[Official TC Thread] January Transfer Window 2025 - 3rd Feb 11pm Deadline

That's you claiming several players will be off this summer, they might be but that happens. We also signed 8 permanent players in the summer so that's not an unusual amount. It's only a rebuild if you don't have the crux of a squad and we do.

 

Not getting Kvistgaarden is one thing, but then not being able to get a striker on loan within a week really speaks to the competence of our whole recruitment team.

We had a week, yet multiple other teams managed to get decent, even exceptional strikers in on loan or permanent deals inside 24hrs - we failed, again.
Other teams see being down to 3 strikers as an issue, but we clearly think 1 is acceptable.

I think this more than being unwilling to spend, this seems to be more worryingly, a genuine lack of judgement, negotiation skills, professionalism and competence.
We are clearly good at selling, when we have all the cards - but getting players in, ffs it's a feckin mess.
It literally takes us weeks, even months to get even done deals like KT or Idah over the line.
If not competence, are we giving a 100% to the recruitment process?

Hope first presser question to Brendan is 'your stated goal was to exit window stronger than you entered it, do you think you achieved that? If not, why do you think that is?'

 

Nope, an utter grade a *. Tax evasion, sexual assault amongst other things. There's a reason Monaco didn't keep him on and no * has taken him. I'd actually be surprised if he was allowed to work here.

 

So Schlupp was “a lot of work going on in the background..” that BR constantly spouted over the past few months. Pathetic to say the least.

 

Yes HH

 

People saying we need this or that. Ffs we need strikers. Usual celtic board pish again. Boycott to get these * out.HH

 

There seemed to be more going on with Valle than meets the eye. Rumours before Xmas that Barca were none too happy with his playing time. It suited them to loan him to Como and get an option to buy in there as well. Arsenal seemed to stonewall our attempts to sign KT- not sure if we could have done more.

Selling Kyogo was a business decision pure and simple. £10 million for a 30 year old seemingly not in great form was a no brainer really. We seemed to have options we were looking at but again who knows the circumstances. Maybe we could have got someone in but the selling club wanted to have a replacement lined up first? Need lots of things to fall in place.

I still hate the Board though because I think they do not and have not shown ambition to really take us to the next level but that is going back years really.

 

Unlikely to be many. Most contracts run until the summer.

 

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/maxi-gomez/profil/spieler/396894

 

We're not weaker. We're just not stronger either.
We've replaced Kyogo with Maeda (if he needs to play striker) and if that happens then Jota replaces Maeda on the right. Not really a drop off in either position.
Schlupp replaces Valle and apparently is more versatile.
The only position we're weaker in is CD as we've let Welsh go so if we get 2 injuries we're struggling.
Would have been better to come out of it stronger though and possibly getting players bedded in to replace the ones we'll inevitably lose in the summer.

 

There is clearly complacency setting into the club regarding this season. We played all those games between December and January, the team looked shattered, we badly needed a few fresh faces.

We have shipped out Kyogo and Valle who were contributing, not replaced Kyogo at all and got Schlupp for Valle which is too early to judge.

Palma being replaced with Jota is good business. I would have preferred Palma was sold rather than loaned as I fear he has a stinker and we get him back but in terms of squad options.

Centre back we moved out Welsh and brought Murray back on loan, not that fussed Welsh isn’t good enough.

Holm needed a loan so fair enough. Could have been doing with looking at another centre midfield option to pre plan for Hatate moving in the summer. Even if Hatate doesn’t, we can easily afford to have another on our books.

Nawrocki is out of the managers plans should have been moved on and replaced, no action taken. There was meant to be interest in him.

Greg Taylor, not signed on a new deal if he goes now it’s a free. We did (hopefully) sign KT on a pre contract so that’s good. However, we are now playing the remainder of the season with a guy that has an uncertain future hanging over him.

Come the summer we will need:
- third choice centre back
- backup left back
- defensive/ box to box physical centre midfielder
- right wing option
- Striker

That is before having any sales such as Kuhn, Hatate, CCV or another.

We also need to sort out sales for Lagerbielke, Kwon, Palma, Nawrocki and Yang.

This is all from a club who have shown they struggle to manage dealing with multiple deals at a time.

Also we will have a tough two leg tie against the likes of Red Star, Dinamo Zagreb, Sparta Prague, Bodo/Glimt, Olympiakos (or Greek champions) or a team on a level with us.

Lastly, I don’t buy the wait to the summer as nothing that we have done in any transfer window has given me confidence we will go into those CL qualifiers ready and give ourselves the best chance of being in there again. It has been worth £51.5m to us this season, by comparison Rangers have made around £23.5m from Europa so far so a £28m downgrade. Even if they win the thing they will still fall short of what we got from the CL.

 

Aye it’s not a rebuild. Ange’s first season was a rebuild. In the summer it won’t be anything like that.

 

I think Kvistgaarden was definitely the player we wanted and felt we would get. Have Brondby upped the price after we sold Kyogo? Maybe. Either way, £14m is not justifiable for him in my opinion, and that’s also why he is still a Brondby player this morning, because he will have had other clubs interested in him who also clearly feel the asking price is too high. I think we will go back in the summer for him to be honest, when Brondby will again have to make a call on how much they want, because they will have to sell at some point.

Not bringing in a striker on loan to help out with numbers to the end of the season is poor from us though. Even an experienced signing like the Schlupp one would have been ok in my opinion.

Overall, I think we have came out the window pretty much where we were if I’m honest. Barring Kyogo, the players that have left offered nothing here anyway. We’ve basically swapped Kyogo for Jota. So we have lost a quality striker who has had a very hit and miss season if we are being honest who didn’t really want to be here, and replaced him with a quality winger who needs to find his way again, but is also nearly 5 years younger and was desperate to return.

Idah can be the man to step up, and since Kyogo leaving, the signs look good. I know this is very unpopular, but Maeda has shown for Japan he can play up top also, so Idah isn’t the only option we have, and with the signing of Jota, it means we have the same number of options for these positions after losing Kyogo.

Was it a great window? No. Was it a disaster as some are making it to be? No. The truth is it was somewhere in the middle.

 

You can't take our potential player of the year in Maeda on the left wing, sell your main striker, and then say "He's our Kyogo replacement!" He absolutely isn't. He may well end up needing to play there as we only have Idah now, but Jota isn't fully up to speed yet and may take some time. None of our players are going to be playing 90 mins every game either. So players like Yang and Forrest when he's back are inevitably going to be needed more and everyone will be covering Kyogo's minutes. Our situation is unacceptable and we should have had a striker in this window, bare minimum on loan until the end of the season. There's no justifying it.

 

I don’t think Rodgers is totally innocent when it comes to the transfer window incomings. We’ve heard it before when the club went out and signed players we’d scouted and signed at a small fee. “Who’s that? We have a thousand wingers”

understandable he wants the players he wants….but Ange had the perfect mix of allowing the club to scout players adequately. O’reilly, CCV, etc. then his own players he wanted Maeda,kyogo,hatate etc.

Last nights reports saying Rodgers really wanted iheanacho on loan…you’re telling me the club didn’t have any other names other than a 28 year old with no goals this season? Bullshit.

I think Rodgers decides who he wants in targets “A,B,C” and if we don’t get them he doesn’t say yes for the club scouted players due to some of the players he’s ended up with before in nawrocki,lagerbielke, holm. But he forgets all the good players he’s ended up with because of the clubs scouting

 

Unbelievable that Nawrocki hasn't gone, or is he still 'developing' ?

 

GKs
Kasper
Sinisalo
Bain

RBs
AJ
Ralston

CBs
CCV
Trusty
Scales
Nawrocki
Murray

LBs
Taylor
Schlupp
(Scales)

CMs
CalMac
Engles
Hatate
Bernardo
McCowan
(Schlupp)

RWs
Kuhn
Forrest
(Jota)
(Yang )

CFs
Idah
Kenny
(Daizen)

LW
Daizen
Jota
(Forrest)
(Schlupp)
Yang

Not going to include Cummings as I don't think he'll be involved with the first team after signing a pre-contract with West Ham.

Looking at that list I think we have enough flexibility to get by domestically - Schlupp being able to cover 3 different positions could be very useful. However, him and Jota have not played a lot of football recently so will need time to get up to full speed - and we have Bayern next week! Daizen being out for that is a kick in the baws, especially as we didn't get another striker in, and even Jamesey will still be out. That game is giving me the fear. I think Kenny is going to have to majorly step up and have an impact.

We're all talking about missing out on a striker, which was ridiculous, but I also think it's mental that we weren't even linked with another RW.

This window reeks of trying to do just enough to deliver the league. It doesn't even show the ambition to make sure of a treble, let alone have a real go at a Bayern team that haven't been at their best over the last 18 months.

 

Judging by comments on Crystal Palace facebook page and fan forum most of their fans seem to rate him quite highly.

 

Makes it even stranger to put Murray on against villa but brendan loves a message to the board even if it's detrimental to the team.