Transfer Rumours Summer 2025 Transfer Thread…

O’Brien would be a decent signing but he’s a very similar profile to Puerta and Slater, in my opinion. He’s a box-to-box midfielder who provides energy and can carry the ball forward. Laalaoui also appears to be that profile of player.

If Alzate leaves, we definitely need a holding midfielder who can be both a ball-winner and offer control in midfield from deep. Zambrano could probably offer that but he’s unavailable until November at the earliest and we’ve not even signed him permanently yet. Too often we’ve shoehorned number 8s into the number 6 role and our midfield suffers because of it. Puerta, Slater, Matazo and O’Brien if it comes off are all number 8s but they don’t have the requisite skill set to be holding midfielders. It’s easier for a defensive midfielder to play as a box-to-box midfielder than the other way around. There’s a reason why Artera prefers Partey as a number 6 and Rice as a number 8. Rice, as good as he is, can’t do what Partey does.

 

About time too. We were too small all over the pitch last season. We want some beef and height in the squad, remember someone saying in Ashbees days that when they lined up against Hull City in the tunnel before kick off hey were already a goal down in their heads looking at the size of them all. Works the other way too, last season we took to the field looking like they'd kept the ball boys on.

 

Our midfield had to be one of the shortest in the league last season. Mehlem, Ömür, Puerta, Zambrano, Slater and Matazo are all shorter than 5’10”. Alzate is 5’11” and Simons and Crooks were the only ones 6’0” or taller.

Alzate and Simons were the only ones capable of playing as a number 6 after Zambrano was banned and we loaned Simons out for the second half of the season and he’s now left permanently. I think Alzate will go as well this summer. Even under Rosenior, we had a very small, lightweight midfield.

Jakirović was a ball-winning defensive midfielder in his playing career; similar profile to Ashbee. I think it’s a position he will prioritise this summer whilst also wanting height and strength across the team in general. He spend most of his playing and coaching career in the Balkans and people in the Balkans are some of the tallest people in the world on average. He will know English football has a reputation for being physically demanding. Doesn’t necessarily mean we’ll be a team of cloggers but I’ll be surprised if we sign a load of small, technical players again this summer.

We also need to be better at defending and attacking set pieces. Look at Arsenal in recent years and how many goals they score from set pieces.

 

He's a ****.

 

Yes, thought the same. Joke reporter working for a joke of a rag.

 

Journalism has gone down this path because next to no one is willing to pay for it online.
Lots of good journalists have been given the elbow from broadsheets and tabloids

 

The Guardian and The Telegraph both still produce decent articles. The Guardian ask for voluntary subscriptions and The Telegraph often puts stuff behind a paywall.

The ****e by Reach plc is free because of all the ads and the website is designed to be crap so you accidentally click on said ad links whilst scrolling.

 

The big,physical sides always seem to do well in the Championship and have done for some years.If we can bring in some physicality,height and finesse,it could be an interesting season...

Here's hoping

 

It’s a shame really Kalman. Living away from the City your local online paper should be a real lifeline to the club. I never even look at the Fail anymore. The website is absolute ****e. It’s better to rely on 606 for my football news than wade through the adverts that spoil any article.

 

I pay for the guardian
No reach have done it because they can’t make money and pay journalists as no one buys the papers anymore
So they’re doing that to keep afloat
I agree it’s horrible

I used to buy a paper every day
7 days a week from the early 80’s to about 2010
I think the guardian was about a quid in 2010
The mirror about 50 pence
Times that by how many people and you’ve got revenue to pay good staff

 

Disagree for Lewis O’B he’s miles more effective in possession in deeper areas, very effective ball winner too. One of the best you could get as a non parachute side IMO

 

He’s a ball-carrier who is aggressive. That doesn’t make him a good defensive midfielder. Aggressive box-to-box midfielders get profiled as defensive midfielders all the time, wrongly in my opinion.

 

I’d say he’s more a Declan Rice

 

Obviously a fair bit of confidence on the clubs behalf with regards to McBurnie and LOB. Wonder what the hold up is with Oli in particular.

 

Just get them signed up!!!

 

Money...always money!

 

On Giles, I agree with AlRawdah that unless we get unexpected interest it'd be worth seeing how he goes this season. He's not actually had that much of a chance with us. He was here 4 months under Rosenior and did OK then but we've been trying to shift him ever since and that uncertainty probably affected his form. He's another victim of the churn in managers. I think he has something to offer and I'd rather see us try and make it work than bin him off and subsidise his wage. Same with Ömür really.

I think this has been one of our biggest problems as a club over the last couple of years: so many players coming in for good money and on good money but then not being wanted, and they become impossible to shift because of the money they're on. You simply can't go throwing money around if you're not going to stick with the players you spend it on; it's a recipe for disaster. And this is why changing manager all the time is so damaging, as well as "owner signings". You end up with all these players who don't fit in in various ways and end up being an expensive liability.

 

Giles will be lucky getting a league 2 club interested if his apathy continues.

 

The thing with Giles is... if he can have a spark reignited then we have an asset (financial)... we seemed destined to lose Jacob, we cant ask Macca to play LB all season... so if his wages are 30k, lets say thats 15k above the norm. Over the year thats 2.25 million, but we'd have to stump that up to buy a LB. Then again, he might just be crap.

 

That’s what you’ve gotta do when the clicks are down.