🌞Summer Silly Season Transfer thread 2026

[jayffc]

I think Charles is a good player but for 30m I think we should be aiming for someone who is clear prem quality which I don't think he is right now (definitely has the potential to be).

From Jan onwards I am sure he came off the bench as many times as he started for Southampton (a Championship club).

Still, If he is someone that Arbeloa wanted them I am behind him and I definitely think he has the potential to be good at our level just not sure he would have been my first choice for 30m.

Must admit he's one I like as an option, but am sceptical of the fee being a considerable wedge, more so than I have been with others.

Still plenty of potential upside so just hope he can grow to justify the cost here. One of those I could have seen is haggling down harder and later any ordinary summer but the remit is get it done and so it seems they are pushing ahead.

Filing under cautiously optimistic for now, has performed well at international level arguably more than at club level it seems so hoping he's got the raw talent to succeed and be consistent

[jayffc]

Interesting 🤔

So seems JJ would be the Lukic replacement - not Charles IF Sasa were to leave. According to Alan nixon

https://i.postimg.cc/pdfZn7XV/IMG-1102.png


Edit* further new regarding Shea Charles

FFN:
Player is really keen on the move "terms close but not quite fully agreed yet and apparently Leeds said they had issues with his agent wanting a 2m fee. My guess is that is what is slowing it... But its close."

[simplyfulham]

If what is true about Shea then 30 million is too much. For that price you should get a ready made quality DM not one that misplaces passes or needs another season to adapt, and this is the from the championship not the PL.

I disagree, the market for midfielders is a joke. Remember that Spurs paid 100m for Tonali. Don't see who else is available for EUR30m?

I really don't mean to call you out, but I hear this a fair bit and don't really agree.

It is true that the top end of the market has gone mad and trying to get anything like value for money is almost impossible. But there is still plenty of value out there for teams with the ability to look for it.

Just looking at transfer this summer, Hayden Hackney, the Championship player of the season, moved to Everton for less than £20m.

Kang-in Lee, who's won the UCL twice with PSG has moved for a fee of about £35m.

Even Arthur Atta, who we had been linked with last season, moved for a fee around £20m.

So I think the market for good value hasn't completely dried up yet, even if it has shrunk with some of the made fees being paid out so far.

I'm not really sure I'm a good judge of whether Shea Charles is good value or not at about £30m but I'm happy to wait and see.

Lee was never a regular for PSG, they've sold a squad player for big money and he's an attacking midfielder, Atta for £20m to another midtable Italian team shows that bigger teams clearly don't like what they see in his ability/workrate/skill set. Hackney was into the last year of his contract and is 2 years older than Charles.

Charles is a Man City academy grad and they've had the best academy since they got oil money because of how much they can put into it, his statistical profile is excellent and he's capable of playing as a DM or a box to box type CM. He understands the physicality of the PL and will be able to slot straight in, and given how there is a lack of ball playing DM's who love a tackle, we only need him to have a decent season and we will make our money back or better. And besides, it will be circa £26m with a sell on, which is about what we paid for Berge so it's not like we're breaking the bank on a player who has more upsides than downsides.

I'll hear you out, but that is an exceptionally glass half full take.

[spoonffc]

Where you getting Arthur Atta moving for 20m? He moved for 40m..

[jayffc]

https://x.com/david_ornstein/status/2085116221196820748?s=46

Ornstein semi bomba !

🚨 Fulham make offer to sign coveted Rennes centre-back Abdelhamid Ait Boudlal. £20m bid below #StadeRennais valuation of 20yo & rejected. Interest ongoing but #FFC realistic on chances + deliberating whether to push again. W/ @GuillermoRai_ @TheAthleticFC


Obligatory

[itombomb]

Clear our transfer strategy is fundamentally different now Marco has gone. Much higher risk, but also potential for much higher reward - both in terms of performance but also generating increased revenue for the club.

[SimonDaviesEnjoyer]

I'll hear you out, but that is an exceptionally glass half full take.

Out of interest, which bits do you dispute?

[Arthur]

I think Charles is a good player but for 30m I think we should be aiming for someone who is clear prem quality which I don't think he is right now (definitely has the potential to be).

I see similarities with Aston Villa's purchase of Morgan Rogers from Middlesbrough two years ago. It seems Boro fans thought Rogers was decent, showed promise, but didn't think he was ready for the P.L. and wouldn't get into Villa's starting XI.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GX0v5NhlIsk

Villa bought Rogers on the basis of his potential and it has proved to be an inspired gamble. Whether Shea Charles develops into a player coveted by the 'big six' cannot be foretold, but we are, at least, venturing into a market for younger players where we might turn a profit. Wait another season for Charles to be 'P.L. ready' and he'd likely be signing for a bigger club than us.

[Angus Telford]

I find it hard to believe we'd have new players training with the team when their signings haven't even been announced. I mean, I know some leakage of information is inevitable but at that point you're essentially displaying the player publicly at the training ground and completely losing control of the announcement process.

Coming back to this after the club posted the obligatory "First Day at Fulham" video and it appears to me that this is exactly what happened. That is, our two most recent signings were training with the team before their signings had been announced by the club. It looks like they did their medical (or more likely a portion of it) at a very empty training ground Sunday afternoon. Among other things you see in the video they are greeted by the manager in the dining room at 7:20pm (digital clock in the background). Then they arrive the next morning and you see them meet teammates, eat and train before heading over to the Cottage to do photos, interviews, etc. that afternoon/early evening. The club then announced their signing later that night.

Yup: it appears it happened almost exactly as the "imaginary" commentary put it.

Deal agreed mid last week (aligned with Gonzalo posting champagne on the IG)
Players Flew out Saturday (reported by Matteo)
Our Team flew back from Portugal same day but returned to work Motspur Monday
Real signings had Medical Sunday/Monday as seen alone at empty Motspur first (Reed: you training today? Gonzalo 'I trained yesterday but yeh')
Players seemingly worked out with the team Monday in their group gym session
Then after had their photos taken at the cottage (exactly as reported)
Players continued on the pitch with the team yesterday

Of course rather than acknowledging this and perhaps retracting being rude and dismissive, it just got moved to being about August and it being late still.
It is...what it is, and it will always be like this as it has always been like this.

Ooh this is getting exciting now, like the end if a Columbo episode.
Ok i apologise.
But one more thing...
So had he already trained with the team at the time of Bahay's comment below, which started all of this?

If the deal is done for these 2 young Spanish lads , how come they aren't confirmed and training with the team. ? Just seems a waste of a week . Anyone else who gets a " here we go " post is on the website within a few hours telling everyone how they have been a Bournemouth fan since they were a kid, dream come true etc

[Deeping_white]

Clear our transfer strategy is fundamentally different now Marco has gone. Much higher risk, but also potential for much higher reward - both in terms of performance but also generating increased revenue for the club.

Penny for Silva's thoughts, seeing us active early and putting big money into transfers. Perhaps telling that it's different now he's not here and his targets proved harder to get for the last few years

[Whitestone]

If what is true about Shea then 30 million is too much. For that price you should get a ready made quality DM not one that misplaces passes or needs another season to adapt, and this is the from the championship not the PL.

Played for Southampton, loaned to Sheff Wed in 2025 then returned to Southampton. Doesn't shout top class to me.

There are many players over the years who have played in the Championship and gone on to have successful careers in the Premier League.

[@jolslover]

https://x.com/david_ornstein/status/2085116221196820748?s=46

Ornstein semi bomba !

🚨 Fulham make offer to sign coveted Rennes centre-back Abdelhamid Ait Boudlal. £20m bid below #StadeRennais valuation of 20yo & rejected. Interest ongoing but #FFC realistic on chances + deliberating whether to push again. W/ @GuillermoRai_ @TheAthleticFC


Obligatory

He is very very highly rated, reading Rennes value him at 40m but might have to sell for less due to fair play.

A couple of interesting tweets to check out.

https://x.com/i/status/1999899358800826633
https://x.com/i/status/1992565392040997087

[@jolslover]

From Rutzler just now. Not sure how accurate this is but he's usually a good source and I hope it's Pitarch if this is true.

Fulham are looking at their midfield after Garcia/Palacios arrivals and I  expect they will only do one of Shea Charles or Thiago Pitarch. Mourinho keen to keep Pitarch, Charles issue has been fee but talks, as per reports, have progressed.

[jayffc]

@Angus Telford

If sincere then appreciated

the team weren't in on Sunday.

My personal point was it wasn't a "waste of a week" just the natural time for move to play out given timing of agreement and teams schedule in Portugal and also as a separate matterm, just that players can train before press release goes out.  Which is what I personally responded to that Bahay comment directly

the deals were agreed between clubs and players midweek- naturally one can presume then gotta sort visa/paperwork and get life together to move and then fly here Saturday  to start medicals next day

so the time from agreed deal to joining squad made perfect sense. They weren't gonna fly to Portugal for 1 day or even on Saturday to join the team who were playing a friendly that day, just to then fly home having not trained anyway.

They joined the team at first opportunity when the players arrived back to Motspur, and trained with them prior to photo shoot and announcement

[jayffc]

From Rutzler just now. Not sure how accurate this is but he's usually a good source and I hope it's Pitarch if this is true.

Fulham are looking at their midfield after Garcia/Palacios arrivals and I  expect they will only do one of Shea Charles or Thiago Pitarch. Mourinho keen to keep Pitarch, Charles issue has been fee but talks, as per reports, have progressed.

Fwiw
Consensus amongst the "ITK" lot is Rutzler is likely a bit off here.

And makes logical sense cos Shea Charles and Pitarch are completely different profiles so whilst historically top tier I'm not sure if Peter is as on the ball regarding Fulham as he used to be.guess well have to see what transpires

[iansthailand]

Can I just come back to Shea Charles.
If Crystal Palace can't spend anything because of PSR (I know they can only spend 75%, whereas us 85% because we aren't in Europe) I would really worry how much we can spend too.

If we have spent £42 mil on palacios and Garcia, but recouped £10 on diop, thus net £32 million how much more can we spend? Is it sensible to spend a large majority on Charles?

But that's only 8.4 Mil for SCR this season on the books.

Sorry DW i went a bit early. People should read DW's post for an extensive view of the Garcia/Palacios financial situation if they haven't already done so.

[ffcthereligion]

From Rutzler just now. Not sure how accurate this is but he's usually a good source and I hope it's Pitarch if this is true.

Fulham are looking at their midfield after Garcia/Palacios arrivals and I  expect they will only do one of Shea Charles or Thiago Pitarch. Mourinho keen to keep Pitarch, Charles issue has been fee but talks, as per reports, have progressed.

Fwiw
Consensus amongst the "ITK" lot is Rutzler is likely a bit off here.

And makes logical sense cos Shea Charles and Pitarch are completely different profiles so whilst historically top tier I'm not sure if Peter is as on the ball regarding Fulham as he used to be.guess well have to see what transpires

Id be gutted if we didn't sign Pitarch in order to sign Charles. I'd be happy with both, but if if was only one as is being suggested I'd have Pitarch all day long

[Coast94]

I'd like us to go for Charles AND Pitarch. Different profiles. Not to mention the TC injury and Lukic seemingly not rated by AA.

[Neutral Zone Ultra]

From Rutzler just now. Not sure how accurate this is but he's usually a good source and I hope it's Pitarch if this is true.

Fulham are looking at their midfield after Garcia/Palacios arrivals and I  expect they will only do one of Shea Charles or Thiago Pitarch. Mourinho keen to keep Pitarch, Charles issue has been fee but talks, as per reports, have progressed.

Fwiw
Consensus amongst the "ITK" lot is Rutzler is likely a bit off here.

And makes logical sense cos Shea Charles and Pitarch are completely different profiles so whilst historically top tier I'm not sure if Peter is as on the ball regarding Fulham as he used to be.guess well have to see what transpires

Isn't Rutzler at the Athletic, so presumably has fingers in similar pies to David Ornstein (considered the gold standard when it comes to transfer news)? Not necessarily saying that he's 100% right, but I'd be surprised if his employers would let him report dodgy information given it's a major part of their product and reputation?

[The Cravenette]

Not sure if Lukic is not rated, it may just be a case that we need to recoup some money this window.  He is one of the few players we have in that age bracket that we can get some money for and an offer appears to have been made.

Personally I would rather keep him, he is very good on his day but if the Club need to balance books a bit to bring others in then guess it could be inevitable.

I do like the direction the club are going in. Many have been crying out for us to dip into the Championship as others have done. It is a risk of course, particularly at the prices being mentioned, but very exciting.