Transfer Rumour 25/26 Summer Transfer Window (86 Viewers)

[Sky Blue Goblin]

My thoughts on this are we've done a total 180. We're no longer very reactionary. Before we'd have sold our captain and then scrambled around in a panic looking for a free replacement, and take whatever is available.

Doug and our recruitment team appear to be slow off the mark when a change happens outside the plan. Which begs the question - how does our recruitment team work, There should be a list of 5/6 players to replace every player in our squad in the event of a sale.

On top of that Doug appears to fancy himself as Daniel Levy Mk2, so every thing in a transfer appears to be meticulous. I don't doubt that selling Sheaf was the best thing for all parties, but to not have a replacement for our captain is just madness.

See imo CM isn’t that bad. Grimes will replace sheaf in the starting line up as he has done for a while. Torp is brilliant atm and Eccles is decent cover. Allen can be counted on for at least a defensive shift.

Plus Andrews developing and getting minutes. More the wings I’m worried about. I know Rapha hasn’t been brilliant and will benefit massively from a loan but without a option we’ve made our wings very bare imo

 

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[Ccfcisparks]

See imo CM isn’t that bad. Grimes will replace sheaf in the starting line up as he has done for a while. Torp is brilliant atm and Eccles is decent cover. Allen can be counted on for at least a defensive shift.

Plus Andrews developing and getting minutes. More the wings I’m worried about. I know Rapha hasn’t been brilliant and will benefit massively from a loan but without a option we’ve made our wings very bare imo

I think Rudoni will play in the number 8 a few times this year.

Its a shame we have nobody coming up through the academy aged 17/18 who can make a real impact in attack.

 

[KenilworthSkyBlue]

My thoughts on this are we've done a total 180. We're no longer very reactionary. Before we'd have sold our captain and then scrambled around in a panic looking for a free replacement, and take whatever is available.

Doug and our recruitment team appear to be slow off the mark when a change happens outside the plan. Which begs the question - how does our recruitment team work, There should be a list of 5/6 players to replace every player in our squad in the event of a sale.

On top of that Doug appears to fancy himself as Daniel Levy Mk2, so every thing in a transfer appears to be meticulous. I don't doubt that selling Sheaf was the best thing for all parties, but to not have a replacement for our captain is just madness.

I suspect you're not too far off the mark.

Also, in all fairness to the recruitment team, we will 100% have several alternative options in each position in the event a player is sold, but when as a club you sell a player at the latter end of the window you'll always run the risk of not being able to replace regardless of how meticulous your spreadsheet is.

 

[Sky Blue Goblin]

I think Rudoni will play in the number 8 a few times this year.

Its a shame we have nobody coming up through the academy aged 17/18 who can make a real impact in attack.

More than likely we’ll play with two 8s again this year at some point so think you’ll be correct.

It is a shame but the step up from academy to championship is huge.

 

[HuckerbyDublinWhelan]

I suspect you're not too far off the mark.

Also, in all fairness to the recruitment team, we will 100% have several alternative options in each position in the event a player is sold, but when as a club you sell a player at the latter end of the window you'll always run the risk of not being able to replace regardless of how meticulous your spreadsheet is.

i mean theres pros and cons to every strategy. If we'd panicked we be sitting here paying 3/4m more then we'd have to for a replacement we're not entirely sure of.

In our current strategy its likely we know the value and what we're getting from the player. But it runs the risk of leaving us short. As goblin mentioned. Whilst we can muddle our way through in CM, our wings are woefully light, meaning we could be juggling our attacking players.

if EMC gets injured, we're gonna have to move a finally firing Haji Wright from CF to Left wing again and play a bereft of confidence Ellis Simms.

 

[Ccfcisparks]

i mean theres pros and cons to every strategy. If we'd panicked we be sitting here paying 3/4m more then we'd have to for a replacement we're not entirely sure of.

In our current strategy its likely we know the value and what we're getting from the player. But it runs the risk of leaving us short. As goblin mentioned. Whilst we can muddle our way through in CM, our wings are woefully light, meaning we could be juggling our attacking players.

if EMC gets injured, we're gonna have to move a finally firing Haji Wright from CF to Left wing again and play a bereft of confidence Ellis Simms.

The thing that concerns me is everyone going
"BTA has versatility and can cover all positions upfront"

Most agreed he wasn't good enough last year, and wanted to replace him. Now he is a crucial part of our depth.

 

[Gint11]

What would help with a lack of signings is more talent coming through the academy!

 

[Nick]

The thing that concerns me is everyone going
"BTA has versatility and can cover all positions upfront"

Most agreed he wasn't good enough last year, and wanted to replace him. Now he is a crucial part of our depth.

Yeah, I don't think we should be relying on him as a backup striker and right winger.

What happens if Wright and Sakamoto get injured? What happens if Wright AND Simms get injured.

I know Rapha wasn't a world beater but he was a backup backup on the bench, especially if we are winning easily in games and could take players off to rest their legs.

 

[Ccfcisparks]

What would help with a lack of signings is more talent coming through the academy!

This.

Look at Leicester. They have a 16 year old now who looks like a valuable piece of their squad and he cost them nothing. We do not have that luxury.

 

[Gint11]

What’s the point of the academy, seriously? Every ten years we get an Eccles or Andrew’s?

 

[Ccfcisparks]

Yeah, I don't think we should be relying on him as a backup striker and right winger.

What happens if Wright and Sakamoto get injured? What happens if Wright AND Simms get injured.

I know Rapha wasn't a world beater but he was a backup backup on the bench, especially if we are winning easily in games and could take players off to rest their legs.

Its very reasonable that at some point in the next 3 months we see a forward line of

Brau Simms/BTA KKH/MVE

For a decent portion of agame, and that isn't good enough

 

[TomRad85]

The thing that concerns me is everyone going
"BTA has versatility and can cover all positions upfront"

Most agreed he wasn't good enough last year, and wanted to replace him. Now he is a crucial part of our depth.

Tbf he's shown improvement so that's a credit to the player i suppose. I'm not going to complain about that.
I'm not really expecting the same from Simms sadly, bloke looks mentally gone.

 

[Ccfcisparks]

Tbf he's shown improvement so that's a credit to the player i suppose. I'm not going to complain about that.
I'm not really expecting the same from Simms sadly, bloke looks mentally gone.

We will see if its sustained ove rthe season but I'm not convinced with BTA

 

[zuni]

What’s the point of the academy, seriously? Every ten years we get an Eccles or Andrew’s?

That's a fair shout but a few years ago when we're lower league and skint the maddison money helped us ...but agree no where near enough coming thru demanding a fair shot

 

[Sky Blue Goblin]

See I don’t mind BTA competing with Sakamoto for the RW position as feel he offers us something different and is much more direct.

But he can’t be our cover throughout all three positions as that will just get us burnt when we have more than one injury

 

[TomRad85]

We will see if its sustained ove rthe season but I'm not convinced with BTA

I'm not overly convinced but he's started well which is all i can ask for really. Hopefully it continues.

 

[Sky Blue Pete]

Whilst I admire your optimism I wouldn't say Thomas and Kitching are top quality with the amount of fuck ups costing goals, our achilles heel last season and the start of this season is that our defence isn't very good, I think the Wolfs in for a few lessons to give out on the fly!!

The amount of people whining when we’ve got good money for binks and brought in 3 quality players for about £8m in woolfy, kkh and brau shows the mentality of football fans to a tee

 

[Ccfcisparks]

The amount of people whining when we’ve got good money for binks and brought in 3 quality players for about £8m in woolfy, kkh and brau shows the mentality of football fans to a tee

We needed more unfortunately Peter

 

[shmmeee]

The amount of people whining when we’ve got good money for binks and brought in 3 quality players for about £8m in woolfy, kkh and brau shows the mentality of football fans to a tee

It’s just the overall shape of the squad doesn’t look up to a sustained promotion challenge like some of us had hoped we’d kick on to. It’s a very limited amount of incomings for a new managers first summer too, especially when all signs were there was cash to spend. Which makes it frustrating we’ve not managed to get anything proper done in the six months since the last window closed.

 

[Sky Blue Goblin]

The amount of people whining when we’ve got good money for binks and brought in 3 quality players for about £8m in woolfy, kkh and brau shows the mentality of football fans to a tee

Think the additions are quality but think we’ve got a quantity issue in a couple of positions

 

[CCFCSteve]

What would help with a lack of signings is more talent coming through the academy!

We’ve got Obikwu, Andrews and Perry which is better than for a while. Also Dausch although playing at a lower level so guessing less likely to progress albeit he looked decent when he made his debut. Sometimes young players just need a run in the team to kick on which they’ll never do here if we’re just flooding the squad. At least if Andrews does have to get chucked in over the coming weeks we can find out pretty quick whether he’s got it or not. Just hope he’s played centrally rather than out of position

 

[Sky Blue Goblin]

We’ve got Obikwu, Andrews and Perry which is better than for a while. Also Dausch although playing at a lower level so guessing less likely to progress although looked decent when he made his debut. Sometimes young players just need a run in the team to kick on which they’ll never do here if we’re just flooding the squad. At least if Andrews does have to get chucked in over the coming weeks we can find out pretty quick whether he’s got it or not. Just hope he’s played centrally rather than out of position

Would like to hope he can cover Rudoni’s position.

 

[SkyBlueStallion_89]

Well after a long summer transfer window now closed there's one good thing.... No more absolute helmets pretending they are ITK, seen so many write:

"my sources tell me...."

Or

""

Seen one who put "my sources tell me..." then proceeded to tag people like Romano and others, so your seeing his tweets and copying it? Fans on X annoy me, I'll see tweets by fans and shake my head

 

[Levship20]

We’ve got Obikwu, Andrews and Perry which is better than for a while. Also Dausch although playing at a lower level so guessing less likely to progress albeit he looked decent when he made his debut. Sometimes young players just need a run in the team to kick on which they’ll never do here if we’re just flooding the squad. At least if Andrews does have to get chucked in over the coming weeks we can find out pretty quick whether he’s got it or not. Just hope he’s played centrally rather than out of position

Obikwu went to Lincoln on a season loan?

 

[samccov1987]

Just don’t think we have enough to mount a serious promotion challenge. First 11 is strong but lose anyone in attack and midfield and I think the drop off is too much especially if one of the first xi is out for more than a couple of games.

We could have money to spend in the new year but January window is always difficult.

Looking ahead to the summer and if we’ve not gone up your looking at losing Rudi and more than likely Hadji and Milan given they’ll have 12 months on their contracts.

Just feels to me like we could be treading water this season then looking at big rebuild in the summer. I guess with owning the stadium we now can be more patient in trying to get up as we’re not relying on the premier league money to fund its purchase.

 

[CCFCSteve]

Obikwu went to Lincoln on a season loan?

Yeah, I was talking about players coming through

 

[djr8369]

Now dust has settled a little , guess got to look at big picture.

stadium the most important purchase, ever. But does feel like a little step back/stagnate on pitch to go forward in future. Wonder what Lampard thinks on that, given he will want here and now.

sheaf and Rapha moves in isolation best for both, however the lack of replacements is bizzare and has now left us very short. We must must be planning to use KKH and Brau as backup wings.

be intersting what @Jimmy87 has heard, it wasn’t for want of trying, I’m pretty sure we tried for Smallbone from small snippet I heard , not sure in what capacity but obviously went to Millwall. frustrating we have been left really short on wings, Lampard can’t be happy.

we really need to cross our fingers until Jan injury and suspension wise.

International break come at right time!

It does seem we’re looking for quality, which I get, and it’s not always going to come off but it’s hard to understand we couldn’t find alternatives.

 

[HJones23]

Well after a long summer transfer window now closed there's one good thing.... No more absolute helmets pretending they are ITK, seen so many write:

"my sources tell me...."

Or

""

Seen one who put "my sources tell me..." then proceeded to tag people like Romano and others, so your seeing his tweets and copying it? Fans on X annoy me, I'll see tweets by fans and shake my head

As useless as he is the rest of the time, Andy Turner is the one to listen to in the final few hours.

 

[mrtrench]

I always assume that people are competent until proven otherwise. Clearly we wanted more but didn't get them. I'm going to assume that's because we refuse to panic buy. And shipping out non-critical players just increases the size of the pot for when we strike again for a player we really want.

We will be identifying new targets now for January. Both Torp and Grimes were January acquisitions. It can be done.

 

[jordan210]

What ever happened to the big named signing that was going to wow us all. Or was that Fake IKT BS

 

[Speedie's Head]

My thoughts on this are we've done a total 180. We're no longer very reactionary. Before we'd have sold our captain and then scrambled around in a panic looking for a free replacement, and take whatever is available.

Doug and our recruitment team appear to be slow off the mark when a change happens outside the plan. Which begs the question - how does our recruitment team work, There should be a list of 5/6 players to replace every player in our squad in the event of a sale.

On top of that Doug appears to fancy himself as Daniel Levy Mk2, so every thing in a transfer appears to be meticulous. I don't doubt that selling Sheaf was the best thing for all parties, but to not have a replacement for our captain is just madness.

I suspect they been caught out by a mixture of inflated fees and an uncompetitive wage structure. It's do or die this season for promotion or it will become ever harder to get there without a big cash injection. You can't do it just recycling the likes of Ben Sheaf (and that's saying nothing derogatory about him) especially because it's harder than ever to bring your own players from u21 to first team and then sell on.

 

[Earlsdon_Skyblue1]

If we’d been offered to be in this situation at the start of the summer there’s no way anyone would have said no.

This is exactly it.

We've held on to our main players and signed a few, whilst having a very successful offload of those that are largely surplus to requirements. It's a window we all would have taken at the start.

The problem is the way they've handled it at the end, and the deflated feeling that it has left. It's come across, to me at least, as a bit lazy.

I still think we have a great squad, and believe we can be competitive for a playoff place this season, but a couple more in would have been nice.

 

[DannyThomas_1981]

Looks to me that our transfer activities are based on a sustainable plan. Charlie Hughes at £10 million or Woolfenden at £4 million? Woolfie looks better value/Hughes much riskier at that price. Accepting the offer on Sheaf gives us funds for the right investment in the next window. Turning down below acceptable offers for MVE and possibly HW - haven’t often seen this (we are usually forced sellers). The track record of our recruitment team looks impressive overall - Dovin, Rudoni, Wright, MVE, Grimes, Saka as the best examples. Not every signing in any club is going to pay off. We move forward from here and keep evolving the team.

 

[Sky Blue Pete]

We needed more unfortunately Peter

For top 2? Yes
For top 6? Potentially?
How much money can we lose each year before it’s unsustainable?

 

[SkyBlueStallion_89]

As useless as he is the rest of the time, Andy Turner is the one to listen to in the final few hours.

It's not even people like Turner or Romano it's people who, for some reason, make out like they know something and think it's cool to say "my sources" it does my head in, they know what we know in regards to what's happening behind the scenes... Absolutely fuck all.

Alot of them are on this forum hiding In the background see what's writen then go post it on X like they've been told directly from Doug, it's so stupid like sometimes I'll scroll through looking at football news see a tweet from a fan saying "my sources", I just think, " fuck off you dickhead" then log out