January Transfer Window 2026

[Dymak]

Mate you say Europe would help us but both of those teams are in Europe and lately fairly consistently. Both have played champions league fixtures in the last 12 months , we’ve never played one and were last in Europe what 8 years ago ? Not to mention newcastle are owned by a country and are are therefore insanely wealthy and won a trophy last year.

I’m not looking to do us down but we are years from competing with either of those sides in terms of reputation, you’re right though a European qualification would certainly start to put us on the right track .

I disagree because I’m talking about turnaround. Neither of those clubs took 250 years to go from Steve Bruce and Dean Smith to playing in the CL. And now we’re expected to think that they’re light years ahead of us when it comes to attraction?

The game changes so fast, every season is different to the previous one. It’s not the housing market. Villa and Newcastle are actually the best examples of this.

You can also look at it the other way around. A massive drop off and downward spiral are also commonplace (don’t we know it). Nobody expected Leicester to win the league, and nobody expected them to go down either.

 

[Pabbers]

Be really interesting to see what they do, if we are in or around that top 8 ish come the end of jan.

Do they try to make that extra push for 1 or 2 big players in Jan, go for it.

The league is so open, another Grealish type push could really push us on.

 

[Swartzy]

Just how damaged do you think our appeal is? If you’re going to use Arsenal and Chelsea as comparisons, then fair enough, we’ve been inferior, and seen as inferior to them for decades.

But do you think we are less attractive than Newcastle and Villa? Clubs that were recently in the Championship and had Dean Smith as manager whilst we were employing Carlo Ancelotti?

The narrative has already changed! Kenwright’s gone! Usmanov’s gone! Even Goodison Park has gone!

I’ll agree that qualifying for Europe will boost our appeal, I just don’t think it’s going to take us long to do that, and I definitely don’t think we are going to have too much trouble attracting top tier players.

We have a 100 million pound player that is maintaining his 300k a week salary playing on our left wing FFS. The ugliest guy in the club doesn’t pull 100 million pound wingers!

Look at the players that turned us down in the summer.

Dibling was our 3rd choice for his position.

Rohl was a last minute signing, not sure how many were looked at before him.

Tete stayed at fullham.

Paulinho chose spurs.

We dont even know how many others, but Moyes kept saying how hard it was to attract the players we were looking at.

So we are in a situation without Europe to attract a certain level player.

Fofana turned us down to stay at lyon. Yes they are in Europa League, but the premiership should be a big factor in him wanting to move. But he chose to stay in France over us.

 

[Harryflashman]

I disagree because I’m talking about turnaround. Neither of those clubs took 250 years to go from Steve Bruce and Dean Smith to playing in the CL. And now we’re expected to think that they’re light years ahead of us when it comes to attraction?

The game changes so fast, every season is different to the previous one. It’s not the housing market. Villa and Newcastle are actually the best examples of this.

You can also look at it the other way around. A massive drop off and downward spiral are also commonplace (don’t we know it). Nobody expected Leicester to win the league, and nobody expected them to go down either.

Oh I think a couple of years of growth and achievement we can be sitting at the grown ups table but unfortunately we’re a long long way from the perceived elite .

Man united are tumbling but they’ve been at the very top so long people still associate them with success . We’ve struggled at best over recent years so that takes work to turn around . Get into Europe by the end of 2027 then we might see us shift the narrative , I mean get strikers scoring goals we could have a slim chance of this year .

 

[RichCee123]

Hard to say what will happen to them. Theyre doing well at the moment.

I also wouldnt like to see many changes. I always prefer a small turnover of players where possible.

Left back we'll need to hope Aznou develops and pushes Mykolenko out.

RIght back has a clear need for a new signing.

Centre backs we can probably get away with the same 4 for another season at most.

Midfield is a mishmash

Grealish who knows and then upfront surely Barry is now the starter and we'll need another.

I hope that January we see a few players moved on and 2 or 3 incomings max. The rest of the business done in the summer and beyond then we could hopefully be a club that only brings 3 in a summer.

That would be ideal.



Even if Garner stayed at the current level it would be crazy to sell him as hes able to play so many positions...full back, 6 and 8.

You'd extend him 5 years and unless a big offer came in for him you'd expect any manager would love him for 2 years from now.

A few moved on and 2 to 3 in?

We have 3 players injured leading to 2 x keepers on the bench. We can’t afford to sell a few can we? You need a minimum of 7 players on the bench (concussion and goalie options). Any further reduction and we’d struggle with that.

Tomorrow will be a prime example of this

 

[RichCee123]

Look at the players that turned us down in the summer.

Dibling was our 3rd choice for his position.

Rohl was a last minute signing, not sure how many were looked at before him.

Tete stayed at fullham.

Paulinho chose spurs.

We dont even know how many others, but Moyes kept saying how hard it was to attract the players we were looking at.

So we are in a situation without Europe to attract a certain level player.

Fofana turned us down to stay at lyon. Yes they are in Europa League, but the premiership should be a big factor in him wanting to move. But he chose to stay in France over us.

On Fofana, I’m sure if we offered a big enough package, he’d have joined. I’m comforted if we didn’t resort to that. This club sells itself and shouldn’t need to have to sell out to good (not great) players.
Good luck to him and others who want to try it, mostly someone gives in and pays.

 

[Swartzy]

On Fofana, I’m sure if we offered a big enough package, he’d have joined. I’m comforted if we didn’t resort to that. This club sells itself and shouldn’t need to have to sell out to good (not great) players.
Good luck to him and others who want to try it, mostly someone gives in and pays.

Fofana said he wanted European football, he was waiting on links to italy, which never ended up happening.
Nothing to do with money.

When a player says that, you move on.
You can't wait and hope he doesn't get the move and changes his mind, cos you're then signing a player that wants a future elsewhere.

 

[mccole]

That's Branthwaite, Ndiaye and Beto off

 

[Simon Buttle]

Be really interesting to see what they do, if we are in or around that top 8 ish come the end of jan.

Do they try to make that extra push for 1 or 2 big players in Jan, go for it.

The league is so open, another Grealish type push could really push us on.

The equivalent type but at RB could really see us make a decent final push imo.

 

[Zatara]

I don’t think we’ll look at the midfield in January unless there were more injuries. Hopefully we’ll be looking at a right back to allow OBrien to cover CB, and another striker.

I had previously thought that as last summer we invested in midfield and attacking players, that the next phase would be a focus across the defence.

LB: Mykolenko / Aznou
LCB: Branthwaite / Keane
RCB: Tarkowski / O'Brien
RB: Coleman / Patterson

If we had a huge budget then the management could take a guilloutine to a number of those positions.

However, I suspect Moyes being Moyes he'll aim to keep all of them around with the exception of Patterson being replaced with a starter.

A few moved on and 2 to 3 in?

We have 3 players injured leading to 2 x keepers on the bench. We can’t afford to sell a few can we? You need a minimum of 7 players on the bench (concussion and goalie options). Any further reduction and we’d struggle with that.

Tomorrow will be a prime example of this

Ignoring injuries and suchlike, we could quite easily move on:

King/Tyrer
Patterson
Coleman
Gana
Rohl
McNeil
Beto

With new players brought in at RB, DM and CF.

 

[Zatara]

So good to watch isn't it.

Just makes me think again though that we desperately need a 6 who is a top-level passer from deep. We're building a squad with so many players who are incredible at receiving the ball on the half-turn and driving up the pitch - KDH, Dibling, Rohl, Ndiaye, Armstrong, even Alcaraz is really good at that...we really need someone who will consistently find those players and set them loose.

Just moved this into the transfer thread as its something posters touched upon with the midfield yesterday.

I've mentioned him a number of times over the past couple of years, Lamine Camara is the one I'd go for.

He went to Monaco for €15mil in summer 2024 and is still only 21 with 23 caps and 6 goals for Senegal. A very good all rounder.

 

[hetion]

Just moved this into the transfer thread as its something posters touched upon with the midfield yesterday.

I've mentioned him a number of times over the past couple of years, Lamine Camara is the one I'd go for.

He went to Monaco for €15mil in summer 2024 and is still only 21 with 23 caps and 6 goals for Senegal. A very good all rounder.

There's a lot of good DMs around that are just below that CL-club level that we could go for depending of what style of player the club wants and if they keep developing well this season:

Lamine Camara
Rocco Reitz
Hugo Sotelo
Djaoui Cisse
Lucien Agoume
Arthur Avom
Nicolo Rovella if he comes back we'll from his injury
Kevin Danois

 

[TheBigIguana]

Yeah your right on that, we will be in a different place with different players by then, it's just the approach to getting their will take longer than alot of people's expectations.
We have to do things 'right' not rushed, this time.

We have to earn back our appeal as a club, which is a defining factor in the level of players you can attract.

The appeal is the money and the prestige of the PL. We still have that and lots of talented players will be fine with it.

 

[Efcjake]

Just how damaged do you think our appeal is? If you’re going to use Arsenal and Chelsea as comparisons, then fair enough, we’ve been inferior, and seen as inferior to them for decades.

But do you think we are less attractive than Newcastle and Villa? Clubs that were recently in the Championship and had Dean Smith as manager whilst we were employing Carlo Ancelotti?

Massively so, yes.

Angus Kinnear himself said it in the ToffeeTV interview. You speak to a 21 year old from around Europe what do they know about us besides relegation battles? This is a straight quote from him btw.

Newcastle have just won a cup and Villa were in the Champions League, and both have European football to offer.

He also said it's highly unlikely we look to do anything in January so make of that what you will.

 

[Bebeto]

Look at the players that turned us down in the summer.

Dibling was our 3rd choice for his position.

Rohl was a last minute signing, not sure how many were looked at before him.

Tete stayed at fullham.

Paulinho chose spurs.

We dont even know how many others, but Moyes kept saying how hard it was to attract the players we were looking at.

So we are in a situation without Europe to attract a certain level player.

Fofana turned us down to stay at lyon. Yes they are in Europa League, but the premiership should be a big factor in him wanting to move. But he chose to stay in France over us.

It was hard because we dont have any competent dof that can do the job of convincing players, selling the project. Angus is out of his depth in his current role...then there is the financial aspect...you want top players then pay them top wages...simple. Merlin signing was out of desperation clearly. They probably still had the thelwell list lying around, so they thought why not. Not replacing an aging gueye (knowing also that he will go to afcon) is poor, not getting a rb is incompetence. They're just not very good at their job.