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Summer 2026 Transfer Thread

Hate not having Curtis on the team (his being a born-and-bred Scouser has something to do with it) but may reports recently have suggested he's kind of worn out his welcome with the others. Had hoped Slot leaving would be good for him but apparently not. Wishing him all the best in Italy.
 
Ollie Watkins wants to move to Al Hilal in Saudi Arabia but Villa turned down an improved bid of £45 million. Emery he isn’t sure if Watkins will play tomorrow and Tammy Abraham is doubtful, so he could have an issue if Watkins is held out.
 
Two signings by the Black Cats, according to Sky (can't seem to share link 🤷)

Sunderland sign left-back Methalie from Toulouse
Latest from Sky Sports News' Keith Downie:

Sunderland have signed left-back Dayann Methalie from Toulouse in a deal worth up to £25.7m (€30m).

The Black Cats are paying a fixed fee of around £24m with £1.7m in add-ons.
Click to expand...
 
The other is a young MF from Belgium

Sunderland agree £8m deal for Royal Antwerp midfielder Ahoka
Latest from Sky Sports News' Keith Downie:

Sunderland have agreed a deal to sign Jules Ahoka from Royal Antwerp.

The midfielder has also agreed personal terms.

Sunderland set to pay Antwerp around £8m for Ahoka.
Click to expand...
 
andyt said:
Ollie Watkins wants to move to Al Hilal in Saudi Arabia but Villa turned down an improved bid of £45 million. Emery he isn’t sure if Watkins will play tomorrow and Tammy Abraham is doubtful, so he could have an issue if Watkins is held out.
Click to expand...
Longer term than just tomorrow’s match, it does look like Villa are preparing to move on without Watkins … whose desire to move appeared to be as much about his salary as anything else up until this week. In the last couple of days, Villa have acted like he’s leaving, spreading out their negotiations for replacements pretty quickly. Being that we’re talking about the striker spot and that they already have two injured strikers on the senior roster, yeah … makes sense. They’ve been talking with reps for Nicolas Jackson all summer, and now they’re reportedly talking with reps for JP Mateta and Chris Nkunku. All of them are more physical than Watkins, as are the injured Abraham and Madjo, and it looks like Emery is moving to a bit of a different setup up front this year either way. Weird days for Villans, for sure. Watkins and Martinez are iconic fan favorites from the current era. Captain John McGinn is probably the only roster player more popular than those two. It’s going to take a minute to get over all this drama.
 
Looks like Arsenal are selling Gabriel Martinelli to Saudi side Al Hilal for a reported €60 million. He was excluded from the matchday squad in both the Community Shield and the league opener last Friday. Supposedly some of the squad are unhappy with the way that Arteta has handled the transfer and club legend Ian Wright spoke out about it over the weekend.
 
Was about to post earlier that Villa finally got the deal for Club Brugge CB Joel Ordonez over the line, only to read that Crystal Palace may have hijacked the deal. 😳
 
It looks like we have injury concerns which is, fair. We so desperately need a proactive CB who can play on the right side. It looks like we're on the verge of signing Nicholas Jackson (just have to wait until it's far enough away from the Rogers sale so that it doesn't get considered a "swap" cause the financial rules are the best!). Martinez possibly going to Chelsea which would be a stupidly good move for them and I hate it, but we've fucked that situation so badly at this point that he just has to go somewhere. Ollie has to be heading to Saudi Arabia at this point, but not before we've smeared him on the way out as is the norm. As a former Red Sox fan, I've gotten used to the organization smearing former players and managers on the way out, but this seems to be a new enough concept in soccer that everyone doesn't just tune it out.
 
Soccer writers* are morons who have somehow convinced themselves that gossip is as big a part of their job is reporting on the spots stuff. I’m not even sure it’s Villa slagging off Oliie in the press, but somebody is doing it. Honestly, there are PLENTY of guys who obviously failed to meet standards over the years and Emery never said boo about those guys. It might be something or it might be nothing but apparently Watkins was given the choice to play Sunday and took a pass, for which he apologized to the team later. Not sure reporting on that is slagging him off really, but it apparently was a thing that happened. I think his timing sucks, regardless. You want a Saudi paycheck, that’s fine, but his team were happy enough to be renegotiating his deal as recently as when he left for the World Cup. Then he gets back from the US, having barely played, and the offers start flying. That doesn’t happen out of the clear blue. Regardless of the details it’s tough to spin this as something other than him bailing on a Champions League team because there were a lot of roster changes. That’s a bit hard to respect. Coming on the heels of Martinez basically doing the same thing, it’s frankly impossible to respect.


*I was going to say English soccer writers and then edited it to European writers and then I remembered the pack of dinguses who write about soccer in the US and just figured it’s ALL of them.
 
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Oh, and reporting today is indicating that Jackson WILL be coming to Villa from Chelsea (pending medicals and registration). They’ve settled the fee and apparently satisfied UEFA that it wasn’t an exchange, despite the timing. 47.5 million pounds up front, plus almost 20 million in potential add-ons. That’s a lot of dosh, but he’s a former Emery player and has generally been productive as a senior pro.
 
It's pretty two sided from Villa though I feel. They brought in the replacement for Martinez before he left and it looks like the same is happening with Ollie. It's pretty standard in all sports that if you're about to move, you usually don't suit up. The Jackson move that has been speculated for a month and a half clearly was in the works and Ollie has two years left on his deal and correctly sees this as his last chance at a payday. If he sticks around and has his minutes taken away by Jackson and Madjo, he probably doesn't see anywhere close to the contract he can get right now. Villa are going to be fine with him leaving once Jackson is here, but they were really hoping to get him to play last weekend when Buendia was our striker (and was one of our better players despite a very different role).
 
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