Summer Silly Season Transfer Thread 2025

[demeant0r]

I'm not understanding the mild panic on here. We have an established Premier League  squad, and yes we could do with 4 to 5 players, but we do eventually bring them in.

At the end of the window if we haven't signed players we can all jump up and down.

As others have said before, the sooner we sign the players Marco wants. The more time they have to bed into his system. You've seen how reluctant he is to start new players so the more time they have in the preseason the better. If they only have a week before the season starts, then that means they're not likely to start games until mid-late September.

[Lordedmundo]

I'm not interpreting the concerns expressed on here as 'mild panic'.    In thirty two days team the Premier League resumes and it does concern me that we haven't improved the squad yet.  I don't doubt there will be signings but for me they don't come soon enough at Fulham. I don't expect all deals to be done in advance because good opportunities often present themselves as the window unfolds but I think it is reasonable to think the club could get deals agreed a bit sooner.

I share your view. I can understand the concerns, although personally I will only share those concerns if we don't make any signings before the start of the season. The one signing I would be most excited about is getting Josh King to sign an extended contract! However, if we could sign players of (say) the calibre of Douglas Luiz and Malick Fofana - two who would actually improve our starting eleven, then I would start to be very confident about next season...

[Fulham 442]

At least we didn't sign Henderson!

[DM]

Knew TC would stick around ✍️

I wouldn't assume this means he's staying. No doubt Fulham would let him train with the club until his contract status is sorted out either way.

He's staying fella. 👍🏻

DM, can you please - either privately or publicly, *please* give us some hope or information that is more than the zero we've got so far.

Are we talking to anyone? Are any deals potentially close? What positions? Are they names we've already heard about or not?

How many deals this summer?...

What's the situation/likelihood of us signing Nelson?

ANYTHING... please..

I won't say anything that may get chucked back at me. All I'll say is some targets aren't yet available for various reasons. The club believes there's still time & opportunity to get Marco's ambitious targets to add to an already strong squad.
Signings will come, stick with it. 💪

[ffcthereligion]

I'm not understanding the mild panic on here. We have an established Premier League  squad, and yes we could do with 4 to 5 players, but we do eventually bring them in.

At the end of the window if we haven't signed players we can all jump up and down.

The mild panic is best explained as follows. During the summer off-season, we are essentially starved of something that, for better or worse, we are addicted to. Transfer news is the closest thing we can get to attending or watching matches, and discussing good and bad performances. Incoming transfers are some kind of surrogate for winning games and amassing points. Other teams signing players while we do not, is equivalent to having zero points after x number of games.

We just need our Fulham fix and without transfers we are having withdrawal symptoms. It explains why if we do actually sign someone, it will not be a day or two before we start to moan again. The only mild relief comes from friendlys.

I disagree. I think there are rational reasons to be concerned about our lack of business which are exacerbated by the fact we are the exception compared to every other team in the league and that this is a pattern not a one off.

I perceive a lackadaisical attitude to be the more emotional position, whereby any expression of concern is dismissed as panic. In my view there are certain posters that will defend the club whatever they do, because they simply love Fulham and are instinctively opposed to 'criticism' of the club regardless of whether it is warranted

[TB1973]

Why panic, most of clubs players are only returning this week, players who have been on international duty or club comps !!!, won't be back for a while

[jayffc]

I'm not understanding the mild panic on here. We have an established Premier League  squad, and yes we could do with 4 to 5 players, but we do eventually bring them in.

At the end of the window if we haven't signed players we can all jump up and down.

The mild panic is best explained as follows. During the summer off-season, we are essentially starved of something that, for better or worse, we are addicted to. Transfer news is the closest thing we can get to attending or watching matches, and discussing good and bad performances. Incoming transfers are some kind of surrogate for winning games and amassing points. Other teams signing players while we do not, is equivalent to having zero points after x number of games.

We just need our Fulham fix and without transfers we are having withdrawal symptoms. It explains why if we do actually sign someone, it will not be a day or two before we start to moan again. The only mild relief comes from friendlys.

I disagree. I think there are rational reasons to be concerned about our lack of business which are exacerbated by the fact we are the exception compared to every other team in the league and that this is a pattern not a one off.

I perceive a lackadaisical attitude to be the more emotional position, whereby any expression of concern is dismissed as panic. In my view there are certain posters that will defend the club whatever they do, because they simply love Fulham and are instinctively opposed to 'criticism' of the club regardless of whether it is warranted

Quite Some gymnastics there to make being sincerely calm about this the "emotional" position😅.

It's nothing to do with blind trust because of being a Fulham fan. It's about being satisfied with the tangible results of our transfer dealings generally and sincerely not being as hung up on the idea that it's a major deal long term recruiting a few weeks later in the window ...based ln the evidence of many windows of people complaining about it all summer , only for it to not end up being much of an issue, for years at this point. If the last 4years or so had been really clearly slow starts due to lack of signings that suddenly improved with additions then people would likely have more concerns.

It's evidence not emotion based. It's trust based on people who are satisfied with direction. Especially as many on that side have said clearly: sure it'd be nice or even optimal to be super early ...but that results clearly show it's not worth the sheer amount of daily stressing for months on here

Take last year for example ...all summer stressing about Andre and why we didn't just get it over the line (p.s I really wanted Andre)

He ends up going for less at end of window to wolves where he has a fairly meh season , and we out of nowhere buy Berge who we all agree had a very good season - THIS is just one example of why people are calm and just let it play out

[General]

Knew TC would stick around ✍️

I wouldn't assume this means he's staying. No doubt Fulham would let him train with the club until his contract status is sorted out either way.

He's staying fella. 👍🏻

DM, can you please - either privately or publicly, *please* give us some hope or information that is more than the zero we've got so far.

Are we talking to anyone? Are any deals potentially close? What positions? Are they names we've already heard about or not?

How many deals this summer?...

What's the situation/likelihood of us signing Nelson?

ANYTHING... please..

I won't say anything that may get chucked back at me. All I'll say is some targets aren't yet available for various reasons. The club believes there's still time & opportunity to get Marco's ambitious targets to add to an already strong squad.
Signings will come, stick with it. 💪

Any gauge on the reasons targets aren't available?... Ambitious targets? Pl experience or international - which leagues?

Appreciate signings will/should come.. but any idea as to where we are with any of them?

[Angus Telford]

I'm not understanding the mild panic on here. We have an established Premier League  squad, and yes we could do with 4 to 5 players, but we do eventually bring them in.

At the end of the window if we haven't signed players we can all jump up and down.

The mild panic is best explained as follows. During the summer off-season, we are essentially starved of something that, for better or worse, we are addicted to. Transfer news is the closest thing we can get to attending or watching matches, and discussing good and bad performances. Incoming transfers are some kind of surrogate for winning games and amassing points. Other teams signing players while we do not, is equivalent to having zero points after x number of games.

We just need our Fulham fix and without transfers we are having withdrawal symptoms. It explains why if we do actually sign someone, it will not be a day or two before we start to moan again. The only mild relief comes from friendlys.

I disagree. I think there are rational reasons to be concerned about our lack of business which are exacerbated by the fact we are the exception compared to every other team in the league and that this is a pattern not a one off.

I perceive a lackadaisical attitude to be the more emotional position, whereby any expression of concern is dismissed as panic. In my view there are certain posters that will defend the club whatever they do, because they simply love Fulham and are instinctively opposed to 'criticism' of the club regardless of whether it is warranted

100% this.

The criticisms on timing are perfectly well rationalised on the basis that players need to settle in new locations, need a pre-season to adjust to new tactics and new teammates, will in some cases be unavailable later in the window, we risk missing out if things fall apart late-on and we've no time to pursue other options, and so on. Hence every other club moves quicker than us.

No one is saying we'll get relegated, just that this relaxed approach seems to reflect a frustrating contentedness from the club - no huge urge to kick on from 11th, 12th-placed finishes.

So I agree, to dismiss it as "panic" is the more tribal and emotion/principle-driven position.

[FFC1987]

Hang on, just going to grab the popcorn.

[jayffc]

I'm not understanding the mild panic on here. We have an established Premier League  squad, and yes we could do with 4 to 5 players, but we do eventually bring them in.

At the end of the window if we haven't signed players we can all jump up and down.

The mild panic is best explained as follows. During the summer off-season, we are essentially starved of something that, for better or worse, we are addicted to. Transfer news is the closest thing we can get to attending or watching matches, and discussing good and bad performances. Incoming transfers are some kind of surrogate for winning games and amassing points. Other teams signing players while we do not, is equivalent to having zero points after x number of games.

We just need our Fulham fix and without transfers we are having withdrawal symptoms. It explains why if we do actually sign someone, it will not be a day or two before we start to moan again. The only mild relief comes from friendlys.

I disagree. I think there are rational reasons to be concerned about our lack of business which are exacerbated by the fact we are the exception compared to every other team in the league and that this is a pattern not a one off.

I perceive a lackadaisical attitude to be the more emotional position, whereby any expression of concern is dismissed as panic. In my view there are certain posters that will defend the club whatever they do, because they simply love Fulham and are instinctively opposed to 'criticism' of the club regardless of whether it is warranted

100% this.

The criticisms on timing are perfectly well rationalised on the basis that players need to settle in new locations, need a pre-season to adjust to new tactics and new teammates, will in some cases be unavailable later in the window, we risk missing out if things fall apart late-on and we've no time to pursue other options, and so on. Hence every other club moves quicker than us.

No one is saying we'll get relegated, just that this relaxed approach seems to reflect a frustrating contentedness from the club - no huge urge to kick on from 11th, 12th-placed finishes.

So I agree, to dismiss it as "panic" is the more tribal and emotion/principle-driven position.

Actually some people have literally said this attitude to transfers is how you get relegated, it might not be explicit every time, but it's frequently implied

You two think it's rational ,we get it , we just disagree based on our interpretations of the data when it comes to Fulham. Much of that down to general outlook and predisposition

(P s edited before refreshing and seeing the below fwiw)

[Angus Telford]

I'm not understanding the mild panic on here. We have an established Premier League  squad, and yes we could do with 4 to 5 players, but we do eventually bring them in.

At the end of the window if we haven't signed players we can all jump up and down.

The mild panic is best explained as follows. During the summer off-season, we are essentially starved of something that, for better or worse, we are addicted to. Transfer news is the closest thing we can get to attending or watching matches, and discussing good and bad performances. Incoming transfers are some kind of surrogate for winning games and amassing points. Other teams signing players while we do not, is equivalent to having zero points after x number of games.

We just need our Fulham fix and without transfers we are having withdrawal symptoms. It explains why if we do actually sign someone, it will not be a day or two before we start to moan again. The only mild relief comes from friendlys.

I disagree. I think there are rational reasons to be concerned about our lack of business which are exacerbated by the fact we are the exception compared to every other team in the league and that this is a pattern not a one off.

I perceive a lackadaisical attitude to be the more emotional position, whereby any expression of concern is dismissed as panic. In my view there are certain posters that will defend the club whatever they do, because they simply love Fulham and are instinctively opposed to 'criticism' of the club regardless of whether it is warranted

100% this.

The criticisms on timing are perfectly well rationalised on the basis that players need to settle in new locations, need a pre-season to adjust to new tactics and new teammates, will in some cases be unavailable later in the window, we risk missing out if things fall apart late-on and we've no time to pursue other options, and so on. Hence every other club moves quicker than us.

No one is saying we'll get relegated, just that this relaxed approach seems to reflect a frustrating contentedness from the club - no huge urge to kick on from 11th, 12th-placed finishes.

So I agree, to dismiss it as "panic" is the more tribal and emotion/principle-driven position.

Actually some people have literally said this attitude to transfers is how you get relegated.

Fair enough. I haven't seen anyone explicitly saying they think we'll get relegated this year, and we both know most of the "panicked" posters aren't saying that. I've seen one or two warning that floating in the bottom half with an ageing squad can catch you out eventually but I think that's a slightly different (and valid) point.

[Tabby]

I wouldn't say that any of the teams around us have gotten meaningfully stronger either, you could argue that Brentford has improved, but they've also lost their manager and have their star players linked going everywhere. Brighton have also invested some of their Joao Pedro money but they lost their talisman striker.

The signings of the non 'top 6' and Newcastle have been replacing players they've lost or sold. I don't think us signing a low rated almost 30 year old winger to replace Willian for £2 million would have allayed many fears. Unless we are talking about the promoted teams who have improved as they usually do.

Anyway, I survived last summer, I'm incredibly calm comparatively this year. Would like to get reinforcements in but there aren't any gaping holes like when we had 2 senior CBs, lost our biggest star midfielder and a load of squad players. And then our first signing was almost in August.

[KentFulham]

I think it is totally rationale to expect a bottom half finish if we simply keep the old players and fail to bring in 3 or 4 decent players. We should expect SPurs and Utd to improve looking at their signings, maybe West Ham and Everton too. As it stands I think we have 14/15th in us, but still comfortable from relegation

[jayffc]

I think it is totally rationale to expect a bottom half finish if we simply keep the old players and fail to bring in 3 or 4 decent players. We should expect SPurs and Utd to improve looking at their signings, maybe West Ham and Everton too. As it stands I think we have 14/15th in us, but still comfortable from relegation

Perhaps, but is anyone suggesting we won't don't need to sign any players? Not those not stressed about this summer, not the club themselves are saying we don't need to sign a number of key additions?

The differing position is wether people think it's worth the daily ritual of stressing about it here or not and if the timings of them make a significant enough difference for the club to completely change it's current approach (not that we can even know definitively what that is internally,how much is deliberate or circumstancial etc)

[StuinSalop]

Knew TC would stick around ✍️

I wouldn't assume this means he's staying. No doubt Fulham would let him train with the club until his contract status is sorted out either way.

He's staying fella. 👍🏻

DM, can you please - either privately or publicly, *please* give us some hope or information that is more than the zero we've got so far.

Are we talking to anyone? Are any deals potentially close? What positions? Are they names we've already heard about or not?

How many deals this summer?...

What's the situation/likelihood of us signing Nelson?

ANYTHING... please..

I have been told from the top of the club that they consider Nelson too big a risk.  Then again, Marco would like to have him.  So I guess it all boils down to the terms we could get him on and I would think another loan is most likely.

[jayffc]

Knew TC would stick around ✍️

I wouldn't assume this means he's staying. No doubt Fulham would let him train with the club until his contract status is sorted out either way.

He's staying fella. 👍🏻

DM, can you please - either privately or publicly, *please* give us some hope or information that is more than the zero we've got so far.

Are we talking to anyone? Are any deals potentially close? What positions? Are they names we've already heard about or not?

How many deals this summer?...

What's the situation/likelihood of us signing Nelson?

ANYTHING... please..

I have been told from the top of the club that they consider Nelson too big a risk.  Then again, Marco would like to have him.  So I guess it all boils down to the terms we could get him on and I would think another loan is most likely.

If we loan out Godo youd think a loan for nelson + one other permanent move for a winger might not be a bad idea tbh

[Drewry66]

Thing is if all we are looking to do is improve on what we have convincing that level of player is pretty tough for a club of our size and/or often the selling club will want to ensure they have replacements first.

I seem to remember Arteta was reluctant to release ESR until they had made signings so we prob had to wait for them to do their business first, before our first choice 10 became available.

Take Berge as another example. Pure speculation but loads of talk Man U were seriously looking at him last year. Seemed like their first choice was Ugarte but if I remember they had to negotiate for ages on that deal so Berge may well have been their back up option.

Let's be honest...Berge was probably then waiting to see if the Ugarte deal was going to fall through if the United interest was indeed there before committing to us. They then got Ugarte through and we signed Berge as he no longer had the biggest option. Berge may have been our first choice for DM all along and we had to wait for United to confirm that they didn't want him before he'd commit.

Could we have got Andre much earlier in the window if he was say our second choice? Yeah sure but we would have had to pay Fluminese the £25m to £30m that they were asking for at that point rather than the £20m Wolves ended up paying late in the window when Fluminese became desperate and we wouldn't have got our first choice in Berge.

That is all conjecture as who knows what goes on behind the scenes but is it believable for what may have happened and why Berge signed so late? Absolutely in my view.

Andersen was negotiating with Palace and only became available when negotiations broke down. We also had to wait for them to decide what they were doing with Gehui as they weren't selling both at the same time.

I'd imagine most of the deals we are going for this year are probably something similar. Easier for the big clubs...it's always the players first choice and half the time they can just pay the fee with their limitless funds. Yes some mid/smaller clubs have made some signings but what's to say they haven't overpaid or not settled for their second or third choice?

All these are examples of the best players that we can get at our level only being available late so it's just not true that you are 'missing out' on the best players early. The big clubs have to go for the best players that are way out of our reach early and gradually the knock on effect is the chess pieces move and the best players that we can realistically get at our level become available.

As Jay said we have never started badly...it's been the end of the frigging season that has killed us every year.

Would we rather have our second choice signing potentially costing more on the books for an extra two or three weeks at the start of the season or wait for our first choice to become available for less money for the next 5 years? Just has to be the latter. Marco has consistently said he has got exactly who he wanted in the market and as above tgat wouldn't have happened with numerous players unless we had signed them late.

[StuinSalop]

Let me ask a question to many of those desperate for a new signing now.

1. Would you prefer to sign a player now, who is not our top target or

2. Wait a while until our top target becomes available and sign him say early August.

We can't just demand a player we want is released by his club, but if in negotiation the selling club say, yes we will sell to you but first things have to happen here.

Also, if we want a player, but he is asking too much money that would break our salary structure, would you say ok, we will cough up for you salary and then risk all the knock ons this could cause, or carry on with negotiations whilst looking at other option.

We are not looking at bringing in another Vini, we are looking at brining in another Awobi.  This is not easy given the constraints of PSR and salary is a major part of that. 

It's true that Fulham are a relatively low risk club, largely because we have to be due to our relatively small turnover.

[MickTheBeard]

BBC are saying Seth Ridgeon has signed for Manure. Unless the rules have changed i believe we get better compensation by going to an English club than going foreign. Still a pittance though!

you get so much for coaching at youth level playing higher level 21s and England if you remember we pushed Elliot early to 1st team which bumped up compensation.It's ashame we now have lost 2.Bigger clubs like Chelsea,Man City and arsenal have satellite teams in Holland and Belgian and loan them their when 18 to speed up their development.