Josh Brownhill (Al Shabab, free transfer)

[MPH]

We’re going to have some young players play a lot this year, aren’t we?  With Coady leaving, in terms of leadership and experience, this is potentially his replacement..

[Jimmy]

4 minutes ago, Scotch said:

Ndidi won't be here by the end of the window and I'm hoping Soumare won't be either. 

I hope you're right but frankly I'll believe when I see it, if both of those go at a minimum then Brownhill becomes more of a signing I'd like, but I'd still prefer to see Winks, or Hamza come to think of it, as well

[LCFCJohn]

I have been very much in the Brownhill in camp as I think his leadership and goals from central midfield would be a great benefit to us.

 

Im concerned about the fact he actually rejected Burnley’s offer for financial reasons. I doubt they offered him less. Either he must want a big raise or a longer contract which is a concern for me if we go down that route. 
 

Hopefully he will at least offer us a lot on the pitch and off if he comes. I guess if we can shift a few big wages from that area as well that would help. I just want us to be offering sensible contracts out going forwards.

[FoxFossil]

See film 'moneyball'where they replace top scorer ( jv9 in our case) with three players to contribute the missing scores. We need more goals from midfield, and Jv9 cannot be replaced by one striker alone imo.

[moore_94]

Ideally it would be 2 years + option for 1 more

 

Can definitely see it being 3 or 4 though

Edited 1 August 2025 by moore_94

[Poznan34]

Another big wages, no sell on deal. Will we ever learn? We're outbidding a PL side when we're in the Champ and scraping the pennies for managerial compensation??

 

Talk of his experience... we have Justin, Faes, Vestergaard, Winks, Skipp, Soumare, BDR, Mavididi, Ayew, Daka - we have loads of experience in the squad! The benefit of his experience on top of the rest is marginal/nil. 

 

As long as we keep filling the squad with players whose best days are behind them and are on the best contract they'll ever get, we won't go anywhere. 

 

All of our recent moves have been younger players with something to prove - Hemersen, Fatawu, BEK - do more of that! 

[Muzzy_no7]

He ain’t coming here

[Taz_The_Fox]

2 minutes ago, Muzzy_no7 said:

He ain’t coming here

 

[Muzzy_no7]

2 minutes ago, Taz_The_Fox said:

 

1. He’s chosen to leave Burnley in the PL so why would he come here?

2. We can’t afford another player on our books with no resale value or potential. 
3. Celtic can offer him trophies and CL football.

4. West Ham and Potter like him.

5. He would reduce minutes for Alves and Page etc. 

 

We may be interested but I’m 99.9% sure he isn’t coming here. 

[les-tah]

51 minutes ago, Muzzy_no7 said:

1. He’s chosen to leave Burnley in the PL so why would he come here?

2. We can’t afford another player on our books with no resale value or potential. 
3. Celtic can offer him trophies and CL football.

4. West Ham and Potter like him.

5. He would reduce minutes for Alves and Page etc. 

 

We may be interested but I’m 99.9% sure he isn’t coming here. 

Cant argue with much of that however if hes free and we sold him next year for anything isnt that a profit on psr books?

[fuzzymizzit]

1 hour ago, les-tah said:

Cant argue with much of that however if hes free and we sold him next year for anything isnt that a profit on psr books?

We won't shift him if his wages are big though which is apparently why he hasn't re-signed with Burnley

[les-tah]

4 minutes ago, fuzzymizzit said:

We won't shift him if his wages are big though which is apparently why he hasn't re-signed with Burnley

Ah ok.. if he is not a one season wonder and he actually improves our starting 11 and can get us promoted then its worth the wages in my opinion if there is no fee involved 

[fuzzymizzit]

1 minute ago, les-tah said:

Ah ok.. if he is not a one season wonder and he actually improves our starting 11 and can get us promoted then its worth the wages in my opinion if there is no fee involved 

Depends on the wages IMO, but we need (i) midfielders of a different profile to those we currently have and (ii) goals, and he offers both of those, so I'd probably agree on balance.

[Lambert09]

I do think this would be good business even on decent wages however…. My one reservation is that yet again, this signing indicates that we aren’t getting our wage structure back in line. 
 

in our situation after breaching psr so many times largely due to horrid wage structures for dirge players…. We should not be able to offer better terms than a prem team. 
 

We are just keeping the cycle of overpaying going and that means the next player in line for a contract uses it as a measuring stick and we stay stuck. 

 

Even with the reduced wages, our players are double if not more what most championship sides will be paying 

[slymunn]

1 minute ago, Lambert09 said:

I do think this would be good business even on decent wages however…. My one reservation is that yet again, this signing indicates that we aren’t getting our wage structure back in line. 
 

in our situation after breaching psr so many times largely due to horrid wage structures for dirge players…. We should not be able to offer better terms than a prem team. 
 

We are just keeping the cycle of overpaying going and that means the next player in line for a contract uses it as a measuring stick and we stay stuck. 

 

Even with the reduced wages, our players are double if not more what most championship sides will be paying 

If Capology wages from last season (before the relegation pay cut) are correct, our top 5 earners all only have one year left.

 

 

 

[Bablemikey]

It would be great to get ALL of those off the wage bill.

[Lambert09]

8 minutes ago, slymunn said:

If Capology wages from last season (before the relegation pay cut) are correct, our top 5 earners all only have one year left.

 

 

 

I’m sorry but it was criminal even giving vesty a contract, how has he got one on such large terms? 
 

I thought we’d all accepted because it was longer than it should have been the wage would be reasonable. 
 

despicable if true 

[Lambert09]

3 minutes ago, Bablemikey said:

It would be great to get ALL of those off the wage bill.

That’s literally everyone’s top selling priorities without even knowing the wages  (minus Ricardo) 

Edited 1 August 2025 by Lambert09

[Finnegan]

16 minutes ago, Lambert09 said:

I do think this would be good business even on decent wages however…. My one reservation is that yet again, this signing indicates that we aren’t getting our wage structure back in line. 

 

I dunno. Depends on the contract length we offer.

 

What are we supposed to do, sign literally nobody? The guy just got 24 combined goals and assists, with 18 of those being goals, in 38.6 lots of 90 minutes in this league last season. Even if you take out the penalties (3) that's a goal or assist every 0.54 games and a non-penalty goal specifically every 0.39. KDH only scored at 0.28. 

 

We can bring that in for 0 up front transfer fee when we're massively lacking in attacking stats in the midfield, he'll be replacing BEK who is leaving for something like ~10m on book this window and will probably be on lower wages? 

 

As long as any contract is <= three years then frankly I don't think it's especially bad business?

 

Coady, Hermansen & BEK are about to imminently clear off the wage bill and two of those don't need replacing at all. I'd be pretty happy with Brownhill on a free allowing us to put the lions share of the money towards a solid striker and off-setting our PSR losses.

 

[Gerard]

11 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

 

I dunno. Depends on the contract length we offer.

 

What are we supposed to do, sign literally nobody? The guy just got 24 combined goals and assists, with 18 of those being goals, in 38.6 lots of 90 minutes in this league last season. Even if you take out the penalties (3) that's a goal or assist every 0.54 games and a non-penalty goal specifically every 0.39. KDH only scored at 0.28. 

 

We can bring that in for 0 up front transfer fee when we're massively lacking in attacking stats in the midfield, he'll be replacing BEK who is leaving for something like ~10m on book this window and will probably be on lower wages? 

 

As long as any contract is <= three years then frankly I don't think it's especially bad business?

 

Coady, Hermansen & BEK are about to imminently clear off the wage bill and two of those don't need replacing at all. I'd be pretty happy with Brownhill on a free allowing us to put the lions share of the money towards a solid striker and off-setting our PSR losses.

 

 

18 goals out of 69 for Burnley last season, that's 26% of their goals from CM.  That's the same percentage Mahrez got in our title winning season.

 

Still 29.5 years old, a three year deal takes him to 32.5, still not too old. On a free and if the manager has plans for him it certainly wouldn't be the worst business we've done in the last few years. Absolutely nothing wrong in signing players who were one of the best players in the division last season.

Edited 1 August 2025 by Gerard

[Finnegan]

3 minutes ago, Gerard said:

 

18 goals out of 69 for Burnley last season, that's 26% of their goals from CM.  That's the same percentage Mahrez got in our title winning season.

 

Still 29.5 years old, a three year deal takes him to 32.5, still not too old. On a free and if the manager has plans for him it certainly wouldn't be the worst business we've done in the last few years. Absolutely nothing wrong in signing players who were one of the best players in the division last season.

 

Also of note, he was their club captain, he's not exactly slow for a midfielder and he can finish off both feet.

 

[Lambert09]

38 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

 

I dunno. Depends on the contract length we offer.

 

What are we supposed to do, sign literally nobody? The guy just got 24 combined goals and assists, with 18 of those being goals, in 38.6 lots of 90 minutes in this league last season. Even if you take out the penalties (3) that's a goal or assist every 0.54 games and a non-penalty goal specifically every 0.39. KDH only scored at 0.28. 

 

We can bring that in for 0 up front transfer fee when we're massively lacking in attacking stats in the midfield, he'll be replacing BEK who is leaving for something like ~10m on book this window and will probably be on lower wages? 

 

As long as any contract is <= three years then frankly I don't think it's especially bad business?

 

Coady, Hermansen & BEK are about to imminently clear off the wage bill and two of those don't need replacing at all. I'd be pretty happy with Brownhill on a free allowing us to put the lions share of the money towards a solid striker and off-setting our PSR losses.

 

That’s the thing, it makes complete sense for us to do it. But we have just created a very unsustainable situation for ourselves. 
 

The wage bar is so high for us now that we’re struggling to reverse it and we are just simply above our stature as a club. 
 

The contracts we give to even our youth players are supposedly astronomical compared to others and i wouldn’t be surprised if we are still paying more than clubs like brentford. 
 

I’m not sure the solution because as you said, this is a top deal and one that we probably need to do if it’s possible. But we just have to know that if we are even competing for him then when that next player who would ordinarily sign for 25k comes along, they will be asking for double to match someone like him. 
 

I just hope that the championship wage is reasonable and the prem increase is what’s attracting him and motivating him to get us up 

Edited 1 August 2025 by Lambert09

[FoxesFourLife]

I hope this happens quality championship player we need some leadership in the middle of the park and his stats speak for themselves.

[FosseSpark]

we don't need Brownhill unless BEK is going. We have a plethora of attacking midfield and wide options. Mavididi, Fatawu, McAteer, Alves, Monga even Ayew. We need someone dynamic in the middle of the park who can screen defence and link the play more than we need a proper attaking midfielder. 

[Bluearmyfox28]

I’m sure everyone’s been banging on about us getting Brownhill, we get linked then there’s nothing but negativity