold , not convinced we'll hold onto TC (not because I don't rate him, but I think we'll get some offers) 

The creativity needs fixing more than the actual strikers themselves. 

This is the main thing for me. Other than TC are any of our strikers poor finishers? I don’t think so. If we create more chances they will score more goals 

Seriously ?

Not poor finishes they have to have a 100% success rate and no striker in the world or ever played the game has that stat … 

We don’t need just to replace the loan starters but upgrade as well if we want to be a more comfortable mid table side.  At least one starting forward, two starting midfielders, one starting wingback at a minimum. the ideal of upgrading one starting cb, the other wb and gk might not be feasible given budget constraints. We have a lot of players in the side who would be fine as a reserve but very few that should be starting

I think we will find it hard to move many players on, as few of our players (perm and loan) are out of contract. Of those I'd let go Berry, Fevrier, Chambers and Coady (I think he'd prefer to stay up north)

I'd keep Dykes and Godden, they are our first choice centre forwards at the moment, and I don't want us spending big money in that position this summer.

Clarke is someone I'd like to stay on, depending on wages and the fee. Or Bree if the wages are right, but not both.

Of the loaned out players, Mbick will be part of the 1st team squad while he recovers, while Anderson and Asiimwe may go out again or be sold, as I don't see them as being good enough for the Championship next season. Alex Mitchell will leave I'm sure, he'll be an easy player to sell. I don't know what we'll do with Kanu, that might depend on what the player wants.

As for the others, we'll struggle to move on Ahadme, Apter and Tanto permanently, and we might be stuck with having to subsidise further loans.

Gillesphey would be fine to have around the squad, Burke is a bit of a waste of a squad place with his injury record, but I can't see him having many takers. JRC might want to move on, as he can't be happy with his lack of minutes. If Kaminski isn't happy not being automatic number 1, and we got an acceptable offer for him, I'd have no problems if he left, but I'd be fine if he stayed as well.

My money would be spent in midfield, where we badly need an upgrade. We desperately need players who can do the donkey work of Docherty and Coventry, but also have the control and vision to offer way more in attack, and that will cost money. 

We need another left wing back, and at least one right wing back (one of which could be Clarke or Bree).

Finally, if we get really good offers for the likes of Ramsay or TC and they aren't interested in signing new contracts, it would make sense to cash in. They would of course then need to be replaced.

sam3110 said:

Kaminski, Mannion
Ramsay, Sichenje
Jones, New
Bell, New
New, New
Edwards, New
New, Coventry
New, Docherty
Carey, Knibbs
New, Leaburn
Kelman, TC

JRC, Fullah, Gough, Anderson, Mbick all part of the squad too

Would mean Burke, Gillesphey, Berry, Godden and Dykes out, all the loanees back to their clubs, and probably no space for Olaofe, Apter, Kanu, Asiimwe, Dixon, Ahadme and the Mitchells, so all would need to be sold or loaned out, I'd keep Kanu, Dixon and Asiimwe on the books and loan them, and try to sell the rest. 

I’d expect this to be pretty close to what happens. Only changes are probably Gillesphey will remain as backup LCB, and one of Anderson/JRC will probably move on (maybe both)

I can also see Asiimwe staying as backup RWB if he has a good preseason. We have Ramsay to play there too so won’t need to rely on him, and I’d rather sign 1 top quality RWB than have to spread the budget over signing 2 

Only way we probably see more significant changes are if Ramsay or TC are sold but hopefully both will be on new contracts soon once we are 100% safe 

ShootersHillGuru said:

We’ll undoubtedly be shedding a few players who won’t be in Jones plans and we’ll likely lose a couple at least of Dykes, Chambers, Coady and Clarke. That’s four regular starters that need to be replaced or re signed. We need I’d suggest at least two midfielders that are brought in to start along with a striker. I’d be surprised if we don’t see seven at least new faces. I hope we don’t see league one punts more than perhaps one or max two and would much prefer experienced Championship players just like we saw in January. Overseas recruitment is I guess the wild card but i definitely think they’ll be at least seven that we didn’t have for the last pre season. 

The thing is, when you look at loans going back and players out of contract that we are possibly losing and needing to be replaced it means we are almost certainly not going to see the likes of Apter, Olaofe, Gillesphey etc all being sold.
Not because they are what we'd want as squad players but because trying to replace all of those on top of the ones we HAVE to will just not be realistic or practical. Over time those will all be sold off or let go but it won't happen in one go over Summer.

In an ideal world each season we keep ticking up the division with 5/6 new recruits and moving on players that have dropped from squad players into not even on the bench most weeks. 

Then we're slowly levelling up the squad without ruining the general squad harmony. 

Focus should be levelling up the midfield and RWB/LWB. Potentially a striker too if Dykes doesn't stay and we need someone alongside Kelman/Godden. 

Diebythesword said:

jose said:

I might be the only poster quite fond of Gillesphey.
When we had to play a makeshift defence at Boro to protect Jones from a yellow, we had one of the most memorable moments of the season where Macca lying prone headed the ball off.
And there is Wembley. Maybe not a hero player, but a legend.

I really love Macca, his goal at Wembley and his performance against Blackburn at the valley this season was arguably one of the best individual performances we’ve had this season, but he’s a limited league one defender and has shown he can’t consistently make the step up. I’d be expecting him to be replaced with another left footed centre half. 

I reckon we’ll see a new LWB and LCB, maybe harry clarke and that will be it in defence. I reckon the big bucks are going to spent on a couple of midfielders. Wouldn’t be surprised if jones would want to wait and see on Kelman, mbick and Kanu with some better service from midfield. Then maybe next summer signing a quality striker (if needed). It would fit with our “evolution” model. 

Not sure that’s fair, he really hasn’t had many bad games this season unless he’s had no left wing back ahead of him. Cost us a goal at Hull but other than that he’s been pretty solid when he’s played in a proper line up 

The club gave Gillesphey a new contract knowing this would be his level in the championship, so I’m not sure why they’d have done that if they weren’t happy with it for the first 2 years of our championship journey. Would expect he will stay next season and then probably leave as his contract ends next summer and we continue to push on 

Laddick01 said:

ElliotCAFC said:

Would like us to have a look at getting Beadle back if he's available and we want to bin off Kaminski.

I haven’t seen much of Beadle, but he seems to
have a mistake in him. 

He’s young and will improve, but I think we need an established No. 1 next season.

From what Jones has said in the past he definitely values experience in his number 1 goalkeeper. If Kaminski does leave then he will be replaced by a GK with similar experience I’d predict 

NabySarr said:

Diebythesword said:

jose said:

I might be the only poster quite fond of Gillesphey.
When we had to play a makeshift defence at Boro to protect Jones from a yellow, we had one of the most memorable moments of the season where Macca lying prone headed the ball off.
And there is Wembley. Maybe not a hero player, but a legend.

I really love Macca, his goal at Wembley and his performance against Blackburn at the valley this season was arguably one of the best individual performances we’ve had this season, but he’s a limited league one defender and has shown he can’t consistently make the step up. I’d be expecting him to be replaced with another left footed centre half. 

I reckon we’ll see a new LWB and LCB, maybe harry clarke and that will be it in defence. I reckon the big bucks are going to spent on a couple of midfielders. Wouldn’t be surprised if jones would want to wait and see on Kelman, mbick and Kanu with some better service from midfield. Then maybe next summer signing a quality striker (if needed). It would fit with our “evolution” model. 

Not sure that’s fair, he really hasn’t had many bad games this season unless he’s had no left wing back ahead of him. Cost us a goal at Hull but other than that he’s been pretty solid when he’s played in a proper line up 

The club gave Gillesphey a new contract knowing this would be his level in the championship, so I’m not sure why they’d have done that if they weren’t happy with it for the first 2 years of our championship journey. Would expect he will stay next season and then probably leave as his contract ends next summer and we continue to push on 

He was part of the second string back 3 which kept a clean sheet at Boro, which shows he's still a perfectly ok backup left centre back. Of course in an ideal world you'd bring in someone better, but I don't see it as a priority, especially as that's likely to cost decent money.

I agree with the sentiment that we should be looking to get experienced championship players and a few from aborad with the right "attributes" who we hope can adapt. But I dont think we should write off League 1. I dont think we should just grab abunch of the "best" players from there but there will be a number of top league 1 players who are at clubs that may not go up but have run their contract down to get a championship move. We should be on top of that list of out of contract players and looking at the ones with the right attributes. The same way we got Tom Lockyer last time we were promoted - or how Thierry Small went to Preston last year. These may not be our big name or big money signings but to fill a few squad gaps and leave budget for a few starting CM's.

dmccart32 said:

I'm not in any shape criticizing Dykes as I think he's been one of the main reasons (along with our defence) we've got to 49 points, but I do think that if we had say signed someone like Bamford (even though I do dislike him) or Ali Ahmed at Norwich we would probably had been safe by now. However, we are not yet operating at that level in terms of wages etc.

Dykes, Coady, Chambers, Clarke were the best we could do given our position.

Next season I think we potentially won't do as much business as we think we'll do, but I do think that if we are struggling come Jan 2027 we may be in a better position to attract upgrades on our 2026 window.

If we look at summer 2025, Nestory Irankunda's transfer from Bayern Munich to Watford in July 2025, they spent approximately £2.5 million on him and he reportedly earns £15k a week. I know he's been a bit hit and miss this season, but he's rapid and got a great shot on him. Can't help but think he would have been great for us.

Ali Ahmed cost Norwich approx. £2m and is reportedly on £15k a week. 4 goals and 3 assists in 15 games...say no more.

We spent approx. £2m on Apter, I'm sure he's not on £15k a week, but also can't help but think he's got to be on at least to £7-10k

We spent approx. £1.5 on Tanto, again probably on £7-10k a week.


I don't see those as values for out of this world, its about smart business. Hindsight is a wonderful thing and I know there are other factors when it comes to attracting players.

But I would have rather we look to spend a bit more on one player than getting two players like Apter and Tanto.

I think, of course with the benefit of hindsight that the signings of Apter and Olaofe were to be honest expensive mistakes. I think that our thinking was that these two would cut it in The Championship and I personally don’t buy into the notion that they were brought in as long term projects. They cost too much of our budget for them to be thought of as anything but near starters. No idea who scouted them and did the due diligence but it would appear and I think this is reinforced by comments by Bolton fans that Apter seems to have a lazy attitude. No way is he a Jones type player. As for Tanto. He just doesn’t look to be near Championship standard. I’m sure there are a few League One players that could step up. Look at Carey for example but I’d like to think that we won’t be spending probably close to £3 million on players we are not sure will cut it.