Summer Window 2026 - Rumours and Discussion

sam3110 said:

Oh and you can add is Sichenje better than Mitchell

Certainly a lot less hardy, thought he looks an interesting player in the brief moments last season but cannot seem to stay fit 

Gisappointed said:

Is MacNamara better than Ramsay. No
Is Mesik better than Edwards. No
Is Koumetio better than Bell or Burke. Promising but No
Is Alli better than TC as a LW. Unlikely. Is Grant, probably if thats where he will play. 
Is Dykes better than Godden or Kelman. Only if we play hoofball and even then No.

Still, one out of six is on par for last year. Adding to the squad but not the starting XI. 

The answer the first 3 points are all 'TBC' rather than 'No'

We've not even see MacNamara play, we know what Ramsay can do and potentially MacNamara is cover.
Edwards played 7 games in the Championship last season, we have no idea whether he'll be up to it. I think he will be, but to make the assumption after 3/4 friendlies that Edwards is better than Mesik is wrong.

Im coming from the angle of who is NJ going to pick if everyone is fit. Its obviously all subjective

248 new posts.

Hopes raised, only to be cruelly dashed by endless talk about Dykes. A very soft ffs!

Some of you need a break from this thread, go on holiday and I'm sure by the time the first match comes around, we'll all be as happy as Larry or going down on the Titanic* Delete whichever is not applicable;)

DamoNorthStand said:

The thing is the Dykes is that, YOY, it’s generally accepted we need to drastically increase the quality as after our post promotion bounce faded and people worked us out we showed relegation form. And the league looks tougher this year.

Dykes was here last year so at best it is treading water and not getting objectively better.

the midfield signings are key IMO 

You could massage the figures and say he wasn't here last summer so in terms of calendar YOY you're improving but that would be a big stretch 

wolfgang said:

Diebythesword said:

If we have kamara, holsgrove and dykes coming in, would people see this as a successful window? 

Yes, but it might still not save us from relegation. Especially if we get a couple of longer-term injuries to two of our better players (as we have most recent seasons).

Holsgrove does not look likely to me, but not to worry if we spend the same money wisely elsewhere,

You could say that of probably 50% of the league mate...

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

Every single point and match counts when you are in the situation we are in. 

wmcf123 said:

AddickNL88 said:

Gisappointed said:

If Dykes signs as predicted, thats six new players in with 18 days to KO.  Injuries and future sales/purchases aside, how many do CL fans see as guaranteed starters? 

What tactical changes have we seen apart from passing between four at the back rather than three before hoofing it? And this is against inferior opposition. 

Disregarding match fitness, Grant, Alli and one of Mesik or Koumetio will almost certainly start. McNamara is probably more of a squad player, like he was at Millwall. If Dykes signs he'll likely start too, although I actually rate Kelman higher.

Another way of looking at it: with Dykes we will have brought in six players and seven have left. Which of the outgoing players would you honestly pick ahead of the incoming ones? Personally, I think the squad is stronger than it was last season.

Don’t know because we’ve never seen any one them play in the league. I personally don’t think we’ve replaced Clarke or Coady, not that either of them were that good .  The guy from Luton will do well to have the impact Fevrier had at the end of the season .  The version of Grant from 2018 would be a huge upgrade.  If he’s lost pace , he might not be .  We’ll see - if we’re stronger , can’t see it being enormously so . 

I can't even contemplate how bad the summer has been so far if we are still playing with wing backs - somehow i've switched my views to assuming we aren't and that a couple of midfielders and dykes might just about do it. If we're playing wingbacks then you can add 2 pacey wing backs to that list. I haven't watched any of the pre season games so far - gonna watch tonight and see what's going on.  

sillav nitram said:

248 new posts.

Hopes raised, only to be cruelly dashed by endless talk about Dykes. A very soft ffs!

Some of you need a break from this thread, go on holiday and I'm sure by the time the first match comes around, we'll all be as happy as Larry or going down on the Titanic* Delete whichever is not applicable;)

this is luxury mate - we used to spend most of our time discussing owners and takeovers - roll with it man  

fenaddick said:

DamoNorthStand said:

Every single point and match counts when you are in the situation we are in. 

People saying we can wait until the end of the window to get people in are right in theory - but in practice we could be writing off multiple games going with a midfield of Doc and Coventry.

We can’t afford to do that. The best seasons we have had are when the players are in and up to speed ahead of the first game 

Would you rather play 43 games with option A&B on the list or 46 with C&D?

9 points would’ve seen us relegated last season. 

Gisappointed said:

Im coming from the angle of who is NJ going to pick if everyone is fit. Its obviously all subjective

Relax. They won't be 

AberystwythAddick said:

fenaddick said:

DamoNorthStand said:

Every single point and match counts when you are in the situation we are in. 

People saying we can wait until the end of the window to get people in are right in theory - but in practice we could be writing off multiple games going with a midfield of Doc and Coventry.

We can’t afford to do that. The best seasons we have had are when the players are in and up to speed ahead of the first game 

Would you rather play 43 games with option A&B on the list or 46 with C&D?

9 points would’ve seen us relegated last season. 

There’s also no guarantee that hypothetical A&B would be ready to be put straight into a game. So it would like be more than 3 games. 

Signings need to happen ASAP so we are in the best possible position come Derby 

But those signings would elevate you across the season and would have 43 games to get you those 9 extra points. Plus there’s a huge international break in September to get them up to speed. Realistically though, they won’t be a free agent signing that late in the window. 

People (not you necessarily) have been complaining about the last two free signings being uninspiring and clearly not our first targets because the deals happened quickly. People are also saying we should be moving quickly and not signing our top targets if they’re going to come late in the window. I don’t see how the recruitment team can please the fanbase here 

charltonbob said:

AberystwythAddick said:

charltonbob said:

AberystwythAddick said:

charltonbob said:

sam3110 said:

charltonbob said:

Crispywood said:

AndyG said:

I wish we could have an update on Edwards & Collins if they are anywhere near fitness then we start to look a better team already it seems very weird that nobody at the club seems to be mentioning them

Get urself a Cawley Substack subscription 

We shouldn't need to get a subscription to get fitness updates on our injured players

You don't need an update though, why should the club be telling all and sundry about our squad? Some clubs don't even tell you the length of contract a player signs when they join them (Luton i think in particular are famous for this) 

Actually I do, I want to know as much as possible about our players, about our club. Whether the club wants to hand me that info is up to them but if Richard Cawley is releasing that info, all & sundry could subscribe & they would know all of our inside info. So why doesn't the club release info on Edwards one year almost, injury ?

Do you get angry when you have to buy a newspaper? 

Bizarre post, par for the course though

I agree you crying about paying for someone’s hard work is bizarre 

You really are a bit of a twerp aren't you. Please go ahead & provide us all with the quote I'm supposed to have made about paying for Richards hard work. Crying ? 🤣 You sound like you've just broken up for school holidays so your nonsense is understandable.

Read your own comments to find it you whopper.