Transfer Window Summer 2025 Post Transfer Window Thread

[Carpy]

Transfers In/Out​

Player​	In/ Out​	Transfer Type​	Club​
Stuart Findlay​	​	Loan (Season)​	Hearts​
Ruben Rodrigues​	​	Permanent (w Fee)​	EC Vitoria​
Brian De Keersmaecker​	​	Permanent (w Fee)​	Heracles Almelo​
Idris El-Mizouni​	​	Permanent (w Fee)​	Leyton Orient​
Will Goodwin​	​	Loan (Season)​	Colchester​
Brodie Spencer​	​	Permanent (w Fee)​	Huddersfield​
Jordan Thorniley​	​	Loan (Season)​	Northampton Town​
Luke Harris​	​	Loan (Season)​	Fulham​
Nik Prelec​	​	Loan (Season w Option)​	Cagliari​
Will Lankshear​	​	Loan (Season)​	Tottenham​
James Golding​	​	Loan (Season)​	Crewe Alexandra​
Peter Kioso​	​	Loan (Season)​	Peterborough United​
Ben Davies​	​	Loan (Season)​	Rangers​
Filip Krastev​	​	Loan (Season)​	Lommel​
Elliott Moore​	​	Mutual Consent​	Free Agent​
Stephan Negru​	​	Loan (Season)​	Bristol Rovers​
Owen Dale​	​	Loan (Season)​	Plymouth​

 

[dan_oufc]

Marcelino out on loan to AS Trenčín in Slovakia until end of the season.

 

[londonyellow]

Marcelino out on loan to AS Trenčín in Slovakia until end of the season.

Seems a bit random but needed a loan. So what's that – League 2 ish standard?

 

[n1]

Trencin, where a certain Gino Van Kessel made his name!

 

[SirAndyOfCrosby]

Seems a bit random but needed a loan. So what's that – League 2 ish standard?

Not at all random when you note that AS Trenčín are owned and managed by Dutch footballers with varying degrees of Indonesian heritage.

Nothing that happens with the career of Marselino Ferdinan is random. Scratch beneath the surface and there's usually a perfectly logical, if not football related, reason.

 

[HillBilly]

My theory about the 'budget cut' is that the club completely overestimated the value of players we were ready to sell.

I'm no accountant, but when working out how much we could spend, I'd expect that figure was contingent in some way on the estimated fees we expected to receive.

When you look at who left it's astounding how little money came in for them (if any at all).

If you sat down at the start of May and totted up the market value and wages of Kioso, Dale, Moore, Thorniley, Goodwin, El Mizouni, Negru and Rodrigues (along with whoever else we might have been willing to sell, but didn't get good offers for), it's not hard to imagine that those initial numbers (even with conservative estimates) wildly exceeded what we ended up with (which in most cases probably involves retaining a percentage of their wages).

Although there are all sorts of reasons why it was a difficult market for us, and maybe out of the ordinary in relation to previous years, we are unlikely to go into next summer with a squad of 30 or anything near that. Even including Goodwin, Kioso, Spencer (for next year) and Prelec, I count about 19 senior players who would currently be under contract. Possible extensions for players like Leigh, O'Donkor or Placheta, would be unlikely to push our squad numbers too far north of 20. However the true total value of the squad may well increase significantly, and that means good business has been done in the circumstances.

Rowett talked at the start of the window about the aim of working towards a leaner squad and, at the end of the window, about the difficulty of what we were trying to do this summer. You can't get too upset about the work our recruitment department did last summer because it helped keep us up. I'm sure it's coloured this window a lot though (and possibly more than was anticipated). On reflection the manager's comments are probably more 'on message' with the club's long-term vision than they might have seemed at the time.

Think Marselino might be out of contract next summer and no longer U21. It's hard to predict what his future looks like in relation to this club. Really hope he smashes it in Slovakia though. If he does stay, his prospects would look a bit brighter in a squad that isn't so bloated.

 

[londonyellow]

I think the point is more that we could have left our options open (if the assumption that you can register one of your own players at a later date is correct).

Let's say we expect Romeny to be back in early November - great, we likely want a spot for him then.

But if we know we won't be able to play him before then, could we perhaps have just left that last spot open for the next two months just in case?

What if the worst case scenario happens, and BDK and Cam go down with serious injuries in the next few weeks? If we had left a spot open, we could sign a replacement off the free agent list (and Romeny would then have to wait until January). We can't do that now.

From what's been reported, this seems to be the approach that Wrexham have taken......and it does seem to be

Romeny's latest insta story is promising – light jogging etc. Back in training in the next few weeks you'd think?

 

[ttg17]

So because I can't resist a good bit of legal digging......went through and found the rule in the EFL Regulations (it's clause 44.9.6):


Changes outside of a Transfer Window
The League will only consider granting permission to make changes to the Squad List outside of a Transfer Window where:

• the Club’s current Squad List contains less than the maximum number of Players permitted to be included on the Squad List and the Club wishes to add an Out of Registration Player or another Player registered with the Club but not currently included on the Squad List, or;
• in other truly exceptional circumstances to include but not be limited to those set out in the note from Player Admin found on The League Portal.

That’s really poor drafting (notwithstanding the fact it should be ‘fewer’ in the first line of the first bullet). It’s not at all clear what ‘will only consider’ means. It sounds like it leaves it completely at the league’s discretion, which doesn’t provide clubs any certainty whatsoever. It also leaves the league incredibly open to accusations of bias - they’d have to be very careful about exercising their ‘consideration’ consistently. You can well see a situation where Wrexham being permitted to register a player in October they’d initially opted not to register reinforces the perception that they’re the league’s darlings.

Taking a step back though, I would be very surprised if the Wrexham ploy was permitted. Surely the whole point of submitting a squad list is that you have to make the judgment call on day 1. Giving yourself the leeway to assess which of your injured players is going to be most useful to your season midway through it seems to totally undermine that.

 

[Mike_H]

Pompey managed to delist Colby bishop last season about a month in as he had t featured die to heart issues and register someone else I'm sure (would say that's exceptional circumstances though)

"Pompey de-registered Ibane Bowat as he hasn’t appeared in a single squad since the 25 list was registered. Seems like a loophole has allowed Bishop back in". Wonder if the loophole still exists this season?

Portsmouth loophole to bring Colby Bishop back explained

Colby Bishop made an emotional return to action for Portsmouth earlier than expected on Saturday, which has been explained by Andy Moon.

www.theportsmouthnews.com

 

[SirAndyOfCrosby]

Wow. Good work.

So there is a clear precedent, whereby a player was allowed to be added to an otherwise full list at the expense of another player who hadn't made a matchday squad at that point.

So flipping the Romeny situation around, we should still be able to sign a free agent and add them in, if we wanted to do, at any point prior to Romeny being named in a matchday squad - one out, one in.

As long as the originally named player isn’t named in a matchday squad it's as good as leaving it empty. That's the precedent, whether the FL likes it or not.

Either way, both the 'Pompey loophole' and the 'Wrexham loophole' make a mockery of any named squad limit - designed surely to say 'these are the (over-age) players we are using until January - no-one else'.

And it could apply to others. Should Ciaron Brown have a setback and not be available til the New Year, whilst we simultaneously have an injury to one of our three CM - we can surely add in a Campbell or Rinomhota in his place?

That would be no more unreasonable than either Wrexham's 'let's see who gets fittest quickest' or Portsmouth’s 'we had an unexpected early return to fitness'...

 

[Steppers]

"Pompey de-registered Ibane Bowat as he hasn’t appeared in a single squad since the 25 list was registered. Seems like a loophole has allowed Bishop back in". Wonder if the loophole still exists this season?

Portsmouth loophole to bring Colby Bishop back explained

Colby Bishop made an emotional return to action for Portsmouth earlier than expected on Saturday, which has been explained by Andy Moon.

www.theportsmouthnews.com

Well I was right but wrong way round

 

[Some U's fan]

A possibility. I think it's more likely that:

1. The Indonesian optics of not registering Romeny were unpalatable, regardless of his physical state.
2. We were simply unaware of the 'Wrexham loophole'.

The Indonesian optics may be an element. I'd hope not but you never know.

The Wrexham situation isn't a loophole, it's just the rules and the club will have been well aware of it.

3. We have hit the FFP limit so can't afford to bring anybody else in?

It's a mathematical improbability that we are exactly at the limit. It's possible that we're close to it and that anyone we could afford to bring in would be worse than an existing player we have being played out of position, but that's basically what I already said.

Wow. Good work.

So there is a clear precedent, whereby a player was allowed to be added to an otherwise full list at the expense of another player who hadn't made a matchday squad at that point.

So flipping the Romeny situation around, we should still be able to sign a free agent and add them in, if we wanted to do, at any point prior to Romeny being named in a matchday squad - one out, one in.

As long as the originally named player isn’t named in a matchday squad it's as good as leaving it empty. That's the precedent, whether the FL likes it or not.

Either way, both the 'Pompey loophole' and the 'Wrexham loophole' make a mockery of any named squad limit - designed surely to say 'these are the (over-age) players we are using until January - no-one else'.

And it could apply to others. Should Ciaron Brown have a setback and not be available til the New Year, whilst we simultaneously have an injury to one of our three CM - we can surely add in a Campbell or Rinomhota in his place?

That would be no more unreasonable than either Wrexham's 'let's see who gets fittest quickest' or Portsmouth’s 'we had an unexpected early return to fitness'...

The pompey situation isn't a precedent, because it's a different situation, they had a player with a life threatening non football related issue. The FL would reject the argument of Romeny's poorly foot out of hand and if you tried to make a legal challenge based on this precedent you wouldn't even get laughed out of court, they'd just slowly shake their head.

And again, the Wrexham decision isn't a loophole, it's just the rules.

 

[The Voice Of Reason]

On the first paragraph - That's not what it means, it would be allowed.

On the second - As others have said, if we had a serious injury to Cam, BdK or Vaulks over the next few weeks, we could bring in cover at the expense of losing Romeny between whenever he's fit and January (likely only a few games based on earlier reports)

I wish people would stop posting about free agents as though they're cheap, they're not. Decent players who are free agents are in a stronger position to negotiate signing on fees or increased wages. The cost of buying players is about Total Cost of Ownership over the contract, how that is made up is largely immaterial.

I get you don't like them, but suggesting they're not good enough for L1 just makes you look soft in the head.

It would likely be Campbell, who's been training with the squad during pre season so would likely be squad ready (don't forget he'd be signed to sit on the bench if ONE of our starting CDM got injured)



All loan players have to be included in the squad list, so it's not the same situation. (Most) People aren't suggesting Romeny should have been left off entirely, they're suggesting leaving him off temporarily in case we needed that spot in an emergency, that was never an option with Nelson, it was include him or cancel the loan (if cancelling the loan was even an option, that's a contractual thing we don't have access to)

My own take on it (the squad list) is that registering Romeny probably suggests that his recovery is ahead of schedule, or alternatively that GR believes one of the other signings could play further back if required in a bind. From what I've read, that may be Krastev, but I've never seen him play and only going on comments from foreign journos about style of play.

Easier to quote people as individual replies however for my part. A free agent has no transfer fees so is the same or less. A million pound fee over 3 years

 

[Some U's fan]

Easier to quote people as individual replies however for my part. A free agent has no transfer fees so is the same or less. A million pound fee over 3 years

Yeah I was being lazy.

A free agent has the same or lower transfer fee but if a player was 'worth' a million pounds transfer fee and 15k a week over three years with a year left on their contract, then out of contract they will be looking for a million pound signing on fee, or 20k a week. They aren't a worse player because they're out of contract and they (and their agents) know it.

Edit: by the way I'm not suggesting it's always exactly the same cost, I'm not telling you Pogba got a £90M signing on fee when he joined Juve, I'm just saying that it's not a 'cheap' option - there's a reason so many players run their contracts down!

 

[Osleroad]

Seems a bit random but needed a loan. So what's that – League 2 ish standard?

Trencin is in the Slovak Super Liga so more likely Lg 1 standard. It has a very picturesque castle and is not far from the border with CZ and Mikulov.

 

[Marked Ox]

Trencin is in the Slovak Super Liga so more likely Lg 1 standard. It has a very picturesque castle and is not far from the border with CZ and Mikulov.

Don't know how many came through the youth system in Slovakia but their national team beat Germany 2-0 the other day.

 

[Ricey]

Sometimes.

Big ask for him to jump from Conference to Championship though. His experience is almost non-existent compared to O'Donkor - and I don't think we'd be putting our hopes on Gatlin as 4th choice striker when playing two up top (which would be the equivalent).

Josh Johnson, and Golding for that matter, and Gatlin, all need to be playing regular football - in the FL - by now.

If Josh Johnson had spent last season tearing it up at Gillingham or Cheltenham and being touted as one of the stand-out centre-midfielders in L2 then yes, ready to be that 4th wildcard option.

Bit-part player at step 5 Maidenhead - not so much.

Fair comments but that’s what our options are, until we can shuffle things in Jan. I wouldn’t be surprised to see JJ on the bench and given some minutes if needed. Let’s hope he steps up to the challenge!

 

[ttg17]

Loopholes and legislation aside, from what we saw of Romeny last season, I think this new slightly-withdrawn-second-striker role we seem to be playing with this year would suit him down to the ground. Not quite the out-and-out striker of a 9, not quite technical enough to be a 10, but has good qualities of both. That role could really unlock him.

 

[CaptainOx]

Fair comments but that’s what our options are, until we can shuffle things in Jan. I wouldn’t be surprised to see JJ on the bench and given some minutes if needed. Let’s hope he steps up to the challenge!

JJ is injured.

 

[HillBilly]

A couple of times in preseason we switched to a single pivot (DM) during games - a bit like the Des setup. Notably it seemed to be when Sibley came off the bench.

I went back to look at Rowett's formations at previous clubs and was interested to see he mainly used a 4-1-4-1 (4-3-3) throughout his time at Stoke, where his record was not too shoddy.

If we were to lose one of the starting two in midfield (and especially if both are out), I can see us using that system, and it would obviously bring a whole load of players into contention to start in a pair in front of the holding midfielder (i.e. Sibley, Goodrham, Harris or Krastev - maybe even Phillips).

 

[Mateo Corbo's Tackle]

Loopholes and legislation aside, from what we saw of Romeny last season, I think this new slightly-withdrawn-second-striker role we seem to be playing with this year would suit him down to the ground. Not quite the out-and-out striker of a 9, not quite technical enough to be a 10, but has good qualities of both. That role could really unlock him.

Yes. I know it is a small sample size but he was absolutely brilliant when he came on against Coventry at home, in that withdrawn role, and changed the game.

 

[tonyw]

Yes. I know it is a small sample size but he was absolutely brilliant when he came on against Coventry at home, in that withdrawn role, and changed the game.

Can't.......resist.......pedantry.......

Yes, it was his best game for the club so far.....but he definitely started that game. Was subbed off on 90.

 

[Mateo Corbo's Tackle]

Can't.......resist.......pedantry.......

Yes, it was his best game for the club so far.....but he definitely started that game. Was subbed off on 90.

Oh dear, you’re right.
Second Half Romeny changed the game. First Half Romeny wasn’t brilliant.

 

[yellowbow]

Oh dear, you’re right.
Second Half Romeny changed the game. First Half Romeny wasn’t brilliant.

I don’t think Romeny’s ability has ever been the issue. The problem has been his physicality and fitness. He’s never looked anywhere near being robust and fit enough to last 90mins. A full pre-season to get himself fit would probably have worked wonders, the unfortunate injury he’s sustained really couldn’t have come at a worse time.

 

[Joey]

They've taken some flack but I'd give a bit of a shout out to the recruitment team. They had the rug pulled from under them halfway through the window but not before they managed to get Spencer and BDK through the door on permanent deals for £4m or so, which is peanuts at this level. Spencer is clearly an asset at his age but BDK is levels above what we've seen recently and it looks like we've got a real bargain.

Lankshear looks a great player and well out of our price range if we were trying to buy someone permanently and we managed to scramble around to get Davies and Krastev in as well on loan, early days but they look shrewd moves that will improve us.

Hopefully they're given the resources in January to do their job and we get some more permanent signings through the door. There will always be some misses but we've added some quality in the summer.

 

[Mateo Corbo's Tackle]

As of now, four of our best five players were recruited this summer. I’d say that’s a job well done.

And before you ask whether you can base an opinion on players from one game (Krastev, Davies), you absolutely can. Total class, both of them, especially Krastev who I’m surprised isn’t getting more praise.

 

[Scotchegg]

de Keersmaecker, Davies, Lankshear and Spencer have all been very good signings. A little early to judge on Harris, Prelec and Krastev - but there have been glimpses that they will also be very good too.

 

[holdsteady]

de Keersmaecker, Davies, Lankshear and Spencer have all been very good signings. A little early to judge on Harris, Prelec and Krastev - but there have been glimpses that they will also be very good too.

Think I would put Spencer in the second group at the moment, got potential but not a nailed on starter like the other 3 yet, very early days still.

 

[TailsWeWin]

Krastev will be a revelation.
Bookmark.

 

[SirAndyOfCrosby]

As of now, four of our best five players were recruited this summer. I’d say that’s a job well done.

And before you ask whether you can base an opinion on players from one game (Krastev, Davies), you absolutely can. Total class, both of them, especially Krastev who I’m surprised isn’t getting more praise.

What I really liked about Krastev was his composure. He looked so comfortable in tight situations, kept the ball well, found a way out.

In fact, 51 games later, composure appears to be the defining factor in separating a Championship operator from a L1 one.

The way that BDK, Krastev, Prelec all appear entirely comfortable in tight situations (they don't panic) - it's the sign of a Championship player.

A L1 player can be athletic, strong, quick, skillful - but probably needs more time and space and makes errors under pressure or fails to get a shot off or beat the first man with a cross etc. I'm not naming names but there are players in our squad that I like, have many positive attributes, but lack that poise.

Last season we lacked enough players with Championship composure - which limited, in particular, our ability to create or score goal from open play.

The new signings appear to have gone a long way to rectify that (coupled with greater use of those who already had it - i.e. ter Avest).

 

[yellowbow]

That first half yesterday was the first time that I looked at our team and thought ‘yep, we’re championship now’

There were times towards the end of the half, when we had Leicester totally pinned in their own box, that we really looked like we belonged at this level.

It’s early days and the team still needs to gel. We also need to be fortunate and avoid injuries to key players but the signs are definitely promising.

One thing I found interesting was when Nathan mentioned that Bradshaw and Sibley didn’t even make the squad, GR said something about players not going out on loan meant he had to make tough decisions. Seemed to me confirmation that he would ideally have liked them to accept the offers that they received to go out and play elsewhere.