Winter '25/26 Transfer Rumours Thread

[stubbo-admin]

Well seems like with all these international breaks, and us languishing, the rumours of ins and outs are rife.

Chuck anything 'worthy' of discussion on this thread...

--------------

Incomings:

Pablo Felipe - €21m + €3m (Gil Vicente) | Forward
Valentin 'Taty' Castellanos - €26m + €4m (Lazio) | Forward
Adama Traore - £2m + £1m if stay up (Fulham) | Forward
Axel Disasi - Loan (Chelsea) | Centre Back
Keiber Lamadrid - £150k + £1m option | Attacking Mid

Outgoings:

Nicolas Füllkrug - 6 months loan (AC Milan)
Luis Guilherme - £17m + Sell On % (Sporting Lisbon)
George Earthy - 6 months loan (Bristol City)
Callum Marshall - 6 months loan (Bochum)
Andy Irving - 1.5m (Sparta Prague)
Guido Rodriguez - Undisclosed (Valencia)
Igor Julio - Loan Cancelled (Brighton)
James Ward Prowse - 6 months loan (Burnley)
Lucas Paqueta - £36.5m + Buy Back Clause (Flamengo)

[stubbo-admin]

My opinion and guesswork / speculation:

Sullivan has given up as part of his usual “half arse approach” to everything.   His efforts now focused on leaks to paint Paqueta as a villian to justify selling him ( with fans ) and recouping the money paid out for the 2 forwards.  Sully agreed the purchase of the 2 Temu forwards and not seeing an immediate victory against Forest has backtracked, accepted relegation and now will switch into full cost containment and recuperation mode for the next few years IMO.

We must also remember that Sullivans understanding of football ( or lack of ) is that all you need is forwards and the rest takes care of itself. Its all he ever buys thru his agents.  Of course the irony is 55 forwards and what 3 or 4 good ones? 

We need 2 good, strong CBs but at least one. We also need a CM warrior wth legs to plug the “Rice hole” a bit. And also another wide option ideally. We will get none if them. 

 

I think this is likely right. The two forwards were the last throw, and when that didn't pay instant dividends, he gave up.

We also have to be realistic that we don't have 100m to throw at it, so we need to get our defenders in the cheap or on loan.

I expect we still get Adama before the end of the window, and clearly Nuno is here until season end with new members of staff arriving....plus Carrick is now off the market anyway...so we might as well get behind what we've got, hope for a rabbit from a hat, and give it the best go we've got. 

I expect our real chances mostly rest on if Bowen rediscovers any semblance of his best form.  He's the player that can truly carry us to a run of wins. 

[Westham67]

Nadi from Brighton 

[Westham67]

We need to stop conceding goals; a new seasoned Dawsonesque-type centre back should be the priority 

[Sir Alf]

My opinion and guesswork / speculation:

Sullivan has given up as part of his usual “half arse approach” to everything.   His efforts now focused on leaks to paint Paqueta as a villian to justify selling him ( with fans ) and recouping the money paid out for the 2 forwards.  Sully agreed the purchase of the 2 Temu forwards and not seeing an immediate victory against Forest has backtracked, accepted relegation and now will switch into full cost containment and recuperation mode for the next few years IMO.

We must also remember that Sullivans understanding of football ( or lack of ) is that all you need is forwards and the rest takes care of itself. Its all he ever buys thru his agents.  Of course the irony is 55 forwards and what 3 or 4 good ones? 

We need 2 good, strong CBs but at least one. We also need a CM warrior wth legs to plug the “Rice hole” a bit. And also another wide option ideally. We will get none if them. 

[Massive Attack]

Magassa is pony. Potts and Fernandes are fine.

[BoleynGone]

Sir Alf,
at last making sense. 
Potts played much better alongside Fernandes,he sat and allowed Fernandes to roam, But with Fernandes work rate and energy he still back and helped out. With Magassa there with Potts as a double pivot it doesn't work especially when we have a back 5 (or 7 ) They are not moving enough because each one is doing the same thingand getting in each others way. An easy solution would be to have Magassa as center half,his energy would be what we need instead of having either Kilman or Mavro. Nuno will stick by Kilman and bring back Soucek, I liked Soucek in the QPR game but the next games will be different without Paqueta, can we have Soucek there instead, No. But Nuno will.

[BoleynGone]

I'm sure if this is true we'd be hearing more about it very soon,not saying it's not true but let's wait.

[Rossal]

Couple more days to get a CB and centre mid in ( the first more of a priority of course ) or forego another 3 points. 

Need a winger over a CM for me...... If the CB is Dier we really are fucked 

More tosh spouted by Rossknowsfuckall.

Potts and Magassa have shown themselves to not be good enough in recent games. So much so that Soucek is looking a preferable option in the middle. 

 

 

You've proved my point. There are options in the middle. There's fuck all behind Bowen and Summerville out wide hence why we need a winger more, for competition and options off the bench. 

[Manuel]

The fact that Nuno has just made his first real coaching appointment since he got the job months ago is another bad sign.


 

Certainly is. It’s a sign that he will see out the remainder of the season no matter what.

I have a horrible feeling we will keep him in the championship too. Seems like Nuno is only here so Sullivan can tap into his agent for players.

Yea thought the same. Aside from the agent thing he has good history in the Championship with Wolves, and after leaving both Wolves and Forest under a cloud he won't another murky exit on his CV. That said, you can never really predict what will happen these days.

[Jaan Kenbrovin]

The fact that Nuno has just made his first real coaching appointment since he got the job months ago is another bad sign.

 

Certainly is. It’s a sign that he will see out the remainder of the season no matter what.

I have a horrible feeling we will keep him in the championship too. Seems like Nuno is only here so Sullivan can tap into his agent for players.

[Sir Alf]

Can see the sense in what you say southbank. And as mentioned, its the usual half baked reaction by Sullivan just getting in a couple of wililing but B level strikers ( based on their careers to date). So at least we wont be given the false hope a CB and CM coming in might have provided.

I fully expect us to finish, at best, 2nd from bottom and possibly rock bottom by May now and deservedly so. Wolves and Burnley look better than us now. After an initial sign of improvement for 5 games after Nuno’s failed experiment against Brentford and Leeds, we have got progressively worse again imo.  Its true we remain marginally better than when Potter was at the helm but that was mostly due to improvement on set pieces ( only 2 conceded versus 8 under Potter)  and playing Fernandes,  Potts and Magassa for legs in CM over the painfully slow Guido, Irvine and Soucek.  But even the aforementioned one good spell, with wins against Newcastle and Burnley, were hardly convincing imo ( Esp Burnley) and draws at Brighton and Bournemouth ( Areola and bad finishing avoided a 5 or 6-2 defeat in that second half at Bmouth after going 2 up),   No time have we ever looked strong in midfield, hard to score against or able to break teams down and score enough goals.

Not having the CB and CM transfers ( incl  loans ) lined up on 1st Jan is yet another fatal show of incompetence and zero planning by the little narcissistic buffoon in charge. His fellow boardroom partners are equally complicit just sitting on the sidelines the last 4 years and not challenging Sullivan.

This weekend’s defeat should be the final nail. Going to be a very very painful watch

Spurs will be buoyed by the Gallagher signing and coast to a comfortable victory dedpite having 6 or 7 out.  Kilman and Todibo and a central mid of youngsters along with the unmotivated Paqueta, slow as treacle Soucek and 2 new rookie PL strikers will not make much difference

[Massive Attack]

I get all that Southbank. However there is still 51 points left up for grabs 7 points adrift from Forest. The biggest concern is this sabotaging twat is still in charge. Sullivan could not have gone about all this any worse. 

[southbankbornnbred]

Hate to be the one to put a downer on things, but I think it's all shuffling the deckchairs on the Titanic.

I get that we HAVE to try something. And we've bought two (pretty much unknown) forwards. But no seriously good players are going to join us in January - unless it's a generously funded loan for six months. Not in our position.

So many of the available options are barely upgrades on the shit we already have. There will be 1,000 names in the mix and 900 of them will be no better, or worse, than the current (poor) squad.

Add to that we have a manager who doesn't seem to be taking the role seriously - he actively celebrated with his former players when they beat us - and that he was also dealt a bit of crap hand with coaching staff...and none of this bodes well.

The fact that Nuno has just made his first real coaching appointment since he got the job months ago is another bad sign. He should have been all over Sullivan and Brady on that point from day one.

I also think we don't have a lot of money now. We've pretty much spent on the two forwards what we're recouping through Guilherme and, most likely, Paqueta (around £50m to £52m). Potter was told he had to reduce the squad's wage/revenue ratio in readiness for the new squad cost ratio rules (85%) in the summer. We're already above that, according to some (don't know if that's true, but some say we're around 90%). But what's certain is that we can't afford to splash a lot more money this month.

We'll be "linked" with a lot of players. But unless more leave, like JWP etc, then we don't have a lot of wriggle room against PSR/SCR.

The whole club needs a MASSIVE clear-out once we're relegated in the summer. The shit (Kilman etc), the dead wood (Fullkrug etc), the overpaid (JWP, Rodriguez etc), the manager (he's not West Ham, let's face it: his heart is not in this) and most importantly...the board.



 

[Mad Ferret]

Couple more days to get a CB and centre mid in ( the first more of a priority of course ) or forego another 3 points. 

Need a winger over a CM for me...... If the CB is Dier we really are fucked 

More tosh spouted by Rossknowsfuckall.

Potts and Magassa have shown themselves to not be good enough in recent games. So much so that Soucek is looking a preferable option in the middle. 

[Rossal]

Couple more days to get a CB and centre mid in ( the first more of a priority of course ) or forego another 3 points. 

Need a winger over a CM for me...... If the CB is Dier we really are fucked 

[El Scorchio]

Couple more days to get a CB and centre mid in ( the first more of a priority of course ) or forego another 3 points. 

It's a joke how it's all just stalled. Wouldn't surprise me if we finish the window with just the two lads up top. As ever half measures from Sullivan rather than actually doing what's so glaringly needed.

[Sir Alf]

Couple more days to get a CB and centre mid in ( the first more of a priority of course ) or forego another 3 points. 

[El Scorchio]

And while you're on the blower to Italy, you have my permission to use up the rest of West Ham's January budget.

I'll have a large calzone with extra mushrooms...

Mushrooms? Gross.

[southbankbornnbred]

And while you're on the blower to Italy, you have my permission to use up the rest of West Ham's January budget.

I'll have a large calzone with extra mushrooms...

[Council Scum]

You do realise the bloke we have just signed is from a team in Rome? 

Because he wasn't wanted there.... 

 

so? He obv isn't wanted at Villa either hence why he is on the move.  Let's not pretend the premier league and London doesn't offer any sort of pull to players. Serie A is not a great league anymore and Roma lost at home to Torino last night who had Vlasic starting.         Beat Spurs and Forest lose to Villa its back to 4 points.  Then Sunderland at home, theres some glimmers if we can pull a few more signings out of our arse.  

And i'd back us to beat Spurs alot more with Malen up top than this Pablo bloke 

He isn't wanted at Villa and has the choice of Rome or an East London toilet, which is Eeries point.... 

[Eerie Decent]

OK mate, get on the phone to him, the signature might not be dry yet.

[Rossal]

Son, you think when he's got the option of joining Roma, live in Rome, and fight for the title, he'd join a club falling apart, who have just been thumped by the leagues rock bottom team, and lost to the team they are battling with directly to stay up?

You live in a dream world.

You do realise the bloke we have just signed is from a team in Rome? 

Because he wasn't wanted there.... 

 

 

so? He obv isn't wanted at Villa either hence why he is on the move.  Let's not pretend the premier league and London doesn't offer any sort of pull to players. Serie A is not a great league anymore and Roma lost at home to Torino last night who had Vlasic starting.         Beat Spurs and Forest lose to Villa its back to 4 points.  Then Sunderland at home, theres some glimmers if we can pull a few more signings out of our arse.  

And i'd back us to beat Spurs alot more with Malen up top than this Pablo bloke 

[Eerie Decent]

Malen going Roma loan with a €25m option.  Wants to play up top as a number 9. 

Turns 27 in a few days, a better option than either of the two we got? 




 

Son, you think when he's got the option of joining Roma, live in Rome, and fight for the title, he'd join a club falling apart, who have just been thumped by the leagues rock bottom team, and lost to the team they are battling with directly to stay up?

You live in a dream world.

You do realise the bloke we have just signed is from a team in Rome? 

Bloody hell 

[Council Scum]

Malen going Roma loan with a €25m option.  Wants to play up top as a number 9. 

Turns 27 in a few days, a better option than either of the two we got? 




 

Son, you think when he's got the option of joining Roma, live in Rome, and fight for the title, he'd join a club falling apart, who have just been thumped by the leagues rock bottom team, and lost to the team they are battling with directly to stay up?

You live in a dream world.

You do realise the bloke we have just signed is from a team in Rome? 

Because he wasn't wanted there.... 

[Rossal]

Malen going Roma loan with a €25m option.  Wants to play up top as a number 9. 

Turns 27 in a few days, a better option than either of the two we got? 



 

Son, you think when he's got the option of joining Roma, live in Rome, and fight for the title, he'd join a club falling apart, who have just been thumped by the leagues rock bottom team, and lost to the team they are battling with directly to stay up?

You live in a dream world.

You do realise the bloke we have just signed is from a team in Rome?