Summer Transfer Window 2025 Thread

[Makis]

Them quotes are from Friday. The Fofana bid allegedly went in on Saturday, its not like they've completely given up on half decent players.

They haven't but window has been open for what, 8 weeks and even PSR cut-off point was four weeks ago. So why not be more aggressive earlier?

 

[blueboy72]

I would rather have Brownhill than Tim. There you go, it just needed to be said.

Im not a fan of Tim, but giving someone like brownhill a 3yr deal and being stuck with him till he walks at 33 would be a terrible idea

 

[ToffeeTim]

They need to stop going after the big names for the sake of it and start signing decent players to improve the squad. if they are incapable of adding bodies who will improve this squad, then we are in enormous trouble.

The time to pivot and move on to realistic targets was about a fortnight ago. I have no idea what we are doing.

 

[MikeH72]

They're not excuses, they're reasons.

Your philosophy gives up now and accepts a relegation struggle again for our club. The club has a strategy, and if it doesn't work by the end of the window we'll no doubt end up buying as many cheap bodies in as needed to fill the squad. So we'd get to the same point you're suggesting anyway. But at least this way we'll have a good go at getting some proper targets in first.

Short-sighted clap-trap.

Tell you what will lead to a relegation struggle. Going into a season with 16 senior players.

 

[Houghty19]

With all due respect Brighton are a nothing club and are simply happy being self sufficient and running a steady ship. That sounds disrespectful but they’ve never had aspirations to evolve and be successful. We’ve had a long proud history of success and unfortunately for the younger fan base, all they’ve ever known is a badly run club that sees 7th position as a success a la Brighton/Fulham.

We shouldn’t be aiming to copy the model of a Brighton football club. Good scouting, signing talented young players then selling them on for a healthy profit is absolutely fine if you have no ambition to be anything else other than a self sufficient mid table nothing club.

The point still stands, at some point you have to pay the big wages if you want to compete at the top end of the table. If you copy Brighton’s playbook, sign talent at 20 years old on low wages, and then inevitably lose them when they outgrow you and are demanding triple their current wage, then you’ll never progress as a football club to anything other than mid table fodder.

You can’t simply rely on finding these unpolished gems on a regular basis either. It isn’t an exact science and is harder than it seems.

Why can't we do both? At the moment we just do not have the resources to pay big money to superstars and only when we've got a grip commercially will we be in any position to do that. Until then we have no option of buying upcoming talent and if need be sell them on when the number is right and suits us, it's what a lot of clubs are doing and it's a revenue source that can't be ignored with the way PSR etc is working. Unfortunately all this growing of the club will take time given we've effectively stagnated for around 3 decades. At some point all clubs flog their talent when it suits them we just have to get to the level financially where we can pick and choose.

 

[bluestevon]

Meaning Luiz and Fofana i would suspect to name 2

Mcatee also will be in that, he met with the Club and wanted to thoroughly go through all other options, so in essence and initial no bit with caveats.

 

[Harryflashman]

Pickford:
“We Need New Players We Need A Competitive Squad”

I’m really impressed Pickford is stepping forward as a leader on and off the field

 

[ToffeeScot]

Meaning Luiz and Fofana i would suspect to name 2

Delap also.

 

[EFC_FRANCIS]

They haven't but window has been open for what, 8 weeks and even PSR cut-off point was four weeks ago. So why not be more aggressive earlier?

How much more aggressive can you be? We can't force a player to sign.

We probably went for Fofana in June and he said no. Now no one wants him he might be a bit more receptive, though I still think we're being used by the agent

 

[toffee66]

Bluestevon, if you buy Hackney you big name hunting at RW and a versatile forward. If you sign Fellows you big name hunt at CM and versatile forward. At some point you simply have to commit to decisive actions rather than carrying on daydreaming. No issue with the ambition they have shown , it is actually refreshing, but it has not worked. What happens next, and how quickly, is now key. They cannot afford to compound their initial misjudgement with more.

 

[MACCA75]

Get Hackney in from Boro this week. It’s clear we need to change strategy now.

 

[bluestevon]

Or maybe just sign competent players who can do a job, because we currently have about 15 of them at the football club.

Mate, Young, Doucoure, DCL, Harrison could all 'do a job' do I want that to be our barometer ...

 

[MikeH72]

Mate, Young, Doucoure, DCL, Harrison could all 'do a job' do I want that to be our barometer ...

Well we’ve replaced them with absolutely nobody as it stands. DCL with Barry and that’s it. The rest have been replaced with academy players as it stands. We were about 5 players short of a full bench for our last game.

 

[Who's_up_for_cumpkins?]

Christ the Moyes comments doing the rounds are a jolly way to stat the week eh?

Kick in the plums sir?

Yes please.

I hope he's just downplaying things cause it sounds a bit like excuse making. Fair enough if your targeting someone whose levels above us - but based on the names linked they've not that far above. Depends how well you can sell the move, and possibly just need to over pay slightly on the wages.

 

[bluestevon]

With all due respect Brighton are a nothing club and are simply happy being self sufficient and running a steady ship. That sounds disrespectful but they’ve never had aspirations to evolve and be successful. We’ve had a long proud history of success and unfortunately for the younger fan base, all they’ve ever known is a badly run club that sees 7th position as a success a la Brighton/Fulham.

We shouldn’t be aiming to copy the model of a Brighton football club. Good scouting, signing talented young players then selling them on for a healthy profit is absolutely fine if you have no ambition to be anything else other than a self sufficient mid table nothing club.

The point still stands, at some point you have to pay the big wages if you want to compete at the top end of the table. If you copy Brighton’s playbook, sign talent at 20 years old on low wages, and then inevitably lose them when they outgrow you and are demanding triple their current wage, then you’ll never progress as a football club to anything other than mid table fodder.

You can’t simply rely on finding these unpolished gems on a regular basis either. It isn’t an exact science and is harder than it seems.

The Brighton model is arguably the way you can build a club to be able to push upwards though, but it requires once you e brought in those young players and they develop you keep hold and then add more ready made quality to them.