Harry Winks (gone to Cagliari, official)

[Pliskin]

He won’t leave. Who is going to want him? He maybe a good player but behaving like he has done gets noticed. He is in the last year of his contract, his behaviour has been deplorable, and he’s on big wages. Best he can hope for is a deadline day loan, probably to someone like Leeds, which he won’t want. 
 

He’s made his bed, I’d cut his wages and shove him in the U21. Surely his behaviour is a level misconduct? Then punish him. 

[Bob Weasel Fox]

3 minutes ago, Pliskin said:

He won’t leave. Who is going to want him? He maybe a good player but behaving like he has done gets noticed. He is in the last year of his contract, his behaviour has been deplorable, and he’s on big wages. Best he can hope for is a deadline day loan, probably to someone like Leeds, which he won’t want. 
 

He’s made his bed, I’d cut his wages and shove him in the U21. Surely his behaviour is a level misconduct? Then punish him. 

I would of thought it is yes

 

get the sulky twat on a misconduct process and hammer him

[jayfox26]

12 minutes ago, Pliskin said:

He won’t leave. Who is going to want him? He maybe a good player but behaving like he has done gets noticed. He is in the last year of his contract, his behaviour has been deplorable, and he’s on big wages. Best he can hope for is a deadline day loan, probably to someone like Leeds, which he won’t want. 
 

He’s made his bed, I’d cut his wages and shove him in the U21. Surely his behaviour is a level misconduct? Then punish him. 

I may be wrong but I don't think you can loan players to other English teams if they are in the last year of their contract. 

[coolhandfox]

29 minutes ago, Pliskin said:

He won’t leave. Who is going to want him? He maybe a good player but behaving like he has done gets noticed. He is in the last year of his contract, his behaviour has been deplorable, and he’s on big wages. Best he can hope for is a deadline day loan, probably to someone like Leeds, which he won’t want. 
 

He’s made his bed, I’d cut his wages and shove him in the U21. Surely his behaviour is a level misconduct? Then punish him. 

What behaviour are you counting as misconduct? 

[5waller5]

45 minutes ago, VLC86 said:

He followed that up with a tackle which in my opinion was positioned so he didn’t injure himself. He went in pretty much like he was laying flat on the floor so it was more of a block than a tackle.

 

He is definitely avoiding getting injured.

Yeah I know the one you mean. Those bizarre ways of avoiding injury are an almost sure fire way of getting injured. It’s really daft. 

[Bluearmyfox28]

It’s clear both parties are actively looking for a move away and that’s the reason Skipp has been starting with Winks on the bench.

 

The same applies for Faes.

[Claudio Fannieri]

Players don’t really make transfer requests any more however they can make it pretty clear they want away and I think winks has done exactly that, just got to hope that a club that suits him location wise comes in with an acceptable offer before the window closes. 
 

Given our stance with Bilal where it’s clear we now do not need to sell unless our valuation is met, I do wonder if it slightly changes our stance the other way in the case of players like Winks and Faes where we may have PSR leeway now to be able to accept a slightly lower fee but to be able to shift a want away player on a hefty wage. 

[Big_Nige]

7 hours ago, coolhandfox said:

What behaviour are you counting as misconduct? 

So far I count the charge sheet as

 

1. Being pictured in a nightclub at a club sanctioned Xmas do. To make this even worse he was laughing at the time

 

2. Not moving his entire family to Eyres Monsall

 

3. Being pictured at home on the day of a game after being explicitly told by the then manager to stay away 

 

4. Not clapping the fans that boo him

 

 

Obviously all tongue in cheek, in a time when feeling towards fans, club and players are at an all time low Winks is just rightly or wrongly synonymous with said feeling. For what it’s worth I’ve always liked Winks, he’s a system man and he’s a very very good player in a very specific system. Thought the issue with staying overnight at Seagrave was handled poorly by Ruud, there was no hint of animosity towards Winks in the championship last time around. I’m sure they’ll be some revivalist views but if there was a game he was unavailable for there was universal panic on here. 
 

The squad as is, Winks is our best midfielder by quite a distance. With him in the team we have a better chance of success, however if the relationship between player and club has soured to the point of no return everyone would be better off parting ways

[Sly]

9 minutes ago, Big_Nige said:

So far I count the charge sheet as

 

1. Being pictured in a nightclub at a club sanctioned Xmas do. To make this even worse he was laughing at the time

 

2. Not moving his entire family to Eyres Monsall

 

3. Being pictured at home on the day of a game after being explicitly told by the then manager to stay away 

 

4. Not clapping the fans that boo him

 

 

Obviously all tongue in cheek, in a time when feeling towards fans, club and players are at an all time low Winks is just rightly or wrongly synonymous with said feeling. For what it’s worth I’ve always liked Winks, he’s a system man and he’s a very very good player in a very specific system. Thought the issue with staying overnight at Seagrave was handled poorly by Ruud, there was no hint of animosity towards Winks in the championship last time around. I’m sure they’ll be some revivalist views but if there was a game he was unavailable for there was universal panic on here. 
 

The squad as is, Winks is our best midfielder by quite a distance. With him in the team we have a better chance of success, however if the relationship between player and club has soured to the point of no return everyone would be better off parting ways

This is spot on.

 

Fans realistically see players for maybe three hours. That’s less than 2% of the week. 
 

If you came to inspect me whilst I was working yesterday, I was clearly annoyed with some stupid stuff my colleagues has done.

 

I travel around the country and will often drive in / out of locations at times doing 300+ miles in a day, rather than staying in hotels, so I can be home at night, in order to attend family events things like swimming lessons, scouts, sports sessions etc, however being social able with my family.

 

Do I care about the company I work for, of course I do, maybe a little too much if anything. 

 

Perception becomes reality at times and Winks is not only our best midfielder, however he’s potentially one of the best midfielders in this league. Don’t judge a book by its cover, if he’s frustrated and wants away, then everyone feels like that at times. Sometimes changing the toxic parts of the club allow others to blossom.
 

I don’t see Winks as being toxic. 

[Big_Nige]

18 minutes ago, Sly said:

This is spot on.

 

Fans realistically see players for maybe three hours. That’s less than 2% of the week. 
 

If you came to inspect me whilst I was working yesterday, I was clearly annoyed with some stupid stuff my colleagues has done.

 

I travel around the country and will often drive in / out of locations at times doing 300+ miles in a day, rather than staying in hotels, so I can be home at night, in order to attend family events things like swimming lessons, scouts, sports sessions etc, however being social able with my family.

 

Do I care about the company I work for, of course I do, maybe a little too much if anything. 

 

Perception becomes reality at times and Winks is not only our best midfielder, however he’s potentially one of the best midfielders in this league. Don’t judge a book by its cover, if he’s frustrated and wants away, then everyone feels like that at times. Sometimes changing the toxic parts of the club allow others to blossom.
 

I don’t see Winks as being toxic. 

I try, and it’s hard sometimes, to only judge a player from what I see on the pitch. We don’t know these people as individuals, we don’t know the ins and outs of daily life at Seagrave, and these days any media interviews are sanitised to the point of it being an AI script 

 

You don’t get a peak behind the curtain very often, perhaps Winks is a complete arse, or perhaps we’ve just twisted the narrative so we can add him to the list of pariah’s to make ourselves feel better

 

 

[Pliskin]

People need to remember being a footballer isn’t an ordinary job. So, for me it’s just comparable to an “ordinary job” a lot of people can and do **** about at work, make poor decisions and what not and usually get away with it.
 

Winks is in a privileged role, he gets paid a lot of money to do what he does, and when you’re a professional footballer you represent the club, city and the fans. Whereas this may not be what he’s bothered about, whilst you play for this club, you represent it properly. Winks has completely disrespected the fans and the club. His behaviour has been deplorable, the night club shenanigans was a disgrace, there’s no defending that at all. Winks is most definitely a toxic character, one that we don’t need in the dressing room. He’s our best midfielder, but he’s downed tools and isn’t interested anymore, and not getting a move on deadline day won’t change that either. 
 

I don’t want to see him plant for this club again. 

[Finnegan]

5 minutes ago, Pliskin said:

People need to remember being a footballer isn’t an ordinary job. So, for me it’s just comparable to an “ordinary job” a lot of people can and do **** about at work, make poor decisions and what not and usually get away with it.
 

Winks is in a privileged role, he gets paid a lot of money to do what he does, and when you’re a professional footballer you represent the club, city and the fans. Whereas this may not be what he’s bothered about, whilst you play for this club, you represent it properly. Winks has completely disrespected the fans and the club. His behaviour has been deplorable, the night club shenanigans was a disgrace, there’s no defending that at all. Winks is most definitely a toxic character, one that we don’t need in the dressing room. He’s our best midfielder, but he’s downed tools and isn’t interested anymore, and not getting a move on deadline day won’t change that either. 
 

I don’t want to see him plant for this club again. 

 

This is just getting ****ing absurd now. 

 

I'm sorry man but this is so wildly over the top. 

 

Literally 99% of this anti Winks stuff is based on people making assumptions after one disagreement with RVN was leaked and then a whole mountain of hysterical confirmation bias after the fact. 

 

It might be the single most extreme case of manufactured hate I can remember seeing against one player. You all need to calm the **** down. 

 

Edited 27 August 2025 by Finnegan

[Pliskin]

21 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

 

This is just getting ****ing absurd now. 

 

I'm sorry man but this is so wildly over the top. 

 

Literally 99% of this anti Winks stuff is based on people making assumptions after one disagreement with RVN was leaked and then a whole mountain of hysterical confirmation bias after the fact. 

 

It might be the single most extreme case of manufactured hate I can remember seeing against one player. You all need to calm the **** down. 

 

Sorry dad 😢

[ClaphamFox]

24 minutes ago, Pliskin said:

People need to remember being a footballer isn’t an ordinary job. So, for me it’s just comparable to an “ordinary job” a lot of people can and do **** about at work, make poor decisions and what not and usually get away with it.
 

Winks is in a privileged role, he gets paid a lot of money to do what he does, and when you’re a professional footballer you represent the club, city and the fans. Whereas this may not be what he’s bothered about, whilst you play for this club, you represent it properly. Winks has completely disrespected the fans and the club. His behaviour has been deplorable, the night club shenanigans was a disgrace, there’s no defending that at all. Winks is most definitely a toxic character, one that we don’t need in the dressing room. He’s our best midfielder, but he’s downed tools and isn’t interested anymore, and not getting a move on deadline day won’t change that either. 
 

I don’t want to see him plant for this club again. 

Has anybody clarified why the nightclub sign always gets pinned on Winks? It always gets cited in the case against him, but as far as I'm aware nobody has ever shown that it was down to him more than anybody else.

[ronnup]

28 minutes ago, Pliskin said:

People need to remember being a footballer isn’t an ordinary job. So, for me it’s just comparable to an “ordinary job” a lot of people can and do **** about at work, make poor decisions and what not and usually get away with it.
 

Winks is in a privileged role, he gets paid a lot of money to do what he does, and when you’re a professional footballer you represent the club, city and the fans. Whereas this may not be what he’s bothered about, whilst you play for this club, you represent it properly. Winks has completely disrespected the fans and the club. His behaviour has been deplorable, the night club shenanigans was a disgrace, there’s no defending that at all. Winks is most definitely a toxic character, one that we don’t need in the dressing room. He’s our best midfielder, but he’s downed tools and isn’t interested anymore, and not getting a move on deadline day won’t change that either. 
 

I don’t want to see him plant for this club again. 

 

"diplorable" is a bit nuts

 

[Scotch]

32 minutes ago, Pliskin said:

People need to remember being a footballer isn’t an ordinary job. So, for me it’s just comparable to an “ordinary job” a lot of people can and do **** about at work, make poor decisions and what not and usually get away with it.
 

Winks is in a privileged role, he gets paid a lot of money to do what he does, and when you’re a professional footballer you represent the club, city and the fans. Whereas this may not be what he’s bothered about, whilst you play for this club, you represent it properly. Winks has completely disrespected the fans and the club. His behaviour has been deplorable, the night club shenanigans was a disgrace, there’s no defending that at all. Winks is most definitely a toxic character, one that we don’t need in the dressing room. He’s our best midfielder, but he’s downed tools and isn’t interested anymore, and not getting a move on deadline day won’t change that either. 
 

I don’t want to see him plant for this club again. 

I'm not sure about that. He's out of contract next year. He doesn't play well, he doesn't get a move to the level that he will want. 

[Sly]

50 minutes ago, Pliskin said:

People need to remember being a footballer isn’t an ordinary job. So, for me it’s just comparable to an “ordinary job” a lot of people can and do **** about at work, make poor decisions and what not and usually get away with it.
 

Winks is in a privileged role, he gets paid a lot of money to do what he does, and when you’re a professional footballer you represent the club, city and the fans. Whereas this may not be what he’s bothered about, whilst you play for this club, you represent it properly. Winks has completely disrespected the fans and the club. His behaviour has been deplorable, the night club shenanigans was a disgrace, there’s no defending that at all. Winks is most definitely a toxic character, one that we don’t need in the dressing room. He’s our best midfielder, but he’s downed tools and isn’t interested anymore, and not getting a move on deadline day won’t change that either. 
 

I don’t want to see him plant for this club again. 

 

This is seriously over the top.

 

It is still a job and isn’t really that different, if anything I’d say it restricts you more than Bob being a landscaper, or Dad planting trees (I didn’t realise Winks was )

 

They have to live a lifestyle that restricts what they do, so if your work environment is toxic, why wouldn’t you want to improve that. 
 

47 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

 

This is just getting ****ing absurd now. 

 

I'm sorry man but this is so wildly over the top. 

 

Literally 99% of this anti Winks stuff is based on people making assumptions after one disagreement with RVN was leaked and then a whole mountain of hysterical confirmation bias after the fact. 

 

It might be the single most extreme case of manufactured hate I can remember seeing against one player. You all need to calm the **** down. 

 

This. 

[Number 6]

If there's a way we can replace Winks for a new CM and remain PSR neutral on that transaction then we should do it. It would be best for all parties.

 

The relationship seems broken, but at least he hasn't downed tools like a few players seem to have this summer.

[Sol thewall Bamba]

10 hours ago, VLC86 said:

He followed that up with a tackle which in my opinion was positioned so he didn’t injure himself. He went in pretty much like he was laying flat on the floor so it was more of a block than a tackle.

 

He is definitely avoiding getting injured.

Equally, when no one comes in for him this week I can see him picking up a "muscle strain" very quickly afterwards that keeps him out for the majority of the autumn.

 

People will still defend him.

Edited 27 August 2025 by Sol thewall Bamba

[urban fox]

People seem to forget that footballers are  also human. They can have the same problems and issues in their private lives as anyone else. Before slagging them off for perceived bad attitude etc, does anyone stop to think that they could be dealing with family illnesses, or similar stresses outside of their working lives? Not saying this is necessarily the case with winks, but booing and bad mouthing certainly ain't going to help his mental health.

[VLC86]

1 minute ago, urban fox said:

People seem to forget that footballers are  also human. They can have the same problems and issues in their private lives as anyone else. Before slagging them off for perceived bad attitude etc, does anyone stop to think that they could be dealing with family illnesses, or similar stresses outside of their working lives? Not saying this is necessarily the case with winks, but booing and bad mouthing certainly ain't going to help his mental health.

Have you noticed any audible booing for Winks? I’ve not.

[Sol thewall Bamba]

7 minutes ago, urban fox said:

People seem to forget that footballers are  also human. They can have the same problems and issues in their private lives as anyone else. Before slagging them off for perceived bad attitude etc, does anyone stop to think that they could be dealing with family illnesses, or similar stresses outside of their working lives? Not saying this is necessarily the case with winks, but booing and bad mouthing certainly ain't going to help his mental health.

When has he been booed? 

[urban fox]

No, but knowing some of our lot wouldn't be surprised if it happens . Plenty of keyboard warriors putting the knife in. My point was simply that there is plenty who are quick to accuse him (and others) of bad attitude, not caring etc. when there could be anything going on away from the workplace. I have no idea if he is genuinely a bad apple or not, and he may be. It just annoys me when people jump to conclusions when they have absolutely no idea what a person is really like

[VLC86]

16 minutes ago, urban fox said:

No, but knowing some of our lot wouldn't be surprised if it happens . Plenty of keyboard warriors putting the knife in. My point was simply that there is plenty who are quick to accuse him (and others) of bad attitude, not caring etc. when there could be anything going on away from the workplace. I have no idea if he is genuinely a bad apple or not, and he may be. It just annoys me when people jump to conclusions when they have absolutely no idea what a person is really like

Fair enough, but I’ve heard stories about Spurs selling him due to his attitude and the same appears to be manifesting here.

[Number 6]

There's a lot of speculative stuff, but the Aperol post while his teammates were taking another beating on the way to relegation is pretty indisputable? He didn't have to post anything but chose to take a swipe at the club.

 

There was still a possible redemption for him if he came back with the right attitude under the new manager but he hasn't. It couldn't be clearer that he doesn't want to be here. 

 

People only making excuses for him because our midfield is so weak.