Winter Silly Season Transfer Thread 2025/2026

[sunburywhite]

We can't have everything we want. Clubs won't sell, players don't want to come, overpriced, injury prone etc. Yes a CM would be good but it's got to be the right one at the right price and willing to come. Not easy.

Bobb in, Traore out. Excellent business and a huge upgrade.

People wont like you being sensible

[General]

Joe Samsom, from Fulhamish podcast, very well
 I agree with everything
https://x.com/FFCJoe/status/2018334004001308912

https://x.com/FFCJoe/status/2018334007222497507

https://x.com/FFCJoe/status/2018335208148275436

Failed move for George? No
Didn't fail, we opted not to take the move because Wilson stayed.

Failed for Nuameh? - behave, he cried the deal off and we immediately moved for Nelson
Failed for Coufal (lol) Hammers blocked the deal. (thank f***)
Celik? Vague rumours - who cares, rather Castagne and Tete.
Chukwueze evidently not able to get over the line then...now plays for us.
No mention of us getting chuk for a good deal late? Bobb late in window after plenty negotiation? Sometimes it works, sometimes not. We've offered very good fees for pepi since December

"You can never convince me this is the way to do business" says people who'd never negotiated a footbal transfer nor anything remotely in the same ballpark in their life. Spare me.

Look, it's definately a risky strategy, sometimes it pays off, sometimes it doesn't. Loads of deals are being reported on around the league today saying it's too late etc. not only fulham.

It's reasonable, nay logical, to assume the club have found historically that it has generally worked out favourably for them personally more often than not. Usually that's why people end up doing things how they do them. As they've seen it work. It comes with risk, Sometimes it pays off, sometimes it doesn't

Either way, Fulham are 8th currently and remaining as competitive as a club our size has ever been. We're all just mouthy back street drivers.

These are my twitter posts so just to confirm...

Nuamah - why did we not check if the player wanted to come before spending all-day on it? Yes we got Nelson without an option to buy, whereas Nuamah was a permanent deal aiming for a longer-term strategy.

Celik/Coufal - we needed a right back as Tete was injured and Castagne was underperforming, not saying either of these would pull up trees but we had zero depth at the time. Both were very last-minute, short-term options and we still failed to get it done.

Chukwueze - we tried for him deadline day last January. Yes he now plays for us, but we waited the ENTIRE summer window to get that done, meaning he wasn't involved in matchday squads til mid-September, whereas he could have been the previous February if we moved sooner. Imagine how useful he'd have been in last year's European push.

As for Pepi, if rumours are to be believed we haggled over circa £800k for around a week, then bid OVER his original asking price the day prior to the deadline. Is that sensible? We could have bid less than that on 1st January and likely got close to a deal, especially as it would have given PSV time to sort a replacement.

I take your point that some negotiations have been good (e.g. Bobb), but in my opinion they are few and far between, and we often leave deals late (Kevin, Chukwueze) for no real benefit. We met the original asking price for both in the Summer...

Don't forget those like Patrick kluivert

[SimonDaviesEnjoyer]

Maybe Seth Ridgeon will get a go earlier than we expected.

[FFC1987]

We can't have everything we want. Clubs won't sell, players don't want to come, overpriced, injury prone etc. Yes a CM would be good but it's got to be the right one at the right price and willing to come. Not easy.

Bobb in, Traore out. Excellent business and a huge upgrade.

People wont like you being sensible

I mean, its cute but one can acknowledge good business, whilst also addressing shortcomings. We wouldn't want anyone not being sensible now would we.

[Nero]

Late bid going in for Forest striker Chris Woods apparently.

Who by us of Ajax?

[jayffc]

Joe Samsom, from Fulhamish podcast, very well
 I agree with everything
https://x.com/FFCJoe/status/2018334004001308912

https://x.com/FFCJoe/status/2018334007222497507

https://x.com/FFCJoe/status/2018335208148275436

Failed move for George? No
Didn't fail, we opted not to take the move because Wilson stayed.

Failed for Nuameh? - behave, he cried the deal off and we immediately moved for Nelson
Failed for Coufal (lol) Hammers blocked the deal. (thank f***)
Celik? Vague rumours - who cares, rather Castagne and Tete.
Chukwueze evidently not able to get over the line then...now plays for us.
No mention of us getting chuk for a good deal late? Bobb late in window after plenty negotiation? Sometimes it works, sometimes not. We've offered very good fees for pepi since December

"You can never convince me this is the way to do business" says people who'd never negotiated a footbal transfer nor anything remotely in the same ballpark in their life. Spare me.

Look, it's definately a risky strategy, sometimes it pays off, sometimes it doesn't. Loads of deals are being reported on around the league today saying it's too late etc. not only fulham.

It's reasonable, nay logical, to assume the club have found historically that it has generally worked out favourably for them personally more often than not. Usually that's why people end up doing things how they do them. As they've seen it work. It comes with risk, Sometimes it pays off, sometimes it doesn't

Either way, Fulham are 8th currently and remaining as competitive as a club our size has ever been. We're all just mouthy back street drivers.

These are my twitter posts so just to confirm...

Nuamah - why did we not check if the player wanted to come before spending all-day on it? Yes we got Nelson without an option to buy, whereas Nuamah was a permanent deal aiming for a longer-term strategy.

Celik/Coufal - we needed a right back as Tete was injured and Castagne was underperforming, not saying either of these would pull up trees but we had zero depth at the time. Both were very last-minute, short-term options and we still failed to get it done.

Chukwueze - we tried for him deadline day last January. Yes he now plays for us, but we waited the ENTIRE summer window to get that done, meaning he wasn't involved in matchday squads til mid-September, whereas he could have been the previous February if we moved sooner. Imagine how useful he'd have been in last year's European push.

As for Pepi, if rumours are to be believed we haggled over circa £800k for around a week, then bid OVER his original asking price the day prior to the deadline. Is that sensible? We could have bid less than that on 1st January and likely got close to a deal, especially as it would have given PSV time to sort a replacement.

I take your point that some negotiations have been good (e.g. Bobb), but in my opinion they are few and far between, and we often leave deals late (Kevin, Chukwueze) for no real benefit. We met the original asking price for both in the Summer...

Don't forget those like Patrick kluivert

Bit of a unique situation with the legal issues around Brexit tbf. we had a deal agreed.

[spoonffc]

I think it's fair to say this window was always going to be a test of whether Marco Silva's ambitions would truly be matched by the club. So far, it doesn't look like they are.

We've instead focused on overspending on an injured, second - choice striker from the Dutch league - seemingly because he's American - while ignoring the fact that we're relying on one ageing striker who often looks spent after 60 minutes. (He's a bloody trooper) The lack of urgency in securing proper cover is baffling and clearly feeds into Silva's fear of not being backed.

We're also painfully thin in central midfield and have arguably been overachieving despite it. The absence of a clear Plan B and the tunnel vision in recruitment feels immature, and Silva deserves better.

This could end up being an expensive window in the worst way - costing us Silva's trust and potentially his future here. There's still time to fix it, but I'm worried. Sorry for the negativity.

[Bronaldinho]

It's a tricky situation in general. Tight restrictions in FFP/SCR makes every penny count. The other thing is that we leave business late. There's pro's and cons to that approach.

The other factor is that missing targets, demoralises fans and upsets the coach. Now staff want convincing we are serious about pushing on (Silva/Wilson) we do the same strategy.

While there has been some good funding, and good deals over the years, as others have highlighted we've missed targets time and time again. We've also left squad building really late, except for a few deals that just hit a chord.

TK is DoF at Fulham, Similar role at Jacksonville Jaguars, CEO at AEW, and I believe he may still work for an Agency he owns too? (Could be wrong on that last one).

All senior executive level positions, and while there is a team that works below him at each organisation - even being the decision maker for every role makes it incredibly hard for one person.

[South Coast White]

Let's jump in and get Mateta on loan with buy option in summer, gotta be worth than Pepi risk.

[FFC007]

Mitrovic?

[jayffc]

Look, some posters just won't accept this the last window, or even this one has its flaws, and some might, but will downplay them into oblivion so its a pointless circle jerk that will no doubt accumulate another 50 pages.

My standpoint in short is, its a failure in the process when profiles are selected and positions allocated time and resource to fill, aren't being filled across multiple windows. Relying on January windows to cover shortcomings in summer windows will always be risky, and time adverse. You either pay the premiums, or you lose out on say, the best damn manager we've had in a long time (or ever in some views).

Time will tell. Silva may have come across as happy when he was being told we had irons in the fire and Bobb over the line, but he's never been quiet on the desire for more and 'being aligned' on what we needed.

Think I've been pretty balanced in my assessment of this window and last tbh.

-Think we should have got a CM and it's my main area of concern.
-Would have liked pepi and frustrated it's not happening, but also feel PSV had absolutely plenty opportunity to line up an option their end and not waste our time either. We offered very sizeable offers all window so the intent was bloody obvious.
-Think last summers signings were a bit later than even I would like them
- Also understand why the club operates how it does and have seen it work many times as well as sometimes it not working out to plan. Such is the risk taken.

Think that's plenty reasonable personally.

Either way the results are what they are whatever I think and I'm pretty happy with the fact the club is progressing and competing for Europe currently, whatever people's gripes or fears are squad wise, including mine.

As for Marco, we'll see I guess, it's clear we offered big money for players he wanted and have at least brought him Bobb who could be a serious talent. He seemed to understand the situation and was pretty content. but it's entirely plausible he doesn't stay. We'll have to see what he decides.

[FFC007]

This is building up for another shocking transfer window.

Bobb for Traore looks like the only piece of business on the menu.

[Nero]

we really should just sign any old crap just to keep people happy we made signings instead of looking for quality 

[KJS]

I think it's fair to say this window was always going to be a test of whether Marco Silva's ambitions would truly be matched by the club. So far, it doesn't look like they are.

We've instead focused on overspending on an injured, second - choice striker from the Dutch league - seemingly because he's American - while ignoring the fact that we're relying on one ageing striker who often looks spent after 60 minutes. (He's a bloody trooper) The lack of urgency in securing proper cover is baffling and clearly feeds into Silva's fear of not being backed.

We're also painfully thin in central midfield and have arguably been overachieving despite it. The absence of a clear Plan B and the tunnel vision in recruitment feels immature, and Silva deserves better.

This could end up being an expensive window in the worst way - costing us Silva's trust and potentially his future here. There's still time to fix it, but I'm worried. Sorry for the negativity.

For all you Silva said his main target was Pepi and the club did everything to get him only for PSV to pull the plug so therefore it might be Silva's fault for insisting that Pepi was the only striker hw wanted?
In other words 'Who Knows apart from the club' certainly not us fans who just make assumptions 🙄

[spoonffc]

Yeh I'm sure Silva was hoping for a striker that's going to be injured until march, and I'm sure the recruitment team are doing a swell job because Silva has never bemoaned their assertiveness..

[Ivorwasgod]

i willl actually in this case defend club - as silva himself said Jan is diffcult - is shorter window, teams still have domestic/european targets.  The PSV issue is that i think that they never really wanted to sell even though they are 17pts clear in dutch lge and now out of UCL. 

we have made bids earlier in window on pepi and others

also Bobb is a definate upgrade on squad.  Looking at bench yesterday (and adding in Muniz etc ) its a much stronger bench than many other teams with u21 on bench week in week out. 

i would have liked Pepi (who was the main target) but would you take a last minute alternate - pepi was strageic planning for when JImenez leaves rather than a Jan panic buy

[KJS]

Be honest, today's dead line day for sky has been a non event, Mateta is the only story they've had and most clubs are not splashing the cash for players to join in this window😴😴😴😴😴

[Nero]

Be honest, today's dead line day for sky has been a non event, Mateta is the only story they've had and most clubs are not splashing the cash for players to join in this window😴😴😴😴😴

Besides Forest who are looking at signing another 20 players

[Chi_FFC]

Castagne was torn inside out at Newcastle by Gordon days before the window closed and was not performing well at that time.

Eh, he had a rough moment or two up against a very good player in a match we won. He'd been generally solid in Dec/Jan just like he was generally solid over the entirety of last season.

[Ivorwasgod]

and could be worse - palace buying JSL for £50m ! and then not only does mateta fail medical which sale would have offset the JSL cost and mateta now needs surgery