Transfer Rumours Summer Transfer window

SAFC Wilks · Sep 2, 2025 at 10:05 AM

Teessidemackem said: ↑

BRIAN BROBBEY: AJAX FAN VIEW

With Sunderland sealing the late deal for Brian Brobbey, we spoke to Kabir from We Talk Ajax about our new centre forward...

Firstly, are you surprised to see Brian Brobbey leave Ajax?
No, I am not. The time was ripe for a move for both Ajax and Brobbey. It was quite evident that he has been unhappy and after his mediocre season last year, it was the correct decision for both parties to shake hands and move on.

Will he be missed by your fans?
As a homegrown player, we naturally want to see him succeed and leave the club through the 'front door', however I don't think he will be missed. He was a promising player in the youth, and he showed promise when he broke into the first team, but he lacks the typical traits that we look for in an Ajax striker, namely footedness and technical prowess. The club is also in a situation where funds are the need of the hour, therefore most if not all fans will likely be happy with his exit, considering the above.

The rumoured fee is €20m, rising to €25m. What are your thoughts on this price?
As mentioned above, the club is quite keen to maximise as much income as possible, therefore we are really chuffed with the fact that we are getting that much, despite his poor season last year and the fact that it is deadline day.

What are his biggest strengths?
Pardon the pun, but his biggest strength is his strength. He is a physical player who likes to use his body and impose himself on defenders. He has a great ability to hold the ball up with his back against the defenders. This allows his teammates to enter the box and be dangerous.

Weaknesses?
If you think of a typical Ajax player - you think flawless technique and the ability to link up play. Unfortunately this is not he case with Brobbey. He's quite limited in that regard. He often snatches at chances and lacks any real composure. He also, despite his presence, is quite poor at heading the ball.

Do you think he’s good enough to lead the line for a Premier League team?
At this moment in time, I would say he is not quite ready to do so. But it also depends on the type of football the club plays. You never know, maybe the faster pace and physicality of the EPL might suit him and he comes into his own. But at this moment in time, despite glimpses of ability and talent shown, I would say he is far from the finished article.

We were hoping for some depth on the wings. Would he be versatile enough to play wide if required?
I don't think so - he has always played as a number nine and it would be difficult to see him operate on the wing, as a result.

He’s still only 23, what is his ceiling?
It's a strange one. When he was coming through the youth teams, we all felt he was the next Patrick Kluivert. But it feels like his development has stalled, which is why us Ajax fans were quite surprised that an EPL club has come in for him. He left us a few years ago for Leipzig in the Bundesliga, but came back after six months as he felt out of his depth and homesick. That being said, he definitely has ability. The year before last, he showed that with his G/A record. He needs to be in a team where he is shown love and given the confidence that he is the No1 striker - if so, I think he can provide better returns than he has done recently for Ajax. Whether he can lead the line and score regularly, that remains to be seen. But you are getting someone with the ingredients of a successful player.

How many goals do you reckon he’ll get this season?
I think anywhere between 5-10 goals, and that would be a great return for someone like Brobbey in his first year in the EPL.

What’s his fitness record like?
Historically quite poor, but that has changed now. He did have many issues in his teens but he has invested quite a bit of time outside of the club to get fitter. He uses his body a lot and therefore does get tackled quite often by defenders but he's a strong lad and I think he will be able to hold his own in the EPL.

And his attitude?
At this moment in time, there are quite a few stories flying about about how he's not happy at the club and making it known. He's not someone that won't turn up for training or not give his 100% in a match, but he needs to be shown love and be made to felt important in order to shine.

Apparently he had some off-the-pitch problems last season. Can you tell us anything about what happened there?
He was unfortunately caught in a situation where a well-known gangster from Amsterdam tried to extort €150,000 under false pretenses and escalated threats with arson, explosions, and a shooting of Brobbey’s friend. Brobbey did not pay and kept the matter largely private, while the perpetrator was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Finally, is he good enough to make the difference in a potential relegation fight?
It is hard to say. At this moment in time, the answer would be no. But as mentioned, in a new environment, he could be inspired and raise his level. He has good footballing traits, and if all of these come together, he would well turn out to be a great signing for the club. Only time will tell!
Click to expand...

Got to have sympathy with Brobbey about that extortion, could have been the reason why his mindset wasn’t right.

Like he says, he might suit the fast physical side of the prem. One thing I’ve noticed from our games and watching others so far is just how physical this league is. Someone with Brobbey’s raw physical attributes will be an asset I am sure.

Trust the club. We are here to make a statement in this league.

SAFC Wilks · Sep 2, 2025 at 10:06 AM

Nads said: ↑

Fascinating read.

So a player who didn’t quite hit the heights, where have we seen that before?

The penultimate paragraph is key, how could that not affect a human being? The Dutch underworld is serious. Be hard to function at all under that.

I think there’s nothing shocking in that to us that have seen him play, he’s not a van Persie or a RVN type.

Having a bit of a battering ram and and real big muckle scrapper isn’t what we’ve seen for a while but it will give us approach options.

We will just wait and see. He’s played games, scored goals and is a Dutch international so while it’s a gamble, we weren’t buying any striker who isn’t.

I can’t wait to see him, and we draw our own conclusions based on that.
Click to expand...

Good post.

Also an unrelated point, Van Persie is probably one of my favourite strikers of all time. What a player.

Vincemac · Sep 2, 2025 at 10:18 AM

TopCat. said: ↑

Is that the best transfer window in our history? Hard to judge fully, and nothing is guaranteed but the club have given us every chance to stay up...

View attachment 374528

Only worry is those names highlighted who could miss a few games in Dec/Jan

Potentially the team in Dec/Jan looks like this

Rooefs
Hume Ballard Alderete Cirkin
Le Fee Xhaka Rigg
Mayenda Brobbey Mundle

Subs: Patterson, Mukiele, O'Nien, Geertrudia, Alese, Neil, Isidor, Jones, Aleksic

Which doesn't look horrific.
Click to expand...

Good post

TopCat. · Sep 2, 2025 at 10:23 AM

Teessidemackem said: ↑

BRIAN BROBBEY: AJAX FAN VIEW

With Sunderland sealing the late deal for Brian Brobbey, we spoke to Kabir from We Talk Ajax about our new centre forward...

Firstly, are you surprised to see Brian Brobbey leave Ajax?
No, I am not. The time was ripe for a move for both Ajax and Brobbey. It was quite evident that he has been unhappy and after his mediocre season last year, it was the correct decision for both parties to shake hands and move on.

Will he be missed by your fans?
As a homegrown player, we naturally want to see him succeed and leave the club through the 'front door', however I don't think he will be missed. He was a promising player in the youth, and he showed promise when he broke into the first team, but he lacks the typical traits that we look for in an Ajax striker, namely footedness and technical prowess. The club is also in a situation where funds are the need of the hour, therefore most if not all fans will likely be happy with his exit, considering the above.

The rumoured fee is €20m, rising to €25m. What are your thoughts on this price?
As mentioned above, the club is quite keen to maximise as much income as possible, therefore we are really chuffed with the fact that we are getting that much, despite his poor season last year and the fact that it is deadline day.

What are his biggest strengths?
Pardon the pun, but his biggest strength is his strength. He is a physical player who likes to use his body and impose himself on defenders. He has a great ability to hold the ball up with his back against the defenders. This allows his teammates to enter the box and be dangerous.

Weaknesses?
If you think of a typical Ajax player - you think flawless technique and the ability to link up play. Unfortunately this is not he case with Brobbey. He's quite limited in that regard. He often snatches at chances and lacks any real composure. He also, despite his presence, is quite poor at heading the ball.

Do you think he’s good enough to lead the line for a Premier League team?
At this moment in time, I would say he is not quite ready to do so. But it also depends on the type of football the club plays. You never know, maybe the faster pace and physicality of the EPL might suit him and he comes into his own. But at this moment in time, despite glimpses of ability and talent shown, I would say he is far from the finished article.

We were hoping for some depth on the wings. Would he be versatile enough to play wide if required?
I don't think so - he has always played as a number nine and it would be difficult to see him operate on the wing, as a result.

He’s still only 23, what is his ceiling?
It's a strange one. When he was coming through the youth teams, we all felt he was the next Patrick Kluivert. But it feels like his development has stalled, which is why us Ajax fans were quite surprised that an EPL club has come in for him. He left us a few years ago for Leipzig in the Bundesliga, but came back after six months as he felt out of his depth and homesick. That being said, he definitely has ability. The year before last, he showed that with his G/A record. He needs to be in a team where he is shown love and given the confidence that he is the No1 striker - if so, I think he can provide better returns than he has done recently for Ajax. Whether he can lead the line and score regularly, that remains to be seen. But you are getting someone with the ingredients of a successful player.

How many goals do you reckon he’ll get this season?
I think anywhere between 5-10 goals, and that would be a great return for someone like Brobbey in his first year in the EPL.

What’s his fitness record like?
Historically quite poor, but that has changed now. He did have many issues in his teens but he has invested quite a bit of time outside of the club to get fitter. He uses his body a lot and therefore does get tackled quite often by defenders but he's a strong lad and I think he will be able to hold his own in the EPL.

And his attitude?
At this moment in time, there are quite a few stories flying about about how he's not happy at the club and making it known. He's not someone that won't turn up for training or not give his 100% in a match, but he needs to be shown love and be made to felt important in order to shine.

Apparently he had some off-the-pitch problems last season. Can you tell us anything about what happened there?
He was unfortunately caught in a situation where a well-known gangster from Amsterdam tried to extort €150,000 under false pretenses and escalated threats with arson, explosions, and a shooting of Brobbey’s friend. Brobbey did not pay and kept the matter largely private, while the perpetrator was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Finally, is he good enough to make the difference in a potential relegation fight?
It is hard to say. At this moment in time, the answer would be no. But as mentioned, in a new environment, he could be inspired and raise his level. He has good footballing traits, and if all of these come together, he would well turn out to be a great signing for the club. Only time will tell!
Click to expand...

So what he's saying is that "she was a slag and I never fancied her anyway"?

young2077 · Sep 2, 2025 at 10:26 AM

Nads said: ↑

Fascinating read.

So a player who didn’t quite hit the heights, where have we seen that before?

The penultimate paragraph is key, how could that not affect a human being? The Dutch underworld is serious. Be hard to function at all under that.

I think there’s nothing shocking in that to us that have seen him play, he’s not a van Persie or a RVN type.

Having a bit of a battering ram and and real big muckle scrapper isn’t what we’ve seen for a while but it will give us approach options.

We will just wait and see. He’s played games, scored goals and is a Dutch international so while it’s a gamble, we weren’t buying any striker who isn’t.

I can’t wait to see him, and we draw our own conclusions based on that.
Click to expand...

Not only did all that happen, the bloke who was blackmailing ended up getting 10 years shoved up his arse! But for that to happen you assume there was police, lawyers, barristers, court cases all rumbling on too!

Early a suprising his work suffered a bit is it!

Robertson · Sep 2, 2025 at 10:29 AM

Reading the Ajax fan view, his lack of top level technique is going to hurt when playing in a team like Ajax who dominate the ball and play v massed defences.

We look to be focusing on being solid, grafting loads across the team then hitting teams unexpectedly. Brobbey's strengths may suit us better.

TheBronzeBummer · Sep 2, 2025 at 10:31 AM

Its sometimes nice to have a player coming in with low expectations. Especially with his physical attributes.

Culinary · Sep 2, 2025 at 10:34 AM

Brobbey contributed against some good opposition in Europe during his ‘poor’ season last year and played a big part for the Dutch national team in getting a draw against the Germans in the Nations League.

I’m taking comfort from things like that to allay my concerns about the quality of Eredivisie (and how badly it tends to translate into the Prem), his ‘off’ season last year and his less than aesthetically pleasing (but hopefully effective) style.

Culinary · Sep 2, 2025 at 10:36 AM

The Athletic have ranked all 140 odd Prem transfers from this window.

They have Guiu as the second worst! I can only assume the list is upside down as a reported good profit on a player we only had a few weeks seems like brilliant business to me!

Disco down under · Sep 2, 2025 at 10:41 AM

Culinary said: ↑

The Athletic have ranked all 140 odd Prem transfers from this window.

They have Guiu as the second worst! I can only assume the list is upside down as a reported good profit on a player we only had a few weeks seems like brilliant business to me!
Click to expand...

5m profit for developing a lad for 3 weeks.

At very worst that's a wonderfully weird small yet somewhat significant piece of profit.

Culinary · Sep 2, 2025 at 10:42 AM

Culinary said: ↑

Brobbey contributed against some good opposition in Europe during his ‘poor’ season last year and played a big part for the Dutch national team in getting a draw against the Germans in the Nations League.

I’m taking comfort from things like that to allay my concerns about the quality of Eredivisie (and how badly it tends to translate into the Prem), his ‘off’ season last year and his less than aesthetically pleasing (but hopefully effective) style.
Click to expand...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnNfkT6eebs
This is the Germany game, he’s involved in both Dutch goals. Anichebe-esque for the second.

TheBronzeBummer · Sep 2, 2025 at 10:45 AM

By the way, the reactions of the new boys on the pitch Saturday at different intervals, ive never seen anything like it. When those bunch of tackles went in, when the goal got disallowed, when Roef saved the pen...amazing.

Tongester55 · Sep 2, 2025 at 10:49 AM

Nads said: ↑

A few saying 10/10 window, which is fantastic.

Now though, now it’s closed, if we look back it is way beyond 10/10.

10/10 is everything you hoped for, but let’s step back to the start of this window, to a few day after ‘Tommy scored’

We all; including me, including the level headed lads on here, the optimists, the pessimists, we all got more and more feverish because of the stunning acquisitions and the links and the realisation that the club meant business.

We, as fans do, wanted more and more, believed more and more.

But, back to the days after Wembley. We discussed newly relegated players, Rudoni, we talked about young lads in France, ‘can we now look at young Italians too?’, veterans for some experience, we kidded ourselves players we already had were gonna be good enough.

Looking back now we were just being passionate fans who love our club and trying to convince ourselves we could make it.

We knew we couldn’t. Well, we thought we couldn’t.

We knew we had Enzo, we said ‘we might break that record again’, we broke it multiple times.

KLD stepped forward and showed us all the stunning vision and belief he had for our club and he and the recruitment teams took us on a wild ride, the media and marketing teams in the background ramped up every area of the club, coaching staff improved, our home, a stadium we have always had absolute pride in was taken to another level with thoughtful and beautiful renovations.

The city glowed up around the club, it was an absolute melting pot of forward motion all summer and for any of us to say it is a 10/10 window is actually borderline disrespectful to the utterly magnificent, thoughtful and planned work the club has done on every level.

We’ve been saying for a while KLD gave us the club back, we’ve been saying for a slightly shorter while Speakman gave us some pride back, and shorter again Ghisolfi levelling up and putting toppings on that.

Again, Hummel supply us 3 of the most beautiful, professional looking and thoughtful kits in football, we retain all but one of the jewels, we sign multiple international players and several who were flirted with by established top league clubs.

It’s not a 10/10. There isn’t a scale for it, it’s so far beyond what we expected it’s more like 100/10.

We never seen this coming, we can all now look back and just say ‘wow, we really are back’.

Accrington, Burton, Wembley defeats, 6-0 at Bolton, gone forever.

What Tommy, one of us, gave us on his way out the door wasn’t promotion, it was the final stage of the rebirth of the club and the ownership group have made sure we won’t give that up without a fight.

It is just incredible what we’ve done. And we have 6 points before August is out.

We are Sunderland. We are back. We are gonna remind the world we belong here.

I am wishing my life away for Villa.
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LD19SAFC · Sep 2, 2025 at 10:54 AM

Looking forward to watching him in the PL

The Redbaron · Sep 2, 2025 at 10:56 AM

Oliver's Army said: ↑

Is this the first 'Brian' we have had since Brian Atkinson? I believe Oviedo was 'Bryan'
Click to expand...

Brian Chambers and Brian Clough also spring to mind.

Nads · Sep 2, 2025 at 10:59 AM

LD19SAFC said: ↑

Looking forward to watching him in the PL

Click to expand...

Proper keeper. No fannying about, stop it, get away from danger.

He will win them games. He certainly won PSG games on last seasons CL.

Brainy Dose · Sep 2, 2025 at 11:04 AM

Robertson said: ↑

Reading the Ajax fan view, his lack of top level technique is going to hurt when playing in a team like Ajax who dominate the ball and play v massed defences.

We look to be focusing on being solid, grafting loads across the team then hitting teams unexpectedly. Brobbey's strengths may suit us better.
Click to expand...

Spot on mate. We've already got mobility,pass and move and cutting in from the wings....I'm hoping this lad gives us other options in and around the penalty area,worrying and occupying a couple of defenders. We can be as solid as you like at the back....but it's goals will keep us in this league.

MadMackem77 · Sep 2, 2025 at 11:04 AM

LD19SAFC said: ↑

Looking forward to watching him in the PL

Click to expand...

Not a pep style keeper so intrigued to see what he does

Evil Jimmy Krankie · Sep 2, 2025 at 11:05 AM

Culinary said: ↑

Brobbey contributed against some good opposition in Europe during his ‘poor’ season last year and played a big part for the Dutch national team in getting a draw against the Germans in the Nations League.

I’m taking comfort from things like that to allay my concerns about the quality of Eredivisie (and how badly it tends to translate into the Prem), his ‘off’ season last year and his less than aesthetically pleasing (but hopefully effective) style.
Click to expand...

I’m not a naysayer by any means so I will say this and hope it’s taken in the context that it should be.
Firstly I have no idea what type of player Brobbey is. And even if someone explained it to me in words of three syllables or less I still wouldn’t understand.
What I got from the interview with the Ajax bloke was that most supporters didn’t rate him and were happy to see him go.
As supporters of SAFC we have seen our club take off in ways none of us could ever have imagined. Historically we are a big football club but at my age the only success I have seen was 1973. This time around though I honestly believe that things are different and we will get back to the heights our grandparents knew.
Anyway I was digressing slightly. If we go back to 2014 we signed a player from Manchester City who had already played for England. We all thought he was going to be part of that cohort of players that would at the very least consolidate us in the top league and push us on. Well, we all know what happened.
That player left us for Blackburn Rovers. As a fanbase we were glad to see the back of him. A read of the Blackburn Rovers forums at the time would tell us that we just couldn’t get the best out of him and all it would take was their manager and coaching staff to do what we couldn’t do and get him playing at his best. He was there for a season played 21 times and moved on to Sheffield United. For the Sheffield United forums at the time, read the Blackburn Rovers forums the year before.
He played once for Sheffield United before he decided that Australia may be a better option for him. In Sydney he played for two sides over three years playing 36 times.
We all know the player I’m talking about.
I can guarantee that every club he has been at were happy to see the back of him after wanting to believe he just needed the ‘right club/manager/coach’ to bring out the best in him.
So, I sincerely hope that with Brobbey, SAFC are the club that will do that and with our current setup I wouldn’t bet against it. But let’s not wear rose tinted glasses.

Nads · Sep 2, 2025 at 11:05 AM

MadMackem77 said: ↑

Not a pep style keeper so intrigued to see what he does
Click to expand...

Hopefully the death of slow play out the back. Zzzzzz

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