Transfer Window January 2026 Transfer Window Thread

[Carpy]

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Days

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Hours

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Minutes

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Seconds

Transfer Window Closed

Confirmed Transfers​

INCOMING​	OUTGOING​
Jamie Donley - On Loan From Tottenham (Option to Buy)​	Louie Sibley - Loaned to Bradford City​
Myles Peart-Harris - 6 Month Deal​
Yunus Konak - On Loan From Brentford (End of Season)​
Jamie McDonnell - Long Term Deal​
Jeon Jin Woo - Permanent Transfer​
Christ Makosso - Loan w Option (£3M)​

Rumoured Transfers​

INCOMING​	OUTGOING​
Andrew Moran​	Przemyslaw Placheta​
Kalidou Sidibe​	Tom Bradshaw​
Luke Graham​

Tigers A.K.A Big Boys Rumour List​

INCOMING​	OUTGOING​
Paddy McNair​	Tiger (Sacked)​
Isiah Jones​
George Earthy​
Yu Hirakawa​
Sam Morsey​
Alex Matos​
Aidomo Emakhu​
Alex Robertson​
Ryan Hardie​
Tyler Bindon​
Paris Magohma​
Jack Talor​
Jamie McDonnell​

 

[AssHead]

Is this another tip off from your mate at the Mail who said “the club will announce Will Still as our new manager tomorrow at 9am”?

It is.
The Will Still thing blots my copybook a bit but - in my defence - that appointment was pretty far down the road before, ultimately, it wasn’t.
I don’t know why it broke down. I think it would have been the right appointment.

 

[Symp59]

Whos the second one?

Konak and mcdonneĺl

 

[OtteryYellow]

It is.
The Will Still thing blots my copybook a bit but - in my defence - that appointment was pretty far down the road before, ultimately, it wasn’t.
I don’t know why it broke down. I think it would have been the right appointment.

I would have seen will still as very risky for both parties, at Southampton the players weren't having him as he was seen as 'not a football person', he lacks English league experience and if things had started badly he wouldn't have been given much time, that could be fatal for his long term career.

He needs a mid table job somewhere to get restarted.

 

[Orkney Islands Yellow]

Sounds good 2 youngsters in ,keep Vaulks just in case

Why would you assume they're better than Vaulks? They're two inexperienced, untested kids who we're gambling on.

 

[tatabanya]

After the summer’s budget shambles, it’s great to see us linked with a young player for a fee. Until the new stadium is built this is the route to success and sustainability for us. It might not be the stay up at all costs method but there’s no guarantee for success there either and you can end up in a bad way financially. Pay for young assets, increase their value with coaching and playing time and then sell on. We were one of the best at it for a while and it helped bankroll our promotion despite having to pay crazy rent to our landlord. Regardless of what league we are in next summer we need a few saleable assets where we hold the cards as to sale value.

 

[tatabanya]

Why would you assume they're better than Vaulks? They're two inexperienced, untested kids who we're gambling on.

Yeah you’re right we should be going after Championship veterans who can’t get another deal with a club in our league.

 

[Isle of Wight Yellow]

Why would you assume they're better than Vaulks?

Well, maybe he’s seen Vaulks play recently…

 

[TailsWeWin]

After the summer’s budget shambles, it’s great to see us linked with a young player for a fee. Until the new stadium is built this is the route to success and sustainability for us. It might not be the stay up at all costs method but there’s no guarantee for success there either and you can end up in a bad way financially. Pay for young assets, increase their value with coaching and playing time and then sell on. We were one of the best at it for a while and it helped bankroll our promotion despite having to pay crazy rent to our landlord. Regardless of what league we are in next summer we need a few saleable assets where we hold the cards as to sale value.

Yes; I wonder how much our transfers now - including those soon incoming - are made with one eye on possibly being in League One next year. While some supporters will be gung-ho about us staying up, the men paying the money will be more realistic.

 

[LeftSideBoy]

Why would you assume they're better than Vaulks?

I’m better than Will Vaulks.

 

[Osei Yaw]

I’m better than Will Vaulks.

Will Vaulks has thrown a kettle over a pub.

What have you done?

 

[LeftSideBoy]

Will Vaulks has thrown a kettle over a pub.

What have you done?

My friends and I were playing football and I managed to pass the ball to them. 3 times!

Your move, William..

 

[Carpy]

After the summer’s budget shambles, it’s great to see us linked with a young player for a fee. Until the new stadium is built this is the route to success and sustainability for us. It might not be the stay up at all costs method but there’s no guarantee for success there either and you can end up in a bad way financially. Pay for young assets, increase their value with coaching and playing time and then sell on. We were one of the best at it for a while and it helped bankroll our promotion despite having to pay crazy rent to our landlord. Regardless of what league we are in next summer we need a few saleable assets where we hold the cards as to sale value.

Can't understand why a club of our size ever ditched such a playing model in the first place, the promotion to the Championship should have acted as a way to accelerate this. Jack Currie is evidence that there are plenty of players who do well at L1 level and can then go on to not look out of place in the 2nd tier.

 

[geosamfry]

Will Vaulks has thrown a kettle over a pub.

What have you done?

That's the real quiz.

 

[Front Post]

It is.
The Will Still thing blots my copybook a bit but - in my defence - that appointment was pretty far down the road before, ultimately, it wasn’t.
I don’t know why it broke down. I think it would have been the right appointment.

I'm not sure a couple of video meetings can be described as pretty far down the road. Otherwise we were pretty far down the road with every candidate we spoke to.

 

[Carpy]

It is.
The Will Still thing blots my copybook a bit but - in my defence - that appointment was pretty far down the road before, ultimately, it wasn’t.
I don’t know why it broke down. I think it would have been the right appointment.

Still think a change of username might help too. I vote for LittleBoy, you'll have @bigboyoufc worried.

 

[SirAndyOfCrosby]

Yes; I wonder how much our transfers now - including those soon incoming - are made with one eye on possibly being in League One next year. While some supporters will be gung-ho about us staying up, the men paying the money will be more realistic.

I don't believe they're mutually exclusive.

Young talent tearing it up in League One (a la Currie, Spencer and now McDonnell) supplemented with top quality loans (Lankshear) and our core (Brannagan, Brown, Cumming) is a decent route to survival.

The mistake we've made in the past has been in thinking we need 'Championship experience' and subsequently wasting budget on the likes of Phillips, Bradshaw and Sibley.

Putting together an excellent looking League One squad isn't, on paper, that different from putting together a lower mid-table Championship squad.

And we really don't need to get hung up on categorising Championship v League One footballers seeing as we're in the market for the lower end of the former and the top end of the latter (and it doesn't take much for them to switch places).

 

[Carpy]

The mistake we've made in the past has been in thinking we need 'Championship experience' and subsequently wasting budget on the likes of Phillips, Bradshaw and Sibley.

And now you say this, maybe one of our experienced Championship pros has actually performed better than those coming up from League One or in from abroad.

Currie > Leigh (limited Champ experience for sure)
Brown <> Helik
Brannagan > Will Vaulks
Goodrham > Dembele
BDK > Sibley
Mills > Phillips
Lankshear (limited experiece) & Prelec > Bradshaw

The only one you could argue for is probably Placheta.

 

[ZeroTheHero]

If we are talking about bringing young players in, I would like to know what our academy is doing. How long is it since they brought through a player that has really made the grade with us? It's an expensive outlay if it is not actually producing anything. If the club could get that functioning, it is a good source of young players and presumably they would have been around the first team squad and so should slot in reasonably easily (if good enough of course!).

 

[ECYellow]

After the summer’s budget shambles, it’s great to see us linked with a young player for a fee. Until the new stadium is built this is the route to success and sustainability for us. It might not be the stay up at all costs method but there’s no guarantee for success there either and you can end up in a bad way financially. Pay for young assets, increase their value with coaching and playing time and then sell on. We were one of the best at it for a while and it helped bankroll our promotion despite having to pay crazy rent to our landlord. Regardless of what league we are in next summer we need a few saleable assets where we hold the cards as to sale value.

I don't disagree with your post in terms of the usefulness of picking up young assets. It's what a club like ours should be doing.

But, it could be argued that success and sustainability comes with staying in the Championship until the new stadium is built - including this season. It is clear that those teams battling for promotion from League 1 this season will not have the resources or depth that Birmingham & Wrexham had last season. With that in mind, i'm not sure that a young lad who's never played at the level, and will be asked to go straight in and influence games half way through the season, is our best option for survival.

As i've already said, if he comes in and hits the ground running i'll be delighted. It just feels like a pretty high risk signing for THIS season, when survival is at stake.

 

[Nadi-]

After the summer’s budget shambles, it’s great to see us linked with a young player for a fee. Until the new stadium is built this is the route to success and sustainability for us. It might not be the stay up at all costs method but there’s no guarantee for success there either and you can end up in a bad way financially. Pay for young assets, increase their value with coaching and playing time and then sell on. We were one of the best at it for a while and it helped bankroll our promotion despite having to pay crazy rent to our landlord. Regardless of what league we are in next summer we need a few saleable assets where we hold the cards as to sale value.

In the past we gambled on young Irish lads, and benefited from some decent transfer fees.
Look at Semenyo, loaned to the likes of Bath as a youngster done well, returns and plays for his clubs first team
Sold to Bournemouth for£10:5m then receive a further estimated £11m sell on, from the move to Man City.
These gambles are in the club interest, and should be every clubs policy, instead of paying inflated wages on fading 28 year old..

 

[tatabanya]

I don't disagree with your post in terms of the usefulness of picking up young assets. It's what a club like ours should be doing.

But, it could be argued that success and sustainability comes with staying in the Championship until the new stadium is built - including this season. It is clear that those teams battling for promotion from League 1 this season will not have the resources or depth that Birmingham & Wrexham had last season. With that in mind, i'm not sure that a young lad who's never played at the level, and will be asked to go straight in and influence games half way through the season, is our best option for survival.

As i've already said, if he comes in and hits the ground running i'll be delighted. It just feels like a pretty high risk signing for THIS season, when survival is at stake.

But there's a balance isn't there? In Brannagan, BDK and Vaulks we have three pretty expensive and experienced central midfielders. We're clearly lacking some legs there. What kind of 'proven' profile can we expect on our budget?

 

[samstudd]

Out of interest, do we reckon McDonnell comes straight in? If so who gets benched out of BDK and Brannagan? Or will BDK play as 10? Or play a 3 in the middle like the good old days. Good headache for Matt.

 

[BicesterU]

Can't understand why a club of our size ever ditched such a playing model in the first place, the promotion to the Championship should have acted as a way to accelerate this. Jack Currie is evidence that there are plenty of players who do well at L1 level and can then go on to not look out of place in the 2nd tier.

Putting two and two together and probably getting five, Currie, El Mizouni and Kioso in the summer of 2024 and Spencer and BDK at the start of Summer 2025 would seem to indicate that we haven't necessarily strayed too far from that philosophy.

It's understandable that we then tried to complement that with some players with more Championship experience when we got promoted, players like Vaulks, Phillips, Dembele, and then Bradshaw and Helik in the January.

But when you look at the hits v misses of each of those 'types' of signings, (Currie, Spencer, BDK v Vaulks, Phillips, Bradshaw), I wonder if we've come to the conclusion that it's easier to move on 'misses' like Sibley, El Mizouni and Kioso than it is the likes of Bradshaw?

It's obviously simplistic grouping and labelling players as 'hits' or 'misses', but it does look like it's easier to move on players that don't make the grade if they fall in to the younger, promising category.

 

[battman]

Can't understand why a club of our size ever ditched such a playing model in the first place, the promotion to the Championship should have acted as a way to accelerate this. Jack Currie is evidence that there are plenty of players who do well at L1 level and can then go on to not look out of place in the 2nd tier.

It’s what happens when the recruitment team and the head coach aren’t 100% aligned on what’s right for the team. We had a bit of a balance with Des by bringing in a mixture (and then loaning one of those players we paid a decent fee for to League One for a season), but the experienced Championship players really let Des down in the end by showing no real improvement to the high-end League One players we already had.

Then we moved to Rowett who was even further away from that model. Sure, he kept us up and I’m thankful for that, but if the likes of Bradshaw and Campbell were a sign of further things to come, I’m not surprised the board decided to sack him after his ‘back me or sack me’ ultimatum.

I’d be very surprised if Waldron brought someone in who didn’t align to the model, and signing two players without a manger confirmed that the new guy would have to align with the club rather than the other way around

 

[ECYellow]

But there's a balance isn't there? In Brannagan, BDK and Vaulks we have three pretty expensive and experienced central midfielders. We're clearly lacking some legs there. What kind of 'proven' profile can we expect on our budget?

Like when people were stating it wasn't our job to pluck the next manager out, it's not our job to identify the players. But, if i was put on the spot i'd like a conversation with Mark Leonard & Alex Matos for starters.

 

[ECYellow]

Out of interest, do we reckon McDonnell comes straight in? If so who gets benched out of BDK and Brannagan? Or will BDK play as 10? Or play a 3 in the middle like the good old days. Good headache for Matt.

Brannagan based on his performance at MK!*

*Yes, i'm well aware it was his first game back.

 

[m]

Will Vaulks has thrown a kettle over a pub.

What have you done?

I went and got the kettle back.

 

[Foley]

Brannagan based on his performance at MK!*

*Yes, i'm well aware it was his first game back.

Not sure a new manager would drop a player after one game?
This thread. Some suggesting they are better than Vaulks and then a dig at Brannagan

 

[holdsteady]

I think a fair question is “was Brannagan really ready to play last Friday?”. That was essentially a reserve team hour to get him some minutes in his legs in a more sensible time, at best a week later he should probably be on the bench. Our weakness in centre midfield had him come back a couple of weeks early for me, to rest BDK, who ended up playing a decent amount of minutes anyway, we gambled on the fitness of a player we are going to need, all because of the squad limitations, thankfully it looks like we got away with it.

 

[BrockBuster]

I'm not sure a couple of video meetings can be described as pretty far down the road. Otherwise we were pretty far down the road with every candidate we spoke to.

I mean it depends how many candidates we spoke to. If it was like three, I'd say yeah that's pretty far down the road. If it was like ten, then perhaps not.