Summer Silly Season Transfer Thread 2025

[Jules]

https://x.com/FulhamTransfer/status/1948373800237638047?t=LGCebfBdgSxJH-woAWiUrw&s=19

Benda medical at Milwall, good for him, he needs regular football to see if he can step up a level

Did he ever play any Premiership games?

Good luck to him but thank goodness he has gone!

[Chi_FFC]

I thought it was directly implied that it gives room for 1 of 2 situations to materialise regarding our younger keepers, thought that was relatively clear but perhaps not.

Yeah, that was relatively clear from your original (and subsequent) posts. And I thought it was also quite clear from my original post that I was simply pointing out that scenario 1 (re Benda) is fantasy. I think the evidence is quite compelling that the club has written him off and there's no chance of him ever playing for us again (barring some kind of scenario where we have a bunch of injuries to GK's this season and we have to recall him from this loan...if that's even possible). Based on multiple posts it would seem you disagree, which is fine but I admit I was (and still am) a bit confused by your reply to me complaining about cutting out your discussion of Borta. I cut it out simply because it wasn't relevant to the point I wanted to make.

[Deuce]

This is like that scene with the Ents in LOTR where they go "aaaaaand. We. Have. Decided. To. Sign. A. Back up. keeper"



Next up: Bringing back an injury prone loan player we had last season. Oh, such exciting times we live in

[Rightwhite]

This is like that scene with the Ents in LOTR where they go "aaaaaand. We. Have. Decided. To. Sign. A. Back up. keeper"



Next up: Bringing back an injury prone loan player we had last season. Oh, such exciting times we live in

I do understand you. We should just splash the cash on whoever just so we can say we've got a marquee signing. Someone like Kostas Mitroglou, as that worked out really well in the end.

PLEASE can we just try and trust the process.

[sunburywhite]

This is like that scene with the Ents in LOTR where they go "aaaaaand. We. Have. Decided. To. Sign. A. Back up. keeper"



Next up: Bringing back an injury prone loan player we had last season. Oh, such exciting times we live in

I Am Not Altogether on Anyone's Side, Because Nobody is Altogether on My Side

[alfie]

This is like that scene with the Ents in LOTR where they go "aaaaaand. We. Have. Decided. To. Sign. A. Back up. keeper"



Next up: Bringing back an injury prone loan player we had last season. Oh, such exciting times we live in

I Am Not Altogether on Anyone's Side, Because Nobody is Altogether on My Side

Right altogether now.....

[Rightwhite]

This is like that scene with the Ents in LOTR where they go "aaaaaand. We. Have. Decided. To. Sign. A. Back up. keeper"



Next up: Bringing back an injury prone loan player we had last season. Oh, such exciting times we live in

I Am Not Altogether on Anyone's Side, Because Nobody is Altogether on My Side

Right altogether now.....

In no man's land

[jayffc]

I thought it was directly implied that it gives room for 1 of 2 situations to materialise regarding our younger keepers, thought that was relatively clear but perhaps not.

Yeah, that was relatively clear from your original (and subsequent) posts. And I thought it was also quite clear from my original post that I was simply pointing out that scenario 1 (re Benda) is fantasy. I think the evidence is quite compelling that the club has written him off and there's no chance of him ever playing for us again (barring some kind of scenario where we have a bunch of injuries to GK's this season and we have to recall him from this loan...if that's even possible). Based on multiple posts it would seem you disagree, which is fine but I admit I was (and still am) a bit confused by your reply to me complaining about cutting out your discussion of Borta. I cut it out simply because it wasn't relevant to the point I wanted to make.

Just a misunderstanding on both ends.

I dont at all disagree that its a possibility the club will part ways with Benda?....but that said ...

https://x.com/Plettigoal/status/1948446626416079297?t=Pjv0NY694qsL1eon1ZEIcw&s=19

There isn't an option apparently so it might not be "pure fantasy" if indeed it turns out he manages to claim the first team spot there and has a blinding season, who knows. Unlikely of course, I also didn't think he was great here, but it's not impossible and interesting that an option wasn't agreed.

That said I won't go into it further circling on explaining what was meant cos I can't imagine us working out where there's been misunderstandings here is a thrilling addition for others 🤣

Regardless. Glad to have lacomte

[Angus Telford]

Someone like Kostas Mitroglou, as that worked out really well in the end.

Deadline day signing on 31 January 2014. Classic example of the sort of panicked decisions you're forced into by leaving business to the last minute.

[jayffc]

Someone like Kostas Mitroglou, as that worked out really well in the end.

Deadline day signing on 31 January 2014. Classic example of the sort of panicked decisions you're forced into by leaving business to the last minute.

For every Kostas ya could equally land a

Mitro
Berbatov
Danny Murphy
Tosin
Anderson (first time around)
Anguissa(albeit his time here didn't pan out for other reasin
Players like Kenny Tete ,Iwobi and Willian in his first stint were all September signings who were great for us. Lukic a January 31st signing.

Etc etc weve had some duds and some gold at all ends of the window.

[Angus Telford]

Someone like Kostas Mitroglou, as that worked out really well in the end.

Deadline day signing on 31 January 2014. Classic example of the sort of panicked decisions you're forced into by leaving business to the last minute.

For every Kostas ya could equally land a

Mitro
Berbatov
Danny Murphy
Tosin
Anderson (first time around)
Anguissa(albeit his time here didn't pan out for other reason
Kenny Tete

Etc etc weve had some duds and some gold at all ends of the window.

I was being slightly facetious but since you've made a debate out of it...

FWIW I agree (having discussed/reviewed this in the last) that our early signings haven't necessarily worked out any better than our late signings.

However, the late signings haven't necessarily worked out any better than our early signings either. There's no correlation either way. Which shows the whole "better to wait to get the right player" line of argument is tosh.

[jayffc]

Someone like Kostas Mitroglou, as that worked out really well in the end.

Deadline day signing on 31 January 2014. Classic example of the sort of panicked decisions you're forced into by leaving business to the last minute.

For every Kostas ya could equally land a

Mitro
Berbatov
Danny Murphy
Tosin
Anderson (first time around)
Anguissa(albeit his time here didn't pan out for other reason
Kenny Tete

Etc etc weve had some duds and some gold at all ends of the window.

I was being slightly facetious but since you've made a debate out of it...

FWIW I agree (having discussed/reviewed this in the last) that our early signings haven't necessarily worked out any better than our late signings.

However, the late signings haven't necessarily worked out any better than our early signings either. There's no correlation either way. Which shows the whole "better to wait to get the right player" line of argument is tosh.

So ya saying the idea that getting people in early is vitally important is equally utter tosh then? What ultimately matters is that they're good and at a price that means we can get all the targets were after and not break ffp.

Great we can all shut up about it and just sign the players we sign when we sign them cos the main factor is wether they're good or not long term.

No ones saying late signings defacto means they are always the perfect player, just that often better value can be had then, and often players ya might have wanted that weren't available van become so (see Mitro as one fortunate instance that ended up being probably the single most important signing in recent Fulham history) and that many are perfectly comfortable not moving onto a different lower target just because they're available earlier, or paying more than we have to on others, if there's a chance we can get our main targets later with better general use of budget.

It's not a guarantee, yes it comes with risks, sometimes it pays off majorly, some incidents not, but the main most important thing is not when they come but how good that player is and at what price that allows us to balance available budget to strengthen whole squad.

[Rightwhite]

Someone like Kostas Mitroglou, as that worked out really well in the end.

Deadline day signing on 31 January 2014. Classic example of the sort of panicked decisions you're forced into by leaving business to the last minute.

As I say, try to.trust the process.

[Angus Telford]

So ya saying the idea that getting people in early is vitally important is equally utter tosh then? What ultimately matters is that they're good and at a price that means we can get all the targets were after and not break ffp.

Great we can all shut up about it and just sign the players we sign when we sign them cos the main factor is wether they're good or not long term.

No. The main rationale for signing players early isn't that any particular player signed early will be an inherently better player.* It's about them having time to settle into new tactics, surroundings and colleagues, and also for us to do comprehensive, deliberate business, rather than sporadic, opportunistic last-minute buys.

*Actually I do also think there's an argument that you need to move early to get the best players before they're snapped up by other clubs, but I accept that's somewhat conjecture/theory, and there's no hard evidence for it in a comparison of our early vs. late signings.

[jayffc]

Can't be @rsed to go in circles

We disagree and I don't buy that our transfer process isn't thorough or deliberate generally speaking. Outside of some later deals when occasionally things switch up last minute (like with ernest, where we still ended up with Nelson who we'd made contact with before) we have large lists of targets and identify our main ones early. Then it's a negotiation game  and seeing who's available when and at what price and scouring market for best combo of quality to value. If we get that early we pull trigger (Palhinha) if we think we can negotiate down we don't. And none of our main confirmed reported targets by top sources have been bought by others yet (Romulo, Nelson, Reitz,now KDH)

No matter what's said it won't go anywhere and goalposts will move . I trust us to continue getting good players in whenever that comes and feel recent history shows the idea we massively need everyone in early, isn't  in practise enough of a factor to stress about it or cuss the club out for constantly.

Ultimately the biggest importance is the quality of what we end up with over everything else when alls said and done. July or September.

[Jims Dentist]

I have always thought our Sports Director has always been slow to react trying to make it look like he's good at his job to impress his dad in my eyes it's the opposite impression.

He's an unqualified Knob.

[SerbianLad]

So ya saying the idea that getting people in early is vitally important is equally utter tosh then? What ultimately matters is that they're good and at a price that means we can get all the targets were after and not break ffp.

Great we can all shut up about it and just sign the players we sign when we sign them cos the main factor is wether they're good or not long term.

No. The main rationale for signing players early isn't that any particular player signed early will be an inherently better player.* It's about them having time to settle into new tactics, surroundings and colleagues, and also for us to do comprehensive, deliberate business, rather than sporadic, opportunistic last-minute buys.

*Actually I do also think there's an argument that you need to move early to get the best players before they're snapped up by other clubs, but I accept that's somewhat conjecture/theory, and there's no hard evidence for it in a comparison of our early vs. late signings.

I agree with most of your first point. It is obvious that players settle in faster when they have full pre-season with the club. With Marco, it has been even more problematic in the past, I think. It probably has something to do with Marco's attention to detail that players always mention.

I disagree heavily with the second point. Sometimes the biggest deals involving best players happen in the last minute, because those players sometimes become available only then and not before. What you are saying is also sometimes true, i.e. sometimes some good players are only available at the beginning of the window. My point is, the timing of the buy has nothing to do with the quality of the player. In my opinion, that is.

[Angus Telford]

Sometimes the biggest deals involving best players happen in the last minute, because those players sometimes become available only then and not before. What you are saying is also sometimes true, i.e. sometimes some good players are only available at the beginning of the window. My point is, the timing of the buy has nothing to do with the quality of the player. In my opinion, that is.

I don't think our views on this are far apart actually. I accept *some* players won't come available until later. But as you say, some will be available sooner, and not later. It's a mix. So I'd expect good, targeted business to be a mix of early and late signings - not solely late signings, like ours in the last few years.

[Coastwalker]

After listening to what Marco said about us fans being frustrated with lack of signings,do you think he has a sly look now and again at our comments.😄
Come on own up which one of you is really our manager.

[Jimmy Hill]

Someone like Kostas Mitroglou, as that worked out really well in the end.

Deadline day signing on 31 January 2014. Classic example of the sort of panicked decisions you're forced into by leaving business to the last minute.

For every Kostas ya could equally land a

Mitro
Berbatov
Danny Murphy
Tosin
Anderson (first time around)
Anguissa(albeit his time here didn't pan out for other reasin
Players like Kenny Tete ,Iwobi and Willian in his first stint were all September signings who were great for us. Lukic a January 31st signing.

Etc etc weve had some duds and some gold at all ends of the window.

Someone like Kostas Mitroglou, as that worked out really well in the end.

Deadline day signing on 31 January 2014. Classic example of the sort of panicked decisions you're forced into by leaving business to the last minute.

For every Kostas ya could equally land a

Mitro
Berbatov
Danny Murphy
Tosin
Anderson (first time around)
Anguissa(albeit his time here didn't pan out for other reasin
Players like Kenny Tete ,Iwobi and Willian in his first stint were all September signings who were great for us. Lukic a January 31st signing.

Etc etc weve had some duds and some gold at all ends of the window.

Everyone bar Murphy you have listed was relegated with Fulham weridly. (Berba jumped ship in a relegation season.)