We got five minutes plus injury time out of Williams. It was worth a punt on a player that once had considerable talent - can't win 'em all though.
Transfer Rumours January 2026 Transfer Thread…
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The lads obviously got some pretty big demons he still isn’t in a place to overcome enough to be a professional footballer. City aside, it’s a shame as he was obviously an excellent youngster with a potentially massive future. Massive case of too much far too young. Hope he manages to turn himself around
There was no need to terminate Williams contract on deadline day because he’s now a free agent and can sign for any other team at any time. Makes you think his wages are coming off today to make way for someone else coming in today.
And 45 mins for U21s , when he looked totally disinterested and got replaced at HT! I'm disappointed as I thought it could have been a right coup for us. Wonder how much it really is 'past demons' or that he's actually just a waster so to speak? Everyone seems to feel sorry for him, excusing him, etc - maybe he deserves the sympathy ...but maybe he doesn't? Honest question, just an observation.
From the gaffer
No fresh update on John Egan. He's expected to train as normal this afternoon when they get underway around 2pm. As we've said earlier, Brandon Williams and James Furlong on their way, talks remain ongoing over David Akintola's future. Nothing else in terms of incomings given their restrictions, gaffer happy with what he's got and the incredible job they're doing.
Said it before but with players like him who've had a fall from grace they very rarely seem to recover from it, and clubs who take a chance on them very rarely do well out of it. There's always the same noises around them when they sign "I've made mistakes and I'm looking forward to proving people wrong now" but they very rarely do prove anyone wrong and always seem to carry on dropping down the divisions.
If those three leave we'll still need to leave out two others. One you'd think will be Harvey Cartwright who is injured and surplus anyway. The other would be a harder decision. I think writing off Belloumi would be mad. Ndala would be the one least likely to get games assuming he remains our 7th loan player.
I think it's gutting to lose Belloumi but frankly, we've played well enough without him. I'd rather a lad of his talent spent his time getting fit and fully recovering in time for pre season, keep fit by playing the U21s.
It's dicey because if we did make the playoffs, he's the sort of option you want to be able to bring on. Looking at the squad list now, it's either going to be Ndala or Collyer (who still needs to get back to full fitness). If they're not guaranteed starters then presumably the financial situation at the club was explained to the player (regarding why there are so many loans) upon their arrival and they were ok with it.
If it wasn’t terminated today he couldn’t sign for anyone else until the next transfer window, his registration would have still have been held by us.
Would love to know what Acun is thinking today... I think he'll now have an eye on the automatic places and might gamble on 1 last special transfer that would help us get over the line. Not sure which area of the pitch we could massively improve on though... maybe a goal scoring winger if we move on Akintola and cancel N'dala?