Summer Transfer Window 2025 Thread

The world is littered with examples proving otherwise. Godfrey cost 20 million whilst Tarkowski was unfancied and acquired for free from Burnley, and there's no question who has been by far the better transfer.

We need to do both anyway. We need to pick up clever free transfers and then use our transfer budget to purchase players that have already proven their potential imo, and are entering the best years of their career.
We can't afford these type of players.
 

You could reverse this and say which quality players who create competition would be willing to come to us and run the risk of being rotated?

It seems like only the likes of City get away with that. Even the RS don't have a quality bench. Moreover, look at the likes of Harvey Elliott who wants to leave for 1st team football. Don't forget the World Cup year factor, too.
Let the players worry about the players point of view, the club needs to get us to that kind of situation where we have good ambitious players on the bench instead of players that are happy to sit on the bench knowing they’d never get a better deal elsewhere. This is a trap we fall into all of the time.
 
Well we would have never bought for 30mil if that was the price

It gives an indication of where the market is at, though. Or at the very least it shows how some transfers can be extremely bad value for money. Lyon paid 23 million for him and then had us agree to a 30 million option, and yet he's no better than Garner or Brownhill. Godfrey cost 20 million and people were raving about it, but he was very poor value for money and nowhere near Tarkowski's quality.

Brownhill and Tarkowski > Mangala and Godfrey. The two ex-Burnley players leave on free transfers, whilst Mangala and Godfrey cost clubs around 50 million pound between them..
 
I disagree. I think he's at the same level as Garner, who improved our CM upon his return last season imo. In fact, he may well be better than your Garner's or your Longstaff's. Garner wouldn't be scoring 18 goals in the Championship, that's for sure.
True that, he got 4 goals for Forrest when they got promoted
 
The Brownhill debate is reflective of the issues they face in trying to add quality (or at least potential quality) Vs. the need for bodies.

It just depends on what positions they choose to spend transfer fees on and the others that are acquired on loan or free with no such thing as a completely free transfer of course.

I don't think there is any world where it would make sense to sign Brownhill, at his age, if a fee was required. Not sure the wages he would be on, but you would imagine he would get a 2 year contract with an option for another year, or would demand 3 years.

If they decide to go for him, it is in the "free" category. You can make an argument that the scouting process should present younger options, particularly from abroad that don't come for premium fees but this is the age and experience conundrum that you have to balance for each potential signing.

I do see Moyes going for players like this because of their "experience" and "readiness". Brownhill would be a 20 minute a game player for me and would have to impress to command anything more than that.

Compromises will have to be made if they are intent on getting the quantity of players in that most people appear to be pushing for.
 

Gueye was relegated with villa
Good players get relegated, they get bought, bad to average ones stay at them relegated clubs and go back up and back down again
It gives an indication of where the market is at, though. Or at the very least it shows how some transfers can be extremely bad value for money. Lyon paid 23 million for him and then had us agree to a 30 million option, and yet he's no better than Garner or Brownhill. Godfrey cost 20 million and people were raving about it, but he was very poor value for money and nowhere near Tarkowski's quality.

Brownhill and Tarkowski > Mangala and Godfrey. The two ex-Burnley players leave on free transfers, whilst Mangala and Godfrey cost clubs around 50 million pound between them..
its very easy to pick out free’s that have worked at 20mil signings that haven’t. I could find you loads of free transfers that haven’t worked.
Anyway, Brownhill would want a 3yr deal on probably 60/70k plus a signing on fee. The whole deal would be 15mil give or take. Nobody is free, if rather loan a dewsbury hall for a year, than commit 3 yrs to an very average player that probably offers us very little in that time
 
Good players get relegated, they get bought, bad to average ones stay at them relegated clubs and go back up and back down again

its very easy to pick out free’s that have worked at 20mil signings that haven’t. I could find you loads of free transfers that haven’t worked.
Anyway, Brownhill would want a 3yr deal on probably 60/70k plus a signing on fee. The whole deal would be 15mil give or take. Nobody is free, if rather loan a dewsbury hall for a year, than commit 3 yrs to an very average player that probably offers us very little in that time
Unfortunately, in the real world things aren’t that simple about god and bad players. Brown hill is a good player, that did perform well in the PL, in a bad side. And yes, “free” is a thing!
 
Fascinating research from BBC once again

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Also the BBC

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Unfortunately, in the real world things aren’t that simple about god and bad players. Brown hill is a good player, that did perform well in the PL, in a bad side. And yes, “free” is a thing!
Wrong and wrong
If he was a good player he wouldn’t have lasted 5yrs at Burnley and two relegations
And nobody is free, apparently the signing on fee is usually a years wage. So potentially 3/3.5 mil
 
I agree with a lot of that. I don't think Garner is great, but I do think he's a mid-table / bottom half prem player, which is what Brownhill is. I'd be onboard with acquiring Brownhill for free and selling Garner in order to facilitate the purchase of a CM that is a level above both of them.

We need to replace both Doucoure and Mangala though, and that's before even thinking of trading players like Garner. We do need to cut our cloth accordingly.
A lot depends on the overall quality of the team/squad. Blaming individual players for a clubs poor performance is not the way to go. It would be like saying Branthwaite or Tarkowski are poor players because Everton have been struggling against relegation.

Having better quality players around you allows players to play to their best ability. A player like Garner could well flourish in a squad with better players around him.

Players also have to adapt their game to deliver what the manager wants, very often this hinders a player who may have different strengths. The example of this is wingers under Sean Dyche who have more responsibility for defending than attacking.

New club, new manager , different way of playing can all help players to shine, we have seen it in the past with Pienaar and others.

Fans are limited in their knowledge of what role players are asked to play and thankfully have no role in sales or recruitment.

We are in an unusual situation just now with so many players leaving the club. We are basically going to bring in nearly half a squad in this window which is both an opportunity and a challenge.
 
We are in an unusual situation just now with so many players leaving the club. We are basically going to bring in nearly half a squad in this window which is both an opportunity and a challenge.
This is the crux of the window.

We probably need multiple players in our positions of need. We probably need 2 CMs (minimum), 2 RWs, ST, another CAM, a RB, LB cover, GK backup and another CB to rotate.

We simply cannot spend money on all of these positions. We have to hope the monetary outlay goes on the highest priorities and the positions that traditionally cost more (ST, RW, starting CM imo). If we bought McAtee/Doak, Diarra and Barry…that’s most of the budget gone. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to sign all those to seriously improve the priority areas and then box clever in the others to keep them steadily improving alongside.

We’re not going to be dropping cash on multiple midfielders, it’s just not feasible - not without notable sales. We’ll probably look at versatile players that can cover multiple positions - again, not ideal compared to the ‘elite’ but it is our reality.

People that expect us spend serious money in every required position, all being under the age of 22, need to give their head a bit of a wobble.
 

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