The January 2026 Transfer Window

[simongarnerisgod]

3 minutes ago, Tomphil2 said:

Whether we go down or not.

if we somehow manage to stay up i can`t bring myself to think about the recruitement over the summer😷 relegation means a fire sale and the chance for the academy lads,the ones at the back look ok imo,atcheson in particular has looked very accomplished while pratt has been very steady as well

[Exiled_Rover]

2 minutes ago, simongarnerisgod said:

if we somehow manage to stay up i can`t bring myself to think about the recruitement over the summer😷 relegation means a fire sale and the chance for the academy lads,the ones at the back look ok imo,atcheson in particular has looked very accomplished while pratt has been very steady as well

I think you'll be lucky to see Atcheson and Litherland next season - both looked good enough to get snaffled up by better run teams. 

[DutchRover]

59 minutes ago, davulsukur said:

Is this due to injury or just not been selected by his club? (As in, shite)

Seems to be out-of-favour rather than injured, similar to Pickering/Ribeiro for us I guess

[MarkBRFC]

54 minutes ago, Ricceh said:

Wonder how many of our players have relegation release clauses. 

Hopefully all of them.

[KentExile]

1 hour ago, Ricceh said:

Wonder how many of our players have relegation release clauses. Will be interesting to see our team sheet in L1 next year. 

Depends what you mean

 

- an actual clause that they are released for free in the event of relegation... I would imagine none

- a minimum fee set for other clubs to buy them if we are relegated?  Maybe a few, Cantwell may be one, but as most of the players we have bought recently have been "unknowns", and none have had their contracts renewed in forever, I cant imagine too many will have that stipulation in their contracts

- wage reductions in the event of relegation... I would imagine all of them, by anything up to 50% of their current wage

Edited 9 hours ago by KentExile

[DutchRover]

Assuming we get Afolayan over the line, I will actually be fairly pleased in isolation. At his best he's a direct winger who actually scores, and has pace. Clearly struggled to make jump from Bundesliga 2 to 1, and or lost favour with manager, but he was electric in their promotion season in 23/24.

Doesn't make up for our usual incompetence and that he's not played for 3 months is obviously a worry, he would have been a perfect signing in the summer rather than now, but I would hope he will still be up to speed quick given he's not been injured.

[Exiled_Rover]

4 minutes ago, DutchRover said:

Assuming we get Afolayan over the line, I will actually be fairly pleased in isolation. At his best he's a direct winger who actually scores, and has pace. Clearly struggled to make jump from Bundesliga 2 to 1, and or lost favour with manager, but he was electric in their promotion season in 23/24.

Doesn't make up for our usual incompetence and that he's not played for 3 months is obviously a worry, he would have been a perfect signing in the summer rather than now, but I would hope he will still be up to speed quick given he's not been injured.

Not played for 3 months but it's taken us 31 days to get it over the line in January.

[RossendaleBlue3]

2 hours ago, Ricceh said:

Wonder how many of our players have relegation release clauses. Will be interesting to see our team sheet in L1 next year. 

It's the relegation wage cuts that mean the most to the board. More money saved and they didn't even have to lift a finger 😂

[KentExile]

3 minutes ago, DutchRover said:

Assuming we get Afolayan over the line, I will actually be fairly pleased in isolation. At his best he's a direct winger who actually scores, and has pace. Clearly struggled to make jump from Bundesliga 2 to 1, and or lost favour with manager, but he was electric in their promotion season in 23/24.

Doesn't make up for our usual incompetence and that he's not played for 3 months is obviously a worry, he would have been a perfect signing in the summer rather than now, but I would hope he will still be up to speed quick given he's not been injured.

Looks like he had 3 good goalscoring seasons, one in the National League, one in League One, and one in the German second tier, none of which are the same level as the Championship

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/oladapo-afolayan/leistungsdatendetails/spieler/487850/plus/0?saison=&verein=&liga=&wettbewerb=&pos=&trainer_id=

[Exiled_Rover]

2 minutes ago, RossendaleBlue3 said:

It's the relegation wage cuts that mean the most to the board. More money saved and they didn't even have to lift a finger 😂

I still can't fathom why they're content to set fire to money.

[RevidgeBlue]

19 minutes ago, RossendaleBlue3 said:

It's the relegation wage cuts that mean the most to the board. More money saved and they didn't even have to lift a finger 😂

It's almost as if they havent realised income will drop by at least £10m if we are relegated............

D'oh!

 

 

 

 

[Torgeir]

38 minutes ago, Exiled_Rover said:

Not played for 3 months but it's taken us 31 days to get it over the line in January.

And will take us 31 minutes to get him injured as he's not up to pace.

[Torgeir]

Scraping the barrel here with this signing.  If it means we're signing a goal-scoring striker for £5m+ then so be it, but we're in deep trouble and have to strengthen the first eleven. 

[TimmyJimmy]

I have no understanding of what our transfer policy is. It would make more sense to buy 25 goalkeepers. What's wrong with round pegs in round holes. We need a goal scoring striker. Just f'ing buy one and add it to last years squad!

I know they cost BIG money but whats the point of buying wingers and forcing them to play out of position just because their agent says "he can play anywhere across the front".

That's on top of buying a squad that's got virtually NO Championship experience and selling one that pushes for the playoff each season. I mean what did they expect to happen.

I'm no footballing guru but even me, an armchair schmuck, said at the beginning of the season we're fucked.

We're all at a loss to explain it I know but how the Hell do Pasha, Gestede et al get away with it?

[KentExile]

I keep seeing people crying out for a goalscoring striker

To me, our main issue is we are not currently creating much for our strikers to miss anyway

in a 4-2-3-1, none of our wingers are actually wingers

in a 3-5-2, we only have Alebiosu who is an actual wing back

If either one of those issues were sorted out, we would be able to score enough goals to keep us up (not a goal fest, but enough).  Gudjohnsen when fit scored 7 in 11 so we have a goalscoring striker anyway

[Waggy76]

1 hour ago, DutchRover said:

Assuming we get Afolayan over the line, I will actually be fairly pleased in isolation. At his best he's a direct winger who actually scores, and has pace. Clearly struggled to make jump from Bundesliga 2 to 1, and or lost favour with manager, but he was electric in their promotion season in 23/24.

Doesn't make up for our usual incompetence and that he's not played for 3 months is obviously a worry, he would have been a perfect signing in the summer rather than now, but I would hope he will still be up to speed quick given he's not been injured.

Never assume, anything with these Charlatans!

[den]

39 minutes ago, KentExile said:

I keep seeing people crying out for a goalscoring striker

To me, our main issue is we are not currently creating much for our strikers to miss anyway

in a 4-2-3-1, none of our wingers are actually wingers

in a 3-5-2, we only have Alebiosu who is an actual wing back

If either one of those issues were sorted out, we would be able to score enough goals to keep us up (not a goal fest, but enough).  Gudjohnsen when fit scored 7 in 11 so we have a goalscoring striker anyway

Nah, KE. Proper strikers make their own space, create their own chances and/or put those chances away. As one of the above posters said, goal scorers don’t play on the wing. Not for long any way.

[DutchRover]

1 hour ago, KentExile said:

Looks like he had 3 good goalscoring seasons, one in the National League, one in League One, and one in the German second tier, none of which are the same level as the Championship

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/oladapo-afolayan/leistungsdatendetails/spieler/487850/plus/0?saison=&verein=&liga=&wettbewerb=&pos=&trainer_id=

 

I'm not arguing that he is what we need in a relegation fight, but I have always advocated picking up top League 1 talents, which Afolayan was, hence earning his move to Germany.

Bundesliga 2 is better than people give credit for, Telalovic was Bund 3 which is a big step down, but in St Pauli's promotion season there were teams like Hannover, Hamburg, Schalke etc (not as good as past, but still big clubs). He wasn't awful last year in Bundesliga either, played 34 games.

As I say, in isolation I like him as a signing, but he's not who I would have signed to save us this season.