Stickied Transfer Rumours & Confirmed Deals Thread 2024/25

[SF_]

Derby will buy a dozen players and have a wage bill higher than half of the clubs in the league. They could go either way.

 

[91SPP]

Derby will buy a dozen players and have a wage bill higher than half of the clubs in the league. They could go either way.

Exactly. We will live and die by our recruitment and we’re essentially starting from scratch, but the budget will certainly be healthy to give us a chance.

I don’t anticipate high spending on transfer fees, but would guess that we’ll be competitive in the loan and free agency markets. The wage budget will probably be in the top 10/12 teams in the league, as you predict

Commercially, we will among the top four non-parachute payment clubs in the league (£30m plus) and David Clowes has committed to investing £10m per annum from his company profits into the operating costs of the club going forward. I suspect that’s what we will be working towards and as mentioned, whilst it’s unlikely to lead to any significant transfer spends - the wages on offer will ensure we’re able to compete with clubs at this level for players.

 

[SF_]

Possibly a bullshit Twitter account but I seriously hope the Storey to Wednesday rumours are true. Fucking donkey.

 

[masi51]

Nat Ogbeta gone to Plymouth...........Awful Defender in lge1 never mind the Championship

 

[SF_]

Nat Ogbeta gone to Plymouth...........Awful Defender in lge1 never mind the Championship

Fucking hell, in the final he's one of the worst players I've ever seen at that level. Rooney, plus duds like him, they're down.

 

[masi51]

Fucking hell, in the final he's one of the worst players I've ever seen at that level. Rooney, plus duds like him, they're down.

Froze in the Final, ok going forward, but at times does not track back....Williams would have played in the final
And he is ok at best

 

[SF_]

One of a bunch of clubs who supposedly want Alfie Gilchrist on loan from Chelsea. No chance we win that race.

Joe Williams extended his contract at Bristol City. Thank fuck.

 

[Tea Towel]

Possibly a bullshit Twitter account but I seriously hope the Storey to Wednesday rumours are true. Fucking donkey.

We will definitely be in the market for centre backs. Storey doesn’t strike me as a Rohl type but I wouldn’t be against it.

 

[SF_]

We will definitely be in the market for centre backs. Storey doesn’t strike me as a Rohl type but I wouldn’t be against it.

Christ, how bad are your current centre backs?

 

[Tea Towel]

Christ, how bad are your current centre backs?

Tbf I’m only going off what I’ve seen on him in League One, is that his level?

At the minute we’ve only got Ihiekwe and Bambo under contract I think. Iniekwe is an old school head it and kick it type and Bambo won’t need any explaining to you

 

[SF_]

Tbf I’m only going off what I’ve seen on him in League One, is that his level?

At the minute we’ve only got Ihiekwe and Bambo under contract I think. Iniekwe is an old school head it and kick it type and Bambo won’t need any explaining to you

He's a bottom half Championship defender who would probably stroll it in League One. He can head, has reasonable recovery pace, and I'm struggling to think of anything else he's good at. Just hasn't improved in all these years and he's useless on the ball.

I'd like to replace our entire back three but we won't. Ideally we wouldn't even be playing a shitty back three.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

We are being linked with Tyrhys Dolan from Blackburn Rovers. Pretty sure we were linked in January and it almost happened before falling through last minute.

 

[SF_]

Looks like we won't meet Marc Leonard's wage demands. Shame, sounds a good player.

 

[Super_horns]

Seems to be pretty quiet generally.

Guess most teams are skint..

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Looks like we won't meet Marc Leonard's wage demands. Shame, sounds a good player.

Bit surprised we haven’t been linked to him really, we are going to need a complete retool of midfield from last season and he seems well rated and not unreasonably expensive with our parachute funds.

 

[91SPP]

Seems to be pretty quiet generally.

Guess most teams are skint..

Always said that if I was a professional footballer that I’d always let me contract run down. Obviously you lose the stability of a fall back if you’re injured, but there’s plenty of teams paying wages over purchasing intangible assets. A good player will always have people at thier door - it’s why I was surprised Bird was so quick to sign with Bristol. He had his best season under Warne, who changed him for a passive footballer into an impactful one and went to a team who, don’t get me wrong are in a much nicer area and more established, but probably won’t pay the same wages as us at the same level. The way he finished the season, he probably would’ve had better options - Luton, Burnley maybe even a premier league move in the form of Ipswich or Southampton. Jumped the gun IMO.

 

[masi51]

Seems to be pretty quiet generally.

Guess most teams are skint..

The window is not yet opened, hence why the Championship is quiet, plenty of deals in lge1/2 on free transfers

 

[SF_]

We'd be daft not to go for Sorba Thomas if he's available for £750k. Back to London, QPR or Millwall would seem more likely though. Probably fits the bill for Luton too.

 

[Kenneth E End]

Good morning all - been a while since I posted here considering the silence of the PL forum. Good to be back at this level, probably the most competitive in the world.

"Guess most teams are skint". Yep. Not us though. It's that time of year where players are on holiday. I wouldn't say many moves will take place for another couple of weeks, more likely when pre-season training gets underway and management teams get their squads sorted out. I suspect for most teams, that'll be around the July 1st timeframe.

Something I've noticed in our rise up the leagues, and may apply more so further down than before, teams are retaining more players each summer. Look at Chelsea and Man CIty - the latter especially have over 40 professional players already and around ONE HUNDRED squad numbers handed out. Both teams this season combined are releasing 1 player and have 3 players on free transfers.

Teams above are stockpiling players. Issa Kabore whom we signed on loan last year - a very raw player, but someone who I think has a far higher ceiling than what he is now when he gets to his mid-late 20s. He has no chance of getting in ahead of Kyle Walker. He is now at an age where he needs to play consistent football and would be an asset, on his current ability level for a top-end Championship club, if not lower Premier League club.

The transfer list also appears a thing of the past? Does it still exist?

In the extreme City and Chelsea scenarios - teams aren't football clubs any more, they are becoming trading platforms. Players are being kept on, developed and then traded for a healthy profit. Kabore himself was valued at £14M last summer... he's worth no where near that. Harwood-Bellis this summer, going to Southampton permanently for £20M. Has he ever played first XI football at the Etihad? James Trafford sold for £17M.

It feels like Luton are doing this to a far lesser extent, but in some cases, players are on much longer contracts than what you'd normally expect. John McAtee being an example of this - I genuinely don't think he's going to be in with a shout of breaking into the first team proper next year, but his value is probably £1.5M now after being purchased for a third of that. Dion Pereira another less successful example of this policy.

 

[Kenneth E End]

As for what Luton may or may not be doing this summer. I fancy there won't be too much overhaul, but they're also in a position where it (could) be a win-win situation. Luton currently have 30 "senior professionals" on their books, of which around 8 at least will probably move on and 16 "development" players to supplement that even more.

Luton will receive ~£55M in central funding, including £43M in parachute payments, but not including the £7M "bonus" for not finishing 20th. It is clearly a massive advantage and probably, in effect, gives the team a 15 point head start. For what it's worth, it feels that parachute payments are a necessary evil considering the huge gap between the two divisions, not that I really like them. However, this is where Luton's financial prudency last season will come into it's own.

Ross Barkley sounds like he's off imminently for £5M. The best player I've ever seen in a LTFC shirt. Ryan Giles will probably be off to Hull or Middlesbrough for around £4M. It just hasn't worked down south.

I expect Alfie Doughty, Elijah Adebayo, Teden Mengi and maybe even Tahith Chong will all get Premier League interest. If they stay, we've got some quality at this level but if they don't stay, it's going to be a huge boost to the finances that will allow us to reinvest with more depth. Those four combined could fetch £55M in fees, if not close to £65M-£75M, such is the market at the moment.

In terms of inbounds, there's been a lot of talk about Ben Sheaf. I expect he'll either be a PL player or Coventry will want too much money to make a deal viable. As has been mentioned, there was interest in Tyhrys Dolan in January. Ronnie Edwards and Japhet Tanganga other players mentioned in the last twelve months. Sammie Szmodics was mentioned before the end of the season, but I can't see a deal being viable considering age, cost and PL interest. Divin Mubama from WHU has also been mentioned.

Then yesterday I saw, what will probably be the most ridiculous rumour we'll probably see all summer... Emile Smith Rowe to Luton. He is someone that interested LTFC in January, but I'd be amazed if he doesn't get a PL gig.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

Welcome back Kenny, i thought i was going to be the lone remaining Luton voice on here. Glad you are doing well and your absence was not as a result of anything serious.

 

[SF_]

We seem to have cash to spend, but obviously not much. The owners have just put another £1.5m share issue in to boost the transfer kitty and we're supposedly holding off installing under soil heating and a new pitch so it doesn't come out of this year's budget.

Who knows what to believe when Ridsdale is involved though.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

As for what Luton may or may not be doing this summer. I fancy there won't be too much overhaul, but they're also in a position where it (could) be a win-win situation. Luton currently have 30 "senior professionals" on their books, of which around 8 at least will probably move on and 16 "development" players to supplement that even more.

Luton will receive ~£55M in central funding, including £43M in parachute payments, but not including the £7M "bonus" for not finishing 20th. It is clearly a massive advantage and probably, in effect, gives the team a 15 point head start. For what it's worth, it feels that parachute payments are a necessary evil considering the huge gap between the two divisions, not that I really like them. However, this is where Luton's financial prudency last season will come into it's own.

Ross Barkley sounds like he's off imminently for £5M. The best player I've ever seen in a LTFC shirt. Ryan Giles will probably be off to Hull or Middlesbrough for around £4M. It just hasn't worked down south.

I expect Alfie Doughty, Elijah Adebayo, Teden Mengi and maybe even Tahith Chong will all get Premier League interest. If they stay, we've got some quality at this level but if they don't stay, it's going to be a huge boost to the finances that will allow us to reinvest with more depth. Those four combined could fetch £55M in fees, if not close to £65M-£75M, such is the market at the moment.

In terms of inbounds, there's been a lot of talk about Ben Sheaf. I expect he'll either be a PL player or Coventry will want too much money to make a deal viable. As has been mentioned, there was interest in Tyhrys Dolan in January. Ronnie Edwards and Japhet Tanganga other players mentioned in the last twelve months. Sammie Szmodics was mentioned before the end of the season, but I can't see a deal being viable considering age, cost and PL interest. Divin Mubama from WHU has also been mentioned.

Then yesterday I saw, what will probably be the most ridiculous rumour we'll probably see all summer... Emile Smith Rowe to Luton. He is someone that interested LTFC in January, but I'd be amazed if he doesn't get a PL gig.

You mention about not much overhaul but then say we could lose 8 players, most of whom very important. If as expected Doughty, Mengi, Adebayo go added to losing Barkley & Lokonga then we have lost arguably 5 of our best players coupled with Lockyer almost certainly not playing again it feels like a pretty substantial overhaul is in order to me.

Some of the rumours going around are patently absurd, i think whats happened is that someone has got a hold of the "if we stay up" target list to me. Smith Rowe, Sheaf dont seem quite so crazy if we had managed it.

 

[Kenneth E End]

I wouldn't call it an overhaul as such, unless we lose a few more (Kaminski for example), but I agree those plus Barkley are the spine of the side and they're going to need quality replacements.

Every year, Luton do tend to have some level of churn but their recruitment has by-and-large been very good. It's been the secret to our success.

I feel as if Luton fans are fairly pessimistic about their chances this summer. Anything below the top 6 should be seen as failure, considering the resources. We're going to be able, for the first time ever in the top 2 divisions, fairly powerful in terms of what can be offered. I don't wish to sound overconfident, but it's probably the reality of the situation. A lot of it is going to be cash flow. Last summer, they had to spend £12M on stadium improvements - and not all cash would come in on day 1.

In the 2022 season, the club had an approx £8Kpw wage cap. In 2023, I think that increased somewhat and the club offered substantial bonuses (maybe around 100% of their basic) in the result of winning the play offs. Last season it then ballooned to around £40Kpw with Barkley and then had to pay Lokonga's £50Kpw wages at Arsenal. We're going to be able to offer salaries into the millions again this season and next.

 

[barryspang]

Hello all great to be back after so long away. My first ever Oxford game was in this league and it remains the one and only time I’ve seen us play at this level. After season tickets in the Conference, League 2 & League 1, I’m very much looking forward to seeing how we get on. I think all Oxford fans are very realistic that it’s going to be a real challenge to stay up, but hope we can give it a good go.

It looks like we may be close to our first summer signing -

https://twitter.com/x/status/1799155661286310353

Would be a good start, some much needed experience at this level. We’ve been linked with Marc Leonard too, but understand there’s a few after him.

 

[BarrieOwl]

Hello all great to be back after so long away. My first ever Oxford game was in this league and it remains the one and only time I’ve seen us play at this level. After season tickets in the Conference, League 2 & League 1, I’m very much looking forward to seeing how we get on. I think all Oxford fans are very realistic that it’s going to be a real challenge to stay up, but hope we can give it a good go.

It looks like we may be close to our first summer signing -

https://twitter.com/x/status/1799155661286310353

Would be a good start, some much needed experience at this level. We’ve been linked with Marc Leonard too, but understand there’s a few after him.

We've offered him terms but I suspect he isn't getting the length of deal he wants from us nor will he be guaranteed game time if Röhl has his way.

I wish him well if he moves on.

 

[91SPP]

Three players who have been named in training ground visits, although there seems to be a lot at the moment, is: Marek Rodak, Divin Muamba and Ben Osborn.

I suspect Osborn will be one signing, always felt we would be in the hunt for Rodak given Warne’s history with him and Muamba has been a long-term target on loan. Bobby Clarke is another I suspect will eventually join on loan and apparently Oxford fans have wind that Josh Murphy is set to join us.

I wonder how long until we actually make a signing, considering we need 12 or more.

 

[That Fat Centre Half]

As Kenneth mentioned above we have been linked with Mubama, we will need a replacement for Adebayo when/if he leaves, Taylor is going to come in you'd expect but he is very different sort of player to Adebayo.

Before i say this i have never seen him play so could be way off the mark, but i do I find it a bit odd all the interest around him. He has never had a loan out to test himself in senior football and his England Youth record isnt spectacular either yet is linked with a lot of top end Championship sides.

 

[Robie]

Hello all great to be back after so long away. My first ever Oxford game was in this league and it remains the one and only time I’ve seen us play at this level. After season tickets in the Conference, League 2 & League 1, I’m very much looking forward to seeing how we get on. I think all Oxford fans are very realistic that it’s going to be a real challenge to stay up, but hope we can give it a good go.

It looks like we may be close to our first summer signing -

https://twitter.com/x/status/1799155661286310353

Would be a good start, some much needed experience at this level. We’ve been linked with Marc Leonard too, but understand there’s a few after him.

Now confirmed. Will link up with a few of ours who played together at Cardiff.

 

[Kenneth E End]

James Trafford is wanted by both Newcastle and Bayern Munich. Burnley want up to £30M now to let him go.

He's clearly got potential but had a torrid second half of the season.