Transfer Window January 2026 Post Transfer Window Thread

[Carpy]

 

[Common Villager]

I had a quick gander at the Huddersfield forum and they seemed to really rate Roosken last season, but less so this season. From what I can gather he's been used as a winger and a wing-back, but he's performed best as an out and out left back. I'm not sure how that fits with our current set up / how Bloomfield wants to play.

 

[Emilio]

I gave it a go. Not sure how accurate the positions will be... (and might have missed someone)

I think it's 24 players (Spencer and McDonnell being U21).

So one of Goodrham (long term injury), Krastev, or Dembele to be the last player to be included in the 25 man squad?

Are we hoping Dembele in with "other players"? Has Bloomfield said anything, or is it just because he's not made any of his squads yet?

 

[Foley]

Initial thoughts are that the squad now feels extremely bloated.

Has anyone got one of those squad summary images that they could share, please?

We can pick 25 I believe plus U21s.
Some will be left out and on the sidelines. It wont be bloated then ( those left out will be not relevant - other than financially)

 

[greatunclekip]

He was out of contract in the summer so I can’t see this.

 

[OxfordYankee]

He was out of contract in the summer so I can’t see this.

Option?

 

[bazzer9461]

Not a single write up from Luton has indicated that Makosso is that player.

The idea that we need Roosken to improve on Currie to stay up, or that staying up but not improving on Currie is some sort of failure, also seems needlessly dramatic.

We are rewriting history if we are saying an alternative to Lankshear was a bigger priority than CM or LW.

We still needed a striker common sense tells you that

 

[Kamal]

My random thought of the day. How many players are guaranteed to be here next season. By that I mean players who won't attract interest, loan expire or we'll look to move on. For now I've narrowed it down to Brannagan, Sam Long and Mills. You would expect the permanent long term January signings to be guaranteed to be here next season. So you can add Jin Woo, McDonnell and Emakhu to that list. I obviously expect more to hang around but for me those players are the only guarantees.


Goalies -

Jamie Cumming - will attract interest
Matthew Ingram - will we look for a new number 2?
Easty - pretty sure he's not even a player anymore?
Knightbridge - won't be near the first team

Defenders -

Ciaron Brown - could attract interest
Helik - Could be moved on
Spencer - Could attract interest
Greg Leigh - will be moved on
HTA - will be moved on
Negru - will be moved on
Currie - will attract interest
Ben Davies - will go back
Kioso - will be moved on
Thorniley - will be moved on
Makosso - option to buy. No guarentee.

Midfielders -

Vaulks - could be moved on
Placheta - rumoured to be going back to Poland
BDK - will attract interest
Sibley - will be moved on
Dembele - hopefully will be moved on
Ferdinan - hopefully will be moved on
Donley - option to buy. Not a guarantee that we'll trigger that option.
MPH - option to extend (I think). Not a guarantee that he does.
Krastev - will go back

Forwards -

Mark Harris - could be moved on
Ole Romeny - could be moved on
Prelec - could go back if we don't decide to spend £1m on a striker who's scored once in 18 games
Goodrham - will attract interest
Bradshaw - will be moved on
Lankshear - will go back
Goodwin - will be moved on
O'Donkor - will be moved on
Owen Dale - will be moved on

 

[tatabanya]

He was out of contract in the summer so I can’t see this.

Better believe it

 

[Foley]

My random thought of the day. How many players are guaranteed to be here next season. By that I mean players who won't attract interest, loan expire or we'll look to move on. For now I've narrowed it down to Brannagan, Sam Long and Mills. You would expect the permanent long term January signings to be guaranteed to be here next season. So you can add Jin Woo, McDonnell and Emakhu to that list. I obviously expect more to hang around but for me those players are the only guarantees.


Goalies -

Jamie Cumming - will attract interest
Matthew Ingram - will we look for a new number 2?
Easty - pretty sure he's not even a player anymore?
Knightbridge - won't be near the first team

Defenders -

Ciaron Brown - could attract interest
Helik - Could be moved on
Spencer - Could attract interest
Greg Leigh - will be moved on
HTA - will be moved on
Negru - will be moved on
Currie - will attract interest
Ben Davies - will go back
Kioso - will be moved on
Thorniley - will be moved on
Makosso - option to buy. No guarentee.

Midfielders -

Vaulks - could be moved on
Placheta - rumoured to be going back to Poland
BDK - will attract interest
Sibley - will be moved on
Dembele - hopefully will be moved on
Ferdinan - hopefully will be moved on
Donley - option to buy. Not a guarantee that we'll trigger that option.
MPH - option to extend (I think). Not a guarantee that he does.
Krastev - will go back

Forwards -

Mark Harris - could be moved on
Ole Romeny - could be moved on
Prelec - could go back if we don't decide to spend £1m on a striker who's scored once in 18 games
Goodrham - will attract interest
Bradshaw - will be moved on
Lankshear - will go back
Goodwin - will be moved on
O'Donkor - will be moved on
Owen Dale - will be moved on

I would think that Spencer and Brown would probably stay?

 

[Common Villager]

We can pick 25 I believe plus U21s.
Some will be left out and on the sidelines. It wont be bloated then ( those left out will be not relevant - other than financially)

I don't think it's great for overall squad morale to have players left out. It's never a particularly good look and tends to generate negative press.

Additionally when you consider the fact we are already working to tighter budgets than most, it seems very wasteful to be paying for players who won't even be in the squad list.

 

[holdsteady]

Will Goodrham attract interest? Won't have played for ages and hasn't exactly had a great time over a long spell now. I would say its pretty likely he will be with us next season.

 

[Some U's fan]

He was out of contract in the summer so I can’t see this.

The club had a 1yr option, so out of contract next summer from a sales viewpoint.

 

[Jster]

Yeah, I do worry. One of the main positives that gets mentioned is how good the group of players is here as a collective, and you do wonder whether having an outsized squad will damage that.

 

[DenbighYellow]

A few weeks ago people were moaning we didn't have enough options, now we have too many players, apparently.

Its 12 weeks until the end of the season, if a few players are disgruntled for that period of time, so be it.

In my opinion our squad is in a much stronger position than it was on the 1st Jan, will that be enough to keep us up? who knows but we all need to get behind them as this is far from a done thing.

 

[holdsteady]

What’s the options for moving those not in the squad on after the 25 are named? Pay them off or are transfers allowed/windows opened elsewhere? Loans be cancelled (but why would a club do that if it costs them?). I suppose at least a loan signing who isn’t in a squad can just go back to a parent club to train, no point staying here.

 

[Northstand Grandad]

Many say " we need a striker"...I'm not arguing with that, it'll be good, but where is a decent striker that's available?
We don't want to end up with another Bradshaw.
It'll either have been a youngster from a prem club ( like Lanks)..to get experience...
Or a low league player... unproven...and a big risk.
I bet we tried hard to get one.

 

[uptheus]

So, with the loan players we’ve signed with pre-agreed transfer fees, do we have to sign these or still have the option? e.g. if they turn out to be shite do we still have the option not to sign them?

 

[uptheus]

Many say " we need a striker"...I'm not arguing with that, it'll be good, but where is a decent striker that's available?
We don't want to end up with another Bradshaw.
It'll either have been a youngster from a prem club ( like Lanks)..to get experience...
Or a low league player... unproven...and a big risk.
I bet we tried hard to get one.

There must be one somewhere. I’m sure I’d find one that offers more than Harris. Put it this way, it wouldn’t be that hard to find one!

 

[werthersoriginal]

Many say " we need a striker"...I'm not arguing with that, it'll be good, but where is a decent striker that's available?
We don't want to end up with another Bradshaw.
It'll either have been a youngster from a prem club ( like Lanks)..to get experience...
Or a low league player... unproven...and a big risk.
I bet we tried hard to get one.

We have Lankshear, Prelec, and Harris, and possibly Romeny. And other players can stick the ball in the net if the striker unsettles the defence. Not necessarily a disaster that we haven't signed another.

 

[Ewes]

4.
My take - I feel the last 2 transfer windows have significantly improved the calibre of players in the squad, some very highly-rated youngsters with the potential to improve and even make the club a future profit.

But 5 of those who started against Birmingham on Saturday are players who I don’t feel are consistently good enough at Championship level, and our overall squad remains bloated because of previous very poor transfer decisions.

I remain of the view that our coaching and recruitment strategy staff need an overhaul: yes we’ve replaced the head coach and he’s brought in an assistant, but if you have an underperforming staff team (as suggested by narrowly avoiding relegation last year and hardly being out of the relegation places this year) you could introduce Ronaldo, Messi and co into the squad but if the coaching and training sessions they get are not good enough then those players will soon be part of the squad which isn’t good enough.

But I recognise changes need time to bed in.

On Matt Phillips, he’s had a really good career and it’s a shame we only saw glimpses of his quality at the end of his career. I think he played 55mins on Saturday and 15mins in the 2 previous games and it confirmed to him that his body isn’t up to the rigours of training and matches at this level any longer. I’m only guessing but it seems to have been a very honourable thing by him to ask for his contract to be ended, and I expect to see him rock up at somewhere like Walsall in a player/coach role in the summer.

More widely, the board should be thanked for investing further in the squad. We can only hope this is affordable within FFP constraints, given we’ve sacked 2 managers in the last year, and handled several poorly-strategised player loan deals recently. My biggest worry is this season: if the squad we now have is too big but lacks the overall quality to survive in this division, I’m not sure the costs and calibre of players we have will be at the right level for League 1 next year. As we’ve found out, clubs need a certain type of player for a specific division - the likes of CamBran, Long, Tyler and Harris will probably do ok again in a division lower, but the rest of them will either want to leave or won’t be cut out for a cold Tuesday evening at Orient.

We badly need a capable DoF who can oversee and improve the long-term capability of the staff, players, performances and communications.

 

[uptheus]

3 - Acceptable.

McDonnell is a good signing - just what we need. MPH is smart - experience at this level, something to prove. Hopefully Emakhu will be the same.

Konak is an extra body, remains to be seen what sort of impact he can make. Jin-woo also not oven-ready.

With Makosso and Roosken we are indulging the manager with fresh faces where they're not needed. It's only money.

Those last four, plus Donley, will have to all materially impact our survival. I'm talking Konak the Enforcer, Jin-woo and Donley with at least 4 goal contributions each, Makosso with technical ability not seen at the back since Ben Nelson and Roosken offering the best of Currie and Leigh combined.

Bloomfield has been given more than he could have hoped for. He already had a workable squad and must have interviewed based on that, he now has more - some of which looks very much an indulgence. By the same token Waldron and co have been trusted yet again with another roll of the dice on recruitment. He has been allowed to bring in a manager, from a massive pool, to keep us up. He has then been allowed yet more player turn-over, bringing in a glut of players whilst shovelling waste out the back door. It's only money.

Matt Bloomfield must go one better than he managed last season. Ed Waldron must show he got the manager decision right and that this time the whimsical recruitment that he oversees produces almost universal improvements in every position.

There is no margin for error now, for either of them.

I expect us to stay up, as should our owner. If we don't then the positions of the management (on and off the pitch) must be called into question.

The pressure is on. I won't be accepting any more excuses and neither should Erick.

That’s debatable, so if we are debating it I’d say he didn’t!!

 

[uptheus]

We have Lankshear, Prelec, and Harris, and possibly Romeny. And other players can stick the ball in the net if the striker unsettles the defence. Not necessarily a disaster that we haven't signed another.

Romeny!! How many has he scored?

 

[Chippy]

We have Lankshear, Prelec, and Harris, and possibly Romeny. And other players can stick the ball in the net if the striker unsettles the defence. Not necessarily a disaster that we haven't signed another.

Other than Lanks, how many goals this season have the others scored? 3 is it?

That’s my worry, though chances created have been fairly minimal, but sometimes quality forwards create their own chances or manufacture chances for others. I haven’t seen much of that from our designated strikers. This is the one area where we don’t really have depth and quality and remains our biggest recruitment failing over many many windows.

 

[werthersoriginal]

Other than Lanks, how many goals this season have the others scored? 3 is it?

That’s my worry, though chances created have been fairly minimal, but sometimes quality forwards create their own chances or manufacture chances for others. I haven’t seen much of that from our designated strikers. This is the one area where we don’t really have depth and quality and remains our biggest recruitment failing over many many windows.

I would have liked a Dane Scarlett type who could conjure a goal out of pretty much nothing. But it's probably more important for the team as a whole to play well and create more chances.

 

[Northernyellow]

My random thought of the day. How many players are guaranteed to be here next season. By that I mean players who won't attract interest, loan expire or we'll look to move on. For now I've narrowed it down to Brannagan, Sam Long and Mills. You would expect the permanent long term January signings to be guaranteed to be here next season. So you can add Jin Woo, McDonnell and Emakhu to that list. I obviously expect more to hang around but for me those players are the only guarantees.


Goalies -

Jamie Cumming - will attract interest
Matthew Ingram - will we look for a new number 2?
Easty - pretty sure he's not even a player anymore?
Knightbridge - won't be near the first team

Defenders -

Ciaron Brown - could attract interest
Helik - Could be moved on
Spencer - Could attract interest
Greg Leigh - will be moved on
HTA - will be moved on
Negru - will be moved on
Currie - will attract interest
Ben Davies - will go back
Kioso - will be moved on
Thorniley - will be moved on
Makosso - option to buy. No guarentee.

Midfielders -

Vaulks - could be moved on
Placheta - rumoured to be going back to Poland
BDK - will attract interest
Sibley - will be moved on
Dembele - hopefully will be moved on
Ferdinan - hopefully will be moved on
Donley - option to buy. Not a guarantee that we'll trigger that option.
MPH - option to extend (I think). Not a guarantee that he does.
Krastev - will go back

Forwards -

Mark Harris - could be moved on
Ole Romeny - could be moved on
Prelec - could go back if we don't decide to spend £1m on a striker who's scored once in 18 games
Goodrham - will attract interest
Bradshaw - will be moved on
Lankshear - will go back
Goodwin - will be moved on
O'Donkor - will be moved on
Owen Dale - will be moved on

I think that's pretty accurate. But I don't think Goodrham will get much interest- certainly not from Championship clubs. BDK and Currie are the two we will struggle to hold on to- and if we go down, I would expect them both to go. I could be way off here, but I would think we would get £3-4M for BDK . Possibly slightly more for Currie...

 

[OxfordYankee]

Thornily has left by mutual consent.

 

[WRox]

I think that's pretty accurate. But I don't think Goodrham will get much interest- certainly not from Championship clubs. BDK and Currie are the two we will struggle to hold on to- and if we go down, I would expect them both to go. I could be way off here, but I would think we would get £3-4M for BDK . Possibly slightly more for Currie...

Realistically we have a core under contract of something like: Cumming, Spencer, Brown, Helik, Long, Currie, Brannagan, BDK, McDonnell, Goodrham, Romeny, Jeon, Mills, Emakhu, Harris.

We might look to move on one or two, or even sell one or two, but it’s a big opportunity in the summer regardless of division to shift a load of players not contributing whilst still maintaining a pretty decent group.

 

[Slade Yellow]

I think the lack of out-goings could be more detrimental than any missed targets. How do you keep such a large squad happy? Of course competition for a starting spot is important but will those players that came in this month because happy sitting on the bench or not even making the squad?!

With such a large squad it will take from now until the end of the season to work out who his best 11 are.

It's great that the board have backed such a increase in playing budget, I just feel getting rid of some of the higher earning bench warmers and bringing in 2-3 of strong signings would have been more sensible.

So many of them are on good contracts like O’Donker, couple of hours a day on the training ground then into a meeting or two and the rest of the day to do as they like.
Sit in the stands wrapped up warm on the home games, probably why they are not pressing the manager for game time.

 

[SirAndyOfCrosby]

But it's probably more important for the team as a whole to play well and create more chances.

You know, sometimes having an outlet - someone peeling off a defender, making runs - that can create more chances.

Just look at Shemmy's goal vs Ipswich. Now imagine a striker with pace who is an out-ball when we're up against superior technical sides.

Imagine that - instead of humping the ball to Harris to ignore in favour of backing into a defender, or to Lankshear to get bullied and wrestled to the ground against two 6"3 Millwall meatheads - we have someone who can time a run and outpace the average centre-half at this level.

You'd like to think it would be worth trying. That, or we can keep pumping the ball up to an isolated striker and watch it come back again pretty swiftly.

We're not going to dominate the ball. We're not going to create wave after wave of chances. We need something to keep the opposition on their toes. Too often it's Shemmy alone (and they double up on him) or BDK (same treatment).

But imagine a front 3 of say, Shemmy, Emankhu and a pacy striker infront of a midfield 3 (so BDK and Cam have a McDonnell to help with the heavy lifting) and we could potentially have a robust midfield and enough pace up top to trouble the opposition and prevent their wingers (and often full backs) from pegging us back.

Surely got to be better than playing 5 at the back, 2 in midfield and allowing the opposition to completely dominate us meaning any pace out wide is completely redundant and our lone striker completely isolated.

 

[Mojofilter]

Thornily has left by mutual consent.

Good luck to him. Always seemed like he tried hard. Not upto champ standard but will kick on and have a good career im sure. Hope he gets somewhere where he can play regularly