Summer Window 2026 - Rumours and Discussion

TheHerminator said:

Sword65pf said:

While I’m in a negative mood, I wonder what happens after a month of the season when Chalobah, Burke, Bell possibly Leaburn all get their inevitable injuries?, how’s the squad looking then? Doesn’t really smack of learning lessons of not shopping in the injury prone freebie market.

I can't work out if you're going all tongue in cheek or genuinely massively pissed off

Somewhere in the middle to be honest, I genuinely hope to be way off in my thinking.

BetterCallSaul said:

Sword65pf said:

While I’m in a negative mood, I wonder what happens after a month of the season when Chalobah, Burke, Bell possibly Leaburn all get their inevitable injuries?, how’s the squad looking then? Doesn’t really smack of learning lessons of not shopping in the injury prone freebie market.

Sounds like a hypothetical to me

Yes it is, but not totally unrealistic either.

charlton_hero said:

Chalobah is a good signing if we get a marquee signing to go alongside.

TheHerminator said:

golfaddick said:

As I posted in the Chalobah thread.......Coady with legs. 

Him & Grant are the 2 up grades from last season. Admittingly I've not seen enough of the defenders but I've not got the same blind faith in Billy as some on here. 

Less said about the most important addition to our midfield the better. Will look out for the updates on Estoril's line up tonight but something tells me that Holsgrove wont be the missing piece of the jigsaw.....but we will see.

Blind faith? Again what on earth are you talking about.

Maybe watch some pre season games and then comment on him like others have.

You're so odd

Pre season games aren’t a metric for a lot of people and quite rightly, when I express concern about results and performances , people say it’s only pre season.  I think the moral is let’s see when we play proper games

I keep seeing reports of Bertrand Traore having offers from the Championship after leaving Sunderland. He's a right winger who would fit the profile of free but more expensive on wages.

I wonder if he could be one we are looking at or holding out for? Just a shout, not ITK.

Sword65pf said:

While I’m in a negative mood, I wonder what happens after a month of the season when Chalobah, Burke, Bell possibly Leaburn all get their inevitable injuries?, how’s the squad looking then? Doesn’t really smack of learning lessons of not shopping in the injury prone freebie market.

What if the budget that is available means they know the risks and the lessons learnt but they can't afford to do anything else? I mean, they're professionals, I'm sure they've considered this. They tried the players from L1 route and that wasn't a great success but then we couldn't even afford the best from L1.

Happy enough with Chalobah as a squad/depth signing but if the expectation is that he transforms our midfield, then I'm worried. Very little about our summer business screams upgrades as was discussed.

NJ keeps talking about Grant, who's decent but he's not been top-level for some years, same with Chalobah and McNamara was a Millwall squad player. Alli I'm not having and who knows with the two defenders.

Unless the real quality is still to come in shape of this right winger and another CM then I'm really concerned.

We do have more depth and balance, but quality, I just don't see it, and I'm concerned about whether NJ can keep us solid with the change in shape, I can see us starting poorly and having to revert to 352 and being back with a squad not suited to it.

I hope I'm wrong.

fenaddick said:

wmcf123 said:

TheHerminator said:

golfaddick said:

As I posted in the Chalobah thread.......Coady with legs. 

Him & Grant are the 2 up grades from last season. Admittingly I've not seen enough of the defenders but I've not got the same blind faith in Billy as some on here. 

Less said about the most important addition to our midfield the better. Will look out for the updates on Estoril's line up tonight but something tells me that Holsgrove wont be the missing piece of the jigsaw.....but we will see.

Blind faith? Again what on earth are you talking about.

Maybe watch some pre season games and then comment on him like others have.

You're so odd

Pre season games aren’t a metric for a lot of people and quite rightly, when I express concern about results and performances , people say it’s only pre season.  I think the moral is let’s see when we play proper games

You can use to make an informed guess on individuals I think, more so than with teams. Someone's quality will show through in a more relaxed environment. 

Didn’t see much quality from anyone last Saturday !

Reasonably pleased with the incomings so far and there is talk of another CM and RW which would be good.
However, the real ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM which has not been addressed yet is our need for A DECENT STRIKER now Kelman is out for a couple of months.
In my opinion with Dykes gone, Leaburn (not Championship standard), Godden (always injured), Mbick (untried at this level) , Kanu (untried at this level and probably being sold anyway) we are going to have a real problem scoring enough goals again this season.
This lack of a striker seems to have passed everyone unnoticed and I really hope NJ has something up his sleeve otherwise where are the goals going to come from.
I appreciate Grant is back but there is no way he is going to be able to do it all on his own.

Kinsella87 said:

Lincoln away last game of the season…

He can’t play against us if he’s on loan

EastbourneAddick said:

Reasonably pleased with the incomings so far and there is talk of another CM and RW which would be good.
However, the real ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM which has not been addressed yet is our need for A DESCENT STRIKER now Kelman is out for a couple of months.
In my opinion with Dykes gone, Leaburn (not Championship standard), Godden (always injured), Mbick (untried at this level) , Kanu (untried at this level and probably being sold anyway) we are going to have a real problem scoring enough goals again this season.
This lack of a striker seems to have passed everyone unnoticed and I really hope NJ has something up his sleeve otherwise where are the goals going to come from.
I appreciate Grant is back but there is no way he is going to be able to do it all on his own.

I'd rather sign an Ascent striker tbh, don't like the idea of signing one that specialises in going downwards