Transfer News, Gossip & Speculation Transfer Thread - Summer 2025 Edition.

palexander · Tuesday at 9:28 AM

Barry.C said:
40 signings made so far with Sutton bagging 9 and Boston 6. Looks like Altrincham spending some money too
No rush though for us as and with our fantastic extended run to the final, very understandable, 9 others not made a signing either

B B B B BUT ITS SO HARD TO SIGN PLAYERS AT THIS LEVEL...

kentblues · Tuesday at 9:34 AM

LennySUFC said:
It's always the same every season, we are very rarely a players first choice club. Give it a couple of weeks until preseason starts and those players without a club with start to get a little panicky and suddenly the Thames Riviera becomes more appealing.

The pre-season is short. And not having a pre-season it appears (and we are told) has a negative impact on the ensuing season. So this may be what happens but very sub optimal. We need such players in so they get a full pre-season.

It does appear we need to be more decisive whether that’s getting a deal over the line or walking away. If we are mucked around by target 1 no point failing to walk away and losing alternatives 2-5.

Unfortunately when it comes to making deals happen quickly ££ plays a part, and the quest for “value” can carry the risk of players waiting for other options. Regrettably many agents are pretty good at playing this game..

However, we can only judge when we see who we bring in, and if they are indeed better than we already have, rather than “squad players” or players “for the future”.

LennySUFC · Tuesday at 9:36 AM

palexander said:
B B B B BUT ITS SO HARD TO SIGN PLAYERS AT THIS LEVEL...

It's not hard to sign players but it's hard to add the quality we need to add to our squad to challenge again next season.

Sutton have signed the following - are you telling me these would have improved us to challenge for the top 3?

Personally I'd rather hold out and add the right player.

kentblues · Tuesday at 9:44 AM

LennySUFC said:
It's not hard to sign players but it's hard to add the quality we need to add to our squad to challenge again next season.

Sutton have signed the following - are you telling me these would have improved us to challenge for the top 3?

Personally I'd rather hold out and add the right player.

View attachment 37493

Quite. The big thing we are all looking for to show we are serious we are is not how many we bring in (probably we have only 4-5 spaces) but the quality. If we get just more of the same, or severely undernourished rough diamonds for the future, then we know we are happy with 4th to 7th. Add real quality we know we are “going for it” and can and will expect higher.

Kev should be judged against expectations determined by the tools he is given.

palexander · Tuesday at 9:47 AM

LennySUFC said:
It's not hard to sign players but it's hard to add the quality we need to add to our squad to challenge again next season.

Sutton have signed the following - are you telling me these would have improved us to challenge for the top 3?

Personally I'd rather hold out and add the right player.

View attachment 37493

Who knows if they are any good - some may be. Guess we'll find out when Sutton finish their season.

Of course we should hold out for quality, but its painfully obvious we need at least 4-5 to be better than we were and be nice to have majority of those in for start of pre-season training. We always dilly-dally, and have to rush a bunch of 4th choice signings in.

flangejackrabbit · Tuesday at 9:50 AM

palexander said:
Who knows if they are any good - some may be. Guess we'll find out when Sutton finish their season.

Of course we should hold out for quality, but its painfully obvious we need at least 4-5 to be better than we were and be nice to have majority of those in for start of pre-season training. We always dilly-dally, and have to rush a bunch of 4th choice signings in.

Liam Vincent is the only one of those Sutton signings I would have even considered as improving our squad personally, I may be forced to eat my words of course!

Liam AAS · Tuesday at 10:05 AM

AustScullyPriorPowell said:
Sounds like we're heading the same way as January, plan C and D players!

We have to get recruitment right, but we can't seem to get our main targets through the door

We've lost out on two players to EFL competition. Obviously we need players of that calibre in order to get out of this league but if you're a footballer with a limited career, can you blame them for signing for football league teams (regardless of their historic stature) ahead of Southend who could be stuck in the 5th tier for another 10 years?

danbowen · Tuesday at 10:13 AM

Liam AAS said:
We've lost out on two players to EFL competition. Obviously we need players of that calibre in order to get out of this league but if you're a footballer with a limited career, can you blame them for signing for football league teams (regardless of their historic stature) ahead of Southend who could be stuck in the 5th tier for another 10 years?

The Cashman one is the tough one to take as from everything we have been told the club ****ed up. The lad who went to Bolton was never coming to us realistically.

Leigh_Seasider · Tuesday at 10:19 AM

To be fair we don't know with Cashman, that something didn't show up to cause us to dither on signing him. The real test will be on what targets we do or don't get in next. Once we get one statement signing in, as in - we're serious about looking to get out of this league - others may follow as they will see we have ambition. As others have said no point buying another bunch of NLS/NLN players 'for the future' who may or may not click. We need better than what we have. IF we are serious about promotion.

gpd · Tuesday at 10:19 AM

palexander said:
Who knows if they are any good - some may be. Guess we'll find out when Sutton finish their season.

Of course we should hold out for quality, but its painfully obvious we need at least 4-5 to be better than we were and be nice to have majority of those in for start of pre-season training. We always dilly-dally, and have to rush a bunch of 4th choice signings in.

We cant say we dilly-dally if players choose to play at higher levels and for more wages. Even a speedy process doesn't stop them going elsewhere. They may be our first choice....but they are the first choice of others too. We do not have a right to sign them.

Barry.C · Tuesday at 10:19 AM

LennySUFC said:
It's not hard to sign players but it's hard to add the quality we need to add to our squad to challenge again next season.

Sutton have signed the following - are you telling me these would have improved us to challenge for the top 3?

Personally I'd rather hold out and add the right player.

View attachment 37493

Thats a good point, although in truth we dont know yet how good these players will be

Interestingly Sutton shelled out for 2 of them , usual undisclosed fee, so might be of some value

However the interesting point remains, do these sides that regularly snap up 10 players or more within seemingly minutes of the season ending have similar recruitment practices as us ? i.e the tech?

Barnet did it on a grand scale, but we will now claim its because of money even though their signings were mostly free transfers each year

SeldomSeenShrimper · Tuesday at 10:23 AM

Some of you are in for a very long season ...

We got to the playoff final and have retained practically the whole squad.

Yes improvements are tying to be had, but we have to work within our budget and squad size. And we can't afford to be dragged into contract wars with EFL clubs.

Trust the process. Anyone we do sign will be an improvement, so who cares if they are plan D or E?

Leigh_Seasider · Tuesday at 10:31 AM

SeldomSeenShrimper said:
Some of you are in for a very long season ...

We got to the playoff final and have retained practically the whole squad.

Yes improvements are tying to be had, but we have to work within our budget and squad size. And we can't afford to be dragged into contract wars with EFL clubs.

Trust the process. Anyone we do sign will be an improvement, so who cares if they are plan D or E?

This is the acid test - we know COSU aren't going to chuck cash at it .. so let's see just how good this scouting system/whiteboard is .. if plan E is better than what we have though you'd have to worry ..

SeldomSeenShrimper · Tuesday at 10:33 AM

Leigh_Seasider said:
This is the acid test - we know COSU aren't going to chuck cash at it .. so let's see just how good this scouting system/whiteboard is .. if plan E is better than what we have though you'd have to worry ..

Unless A-D are just way above our level.

As we've seen our targets this far going to the EFL, they're not going elsewhere in our league m, thankfully

rlb999 · Tuesday at 10:48 AM

We need a few loans don’t we?
And these generally happen in the days/weeks just before the season starts.

Rob1920 · Tuesday at 10:52 AM

Sadly the two things that count are money and league level. Most players would go for an EFL club if the money was the same or better than our offer, and most players will go for the highest offer regardless of league level. Where we should win is if another NL club is offering the same money as us, as they won’t get to play for any other club of our size & history at NL level in front of 7 / 8k crowds.

Leeboy · Tuesday at 10:55 AM

Rob1920 said:
Sadly the two things that count are money and league level. Most players would go for an EFL club if the money was the same or better than our offer, and most players will go for the highest offer regardless of league level. Where we should win is if another NL club is offering the same money as us, as they won’t get to play for any other club of our size & history at NL level in front of 7 / 8k crowds.

maybe as long as they are earning double or more, the history / stature / crowd size of a club is irrelevant - Cardwell anyone?

Liam AAS · Tuesday at 10:59 AM

danbowen said:
The Cashman one is the tough one to take as from everything we have been told the club ****ed up. The lad who went to Bolton was never coming to us realistically.

Maybe, but he's from and based in Sussex so Crawley works for him on a number of levels. I'm not saying we never had a chance and I'm not saying I'm not disappointed but if you're selling a house (remember this analogy lol) and someone comes along and offers to buy at a higher price for cash, you're gonna seriously consider that offer. Gazumping is really common, especially as we're now a NL club. You only have to look at the prices Wrexham had to pay to guarantee talent coming in.

We want that calibre of player, and losing them to football league clubs is an indication of the level of ambition we have but clearly getting these deals across the line is something we're struggling with at the moment.

Barling Magna · Tuesday at 11:02 AM

Maybe playing in front of larger home crowds isn't always the pull that we think it is. We have had quite a bad reputation for our treatment of some of our players. Emile Acquah springs to mind among many.

It's not so much the fact that our home crowd has a go at some of our players - most team's home crowds do that - it's the speed with which some in our home crowd diss a player without giving him a chance to settle. The Hall can seem to be quite a toxic place and that gets around.

Liam AAS · Tuesday at 11:04 AM

Barling Magna said:
Maybe playing in front of larger home crowds isn't always the pull that we think it is. We have had quite a bad reputation for our treatment of some of our players. Emile Acquah springs to mind among many.

It's not so much the fact that our home crowd has a go at some of our players - most team's home crowds do that - it's the speed with which some in our home crowd diss a player without giving him a chance to settle. The Hall can seem to be quite a toxic place and that gets around.

It's a difference-maker if you're being offered the same terms, but not if FGR are offering double £ or Crawley are offering Football League football