Summer Transfer Window 2026

[dazfrancis]

Without wanting to be bigging the Keane / Tarks partnership up (I think it’s horrendous and hope we don’t see as much of it) but only 5 teams conceded less goals than us last season so it’s hardly the worst defence in the league

Also, it speaks to the atmosphere of doomerism around the fan base that everyone is 100% convinced Branthwaite will break down first game of the season...

I'd only give it 50-50 chance personally

[brap2]

My disappointment comes from the feeling that we are not pushing on. We may well be ‘okay’ in that we win enough to come 15th.

If we are anywhere near relegation discussion as we get deeper into the season I would consider it an absolutely titanic failure and would want resignations across the top of the business. Manger goes without saying but I’d be talking about board out type stuff.

[TheRam]

Without wanting to be bigging the Keane / Tarks partnership up (I think it’s horrendous and hope we don’t see as much of it) but only 5 teams conceded less goals than us last season so it’s hardly the worst defence in the league

Disagree.

I think it’s horrid.

It got away with an awful lot last season and having those two as your centre halves impacts how you build up and how you can push up the pitch.

We don’t have a single defender we can count upon to perform next season.

[TheRam]

Also, it speaks to the atmosphere of doomerism around the fan base that everyone is 100% convinced Branthwaite will break down first game of the season...

I'd only give it 50-50 chance personally

I want to see a run of games without breaking down and being out for three months before I consider him an option.

[Bluedylan1]

What do people mean by we’ll be fine?

We’ll avoid going down?

We’ll do better than last season?

I can absolutely see why plenty of people are feeling very negative about the prospects for the season ahead. I don't think it's crazy at all. There's definitely logic to that line of thought.

I just don't quite see things that way. I think the atrocious finish to the season is clouding some judgement. Again, I understand that. It was egregiously bad, and left such a sour taste that's still very prominent.

I feel like those who are very negative about our prospects think we are the team who finished the last 7 games, and that's all we are. Whereas I think we are the team who played the whole season, for good and bad, including that horrendous finish but also including lots of the good stuff.

The good parts of last season seem very far away. The win at Man U with 10 men, the win at Villa. The really good overall defensive record. The superb away record. They're all part of what we are, as much as the horrendous finish.

To get to your question, ''fine'' is finishing somewhere between 8th and lower mid table, with more player development in the younger players.

The bookies have us between 10th and 12th favourites to win the league, depending on which outlet it is, and I think that's a fair reflection.

So if we significantly overperform we could push for 7th/8th, and if we significantly underperform, we're floating somewhere just above the relegation positions (and I think Moyes will be fired in that situation).

Like I say, I understand people who feel more pessimistic about things. I wouldn't and can't call that perspective ''crazy'', but I think it's heavily clouded by the finish to the season and by things like not signing a RB yet. And I get that.

[brap2]

I can absolutely see why plenty of people are feeling very negative about the prospects for the season ahead. I don't think it's crazy at all. There's definitely logic to that line of thought.

I just don't quite see things that way. I think the atrocious finish to the season is clouding some judgement. Again, I understand that. It was egregiously bad, and left such a sour taste that's still very prominent.

I feel like those who are very negative about our prospects think we are the team who finished the last 7 games, and that's all we are. Whereas I think we are the team who played the whole season, for good and bad, including that horrendous finish but also including lots of the good stuff.

The good parts of last season seem very far away. The win at Man U with 10 men, the win at Villa. The really good overall defensive record. The superb away record. They're all part of what we are, as much as the horrendous finish.

To get to your question, ''fine'' is finishing somewhere between 8th and lower mid table, with more player development in the younger players.

The bookies have us between 10th and 12th favourites to win the league, depending on which outlet it is, and I think that's a fair reflection.

So if we significantly overperform we could push for 7th/8th, and if we significantly underperform, we're floating somewhere just above the relegation positions (and I think Moyes will be fired in that situation).

Like I say, I understand people who feel more pessimistic about things. I wouldn't and can't call that perspective ''crazy'', but I think it's heavily clouded by the finish to the season and by things like not signing a RB yet. And I get that.

[Bob Sacamano]

Sometimes I think I’m overreacting. But then again…

[Raptor]

Probably BS, but might help improve the positivity a bit!!

[AndSeel]

Probably BS, but might help improve the positivity a bit!!

This is just wind up engagement bait.

[Bumble]

We will see one of our midfielders at right back first game of the season.

Moyes is not stupid enough to keep using JOB there now. He knows he will have people calling for his head after 20 mins but he also won't accept anyone pushed on him from the recruitment team either.

Merlin Rohl it is then.

[Bluedylan1]

Listen I hear it. I absolutely acknowledge that our points tally exceeded our performances for long parts of the season. I think we all discussed that on here plenty of times, as the season was going on. And Moyes got certain things terribly wrong (finish to the season, integration of young players).

I also think there was mitigation. We had to try and integrate 8 new players from the summer. We had a lot of players that went out of the door. That squad churn was very difficult and could've been incredibly destabilising. If we had someone like Potter as manager in those circumstances, I could genuinely see us in a relegation battle.

We also had the ground move to navigate. That clearly impacted some of the home performances (as well as Moyes' tactics at home being too conservative).

We also had a period for 6 weeks or so during Afcon where we barely had a team that we could field. We were without Ndiaye and Gana for ages, and in the same period KDH was out for ages. All hugely important players. We then lost Grealish for the rest of the season, our only genuinely top quality footballer. Obviously Branthwaite, our best defender by some distance, wasn't available all season.

All pretty big things which really hurt us.

Just to reiterate, Moyes got some things disastrously wrong. He doesn't get a pass for those things at all. If we'd fired him, I don't think it would've been a crazy decision at all. But I think it's fair to also acknowledge it was actually a very challenging season to manage for lots of the reasons listed.

[Granite]

I was just going to say that, people moan about our defence all the time but even allowing for Branthwaite managing to play a few games we weren't nearly as bad as some people make out.

Fair, but then our defence is very much protected by our tactics and Moyes’ “scheme”.

We’re gong to have to improve the personnel if we want to become more of an attacking, front-foot team, that can press.

Feels like diminishing returns unless we move on from Tarks/Myko… and jettison Keane.

[Trowel]

Tarkowski's drop-off last season was alarming; we got away with it.

How's he going to be this season.

No beating Old Man Time.

[Bumble]

Listen I hear it. I absolutely acknowledge that our points tally exceeded our performances for long parts of the season. I think we all discussed that on here plenty of times, as the season was going on. And Moyes got certain things terribly wrong (finish to the season, integration of young players).

I also think there was mitigation. We had to try and integrate 8 new players from the summer. We had a lot of players that went out of the door. That squad churn was very difficult and could've been incredibly destabilising. If we had someone like Potter as manager in those circumstances, I could genuinely see us in a relegation battle.

We also had the ground move to navigate. That clearly impacted some of the home performances (as well as Moyes' tactics at home being too conservative).

We also had a period for 6 weeks or so during Afcon where we barely had a team that we could field. We were without Ndiaye and Gana for ages, and in the same period KDH was out for ages. All hugely important players. We then lost Grealish for the rest of the season, our only genuinely top quality footballer. Obviously Branthwaite, our best defender by some distance, wasn't available all season.

All pretty big things which really hurt us.

Just to reiterate, Moyes got some things disastrously wrong. He doesn't get a pass for those things at all. If we'd fired him, I don't think it would've been a crazy decision at all. But I think it's fair to also acknowledge it was actually a very challenging season to manage for lots of the reasons listed.

The disappointment was that we punched above our weight all season, dealt with the setbacks, managed to over achieve and then right at the end when we needed Moyes to show he belonged in the upper tier of Premier League managers, which his pay packet demands, he absolutely blew it and reverted to the mean.

I'm not sure we can expect anything wildly different at the end of this season, with a bit more of a stable trajectory with the lack of Grealish and Gueye, who were likely the difference makers in our better run of games.

[brap2]

Listen I hear it. I absolutely acknowledge that our points tally exceeded our performances for long parts of the season. I think we all discussed that on here plenty of times, as the season was going on. And Moyes got certain things terribly wrong (finish to the season, integration of young players).

I also think there was mitigation. We had to try and integrate 8 new players from the summer. We had a lot of players that went out of the door. That squad churn was very difficult and could've been incredibly destabilising. If we had someone like Potter as manager in those circumstances, I could genuinely see us in a relegation battle.

We also had the ground move to navigate. That clearly impacted some of the home performances (as well as Moyes' tactics at home being too conservative).

We also had a period for 6 weeks or so during Afcon where we barely had a team that we could field. We were without Ndiaye and Gana for ages, and in the same period KDH was out for ages. All hugely important players. We then lost Grealish for the rest of the season, our only genuinely top quality footballer. Obviously Branthwaite, our best defender by some distance, wasn't available all season.

All pretty big things which really hurt us.

Just to reiterate, Moyes got some things disastrously wrong. He doesn't get a pass for those things at all. If we'd fired him, I don't think it would've been a crazy decision at all. But I think it's fair to also acknowledge it was actually a very challenging season to manage for lots of the reasons listed.

That’s all fair but I’m sure every team in the land can give you a list of mitigations they feel impacted their season.

The disconnect for me is to say - points over shot performances for the vast majority of the season, except for the last 7-8 games…but I think we are more like the team that over performed than the team that regressed to expected.

That feels more like hope than anything else to me? Unless we think there is something specifically about how we play that means we should consistently hope to be better than performances indicate on paper. (Moyes conservative but grinds out results might actually be this).