Summer Silly Season Transfer Thread 2025

[junior white]

I've never seen him play, don't watch Russian league football (is it actually broadcast anywhere other than Russian?),so have no idea if he is any good or not or if he has the X factor.

Sky don't seem t9 have Russian football experts, they guy who is their South American expert says he is ok from what I can tell, but is ok good or excellent who knows. Could be a Steve Marlet but could equally be a Louis Saha

It's not acceptable to refer to the Ukrainian Premier League as "Russian league football", and hasn't been since the breakup of the Soviet Union, circa 34 years ago.

However, to address your point - I also am curious how much anyone has actually seen of Kevin. Shakhtar are known to be excellent at talent spotting in the Brazilian league, and paid 12 million EUR for him in January 2024. Marco must also rate him highly, and have convinced TK to shell out for him. But any time we break our transfer record I get a bit nervous.

Guessing the OP was refering to the fact that the Donbas region is now controlled and likely to become part of Russia, of course, that said, Shaktar no longer play in Donbas, instead playing in Lviv

A very generous take. At best it looks like a huge amount of ignorance from OP

was a simple mistake, ignorance would be assuming someone can't make a mistake

[Deeping_white]

If he's this good then why is nobody else after him?

Napoli were in for him, I assume when the price hit the quoted €45m they backed away

[jayffc]

I've never seen him play, don't watch Russian league football (is it actually broadcast anywhere other than Russian?),so have no idea if he is any good or not or if he has the X factor.

Sky don't seem t9 have Russian football experts, they guy who is their South American expert says he is ok from what I can tell, but is ok good or excellent who knows. Could be a Steve Marlet but could equally be a Louis Saha

It's not acceptable to refer to the Ukrainian Premier League as "Russian league football", and hasn't been since the breakup of the Soviet Union, circa 34 years ago.

However, to address your point - I also am curious how much anyone has actually seen of Kevin. Shakhtar are known to be excellent at talent spotting in the Brazilian league, and paid 12 million EUR for him in January 2024. Marco must also rate him highly, and have convinced TK to shell out for him. But any time we break our transfer record I get a bit nervous.

In my usual sad hobby of watching a bit more footage of players who we get this heavily linked too (I did the same Andre last year for my sins) - I've been skipping through a couple "full games" from last season from Shaktar mostly in the champions league, from games they both won and lost.... And honestly he looks a top talent. Like he does some outragous stuff this kid.

He has that "aura" of a top-level game-changing player. Very skillfull, quick, always looking to take on his man, turns so quickly. Occasionally he goes for one thing too many or takes the wrong choice having beaten 3 guys already, he's not perfect, but, he's got that "it" factor for sure. Personally very excited. There's always risk, but this one seems worth taking to me

[copthornemike]

Any more news on Reiss Nelson? Given a sort number (24) in their squad and presumably injury free now, but unlikely to make even their bench nowadays.

[Drewry66]

I've never seen him play, don't watch Russian league football (is it actually broadcast anywhere other than Russian?),so have no idea if he is any good or not or if he has the X factor.

Sky don't seem t9 have Russian football experts, they guy who is their South American expert says he is ok from what I can tell, but is ok good or excellent who knows. Could be a Steve Marlet but could equally be a Louis Saha

It's not acceptable to refer to the Ukrainian Premier League as "Russian league football", and hasn't been since the breakup of the Soviet Union, circa 34 years ago.

However, to address your point - I also am curious how much anyone has actually seen of Kevin. Shakhtar are known to be excellent at talent spotting in the Brazilian league, and paid 12 million EUR for him in January 2024. Marco must also rate him highly, and have convinced TK to shell out for him. But any time we break our transfer record I get a bit nervous.

In my usual sad hobby of watching a bit more footage of players who we get this heavily linked too (I did the same Andre last year for my sins) - I've been skipping through a couple "full games" from last season from Shaktar mostly in the champions league, from games they both won and lost.... And honestly he looks a top talent. Like he does some outragous stuff this kid.

He has that "aura" of a top-level game-changing player. Very skillfull, quick, always looking to take on his man, turns so quickly. Occasionally he goes for one thing too many having beaten 3 guys already but, he's got that "it" factor for sure. Personally very excited. There's always risk, but this one seems worth taking to me

Interesting stuff mate. Clip reels are of course very deceiving but some of the skill in there is ridiculous. They also show just how rapid he looks. Far better to watch full games however so good feedback. 

[hopper]

Most of that is speculative/rumoured, isn't it? Don't get me wrong, think you're probably right, but the net result in simple terms i expect is Lyon and/or Textor have just retained some of those "economic rights" ie are due a percentage in the event of resale. Which is relevant sure, maybe not so much of a bargain as it seems, but I don't think we'd be complaining if for example we got Kevin for £20m but had to agree to give Shakhtar 40% on resale.

It's just them playing the game a bit more dynamically than we do, and I still think they've enough value in that squad to say they're overall in a better economic position than us. Given that we have a bigger wage bill and much less capacity to raise funds from player sales if we needed too.

It's not speculation in this case. Your reference to the structure of the deals doesn't apply like that in this case. Textor really has actively exploited Lyon for aid of Botafogo, and there is a long relationship of questionable deals.

Marinakis has been the beneficiary and it looks like it's to do with a future business for Botafogo.

I can see why some envy Forest as he spends, but he really is a mobster and I'm glad we don't have him in charge.

I've seen others say that PL seems like one big money loophole ring and we are one of only clubs not exploiting it. That feels partially true, but I wouldn't want to be anywhere near a multi club model.

[Drewry66]

If he's this good then why is nobody else after him?

Napoli were in for him, I assume when the price hit the quoted €45m they backed away

Yeah and Napoli usually have a good eye for talent.

Everyone has missed one of the biggest ones...only us and Wolves were in for João and we ended up with nearly a free run at him. Sometimes you get the odd one where everyone else seems to be sleeping. Let's pray Kevin turns out to be one of these.

[Jim©]

If he's this good then why is nobody else after him?

I've never really understood this take- there's a load of players we've had that you wonder why no one else went for- Saha, Finnan, Dembele the first, Palhinha, Robinson, Tete, Lee Clark etc etc etc.

[Fulham Tup North]

If he's this good then why is nobody else after him?

Napoli were in for him, I assume when the price hit the quoted €45m they backed away

Yeah and Napoli usually have a good eye for talent.

Everyone has missed one of the biggest ones...only us and Wolves were in for João and we ended up with nearly a free run at him. Sometimes you get the odd one where everyone else seems to be sleeping. Let's pray Kevin turns out to be one of these.

...and let's hope he's as good as Saha was ...
COYW

[cookieg]

If he's this good then why is nobody else after him?

yes agree - as with all exciting signings  we only will know if he's good once we see him play 10 games for us.  ESR has been a disappointment so far.

Nobody went for Son at Spurs?

and how about Jaoa?

[Angus Telford]

Most of that is speculative/rumoured, isn't it? Don't get me wrong, think you're probably right, but the net result in simple terms i expect is Lyon and/or Textor have just retained some of those "economic rights" ie are due a percentage in the event of resale. Which is relevant sure, maybe not so much of a bargain as it seems, but I don't think we'd be complaining if for example we got Kevin for £20m but had to agree to give Shakhtar 40% on resale.

It's just them playing the game a bit more dynamically than we do, and I still think they've enough value in that squad to say they're overall in a better economic position than us. Given that we have a bigger wage bill and much less capacity to raise funds from player sales if we needed too.

It's not speculation in this case. Your reference to the structure of the deals doesn't apply like that in this case. Textor really has actively exploited Lyon for aid of Botafogo, and there is a long relationship of questionable deals.

Marinakis has been the beneficiary and it looks like it's to do with a future business for Botafogo.

I can see why some envy Forest as he spends, but he really is a mobster and I'm glad we don't have him in charge.

I've seen others say that PL seems like one big money loophole ring and we are one of only clubs not exploiting it. That feels partially true, but I wouldn't want to be anywhere near a multi club model.

"It looks like it's to do with a future business for Botafogo" is by its nature speculative and I'm not sure much of the rest of that is confirmed anywhere. However it's a bit of a red herring because however scandalous the Textor-Lyon situation might be, Forest's actual legal/economic to that is still purely that they may not own all the economic rights in the player (which in practical terms is the same as a sell-on clause) as far as i can tell.

I agree I ultimately wouldn't want Fulham in a Marianakis or Textor multi-club situation, but i'm sure there are legitimate and less controversial arrangements and structures that can be used to get ahead. TK has talked openly about our arrangements with Mendes in the past, not to mention we've had some awful sponsors, and weren't we reportedly sued by Nice at one point? So it's not like our position is a consequence of some higher ethical standards.

[Angus Telford]

Well more because it's easier to keep an academy prospect of our own as third choice who's been here since a kid developing, than sign a player to start off 3rd in the pecking order, if hes of a certain desirable level.

Maybe if you're talking about a £20m player like Romulo but there are plenty of youngsters not quite at PL level yet who'd love to be on the fringe of our first team. If you look at most of the young players who've left us (Elliott, Carvalho et al) it's rarely to be an immediate starter at the new club.

[Drewry66]

I see a telepathic connection up front incoming

https://x.com/JoeGunning03/status/1957428044731134440

[Bal_13]

Think it'll be hard to bring in a young exciting prospect because of our other 2 strikers . Looks like we may have to go for a Taremi type and wait till next year when Raul likely moves on to bring in the next young option (or promote loupalo bi)

We had Josh King essentially as third choice last year, not getting many minutes but in and around the first team, and that was a good part of his development. As you say we could also promote Loupalo Bi. So why not bring in a "young, exciting prospect" from external and do the same?

Personally I think almost all our squad players should be youngsters, that's how a good development pipeline works

Well more because it's easier to keep an academy prospect of our own as third choice who's been here since a kid developing, than sign a player to start off 3rd in the pecking order, if hes of a certain desirable level. (And even then not easy - like osmand)

I agree id want one, like Romulo, in an ideal world , but they're generally going to want to go to places they have a much higher chance of playing and being the main striker or at least be guaranteed regular minutes off the bench. If theyre good enough and worth signing, they'll generally find that somewhere you'd think.

+ As with josh it may even be that we have high hopes for loupolo and therefore don't want to splash huge funds in that position until we see how he steps up in the next year or two. We currently have Muniz who is still relatively young. So can perhaps take taremi + raul as our other 2 options for now to send Aaron on loan, or see if comes good sooner(he is 19 now). If not next year we splash big money having potentially sold Muniz for big bucks if he has a good year.

Either way the striker market is insanely competitive. Saybwe want an akidore or a Romulo, both look like getting offers from European clubs where they won't be starting having to compete with 2 well established starters ahead of them.

It seems many on the board are really keen for a Romulo type signing but if we do sign someone at that cost at that age and then they come in as 3rd choice, what happens when they've been with us for a few years, never as a starter, but then are 26-27?

Because i'm just thinking about how great Cuenca always seems but equally he's wasting prime years with us.

Let's say we keep hold of him for this season and neither Bassey or Andersen are meaningfully injured so he has a season similar to last year. He'll be 26 in November and by the end of the 25/26 season will have c. 25ish appearances and around 1,500+ minutes.

Who is going to put in the sort of bid that would turn a meaningful profit on him based on that? Feels like a waste for his career and doesn't exactly help the books for us. But at least he came cheap.

The strikers we've been linked with won't so I don't quite see the draw for us or them given that every indication (if Muniz stays) is that we have two senior strikers who will, barring injury, pretty much always be starter / bench.

With this in mind I can see 1) why it's hard to recruit the Romulos of the world in our position and 2) why we can see some value in that squad option being older and on a free / nominal fee (even if it means a higher wage) or 3) we recourse to the Academy - although the big question mark there is it's a huge risk to rely on an 18 year old in a crisis

[fulhamfan]

from Football 365

Rodrigo Muniz
A better minutes-per-goal rate than Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Ian Wright, Diego Costa, Andy Cole, Didier Drogba, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Cristiano Ronaldo, Romelu Lukaku and Robbie Fowler.

It's why Muniz might be a £40m Champions League striker soon. And why Fulham should give him a pay rise and starting spot to prevent that happening.

[Somerset Fulham]

If he's this good then why is nobody else after him?

I've never really understood this take- there's a load of players we've had that you wonder why no one else went for- Saha, Finnan, Dembele the first, Palhinha, Robinson, Tete, Lee Clark etc etc etc.

I'm not suggesting he's rubbish or anything, I genuinely don't know, it was just me musing I suppose.

[General]

from Football 365

Rodrigo Muniz
A better minutes-per-goal rate than Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Ian Wright, Diego Costa, Andy Cole, Didier Drogba, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Cristiano Ronaldo, Romelu Lukaku and Robbie Fowler.

It's why Muniz might be a £40m Champions League striker soon. And why Fulham should give him a pay rise and starting spot to prevent that happening.

Good insight, and stat. His stats are very good for the minutes he plays, and his instinct and goals are pretty good in general quality/technique and variety, plus he scores a lot of last minute goals, showing he's a competitive player right to the end. He's the type of player we should be building with, not selling.

His Brighton goal is a great example of that. He came on in the 66th minute, and in 30 mins on the pitch scored a goal.

Notably too, because ESR has his detractors, yet he's also been on form in preseason. He came on in the 77th minute, and his shot led to the corner Muniz scored from. So an impact on the game within 19 mins.

[Tabby]

If he's this good then why is nobody else after him?

I've never really understood this take- there's a load of players we've had that you wonder why no one else went for- Saha, Finnan, Dembele the first, Palhinha, Robinson, Tete, Lee Clark etc etc etc.

I'm not suggesting he's rubbish or anything, I genuinely don't know, it was just me musing I suppose.

He is fairly untested and expensive. Clubs hesitant as his form could prove to just be a purple patch.

[Deeping_white]

https://twitter.com/fulhamtransfer/status/1957435056470761729

[Deeping_white]

https://twitter.com/tabuteaus/status/1957435212830274022