The January 2026 Transfer Window

[davulsukur]

46 minutes ago, Browjd said:

We are nearly half way through Jan...what are the recruitment team doing?! 

The blockers are likely sat 5000 miles away.

You know, those blockers that "never fail to write a cheque"

[KentExile]

19 minutes ago, bluebruce said:

8.6 million including add ons. Seems a lot for a lad from the Hungarian league, must have something about him. European football will help him catch the eye. 20 years old with 9 Hungarian caps already suggests he does warrant a higher fee than our own Toth, who Rudy would probably take about 2.5 million for but I wouldn't even consider it without a quality replacement in the building.

The scary part s I am pretty sure his replacement is in the building

Pears for next season, and then when he leaves in the summer of 2027, Michalski will still have 2 years left + an option until 2030

If they manage to offload Pears earlier for a fee (I don't think they will get an offer high enough for them to think it is worth selling, so he will stay like Hedges has done this season) then we will probably get an Ethan Horvath esc journeyman to sit on the bench and promote Michalski a year earlier

Edit - for clarity - I am of the opinion that Pears is a more than capable second choice at this level

Edited 3 hours ago by KentExile

[RevidgeBlue]

1 hour ago, Browjd said:

We are nearly half way through Jan...what are the recruitment team doing?! 

The usual.

Identifying players we can't/refuse to pay for.

Cracking work if you can get it.

[RevidgeBlue]

18 minutes ago, davulsukur said:

The blockers are likely sat 5000 miles away.

You know, those blockers that "never fail to write a cheque"

Not wishing to defend the owners but Pasha doesnt live 5000 miles away nor the Head Coach who said they could fix the pitch in lieu of signing players.

The Club is rotten to the core.

[Rover down South]

Gueye last season 2186 minutes/6 goals 

Gudjohnsen this season 1225 minutes/7 goals

Doesn't matter at all about whether he started or came on, they are still minutes on the pitch, but for the record, of his 44 league appearances in 24/25 he started 23 and came on as sub 21.

I wish him well, but he wasn't good enough for us.

[MarkBRFC]

3 minutes ago, Rover down South said:

Doesn't matter at all about whether he started or came on, they are still minutes on the pitch, but for the record, of his 44 league appearances in 24/25 he started 23 and came on as sub 21.

I wish him well, but he wasn't good enough for us.

Unfortunately, he soon will be.

Edited 3 hours ago by MarkBRFC

[bluebruce]

30 minutes ago, KentExile said:

The scary part s I am pretty sure his replacement is in the building

Pears for next season, and then when he leaves in the summer of 2027, Michalski will still have 2 years left + an option until 2030

If they manage to offload Pears earlier for a fee (I don't think they will get an offer high enough for them to think it is worth selling, so he will stay like Hedges has done this season) then we will probably get an Ethan Horvath esc journeyman to sit on the bench and promote Michalski a year earlier

Edit - for clarity - I am of the opinion that Pears is a more than capable second choice at this level

That's not scary. It's terrifying.

[rovers11]

54 minutes ago, Torgeir said:

Henriksson looked a lot less worse in the pocket than up top. I don't understand why we don't switch the formation when we don't have the players to play 3-5-2.

I'm not convinced. His technical ability is decent but his speed of thought and decision making is incredibly poor. Presume he was brought in to replace Buckley, but he's a far inferior player to Bucko. I'd have him back in a heartbeat over the dross signed in the summer. Same goes for JRC (better than Tavares/TGH) and Leonard (better than Gueye who should have been shipped out over Leonard in the summer). Such poor decision making at the club all round.  

[Dreams of 1995]

6 minutes ago, rovers11 said:

I'm not convinced. His technical ability is decent but his speed of thought and decision making is incredibly poor. Presume he was brought in to replace Buckley, but he's a far inferior player to Bucko. I'd have him back in a heartbeat over the dross signed in the summer. Same goes for JRC (better than Tavares/TGH) and Leonard (better than Gueye who should have been shipped out over Leonard in the summer). Such poor decision making at the club all round.  

Buckley got pelters but he'd be much better in that "10" position than anything we have in the club at the moment imo.

His better performances were always when played higher and asked to pinch the ball back

JRC at wing back, potential, but his lack of pace would have made him suffer in an Ismael system, where basically you are required to run more than you are required to play football.

Leonard could have been given another year for me. But again, I reckon he'd have broke down in an Ismael team, where rotation does not exist and the effort required is enormous.

We have a much worse team than last year, no doubt. I can't think of a single player who has improved what came before him. Alebiosu is a good signing but on a par with Brittain. Gudjohnsen is a good signing but we have had better. The only thing I can say about Gudjohnsen is that he would have scored a stupid amount of goals under JDT imo. We were carving teams open at times and putting that ball into the danger area with few people to get on the end of it. JDT was crying out for a Gudjohnsen and, as always with Venky FC, it came years after we needed it

[bluebruce]

8 minutes ago, rovers11 said:

I'm not convinced. His technical ability is decent but his speed of thought and decision making is incredibly poor. Presume he was brought in to replace Buckley, but he's a far inferior player to Bucko. I'd have him back in a heartbeat over the dross signed in the summer. Same goes for JRC (better than Tavares/TGH) and Leonard (better than Gueye who should have been shipped out over Leonard in the summer). Such poor decision making at the club all round.  

It is strange that Gueye was kept around when the manager clearly doesn't rate him whatsoever and we had an Arab club looking to buy him for, I assume, more than we got for Leonard. If the manager didn't rate either, at least Leonard was young enough to have the potential to improve. I find it really hard to imagine that Leonard wouldn't have been getting some game time recently (even without his apparent improvement this season) whilst Gueye has been nowhere to be seen.

I guess the reasons are that Gueye wasn't as out of favour with the manager at that time, as he was given some minutes earlier in the season, during which Ismael has clearly decided he has had enough. Well, between that and the alleged lack of application during training which I think meant he wasn't selected as a point of principle more than anything.

In hindsight, we definitely should have sold Gueye and kept Leonard. But if you look at last season, Gueye contributed more than Leonard did so I can see why the decision was made how it was at the time. It has turned out to be the wrong one though.

[islander200]

Sky linking us with Bristol City keeper Max O'leary along with Derby and Qpr.

Has 6 months left on his contract 

[islander200]

1 minute ago, bluebruce said:

It is strange that Gueye was kept around when the manager clearly doesn't rate him whatsoever and we had an Arab club looking to buy him for, I assume, more than we got for Leonard. If the manager didn't rate either, at least Leonard was young enough to have the potential to improve. I find it really hard to imagine that Leonard wouldn't have been getting some game time recently (even without his apparent improvement this season) whilst Gueye has been nowhere to be seen.

I guess the reasons are that Gueye wasn't as out of favour with the manager at that time, as he was given some minutes earlier in the season, during which Ismael has clearly decided he has had enough. Well, between that and the alleged lack of application during training which I think meant he wasn't selected as a point of principle more than anything.

In hindsight, we definitely should have sold Gueye and kept Leonard. But if you look at last season, Gueye contributed more than Leonard did so I can see why the decision was made how it was at the time. It has turned out to be the wrong one though.

I think they only wanted Gueye on loan and I'm sure it was the tail of window when it was reported they had expressed an interest 

Leonard turned down a new contract 

[roversfan99]

49 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Not wishing to defend the owners but Pasha doesnt live 5000 miles away nor the Head Coach who said they could fix the pitch in lieu of signing players.

The Club is rotten to the core.

You do start a lot of sentences like that.

It shouldnt have come to this, Venkys refused to pay for a pitch revamp a couple of years ago, its all on them.

16 minutes ago, rovers11 said:

I'm not convinced. His technical ability is decent but his speed of thought and decision making is incredibly poor. Presume he was brought in to replace Buckley, but he's a far inferior player to Bucko. I'd have him back in a heartbeat over the dross signed in the summer. Same goes for JRC (better than Tavares/TGH) and Leonard (better than Gueye who should have been shipped out over Leonard in the summer). Such poor decision making at the club all round.  

Is his technical ability decent?

Certainly not seen any signs of it.

[bluebruce]

4 minutes ago, islander200 said:

Sky linking us with Bristol City keeper Max O'leary along with Derby and Qpr.

Has 6 months left on his contract 

If true, it can only mean we're looking to sell Pears or Toth. Hopefully the former but probably the latter knowing this mob.

[roversfan99]

Itll be a busy agent.

[jim mk2]

Leonard in League One is at the right level now. The lad needed 10 chances to score one goal and I won't forget the League Cup match at Chelsea early in the second half when we were up about to celebrate a certain goal and he somehow managed to shoot wide. 

That's not say he was worse than Gueye - he wasn't - and I'm sure he would have had game time this season with all the injuries and loss of form but there's alot of rose tinted spectacles about him as a player. He wasn't really very good. 

[Kjell]

6 days and 5 hours until we play Swansea away.

Surely that must be a game we should aim to get something from.

How many training sessions will our new left wing back and striker(s) get with the team before this one?

[RevidgeBlue]

23 minutes ago, islander200 said:

Sky linking us with Bristol City keeper Max O'leary along with Derby and Qpr.

Has 6 months left on his contract 

Makes sense.

I think we only have about six keepers already on the books.

As always linked with non starters or cheap squad fillers and never anyone who will actually significantly improve the starting X1.

Edit: tbf just checked and he seems to have been out for a while having sustained an ankle injury during the play off finals.

He wouldnt have to be particularly good to be an upgrade on either Toth or Pears.

Edited 2 hours ago by RevidgeBlue

[KentExile]

19 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Makes sense.

I think we only have about six keepers already on the books.

As always linked with non starters or cheap squad fillers and never anyone who will actually significantly improve the starting X1.

Edit: tbf just checked and he seems to have been out for a while having sustained an ankle injury during the play off finals.

He wouldnt have to be particularly good to be an upgrade on either Toth or Pears.

Toth will be sold by the summer

They have already tried to shunt Pears out of the door, they may succeed in the near future.  He hasn't been disastrous for us this season, so he may have done enough to earn himself an escape

That would leave us with an 18 year old Michalski., so a cheap/free player would probably suit Rudy/Pasha perfectly

From what I have seen, O'Leary is inferior to Toth, & a similar standard to Pears.  On the bright side, he is better than Ethan Horvath, who I hypothesised earlier, that he may be on the shopping list

Edited 2 hours ago by KentExile

[speedies gonna get ya.]

3 new data lead signings.

[bluebruce]

22 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

 

He wouldnt have to be particularly good to be an upgrade on either Toth or Pears.

Seriously? You think Toth is shit?

[Mercer]

Think the tone for this window is well and truly set.

Any budget surplus from the summer window will not be spent.

I think this window there will be a net trading surplus on player trading.

Will be no surprise to see either Toth or Alebiosu, or even both, sold.

Our target market will be desperados, loans that cost almost feck all (as Cashin) and cheap unproven imports from Europe.

[islander200]

26 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Makes sense.

I think we only have about six keepers already on the books.

As always linked with non starters or cheap squad fillers and never anyone who will actually significantly improve the starting X1.

Edit: tbf just checked and he seems to have been out for a while having sustained an ankle injury during the play off finals.

He wouldnt have to be particularly good to be an upgrade on either Toth or Pears.

Pears agreed 

Toth for me has been excellent this season and looks a fine keeper 

[Old Codger]

24 minutes ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Makes sense.

I think we only have about six keepers already on the books.

As always linked with non starters or cheap squad fillers and never anyone who will actually significantly improve the starting X1.

Edit: tbf just checked and he seems to have been out for a while having sustained an ankle injury during the play off finals.

He wouldnt have to be particularly good to be an upgrade on either Toth or Pears.

Seriously? Toth is an excellent keeper at this level, and a full international with good experience too. He is also on the ascendancy in his career, unlike Pears who seems to be flatlining. That's why someone will get good money for him (notice I didn't say 'the club', as we know any funds incoming are mysteriously trousered and have no relationship to funds allocated for purchases).

[RevidgeBlue]

2 minutes ago, bluebruce said:

Seriously? You think Toth is shit?

Not going to argue with anyone who says he's better than Pears and he's improved since he first arrived but imo he's not that good no.

"Shit" is your term looking for confrontation not mine.