Winter '25/26 Transfer Rumours Thread

[stubbo-admin]

Well seems like with all these international breaks, and us languishing, the rumours of ins and outs are rife.

Chuck anything 'worthy' of discussion on this thread...

--------------

Incomings:

Pablo Felipe - €21m + €3m (Gil Vicente) | Forward
Valentin 'Taty' Castellanos - €26m + €4m (Lazio) | Forward
Adama Traore - £2m + £1m if stay up (Fulham) | Forward
Axel Disasi - Loan (Chelsea) | Centre Back
Keiber Lamadrid - £150k + £1m option | Attacking Mid

Outgoings:

Nicolas Füllkrug - 6 months loan (AC Milan)
Luis Guilherme - £17m + Sell On % (Sporting Lisbon)
George Earthy - 6 months loan (Bristol City)
Callum Marshall - 6 months loan (Bochum)
Andy Irving - 1.5m (Sparta Prague)
Guido Rodriguez - Undisclosed (Valencia)
Igor Julio - Loan Cancelled (Brighton)
James Ward Prowse - 6 months loan (Burnley)
Lucas Paqueta - £36.5m + Buy Back Clause (Flamengo)

[stubbo-admin]

JWP going Burnley on loan,  anyone left to fill the bench at Stamford Bridge? 

I kind of get it (other than we risk strengthening Burnley).

I mean who does he play in front of?

Not Soucek or Fernandes....not Magassa or Potts.

Not Pablo, or Bowen, or Summerville, or Adama.

He's basically the back-up to Paqueta (as the guy who isn't a 10, isn't an 8...isn't a 6).

BUT...all this talk of 'rebalancing.  Right now it looks like 'gutting'.

There's some heavy lifting to do in the last week of the window to get to a 'rebalanced state'.

I'll judge at the end of the window, but we clearly need at least one #10, maybe two. An extra CB, and ideally a dynamic midfielder that can understudy for Fernandes.

If we assume the first XI is what it is for a moment (but that we'd prefer to have a number 10 instead of Pablo).

That would give us a bench of:

GK (Kinsky or Areola), Kilman or New CB, KWP or Scarles, Potts or Magassa, New no 8, Traore, New #10, Pablo, Wilson 

So essentially: GK, CB, FB, CDM, MF, ACM, FW, ST, ST.

Which is amuch more appropriate bench make up to go into games you need to win.  

Right now, our bench if trying to satisfy that looks like:

GK - Hermansen
CB - Kilman, Igor
FB - KWP, Diouf
CDM - Potts, Magassa
MF - JWP?
ACM - 
FW -
ST - 
ST - Wilson

With Todibo and Mavro showing form, and Kilman a 40m reserve (and one of the areas where we have youth coverage with Mayers, Golambeckis, as well as Igor), you can kind of see why the focus has been elsewhere...since whilst the quality might be suspect with CB....we do have numbers (as we did with shit central mids).

I've no doubt if someone wanted Kilman or Igor we'd get shot pronto, but you can argue we currently have bigger holes to fill.

[Pub Bigot]

I don't really want traore but as unlikely as it sounds, we could end up on a massive fa cup run as well as the relegation battle. But we desperately need a CB in. I'm a bit wary of Dunk in case he's another brighton piss taker like Ferguson. 

 

 

Dunk unlike Ferguson has a body of work behind him of consistency and leadership, the issue is behind him means in his case his best days are behind him at 34. 

Ferguson was a fat shit cսnt whose only good game came against Celtic, which was nice.  

[dealcanvey]

Traore is a no brainer imo.

No fee. Premier league experience. Cover in the wide areas. Can terrorise oppossition on his day. Plus in the likely event of us going down he stays and scares the living daylights out of Ryan Reynolds.

[Rossal]

JWP going Burnley on loan,  anyone left to fill the bench at Stamford Bridge? 

[Massive Attack]

Summerville one wing and Traore on the other. That is bloody quick.

Hopefully this is the end of West Ham managers starting games with 4 cms!

Sounds more like we are trying to fulfill the Olympic Stadium athletics legacy down either side of the running track. 

[honky cat]

I don't really want traore but as unlikely as it sounds, we could end up on a massive fa cup run as well as the relegation battle. But we desperately need a CB in. I'm a bit wary of Dunk in case he's another brighton piss taker like Ferguson. 

[dealcanvey]

Summerville one wing and Traore on the other. That is bloody quick.

Hopefully this is the end of West Ham managers starting games with 4 cms!

[onsideman]

  I would have rather used Earthy. 

 

 

Yeah, because he's exactly the same kind of player...

[Manuel]

Traore serves a purpose. 

He won't score many goals...but he's a chaos creator.  The sort of guy you bring on against tired legs that carries you up the field, and that gives teams something to worry about.

He's what we'd be using Antonio for right now if he'd not had his car crash.  A tool in the arsenal of options.

I'm looking forward to seeing him in a West Ham shirt.   He'll be frustrating at times, as Antonio was, but he also offers pace and power.  And last season he was very creative for Fulham (less so this season).

Let's hope Nuno gets him firing...if he does, he could be very valuable.  He's coming on a free...and he offers more from the bench offensively than anyone else we have or have had this season.  Can play wide or through the middle.

Not going to turn us into prime Real Madrid...but for next to nothing, he's worth having in the squad.



 

Agree, I also think he will be useful, and let's face it this site was outraged at the thought of Maguire and McTominay arriving, among others.

[Massive Attack]

That'll be the thinking, I remain unconvinced but hopefully he has the desired effect to make a real difference. He certainly aint on the levels of Antonio who could actually play at times and weren't just brute force and ignorance to his play. Traore tended to do alright against relegation fodder type teams at best when he did contribute.

I'd have kept Earthy instead as well.

[Rossal]

Traore serves a purpose. 

He won't score many goals...but he's a chaos creator.  The sort of guy you bring on against tired legs that carries you up the field, and that gives teams something to worry about.

He's what we'd be using Antonio for right now if he'd not had his car crash.  A tool in the arsenal of options.

I'm looking forward to seeing him in a West Ham shirt.   He'll be frustrating at times, as Antonio was, but he also offers pace and power.  And last season he was very creative for Fulham (less so this season).

Let's hope Nuno gets him firing...if he does, he could be very valuable.  He's coming on a free...and he offers more from the bench offensively than anyone else we have or have had this season.  Can play wide or through the middle.

Not going to turn us into prime Real Madrid...but for next to nothing, he's worth having in the squad.



 

Traore makes Antonio look like Mbappe. A truly awful footballer, who can't get in a bang average Fulham team. Hasn't played over 16 mins in a prem game this season.  I would have rather used Earthy. 

[stubbo-admin]

Traore serves a purpose. 

He won't score many goals...but he's a chaos creator.  The sort of guy you bring on against tired legs that carries you up the field, and that gives teams something to worry about.

He's what we'd be using Antonio for right now if he'd not had his car crash.  A tool in the arsenal of options.

I'm looking forward to seeing him in a West Ham shirt.   He'll be frustrating at times, as Antonio was, but he also offers pace and power.  And last season he was very creative for Fulham (less so this season).

Let's hope Nuno gets him firing...if he does, he could be very valuable.  He's coming on a free...and he offers more from the bench offensively than anyone else we have or have had this season.  Can play wide or through the middle.

Not going to turn us into prime Real Madrid...but for next to nothing, he's worth having in the squad.


 

[Massive Attack]

He's fucking shit too.

[Fortunes Hiding]

Hope we got enough oil for Traore. 

[Massive Attack]

Fuck knows what the point of getting in Igor on loan was for by the way when we hardly used him whilst available all that time.

Rightly or wrongly Nuno clearly doesn't rate him (neither does Hurzeler, obviously)

he was Potter's signing

 

 

Yep  just goes to show how truly awful he is and why I wasnt surprised Bowen skipped passed him with ease in the Final. 

[Rossal]

In what way have we weakened ourselves at CB?
I'm not mourning the loss of a CAM who was underperforming and undoubtedly a negative influence
I'm not mourning the loss of Guilherme who contributed fuck all of note to the season before his departure
We didn't have any attackers on the bench in December

 

Igor isnt available at the moment and hasn't been replaced.  I am not Paqueta fan either, but i would rather him on the bench or coming on if we need a goal than Kante or JWP. There are no wingers behind the two who start, any injuries or loss of form how are we going to score the goals to stay up?      It's basic stuff. 

 

I'm not disputing we still need bodies, I just don't agree we're weaker. You can't bemoan the loss of players who have contributed the square root of fuck all 

I bemoan the fact that we have less options than when we started. A thin squad has been made thinner when we're scraping to stay up.   How is that good ownership? 

Paqueta is a great deal, but surely in our position you have to replace attacking players?  Same for Earthy, Ghuillurme etc 

[onsideman]

The squad needed depth added to it. We've added two up front and weakened ourselves at CB, CAM and out wide.   We've also got 1 attacker on the bench at the moment. 

In what way have we weakened ourselves at CB?
I'm not mourning the loss of a CAM who was underperforming and undoubtedly a negative influence
I'm not mourning the loss of Guilherme who contributed fuck all of note to the season before his departure
We didn't have any attackers on the bench in December

 

Igor isnt available at the moment and hasn't been replaced.  I am not Paqueta fan either, but i would rather him on the bench or coming on if we need a goal than Kante or JWP. There are no wingers behind the two who start, any injuries or loss of form how are we going to score the goals to stay up?      It's basic stuff. 

 

 

I'm not disputing we still need bodies, I just don't agree we're weaker. You can't bemoan the loss of players who have contributed the square root of fuck all 

[stubbo-admin]

Traore 'in the building'.

[onsideman]

Fuck knows what the point of getting in Igor on loan was for by the way when we hardly used him whilst available all that time.

Rightly or wrongly Nuno clearly doesn't rate him (neither does Hurzeler, obviously)

he was Potter's signing

[Rossal]

Why do you think that?

The squad needed depth added to it. We've added two up front and weakened ourselves at CB, CAM and out wide.   We've also got 1 attacker on the bench at the moment. 

In what way have we weakened ourselves at CB?
I'm not mourning the loss of a CAM who was underperforming and undoubtedly a negative influence
I'm not mourning the loss of Guilherme who contributed fuck all of note to the season before his departure
We didn't have any attackers on the bench in December

 

 

Igor isnt available at the moment and hasn't been replaced.  I am not Paqueta fan either, but i would rather him on the bench or coming on if we need a goal than Kante or JWP. There are no wingers behind the two who start, any injuries or loss of form how are we going to score the goals to stay up?      It's basic stuff. 

[Massive Attack]

Fuck knows what the point of getting in Igor on loan was for by the way when we hardly used him whilst available all that time.

[onsideman]

Our squad is lighter than Jan the 1st at the moment. 

Why do you think that?

The squad needed depth added to it. We've added two up front and weakened ourselves at CB, CAM and out wide.   We've also got 1 attacker on the bench at the moment. 

In what way have we weakened ourselves at CB?
I'm not mourning the loss of a CAM who was underperforming and undoubtedly a negative influence
I'm not mourning the loss of Guilherme who contributed fuck all of note to the season before his departure
We didn't have any attackers on the bench in December

[Rossal]

If you get stick it's probably because you talk utter shite that doesn't make any sense. Of course he doesn't want to go down, and how the fuck do you think he's going to strip the squad and pocket the cash under the noses of the other shareholders? And if he did want to strip the squad why wait until we get relegated so the players' value is lower. 

Then why the fuck is our squad weaker and got less bodies with days of the window left? 

Oh and Paqueta will be sold at the death for £40m 

You didn't answer the question. Why would he not care about relegation if he's only wanting to sell our players for as much as he can to pocket the money, and how exactly is he going to pocket the money under the noses of Kretinsky et al anyway?

Talk about Sullivan's utter incompetence as much as you like and I will agree with you but don't be surprised if someone calls you a fucking idiot if you come out with bollocks like it's a deliberate ploy on his part to get us relegated.

 

 

Because at the moment what steps has he taken to try and improve the squad to stave of relegation?  After the Paqueta deal and the other outgoings our net spend this month will be near enough flat. 

We have one attacker on the bench, and we have lost a CB if Igor goes, both the number 10s and anyone in reserve who can play out wide. 

Paqueta had the sale lined up from the start of the month. If he wanted to get out of this, wouldn't you have him done near the start and then get bodies in?  Why take all month......we all know why. 

[factory seconds]

We do need a CB, but I don’t know what’s happened to Todibo and Mavropanos in the last 2 games, playing really well. 

Todibo almost seems like a rolls Royce at the back, or have I got my C&B glasses on?

Todibo has been superb in the last few games, more like a you would expect a French International to be.   Mavropanos has been decent and he's a good physical presence as well, as a pairing they are the best we've got.   I don't know what Mav was doing for the Sunderland goal though, Mav should have been much tighter on Brobbey, he'd completely lost him.

 

mav was left having to mark two players as todibo had gone roving out to the touchline in a failed attempt to tackle their winger. you can say he should've been more decisive and just marked mr brobbey but that would've left a free pass to their player at the front stick. 

[Rossal]

Our squad is lighter than Jan the 1st at the moment. 

Why do you think that?

The squad needed depth added to it. We've added two up front and weakened ourselves at CB, CAM and out wide.   We've also got 1 attacker on the bench at the moment.