Who do we need (Summer 2026)

[ronnup]

Anyone that tries

[kingfox]

2 hours ago, CornwallFox said:

The experienced professionals we should be aiming for should be in the 26-28 age range, not 32+. We need athleticism and power, not wrecked legs

Plenty of 30+ year olds still doing the business at League 1 level, look at Oli Norwood and Lewis Wing for example.

[oldbluefox]

What do we want?

Let's start off with somebody who can pick up talent hungry enough to want to be here and has energy and skill

A fitness coach who.............well, simply gets them fit to play a full 90 minutes of energetic football

A set piece coach with ideas to challenge the opposition

A manager with personality who can inspire not only the team but the supporters and everybody associated with the club

And finally a squad of players we can be proud to be associated with.

Is that really too much to ask for? After 5 years of absolute dross at all levels it's the least we deserve.

[cityfanlee23]

Dom Ballard is well worth a look. Signed from Cambridge to Leyton Orient in the summer for £500k
Striker, 21 years old, Scored 22 assisted 5 this season and is improving week on week. Would likely be cheap and has potential to be a striker for us for a long time if he continues progressing. 

[LCFCJohn]

4 hours ago, cityfanlee23 said:

Dom Ballard is well worth a look. Signed from Cambridge to Leyton Orient in the summer for £500k
Striker, 21 years old, Scored 22 assisted 5 this season and is improving week on week. Would likely be cheap and has potential to be a striker for us for a long time if he continues progressing. 

Why would he likely be cheap when he’d under contract until 2029? He will cost more than we have that’s for sure.

[LCFCJohn]

10 hours ago, CornwallFox said:

The experienced professionals we should be aiming for should be in the 26-28 age range, not 32+. We need athleticism and power, not wrecked legs

I’d sooner treat it on a case by case basis. Pearson brought Kevin Phillips in when he was nearly 40 I think and he was valuable experience. Obviously not for the starting 11 and that’s an extreme example on the age side. But there are plenty of players in their waely 30’s who aren’t broken. It’s only because we manage to find the broken players!

[Shane]

Daniel Armer (CB) - Loan from Man Utd

 

Tyler Fletcher (CDM) - Loan from Man Utd

 

Reigan Heskey (LW) - Loan from Man City

 

Mahamadou Sangare (CF) - Loan from Man City

[cityfanlee23]

5 hours ago, LCFCJohn said:

Why would he likely be cheap when he’d under contract until 2029? He will cost more than we have that’s for sure.

Leyton Orients finances are bad, obviously not as bad as ours, but relative to club size they are significant, it really depends on whether our finances allow us to spend more than £0. I would imagine he would be available for £2-3m, over a 5 year deal that's not a huge upfront cost, I would expect that come the summer, we would also be a massive draw for the player who would likely want to make the move. 

It's all speculation obviously, and it may not end up "cheap" to us, but cheap relative to 22 goal a season strikers given the level. 

[moore_94]

5 minutes ago, cityfanlee23 said:

Leyton Orients finances are bad, obviously not as bad as ours, but relative to club size they are significant, it really depends on whether our finances allow us to spend more than £0. I would imagine he would be available for £2-3m, over a 5 year deal that's not a huge upfront cost, I would expect that come the summer, we would also be a massive draw for the player who would likely want to make the move. 

It's all speculation obviously, and it may not end up "cheap" to us, but cheap relative to 22 goal a season strikers given the level. 

I expect he will end up costing someone at least £5m

 

Southampton apparently have a massive sell on clause on him so Leyton Orient will be asking for quite a bit more for him

[cityfanlee23]

5 minutes ago, moore_94 said:

I expect he will end up costing someone at least £5m

 

Southampton apparently have a massive sell on clause on him so Leyton Orient will be asking for quite a bit more for him

Do you think? if we are in that sort of ballpark then it's probably worth missing for now and looking again in future. It all really depends on how many idiots we can get out of the door really.
Dujuan Richards on a free?

[LCFCJohn]

1 hour ago, cityfanlee23 said:

Leyton Orients finances are bad, obviously not as bad as ours, but relative to club size they are significant, it really depends on whether our finances allow us to spend more than £0. I would imagine he would be available for £2-3m, over a 5 year deal that's not a huge upfront cost, I would expect that come the summer, we would also be a massive draw for the player who would likely want to make the move. 

It's all speculation obviously, and it may not end up "cheap" to us, but cheap relative to 22 goal a season strikers given the level. 

Kone with 1 year left went for at least that from Wycombe of a similar standing. With 3 years on his contract, you’re talking minimum about £6 mill, likely £7/8 mill.

 

This is the minimum a young striker even at L1 level with years left will go for unfortunately.

[dmayne7]

14 minutes ago, LCFCJohn said:

Kone with 1 year left went for at least that from Wycombe of a similar standing. With 3 years on his contract, you’re talking minimum about £6 mill, likely £7/8 mill.

 

This is the minimum a young striker even at L1 level with years left will go for unfortunately.

But Wycombe had been in the championship which is a massive uplift in revenue. So I'd be surprised if we're talking £8m but probably more like £5mish which would be too much for us

[indierich06]

Tbh there will probably be Championship clubs looking at a striker who's just bagged 20+ goals in League One, which basically puts us out of the running.

[cityfanlee23]

2 hours ago, LCFCJohn said:

Kone with 1 year left went for at least that from Wycombe of a similar standing. With 3 years on his contract, you’re talking minimum about £6 mill, likely £7/8 mill.

 

This is the minimum a young striker even at L1 level with years left will go for unfortunately.

That's a fair point, that's way above where we are for sure. Will likely be a free/loan player come in. Richards is free in summer, really hope that Rowett wakes up and plays him upfront for the next 2 games to give him a trial. 

[JimJams]

King Jeffrey of the Schlupp is being released by Norwich.

 

What an opportunity.

[Ali]

 

Olli Norwood 

Lewis Wing 

Matusiwa

Osmajic 

Cozier Duberry 

Hladky 

[Chief Keef]

Harvey Knibbs hasn’t played much for Charlton this year, had 2 strong seasons in league one for Reading. 
 

6ft 2 midfielder who hit 20+ g/a back to back before this year, will be 27 when the new season starts so seems the right sort of profile to supplement the younger players in the squad. 

[Kinowe Soorie]

Defenders that can defend and head the ball, a lot to ask I know.

A couple of options up front, need goals desperately.

A horrible midfielder, that gets stuck in.

Some wingers that can carry the ball forwards, not get to the box, then knock the ball back to the halfway line.

Simple.

[davieG]

It's not who do we need more like who can we afford that wants to come to our poisoned club 

[coolhandfox]

Character needs to be as important as ability.

 

We should be using a core of the Academy, Braybrooke, Evans, Alves, Aluko, Monga, Nelson, Page should all be heavily involved depending on who still here.

Edited 25 April by coolhandfox

[JimJams]

2 hours ago, Kinowe Soorie said:

A horrible midfielder

'Kin hell we've got loads of those!

[LVFox]

We’ve got Karlan Grant or Josh Maja on a free written all over us

[County Fox]

What about a cheeky loan, from Villa, for Louie Barry?? 

 

[coolhandfox]

13 hours ago, County Fox said:

What about a cheeky loan, from Villa, for Louie Barry?? 

 

Only if we can sign him if he does well.

 

We need players who our committed to us longer term.

[les-tah]

Dom Bollard - 1 of league 1s best players this season.