Winter Silly Season Transfer Thread 2025/2026

[Nero]

I doubt Boro would let Hackney go in January, given where they are in the Championship and how integral he is to that - MOTM again at Hull last night apparently.

And if we did manage to prise him away by paying top dollar, would he be Premier League ready? It's a big step up to instantly hit the ground running in this division and the Adam Whartons are few and far between.

no point us buying players in Jan, time Marco says theyre ready the season over

[hopper]

Behind a paywall but says Mainoo ready to leave United on loan. Would be a great Jan pick up if possible considering our midfield issues.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6864742/2025/12/05/kobbie-mainoo-manchester-united-transfer-loan-january/

Just came here to start this discussion.  Seems like the type of thing that could work wonders for both party's. We get a potentially key CM, and he is hungry to make the England squad. Would almost prefer this to a signing. then address the situation properly in the summer

I'm a big fan of Mainoo and so on the face of it a loan sounds very appealing. However, I do wonder whether his attributes are what we currently need for our midfield?

I think he does have the attributes we need personally. He is a creative, goal scoring midfielder which is what I had us down for needing.

[demeant0r]

Behind a paywall but says Mainoo ready to leave United on loan. Would be a great Jan pick up if possible considering our midfield issues.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6864742/2025/12/05/kobbie-mainoo-manchester-united-transfer-loan-january/

Just came here to start this discussion.  Seems like the type of thing that could work wonders for both party's. We get a potentially key CM, and he is hungry to make the England squad. Would almost prefer this to a signing. then address the situation properly in the summer

I'm a big fan of Mainoo and so on the face of it a loan sounds very appealing. However, I do wonder whether his attributes are what we currently need for our midfield?

I think he does have the attributes we need personally. He is a creative, goal scoring midfielder which is what I had us down for needing.

I'm guessing he wants to move somewhere where he'll start games which Marco doesn't do for at least 1-2 months at which point it'll be March and close to the end of the season.

[Hatch007]

They do that with young players, they keep most of their experienced players. They would probably sell King at the end of the season or the season after that.

Palace sold Eze and Brentford sold Norgaard. Both experienced players in terms of games played. Bournemouth sold an entire defence.

Being 5th in PotS is no reason to retain Lukic if a decent offer is received and an upgrade can be acquired, IMHO

[JimmyConway]

They do that with young players, they keep most of their experienced players. They would probably sell King at the end of the season or the season after that.

Palace sold Eze and Brentford sold Norgaard. Both experienced players in terms of games played. Bournemouth sold an entire defence.

Being 5th in PotS is no reason to retain Lukic if a decent offer is received and an upgrade can be acquired, IMHO

Entirely agree with your point with regards to Lukic. Depends I suppose on decent offer as we only paid was it £7m-£8m or close for him. If we could get half our money back or close to it then bite whatever teams hands off who are offering to sign him though I doubt it will be a long list of teams?

[hopper]

They do that with young players, they keep most of their experienced players. They would probably sell King at the end of the season or the season after that.

Palace sold Eze and Brentford sold Norgaard. Both experienced players in terms of games played. Bournemouth sold an entire defence.

Being 5th in PotS is no reason to retain Lukic if a decent offer is received and an upgrade can be acquired, IMHO

Entirely agree with your point with regards to Lukic. Depends I suppose on decent offer as we only paid was it £7m-£8m or close for him. If we could get half our money back or close to it then bite whatever teams hands off who are offering to sign him though I doubt it will be a long list of teams?

Losing a regular first team player mid season in a position we're incredibly thin in makes no sense though.

Reed and TC likely off in summer too. Lukic has been poor lately but would do more harm than good to sell.

[SerbianLad]

They do that with young players, they keep most of their experienced players. They would probably sell King at the end of the season or the season after that.

Palace sold Eze and Brentford sold Norgaard. Both experienced players in terms of games played. Bournemouth sold an entire defence.

Being 5th in PotS is no reason to retain Lukic if a decent offer is received and an upgrade can be acquired, IMHO

Of course, if some really good fee comes up, then we should sell. But that is true for any player. I was responding to the original point that said that we should be looking to sell him. That's a completely different thing. We should sell Muniz if a huge offer comes in(e.g. 60-70 million or something like that), but we shouldn't actively be looking to sell him. We should move on from Reed though, for example.

As for the two players you've mentioned, a player like Eze is always going to be in demand and attract huge fees. Not really comparable to Lukic + he's two years younger than Lukic(meaning that by the time we sell Lukic in this scenario, he'd be 3 years older than Eze was when Arsenal signed him). Norgaard is two years older than Lukic and they got a pretty big offer(12 million pounds if I remember correctly) for someone who is over 30. They've also had decent depth in midfield which can't be said for us. We are already short on options there, if we sell him, we'll be even more short on options there.

[SerbianLad]

Entirely agree with your point with regards to Lukic. Depends I suppose on decent offer as we only paid was it £7m-£8m or close for him. If we could get half our money back or close to it then bite whatever teams hands off who are offering to sign him though I doubt it will be a long list of teams?

You'd bite someone's hand off for 3-4 million pounds for a player that has been pretty much a regular starter for 2 years and one of our most consistent performers? Who are you going to replace him with, with that kind of money?

[sunburywhite]

Entirely agree with your point with regards to Lukic. Depends I suppose on decent offer as we only paid was it £7m-£8m or close for him. If we could get half our money back or close to it then bite whatever teams hands off who are offering to sign him though I doubt it will be a long list of teams?

You'd bite someone's hand off for 3-4 million pounds for a player that has been pretty much a regular starter for 2 years and one of our most consistent performers? Who are you going to replace him with, with that kind of money?

Is Fotheringham still around

[Hatch007]

@SerbianLad
" We are already short on options there, if we sell him, we'll be even more short on options there."

Hence why I specifically said " if a decent offer is received and an upgrade can be acquired".

My point was that Lukic being 5th in last season's PotS vote is not reason alone to retain him if the aforementioned criteria are met.

I do agree that Reed should be moved on in preference and let Berge and Lukic fight for the starting berth at 6. They should rarely, if ever, start together. Ideally I'd offload Reed and Adama for upgrades at 8 and RW

[SerbianLad]

@SerbianLad
" We are already short on options there, if we sell him, we'll be even more short on options there."

Hence why I specifically said " if a decent offer is received and an upgrade can be acquired".

My point was that Lukic being 5th in last season's PotS vote is not reason alone to retain him of the aforementioned criteria are met.

I do agree that Reed should be moved on in preference and let Berge and Lukic fight for the starting berth at 6. They should rarely, if ever, start together. Ideally I'd offload Reed and Adama for upgrades at 8 and RW

But again, I have no problem with that. The original point was that we should actively look to sell Lukic, and with that I disagree with. Of course everyone has their price.

[hongkongfulham]

Behind a paywall but says Mainoo ready to leave United on loan. Would be a great Jan pick up if possible considering our midfield issues.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6864742/2025/12/05/kobbie-mainoo-manchester-united-transfer-loan-january/

Just came here to start this discussion.  Seems like the type of thing that could work wonders for both party's. We get a potentially key CM, and he is hungry to make the England squad. Would almost prefer this to a signing. then address the situation properly in the summer

I'm a big fan of Mainoo and so on the face of it a loan sounds very appealing. However, I do wonder whether his attributes are what we currently need for our midfield?

I think he does have the attributes we need personally. He is a creative, goal scoring midfielder which is what I had us down for needing.

On a side note, I would love to see King given a chance in CM. I know he had a clanger this season when he dropped into the hole and gave away that square ball but he is fantastic on the ball and brave. Might be a disaster but given our issue in there I'd like to see it, maybe a wee bit of Dembele vibes in my dreams

[SerbianLad]

On a side note, I would love to see King given a chance in CM. I know he had a clanger this season when he dropped into the hole and gave away that square ball but he is fantastic on the ball and brave. Might be a disaster but given our issue in there I'd like to see it, maybe a wee bit of Dembele vibes in my dreams

I'd maybe try it against Burnley, but even then, it's quite risky. His physical attributes aren't good enough to play therr at this stage of his career, imo. But as I said multiple times, once he bulks up, that will probably be his best position.

[FFC007]

https://x.com/FulhamTransfer/status/1996682161886519454?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

[H4usuallysitting]

I definitely wouldn't sell Lukic in January.... Would be a backwards move...we need to add to that position with an attacking midfielder.....what we desperately need to do is be very active in the first week of the summer transfer window

[HillingdonFFC]

https://x.com/FulhamTransfer/status/1996682161886519454?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

I was excited when we were linked with him when he was at Feyenoord. Scored for fun, the move to Milan hasn't worked out for him but he's still been half decent there. I'd be happy if we are in for him. Still only 24, Good finisher , strong and quite pacy. Knows Raul & Chucky too

[WolverineFFC]

https://x.com/FulhamTransfer/status/1996682161886519454?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

I was excited when we were linked with him when he was at Feyenoord. Scored for fun, the move to Milan hasn't worked out for him but he's still been half decent there. I'd be happy if we are in for him. Still only 24, Good finisher , strong and quite pacy. Knows Raul & Chucky too

Judging by how Chuk struggled at AC Milan before coming over, sign me up now for Gimenez. Maybe we could see a repeat.

[Pavel Dempsey]

They do that with young players, they keep most of their experienced players. They would probably sell King at the end of the season or the season after that.

Palace sold Eze and Brentford sold Norgaard. Both experienced players in terms of games played. Bournemouth sold an entire defence.

Being 5th in PotS is no reason to retain Lukic if a decent offer is received and an upgrade can be acquired, IMHO

Entirely agree with your point with regards to Lukic. Depends I suppose on decent offer as we only paid was it £7m-£8m or close for him. If we could get half our money back or close to it then bite whatever teams hands off who are offering to sign him though I doubt it will be a long list of teams?

Mate, so you would sell Lukić for 3-4m only for us to be shortened in DMC position and relying only on Berge and Reed who is basically a Championship lever player? SMH

[@jolslover]

Louza (Watford) imo has been the best player in Champ this season and would be good to see us go for him as we need another CM and doubt he would be too expensive

[ffcthereligion]

https://x.com/FulhamTransfer/status/1996682161886519454?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

Yes please