2023 Summer transfers

I'm pretty sure Joe signed a new deal a week or two ago.

Hasn’t been officially announced. But maybe they want to delay the announcement until after his uncle’s funeral if he’s not in the mood to give happy interviews.

NEP says there are rumours that Wiley and Biancone may go to Olympiacos as the Greek transfer window doesn't close until 11 September. I presume on loan.

Would seem a sensible move for all parties.

Article in the Athletic about Forest's Transfer window, apparently (and probably unsurprisingly) Chelsea made an enquiry for Taiwo at the end of the transfer window.

Biancone yes, he is so far a signing who has contribute nothing on the pitch for one reason or another. But Kouyate we should keep unless we're very confident about new midfield signings. He was critically important coming off bench on Saturday and it is great being able to bring him on in those situations if we're defending a lead. Apart from being big, aggressive and a pain to play against he doesn't give the ball away cheaply and he has the nous that comes with several hundred premier league games.

We've currently got 7 players competing for 2 or 3 midfield roles and 31 (ok, 30) players who would want to be in the 25 man squad. If we don't have confidence that Sangare, Dominguez and Santos can adequately replace Kouyate, that's pretty damning.

For some reason they have disabled comments - seems odd

There are actually a lot of interesting things in that article, one of them being that Elanga speaks five languages.

Also:

• We were offered Iheanacho
• Serge had interest from Saudi but preferred to stay
• The Ndidi interest was leaked by Forest to try and put pressure on the Sangare move
• Brentford made another offer for Brennan on deadline day
• Origi has an option for permanent and it's only 4.5M
• Biancone is expected to go to Oly this weekend
• We're still hopeful of getting deals done for Dennis and Shelvey

Presumably to Saudi, Greece or the US ?

Doesn't say. Anywhere that will take them, I guess - I believe Belgium is still open as well.

MLS regular season is done in a few weeks, that transfer window closed a month ago.

Mention of Montiel's legal difficulties.

They have a grand total of zero premier league games between them, compared to Kouyate's nearly 300. It would be a lot to jettison, give only about 50% of signings work out, one of the above is a kid (and doesn't count to the 25) and he's pkaying well and making a contribution. I hope we don't need him, but he's a brilliant squad player.

So assuming Biancone and Dennis leave, as is being widely reported and Shelvey and Arter are patioed, I think 24 of our 25 man squad are pretty clear. Only debate is who is the third goalkeeper, which doesn't have much bearing anyway.

After January, we effectively had 28, with the three under 21s, we now have 30 as there are 5 under 21s. Grouping by position:

Goalkeeper: Turner & Vlachomodimos replace Henderson & Navas.
Depends how good the Greek guy is but feels like trading quality for depth as Navas and Henderson were never simulataneously available.

Full/wing-back: Tavares, Montiel and Aina replace Lodi.
Not sure any of them are at Lodi's level but we are now ridiculously overstocked in this area.

Centre-back: Added Murillo and Ombamidele.
Feels like a bit of succession planning for the three that are out of contract next summer.

Midfield: Sangare, Dominguez, Santos replace Shelvey and Freuler.
Seems like really good business. Not sure Chelsea are going to be too happy with us, as I don't see Santos getting much time.

Attacking Midfield: Hudson-Odoi, Elanga and Aguilera replace Lingard, Scarpa and Johnson.
Probably the one that's hardest to call and the one that the whole transfer window hinges on. If any of the three newbys adequately replace Brennan, this is likely to be our best season since Uncle Frank.

Forwards: Origi replaces Surridge, Ayew and Dennis.
Clear surplus replaced by someone who will get some sub minutes to prove themselves.

Overall, feels like a pretty good window to me, although obviously that's based largely on the reputation of the incoming players vs the reality of the outgoing ones.

Have to think that we're also planning for losing Toffoli at some point, not that he's a key player but it will be a squad place that becomes available.

On a related note, The Athletic projected which Premier League players will likely be lost to AFCON and the Asian Cup. We lose by far the most players (8) of any club, the next most is Brentford with 5.