Transfer Rumours January 2026 Transfer Thread…

Can't see us doing business with Villa. I thought the summer debacle didn't end amicably between us and them?
Imo it would be odd anyway, as he was underwhelming for us (yet we were reportedly trying to sign him permanently) and it looks like he's been even more underwhelming for Sheff Utd?

 

yea i agree
outside the playing side, the barry thing was what started all the problems

i also dont want us to sign him

 

Good comparison tbf.

 

Yeah, this is a bit of an issue with the Turkish league for us because there are some brilliant players, but the ones good enough to play in the Championship are currently out of our price range and we have to rely on favours from other owners/chairmen to get some of them in. We should have been in for Osayi-Samuel who was also available on a free, would have provided cover all along the right hand side but instead he went to Birmingham.

Tufan is an obvious example of somebody from those leagues that made a difference, same with Joao Pedro and there's a case to be made for Pelkas, Lincoln, Destan and Omur, the latter perhaps came with big expectation and did look half decent but wasn't consistently involved in the squad. There have been flops of course, Sinik famously didn't manage to get off the physio table, Traore was meh and spent the first season here injured, Tetteh was the Ghanian version of Joseph but with less goals and Akintola just hasn't coped with the Championship.

We also have to remember though that outside of Sinik, Omur and Tufan, we didn't pay a fee to take Pelkas, Lincoln, Akintola, Destan, Pedro or Traore outside of whatever wage contribution we offered (which knowing Acun was probably unfair to the other club and beneficial to us). So for our money we've had one good, one meh and one poor signing, with the poorest being the most expensive.

 

Am I the only one who thinks we'll struggle to get any new signings in January with our transfer restrictions.

Summer is hard enough with restrictions but January will be much harder. I imagine the amount of players out of contract is very limited and most loans especially in January will want a fee.

I think it will be extremely hard for us to bring in new players especially any that are better than what we've already got

 

He’s contributed to us being safe/mid table, given the embargo he’s been a very good signing.

 

Laalaoui isn't a DM though, he's more in the mould of Slater/Puerta. Zambrano I'm not sure suits the sitting deep role either.

I don't necessarily think the personnel are the core issue at the moment, it's more the tactics we're playing. Our main philosophy (when everybody is fully fit) seems to be "get the ball to the wings and whip it in for McBurnie". Without Oli, we rely more on balls over the top for Gelhardt to run onto because we don't have faith that Destan/Joseph will be there. Oli also does a lot of work dropping deep to start attacks off and then gets up the field, which help out the midfield if we're being swamped.

Whatever we do, our midfield is often completely bypassed when we attack and when we are out of possession, the opposition attacks often come down the wing so the central midfield isn't directly involved. Outside of the mistakes we seem to keep making in the back line, most of the goals we concede seem to come from our full back positions, usually because Giles and Coyle have pushed on and left a gap, while the wingers aren't getting back to support them.

What our midfielders need to do is press to choke the middle of the park so that the ball goes out wide, but we can double up on their wingers by having our fullbacks and wingers mark them. At the moment, our midfield is very static, so once the ball goes past them, they can't get back in time. They're reactionary as opposed to being proactive. Crooks for me is the weak link when he plays further forward - the fella can pass a ball great but when he tires, boy does he tire out quickly and becomes very sluggish. Slater has the energy and technique, but often rushes when a simple ball will do. Hadiziahmetovic can pass the ball brilliantly, but is too causal and used to being given more time. Gyabi seems ok when coming on as an impact sub but from the start he often looks lost. There isn't really anybody in the midfield who acts as that dominating force or focal point for everything. Seri came close to that most recently, a player that in both attack and defence dictated what our midfield would be doing.

What we need is to repeat that - somebody who has experience, technique AND defence awareness but is also mobile enough to get on the ball when we need to drive on. And with an embargo in place, that's going to prove very difficult unless one of the current lot can take on that role. Slater seems the obvious choice, but it'll take a lot of conditioning to make it happen.

 

the last point sounds simple
but its one of the hardest roles in football, and the top level ones at that role always stand out