Summer transfer window 2026

Supposedly we want the fixed portion of the bid i.e. before add-ons to eclipse the £125M Liverpool paid for Isak.

Chuck in a 99p buyback option if Citeh are relegated or they just try to purposely wreck his career like they’ve done with every other English midfielder they’ve signed.

Some talk of Sels being wanted by Club Brugge.

I would only hope we would do that if we had someone definitely better lined up as there's no real significant financial plus, and he is a consistently high quality first choice and he's not old for a keeper. I certainly hope we don't see John Victor playing for us again.

Of the players we have been strongly linked with, Engels can go to Sunderland if he wants, Fratessi is average but may be better suited to the Premier league than Serie A - he is more a luxury Ryan Yates than an Anderson replacement.

Don't think there's much danger of that. But I can envisage a situation where Sels wants to go "home" and the club doesn't make it too difficult because they think it's possible to upgrade, either in terms of an alternative being better with the ball at his feet or simply younger. He's an exceptional shot-stopper but most of the other aspects of his game are pretty mediocre.

I’d be on the phone to Ortega pretty quickly as a solid option and then see whether we can upgrade.

Ortega looked good, but over a long career he hasn't really ever demonstrated he can be consistently good as a number 1 over the course of a whole season in an elite league. Part of that may he because he took a trade off being back up at Man City but he is a risk to some degree.

As for Sels not being all that, I think the season before last with Vlachodimos and Turner demonstrated that getting a keeper who is consistently as excellent as he has been is not easy. Sels has probably saved us at least 10 points a season compared to those two, maybe more. If we were going to go for a long term upgrade, this time last year when Kelleher or Petrovic were available would have been the moment to strike. Trafford is probably the nearest thing this year to those two but I am always sceptical about him because of how dreadful he looked for Burnley in the Premier league plus Newcastle seem fascinated with him. I guess there's always Brice Samba.

Spurs close to signing Tonali from Newcastle for a rumoured £100M. That might explain why City were so keen to get the deal done quickly for Anderson.

Seems an odd one. Newcastle have SCR issues?

Maybe they think Lewis Miley is ready to step up? Newcastle would be turning a decent profit on a 26-year-old.

They supposedly consider Miley a better prospect than Anderson.

He does look pretty useful tbh.

Let’s hope we don’t leave it all too late again this year.

Last summer I think it was only Jim and I that were saying things were far too slow, whilst everyone else was relaxed about it. Then Nuno said the same and walked which nearly proved disastrous.

Hence my fuck it, take what City are offering, and let's move on.