Summer 2026 Transfer Window Thread

[Wellen Wolf]

I had a few minutes so I thought I would do some research on Dan Neal, prospective defensive midfielder.

Reported as 5 ft 10 and 62 kg ie 9 stone 10 pounds.

He was clearly in the squad with Rob Edwards when he was an England U20 coach and got 3 caps a few months later in 2021 after Edwards moved on to Forest Green.

Dan Neal was this season:
Sunderland in the PL: 13 minutes on the pitch in 3 games (1,1, 11 minutes). 20 times on the bench completely unused.
Ipswich in the Championship since the end of January: Started 9 times and only played a full game once.

Looks like he will be on the bench if he signs and will be blown over when it is windy. Hmm, he ain't going to knock Championship players off the ball or contribute to set piece defence at that height and weight!

 

[Wilf Wolf]

I had a few minutes so I thought I would do some research on Dan Neal, prospective defensive midfielder.

Reported as 5 ft 10 and 62 kg ie 9 stone 10 pounds.

He was clearly in the squad with Rob Edwards when he was an England U20 coach and got 3 caps a few months later in 2021 after Edwards moved on to Forest Green.

Dan Neal was this season:
Sunderland in the PL: 13 minutes on the pitch in 3 games (1,1, 11 minutes). 20 times on the bench completely unused.
Ipswich in the Championship since the end of January: Started 9 times and only played a full game once.

Looks like he will be on the bench if he signs and will be blown over when it is windy. Hmm, he ain't going to knock Championship players off the ball or contribute to set piece defence at that height and weight!

Underwhelming to say the least.

 

[Lupo]

Underwhelming to say the least.

Hopefully like the kind of underwhelming BS we were hearing 9 years ago about the future under Paul Lambert before he was promptly fucked off at seasons end. Dreaming is for free

 

[Wellen Wolf]

Sadly.
He didn't do anywhere near enough at Sunderland and he's clearly just a sub at Ipswich this season.
Did a further check. Hmm. Played 90 minutes 44 times last year when Sunderland got to the playoffs.
He's therefore clearly being seen by someone (Hi Rob!) as a replacement for one of our two Brazilians.
Oh dear.

 

[Templeton Peck]

Sadly.
He didn't do anywhere near enough at Sunderland and he's clearly just a sub at Ipswich this season.
Did a further check. Hmm. Played 90 minutes 44 times last year when Sunderland got to the playoffs.
He's therefore clearly being seen by someone (Hi Rob!) as a replacement for one of our two Brazilians.
Oh dear.

Knows the league.

 

[Mel Evo]

Sadly.
He didn't do anywhere near enough at Sunderland and he's clearly just a sub at Ipswich this season.
Did a further check. Hmm. Played 90 minutes 44 times last year when Sunderland got to the playoffs.
He's therefore clearly being seen by someone (Hi Rob!) as a replacement for one of our two Brazilians.
Oh dear.

Signings like this are the new reality though. Armstrong is well thought of by most on here, and he wasn’t getting a regular Championship start this season.

 

[Wilf Wolf]

I’ve no idea if Armstrong can continue with his previous form in the Championship but he’s well liked as he looks like he gives a toss so stands out in our current team. It’s a good starting point for any player at any level.

 

[Tony Towner]

Signings like this are the new reality though. Armstrong is well thought of by most on here, and he wasn’t getting a regular Championship start this season.

You've said this before, it's not true. He started 21 out of 27 league games before he came to us. It would be fair to say they've got better without him though.

 

[Mel Evo]

My research isn’t up to scratch. I’ll grant you it was conducted in person with two Southampton fans in a McDonalds on the way home from one his first games for us. So their view may have been a bit loaded. Appreciate the audit though.

 

[jd1981]

I have a feeling the squad we put together will be a lot closer to KJ 2015/16 squad than it will be to Nuno 17/18 squad in quality.
With Mr meh in charge and he’ll have the “he’ll do attitude” more than anybody

 

[Tony Towner]

Coventry have won the league and are closer to the Jackett 15/16 squad than the Nuno 17/18 one. People have to stop using that as the benchmark imo as it'll just end in unrealistic disappointment.

 

[Mel Evo]

Coventry have won the league and are closer to the Jackett 15/16 squad than the Nuno 17/18 one. People have to stop using that as the benchmark imo as it'll just end in unrealistic disappointment.

This is a completely reasonable response to my previous dreaming. And I think it’s a perhaps a bit unfair on people whose concern isn’t that we’ll have to be realistic, but more that the manager and likely targets might well not be up to even that kind of level. Would be good just to get on with it now as it’s Edwards or Edwards and, with a level field (we hope) in terms of playing staff, it will all be on the leadership.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

As I said the other day, Boro have been top 6 all season and have at least half a dozen regular players who I would never want here. You don't have to be very good. Just competent and hard working with a bit of creativity. We finished 5th once with Kightly as our only creative player, straight out of non league and didn't even arrive until November. The division isn't any better now than it was then.

Arguably we don't have any of those three elements right now but equally I hope very few of these players are here in 4 months.

 

[Deano]

Coventry have won the league and are closer to the Jackett 15/16 squad than the Nuno 17/18 one. People have to stop using that as the benchmark imo as it'll just end in unrealistic disappointment.

The problem is Nathan Shi has no football knowledge, Matt Jackson has no track record for this so signing players like that who could go either way is not "punching your way out" of the division and is more likely to end up in us sinking into the filth than getting promoted but I agree that's what is probably going to be happening.

 

[Tony Towner]

This is a completely reasonable response to my previous dreaming. And I think it’s a perhaps a bit unfair on people whose concern isn’t that we’ll have to be realistic, but more that the manager and likely targets might well not be up to even that kind of level. Would be good just to get on with it now as it’s Edwards or Edwards and, with a level field (we hope) in terms of playing staff, it will all be on the leadership.

I've said before I don't have faith in those recruiting or managing the club, just that I think if we had the right people in place with our financial advantage over all but Burnley, the other PL team to come down and to a lesser extent Sheff U, Southampton/Ipswich/Wrexham if they don't go up it wouldn't be too difficult to build a Top 8 team at worst without getting a Neves/Jota/Boly. In fact to not do would be the next example of gross mismanagement.

Southampton were worse last season than we are this (low bar granted), lost/ got rid of 17 players last Summer, appointed a car crash of a manager and will be favourites for the play offs this year. Relegated sides should go back up with their baked in advantage, Ipswich probably will with the team and manager that's largely the same from the one that went down.

Everyone on here watches the Championship and says how shit it is.

 

[prawnking]

Thing is, you could have made a case this time last year for why there's no way due to our inbuilt advantages we should be relegated from the PL rock bottom by miles and get just about every transfer decision wrong, and yet we did

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Thing is, you could have made a case this time last year for why there's no way we should be relegated from the PL rock bottom by miles and get just about every transfer decision wrong, and yet we did

I think we're more likely to be 2004 (expectation is to go up as it should be, we're shit, sack the manager before Bonfire Night then dull our way to mid table) than 2012 (I don't have time to go through all that again) which is one of the reasons I don't buy the doomsday scenarios or the insistence that we must copy 2017 or else.

Again - would you like Luke Ayling and Matt Targett as your full backs? Even ahead of our current shitehawks? Well that's what Boro have and technically they could still finish 2nd.

 

[Lupo]

Ipswich probably will with the team and manager that's largely the same from the one that went down.

Minus their top scorer

 

[Tony Towner]

Thing is, you could have made a case this time last year for why there's no way due to our inbuilt advantages we should be relegated from the PL rock bottom by miles and get just about every transfer decision wrong, and yet we did

You could, equally all but the deluded would say it's been coming, dodged the bullet in 2 of the 3 previous seasons when in the relegation zone half way through the season and was always a case of when not if.

I'm not saying I think we'll go up, if I was doing a 'where will we finish' post now I'd be voting bottom half staying up, I'm just saying comparisons to the Nuno side are neither realistic or that quality of player are needed to be a force.

 

[prawnking]

I think we're more likely to be 2004 (expectation is to go up as it should be, we're shit, sack the manager before Bonfire Night then dull our way to mid table) than 2012 (I don't have time to go through all that again) which is one of the reasons I don't buy the doomsday scenarios or the insistence that we must copy 2017 or else.

I agree

Again - would you like Luke Ayling and Matt Targett as your full backs? Even ahead of our current shitehawks? Well that's what Boro have and technically they could still finish 2nd.

Thing is, it's not just about highlighting shite individuals, all Champ teams will have some cloggers in their side, but an effective way of playing, team spirit, being greater than the sum of your parts etc and just having a couple of match winners will get you far.

Thing is, as it stands we have none of those qualities as a team. Lots of work to do with, let's be honest, inadequates in charge