The January 2026 Transfer Window

[G Somerset Rover]

22 minutes ago, RTM08 said:

Now that's gone through there's really no excuses for having a striker in for the weekend.

‘The market is tough. Everyone is looking for more firepower. Before Swansea is now the aim.’

[benhben]

At the time I thought he could be a good addition, and give us a presence in the box we massively lacked. Big and strong. However, after only a couple of games it was glaringly obvious he would never be up to the standard needed both technically and football brain. 

Lucky to get a fee for him, not that it would be re-invested anyway.

Edited 3 hours ago by benhben

[JHRover]

As per usual no issues or problems in getting people out of the door / off the wage bill / money in, but never so fast in getting people in especially where it requires cash or a permanent contract.

So with that in mind we are now almost at the half way stage of the January window and have actually reduced our options in this joke of a squad. That is not to say Gueye was any good, but he's another option gone and as yet not replaced.

I really don't take kindly to the local media supporting our transfer activity on the grounds we 'need to make space' in the 25 man squad either. 

[davulsukur]

Pape was a character but quite frankly an awful striker. Embarrassed further when he was unable to get shots on target for bullshit Youtube videos when under no pressure or even have a goalkeeper to beat.

Offside more than any other player I can remember.

[MarkBRFC]

10 minutes ago, JHRover said:

 

I really don't take kindly to the local media supporting our transfer activity on the grounds we 'need to make space' in the 25 man squad either. 

Especially when we can register and unregister players into that 25 man squad on a game by game basis during this month.

[Dreams of 1995]

Didn’t work out with Pape but he got some important goals for us under Eustace. The header in the drab affair at Sheff Wednesday to pinch a 1-0 win being a memorable moment, followed closely by his other headed goal being about 1 foot off the floor in front of the travelling Nobbers

I always think back to that West Brom game for an understanding of what he is capable of

Generally though, he didn’t show the ability to step up to the Championship. Eustace got a better tune out of him and knew how to use him but Ismael is inflexible and it never worked with Gueye. To be honest, people look at that YouTube video of him missing the open net, and I am seeing a player devoid of all confidence - not helped by his captain ridiculing him in national TV and his manager calling him out also.

During his time here he won us some important points - 9 by my reckoning - and had the whole Eustace debacle not unfolded those points may have meant we made the play offs. We then sold him for a profit. It could have been a very successful affair but it probably leaves on a disappointment, for a player who had the potential to be a fan favourite but whose ability would not allow it

Good luck to Pape in China. He gave Rovers fans some memories - good and bad 

[roversfan99]

Yeah this 25 man squad thing is a bit of a red herring.

We need 3 or 4 in urgently regardless. As long as we do it properly this time unlike the grossly unprofessional shambles when Sigurdsson was ditched after the window had closed. We have a number of non contributors, whether that be players that arent good enough (De Neve, Henriksson, Tavares, Kargbo) players who will miss the majority of the season (Hedges) or players who have been made redundant by the formation change (Pickering, Ribeiro). As long as we tell players there is a chance that they wont be registered in advance to try and nudge them out, if they choose to stay then thats on them and they take the risk.

[bluebruce]

Just because we can swap players in and out during this window doesn't mean the 25 man squad limit doesn't have to be considered at all. It means we don't have to wait for a player to physically leave before we bring their replacement in (the budget probably does though), but it does mean we can't just bring in 3 or 4 players and crack on. We will have to consider who is left out of the squad if we can't sell them before the deadline.

Our resources are finite, we can't really afford to pay wages to players who won't be available to play for half the season.

[roversfan99]

But equally, that opens up the possibility for example of no one leaving and then if we had that attitude, we will go down with no new signings.

We can consider it at 24 because Hedges we will be paying but he wont be able to play either way.

[Tim Southampton Rover]

Now that Cashin takes Gueye's place in the 25 man squad, I think I would do the following:

• Pratt - send out on loan
• Ribeiro - sell
• Forshaw - release
• Hedges - not register
• Gardner-Hickman - send back, replace with Garratt

That would free up 4 slots. You could then decide if it's worth loaning out Tavares or just unregistering but this depends on injuries / attitude.

Edit:
I'd keep Kargbo - didn't realise he was close to returning from injury.

 

Edited 2 hours ago by Tim Southampton Rover
spelling mistake

[RoversClitheroe]

4 minutes ago, Tim Southampton Rover said:

Now that Cashin takes Gueye's place in the 25 man squad, I think I would do the following:

• Pratt - send out on loan
• Ribeiro - sell
• Forshaw - release
• Hedges - not register
• Gardner-Hickman - send back, replace with Garratt

That would free up 4 slots. You could then decide if it's worth loaning out Tavares or just unregistering but this depends on injuries / attitude.

Edit:
I'd keep Kargbo - didn't release he was close to returning from injury.

 

Garrett is shit.

Sell Tavares too

[Tom]

I miss Big Pape already!

A ‘limited’ player but did a decent job last season.

Wish him nothing but the best of luck. 

Edited 2 hours ago by Tom

[roversfan99]

10 minutes ago, Tim Southampton Rover said:

Now that Cashin takes Gueye's place in the 25 man squad, I think I would do the following:

• Pratt - send out on loan
• Ribeiro - sell
• Forshaw - release
• Hedges - not register
• Gardner-Hickman - send back, replace with Garratt

That would free up 4 slots. You could then decide if it's worth loaning out Tavares or just unregistering but this depends on injuries / attitude.

Edit:
I'd keep Kargbo - didn't realise he was close to returning from injury.

 

Gardner Hickman is not particularly good but we need him in the squad. Garrett is not of an equal standing.

Although registering Garrett would surely defeat the purpose anyway.

[JHRover]

A club whose league status is in serious jeopardy and has a squad in the state we have acts first to get quality in, and worries about nonsense like 25 man squads later when we know what we've got to work with. 

We can sit here until deadline day talking about who gets into the 25 - what matters is getting some quality in before another 4-5 games are wasted with us playing the reserves.

[RevidgeBlue]

1 minute ago, JHRover said:

We can sit here until deadline day talking about who gets into the 25 

And no doubt they will.

[roverblue]

We need someone in the Gueye mould in terms of his physical presence (albeit he was useless with it). The big Charlton striker the other week won literally everything hit up to him and would walk into our team. 

[Roverthechimp]

1 hour ago, Tim Southampton Rover said:

Good luck to him. It didn't work out on the pitch but he won't be forgotten off the pitch. 

I think we were lucky to get as much as we did for him. I hope the recruitment team take this as a lesson learnt when it comes to future signings. 
 

How much have we got for him?

[...]

1 hour ago, Browjd said:

Where has all the money gone?! 

[Torgeir]

1 hour ago, RTM08 said:

Now that's gone through there's really no excuses for having a striker in for the weekend.

Plan Æ Ø Å as we say in Norway.

[Tomphil2]

1 hour ago, davulsukur said:

Pape was a character but quite frankly an awful striker. Embarrassed further when he was unable to get shots on target for bullshit Youtube videos when under no pressure or even have a goalkeeper to beat.

Offside more than any other player I can remember.

Yeah a bright character who brought a bit of light relief for a spell if not goals and the type of player who needs a Eustace or an Allardyce to have any sniff of success.

However truth be told very poor standard of player who didn't even use the physical talents he did have to the best of his efforts.

Worse without doubt than Chris Brown or Luke Varney but got away with it due to fan bonding and plundering the odd goal last year.

[B16Rover]

Logically, knowing this Gueye deal is in the works for a few weeks and we've registration concerns we've already identified and processed a replacement striker who were just waiting on announcing today? 

[bluebruce]

1 hour ago, Tomphil2 said:

Yeah a bright character who brought a bit of light relief for a spell if not goals and the type of player who needs a Eustace or an Allardyce to have any sniff of success.

However truth be told very poor standard of player who didn't even use the physical talents he did have to the best of his efforts.

Worse without doubt than Chris Brown or Luke Varney but got away with it due to fan bonding and plundering the odd goal last year.

Better without doubt than Chris Brown or Luke Varney, neither of whom scored a single goal for us in 41 and 26 appearances respectively. I've no idea why you would say otherwise except for recency bias.

Edited 5 minutes ago by bluebruce
Typo

[Theaxe15]

1 minute ago, B16Rover said:

Logically, knowing this Gueye deal is in the works for a few weeks and we've registration concerns we've already identified and processed a replacement striker who were just waiting on announcing today? 

Sadly logic has never been a feature of this regime

[RevidgeBlue]

2 minutes ago, Tomphil2 said:

.Worse without doubt than Chris Brown or Luke Varney but got away with it due to fan bonding and plundering the odd goal last year.

Blimey.

You can argue he wasn't good enough and Id tend to agree, but he was definitely much better than those two.

As we all know, Brown never even scored a goal.

[rigger]

58 minutes ago, bluebruce said:

Just because we can swap players in and out during this window doesn't mean the 25 man squad limit doesn't have to be considered at all. It means we don't have to wait for a player to physically leave before we bring their replacement in (the budget probably does though), but it does mean we can't just bring in 3 or 4 players and crack on. We will have to consider who is left out of the squad if we can't sell them before the deadline.

Our resources are finite, we can't really afford to pay wages to players who won't be available to play for half the season.

And yet the club seems comfortable paying players who aren't good enough.