Heart Of Midlothian winter transfer window 2025/2026 - Wilson loaned to Spurs; transfer window slams shut

[Hearts007]

1 minute ago, Jack Torrance said:

 

A free agent you say? Bargains to be had...

 

 

 

Nice can't wait to see him play

[Ibrahim Tall]

2 minutes ago, GinRummy said:

He must have stood out at Coventry mate or they wouldn’t have signed him.

3 goals in 19 games. He stood out enough in his loan at Coventry to leave the Premiership for a team that finished 16th in the Championship.

[Portable Badger]

1 hour ago, lost in space said:

I doubt he will play for the first team this year but if he performs well, with the money thrown around in England for potential, his value will rocket.

He is 18 - we should not have allowed a buy option unless it was massive (eg £10M).

A massive buy option could be an insurmountable barrier to Spurs signing him in the summer. Unless James is unbelievable during the loan then a massive transfer option increases the risk that he merely returns to us. Why would they take a larger risk if he was only ok during the rest of the season?

 

If the deal was a massive buy obligation then I would totally agree.

[Taffin]

6 minutes ago, DC_92 said:

 

Gyokeres hasn't exactly set the heather alight in the EPL.

 

It did like about £23m on the table though.

 

2 minutes ago, Ibrahim Tall said:

Tbh Gyokores ironically actually kind of proves JTA works as much as any ‘failing’. It identified something in him in Sweden for Brighton to sign in the first place. He barely progressed and didn’t stand out in any of his various loan spells elsewhere including at Coventry before they signed him permanently. 
That setback if anything seems like it gave him the necessary kick up the arse to achieve his potential. 

 

Not for me. Selling a player for c£1m before they then move for £20m+ is quite evidently a mistake. It's not questioning whether it works or not, over the course it very much clearly does...quite spectacularly. It's okay to accept it will make mistakes though; to claim it doesn't would be to ignore so many uncontrollable elements and the unpredictability of humans that it would be folly imo.

[Costanza]

57 minutes ago, siegementality said:

It is pointless to speculate on sell on fees given the variance is 10%- 25% and are only worth anything if the player is actually sold. 
 

Speculating on future transfer fee and basing an argument around it is even more pointless.

 

 

So you don't think the club assess the fee and sell on % based on hypotheticals against what they could look to achieve if he stayed here? That would seem naive from the club

[jamboinglasgow]

1 minute ago, Phil D. Corners said:

they’ve not sent out that tweet yet…. 

 

Yup, I think if we were thinking we are not going to get another signing, now would be the normal time the "no more incoming players" or "finished business."

 

I can imagine we will be trying, I suspect we wont get anyone. I do think we do have enough cover if we cant, it would just be nice to have if we can.

[Mikey1874]

Just now, GinRummy said:

Why the **** did I click on that. Knew it would be shit but clicked anyway 😞 

 

The Kazakh journalists video showed Hearts still have him up on wall as 'top player'.

[OTT]

1 minute ago, siegementality said:

What mistakes have they made?
 

The evidence we have all seen suggests it is unlikely that they have made a mistake with Wilson. As well as JTA a whole management team have seen fit to give him  little or no game time this season. The mere fact that there are very few fans that share your opinion should also tell you something. 
 

Simply put, it is a very well calculated risk. What we can obtain as a transfer fee now versus what we could achieve as a transfer fee is a dozen or so factors fall into place for the next few years.  Cashing out is by far the safest option.

 

On Wilson, I think we're spot on to look to sell him. 

 

He's not physically ready to hold down a spot, and part of the point of him staying was to get first team minutes. Absolutely in 2/3 years he probably will be ready, but if we're able to get 7 figures for him now (or in the summer) then it is the right move for both parties. 

 

Can't pretend I'm not gutted, we see youngsters move on, and he makes a brave decision to stay and back himself, but sadly because of the form of those ahead of him he's not been able to get a look in. 

 

Laddie hasn't failed in my eyes, just an unfortunate set of circumstances coming together (from his developments POV). 

 

Really hope we see him back at some point in the future. No doubt he has a big future ahead of him  

[Jack Torrance]

1 minute ago, GinRummy said:

Why the **** did I click on that. Knew it would be shit but clicked anyway 😞 

 

 

Soz, my bad.

 

To be fair, he was decent for a bit.

[Mikey1874]

3 minutes ago, Phil D. Corners said:

they’ve not sent out that tweet yet…. 

 

Tottenham have till 9pm to confirm the deal.

[Morgan]

1 minute ago, GinRummy said:

Why the **** did I click on that. Knew it would be shit but clicked anyway 😞 

Like leaving with a bursd with 12 pints in you?

 

 

[Jack Torrance]

2 minutes ago, Hearts007 said:

Nice can't wait to see him play

[GinRummy]

2 minutes ago, Ibrahim Tall said:

3 goals in 19 games. He stood out enough in his loan at Coventry to leave the Premiership for a team that finished 16th in the Championship.

Aye he must have stood out to Coventry or they wouldn’t have bought him. 

[Costanza]

44 minutes ago, Jambof3tornado said:

And i assume we keep the sell on so if he moves twice we get more in the same way hibs would have cashed in if mcginn had moved on from villa!

Do sell on fees keep on going? I just assumed it was the next sell

[Hømme]

11 minutes ago, DC_92 said:

 

Gyokeres hasn't exactly set the heather alight in the EPL.

 

I doubt Brighton are bothered.

 

He wasnt signed by Arsenal using JTA.

[Hømme]

Just now, Costanza said:

Do sell on fees keep on going? I just assumed it was the next sell

 

Just the next sell. 

[Jambof3tornado]

Just now, Costanza said:

Do sell on fees keep on going? I just assumed it was the next sell

Not sure how they work to be honest.

[sac]

11 minutes ago, Bungalow Bill said:

I don’t know if JTA will make mistakes, but players won’t work out due to the manager reading the mood wrong, or the player just not settling. Wilson is on our books so even if JTA was getting his rating wrong, we’d have firsthand knowledge on him. Just my take. 

JTA does not make mistakes

[villagejambo]

Do feel that people who want Watson don't watch him consistently for Killie. He's not incredible on the ball or taking the ball out of defence. His best attribute is winning second balls, being combative and arriving at the edge of the box but don't feel he's a player we massively need.

[soonbe110]

27 minutes ago, OTT said:

 

Worth remembering the lad is only 20, younger than Magnusson and Leonard for example. He could be a brilliant squad option with a view of developing over the course of a 4 year deal. 

 

When McInnes had him he would have been 19 (obviously ) in a relegation fight you probably want to lean more on experience. 

 

Good chance we'll end up losing Devlin, Beni and Leonard (since the latter is only on loan) so having a young laddie with decent experience coming in makes a lot of sense IMO. Looks like he has a more well rounded skillset similar to Leonard too. 

 

A bit like with Mulligan, I feel like if we pass on him, we'll be making a mistake. 

Don’t think we will be signing many Scottish players going forward.  Neither Mulligan or Watson have done anything to suggest they are special - if they were then bigger clubs than Hibs and Aberdeen would be after them.  McInnes had Watson for 2/3 years at Killie - clearly not impressed by him 

[Malinga the Swinga]

Just now, sac said:

JTA does not make mistakes

It probably does though. You just need the successes to outweigh them 

[Jambof3tornado]

2 minutes ago, Hømme said:

 

Just the next sell. 

Apparently doesn't have to be just the next sell

 

[Hertz21]

8 hours ago, 48ODM said:

🙂

A little hint that was missed from an ITK poster earlier today amongst the madness.

[DC_92]

3 minutes ago, Taffin said:

 

It did like about £23m on the table though.

 

It's certainly not a panacea, but there's no guarantee he'd have been a success for them or realised that sort of fee if they'd kept him and played him in the EPL. Still made a profit and a healthy sell-on for a player they identified.

[tiger Rudi]

12 minutes ago, Hømme said:

 

I'm not sure why you've quoted me. I know he isn't better than these players. People demanding ridiculous fees for players who don't play are being unrealistic.

Sorry my apologies, I thought you were being critical of the fact he isn't playing. 

 

I think it's a very good deal for a player who isn't good enough to start tbh.

[jamboinglasgow]

1 minute ago, Hertz21 said:

A little hint that was missed from an ITK poster earlier today amongst the madness.

 

there has been two posters who had some ITK info in the past who have suggested things.

[CM Funk]

1 minute ago, Hertz21 said:

A little hint that was missed from an ITK poster earlier today amongst the madness.

Same poster also stated McInnes has brought in an old pals act for our medical department and is someone who ignores the sports science. Thought that was an eyebrow raiser too.

[lost in space]

5 minutes ago, siegementality said:

What mistakes have they made?
 

The evidence we have all seen suggests it is unlikely that they have made a mistake with Wilson. As well as JTA a whole management team have seen fit to give him  little or no game time this season. The mere fact that there are very few fans that share your opinion should also tell you something. 
 

Simply put, it is a very well calculated risk. What we can obtain as a transfer fee now versus what we could achieve as a transfer fee is a dozen or so factors fall into place for the next few years.  Cashing out is by far the safest option.

I hugely agree that it is a risk. JTA will get almost every decision right.

We all know he is not the finished article - and why we cannot give him game time.

Happy that he has gone on loan - just don't like the option at that price.

James may never be a top player but we have sold his potential without receiving a penny (not including the loan fee).

 

[OTT]

2 minutes ago, siegementality said:

It would be even more daft to assume that you would get 100% of calls correct.

 

Thats not what I'm saying either  

 

I thought Dhanda was going to be the tits  I'm not pretending I have the answers at all like 99% of this forum I'm an arsehole with an opinion, I'm just saying that Watson, like Mulligan are common sense signings that I would have liked us to have made because they know the league and are young scottish players which presumably we want as a core part of our squad. We're top of the league, so obviously the guys we've brought in are doing the job we need them to. But There is also the McInnes factor, and the reality is that McInnes is a much better manager and coach than David Gray, Mulligan in this team could be shining much brighter, and with us potentially losing 3 very good midfielders in the summer, Watson again looks a common sense signing that could add to out midfield. 

 

There is also the whole identity side of things too, do we want to go down the Jim Goodwin route of signing buckets of foreigners? Maybe we need players that know the league who can help support these players coming in? 

 

Ultimately, its a transfer thread so some debate around prospective signings is sort of the point of the thread (otherwise I suppose we'd just watch the news and go "aye thats good eh"), I'm glad you have a different opinion, makes it interesting   Fully supportive of JTA, but its going to get things wrong and there are more points to consider around how to balance the squad and make sure we're able to get 100% out of the players we have, Halks, Devlin & Shanks are still very much the spine of our team and none of them are JTA recruits. 

[Malinga the Swinga]

1 minute ago, lost in space said:

I hugely agree that it is a risk. JTA will get almost every decision right.

We all know he is not the finished article - and why we cannot give him game time.

Happy that he has gone on loan - just don't like the option at that price.

James may never be a top player but we have sold his potential without receiving a penny (not including the loan fee).

 

How have we sold his potential without receiving a penny. If he is indeed sold, we get £2.5m. if he isn't sold, we get him back 

[RealHearts]

Over 15,000 posts for 4 signings

 

🇱🇻🇱🇻🇱🇻🇱🇻

[Hearts007]

Wilson loan has crashed this thread 

 

 

[Portable Badger]

36 minutes ago, OTT said:

 

Worth remembering the lad is only 20, younger than Magnusson and Leonard for example. He could be a brilliant squad option with a view of developing over the course of a 4 year deal. 

 

When McInnes had him he would have been 19 (obviously ) in a relegation fight you probably want to lean more on experience. 

 

Good chance we'll end up losing Devlin, Beni and Leonard (since the latter is only on loan) so having a young laddie with decent experience coming in makes a lot of sense IMO. Looks like he has a more well rounded skillset similar to Leonard too. 

 

A bit like with Mulligan, I feel like if we pass on him, we'll be making a mistake. 

Well we haven’t signed them so I wouldn’t get yourself all upset about it. We made our choices and so we move on. No point dwelling on it - if we really wanted them then we’d have gone after them.

[The Real Maroonblood]

1 minute ago, RealHearts said:

Over 15,000 posts for 4 signings

 

🇱🇻🇱🇻🇱🇻🇱🇻

Just under 3 hours and the 26/27 transfer window starts.

[Kennyfragg13]

1 minute ago, RealHearts said:

Over 15,000 posts for 4 signings

 

🇱🇻🇱🇻🇱🇻🇱🇻

Yeah a lot of people are experts of jta and like share there expertise.

[siegementality]

3 minutes ago, Costanza said:

So you don't think the club assess the fee and sell on % based on hypotheticals against what they could look to achieve if he stayed here? That would seem naive from the club

Firstly, you just picked figures out of the air to suit your argument.

 

Secondly, there will be some calculation of future worth based on realisation of potential. But what cannot be assessed in reality is how much potential will actually be realised.

 

In the case of the players we have bought there is clear realisation of potential versus the transfer fee we paid for them. With the exception of Kabangu I think it is safe to say that every player we have bought has increased in value. 
 

In Wilson’s case. He isn’t playing. He hardly makes match day squads. Where is he going to develop in order to increase his value from its current assessment. The simple answer is not at Hearts. An offer has come in. That offer has been assessed by JTA. They have found it acceptable. The deal has been done.

What needs to be remembered is that very, very, few players will ever realise their full potential at Hearts. They will be sold on to make way for the next batch. This is about making steps to raise the standard of player across the board and get us to a level where we are getting £25 million bids from Nottingham Forest, et al.

 

 

[AyrJambo]

2 hours ago, schillaci said:

It would be right to write a book on the rite of passage. Right?

 

Wrong.

On here it would be rite to right a book on the write of passage 

[Hearts007]

2 minutes ago, RealHearts said:

Over 15,000 posts for 4 signings

 

🇱🇻🇱🇻🇱🇻🇱🇻

To be fair 14k of those are about the Wilson loan

[Shankland31]

I wanted us to sign Watson in the summer but I don’t think he gets into our team this season never mind next season

[Taffin]

10 minutes ago, DC_92 said:

 

It's certainly not a panacea, but there's no guarantee he'd have been a success for them or realised that sort of fee if they'd kept him and played him in the EPL. Still made a profit and a healthy sell-on for a player they identified.

 

Agree. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

[Martin B]

34 minutes ago, Bob Loblaw said:

How is it apples and oranges? Both were roughly the same age, one is an international at the time of moving. Wilson started 20 games last year and played 41 times. That's pretty regular, in his one full season Ramsay started 26, hardly a big difference. 

One can’t even make the bench, the other was starting every week. If we were having this discussion 9 months ago you might have a case.

[lost in space]

Just now, Malinga the Swinga said:

How have we sold his potential without receiving a penny. If he is indeed sold, we get £2.5m. if he isn't sold, we get him back 

I asked you to read over my posts a couple of times - and then think, before replying.

Have we received a penny? No (apart from loan agreement)

Have we accepted a fee that includes his potential? Yes.

[tcjambo]

2 minutes ago, Malinga the Swinga said:

A lot of clubs look like they have no plan and are just taking random punts on players.

I'm pretty happy that we at least have a plan in place and appear to follow it.

It looks a bit like that at ER. Are they repeating the mistake of 3-4 years ago when everybody and their dog signed for them and they took several windows to get rid of most of the dross?

[kila]

 

Confirmation now

 

 

[hereford_hearts]

4 minutes ago, The Real Maroonblood said:

Just under 3 hours and the 26/27 transfer window starts.

And the first post will be - 

CP, could he do a job? 

[GinRummy]

Just now, tcjambo said:

It looks a bit like that at ER. Are they repeating the mistake of 3-4 years ago when everybody and their dog signed for them and they took several windows to get rid of most of the dross?

There is that thing about inexperienced managers and big squads as well. McInnes has handled a big pool of players very well this season but an inexperienced manager with a big squad all expecting game time can end badly. Split dressing rooms, sulky stars downing tools etc etc.  

[kingantti1874]

Just now, kila said:

 

Confirmation now

 

 

this saying that the undisclosed nature of the fee is down to spurs ? 

[BigStein]

Out of interest how much needs to actually be done before the transfer deadline in order for a transfer to go through? Can you sign players pending a medical? Do you need confirmation from the FA before the the deadline or do you just need to submit the request before then?

[Ibrahim Tall]

20 minutes ago, Taffin said:

 

It did like about £23m on the table though.

 

 

Not for me. Selling a player for c£1m before they then move for £20m+ is quite evidently a mistake. It's not questioning whether it works or not, over the course it very much clearly does...quite spectacularly. It's okay to accept it will make mistakes though; to claim it doesn't would be to ignore so many uncontrollable elements and the unpredictability of humans that it would be folly imo.

I dont think we actually disagree but I’d say im not sure that’s necessarily a ‘mistake’ of JTA as it’s literally only statistics and data. You still rely on a human interpreting and using that information. The fault is more on that end but even in that case, if you’d asked a Brighton fan in 2021 if e.g. punting Gyokores was a bad idea I’d imagine 99/100 would have said no.
 

[siegementality]

7 minutes ago, OTT said:

 

Thats not what I'm saying either  

 

I thought Dhanda was going to be the tits  I'm not pretending I have the answers at all like 99% of this forum I'm an arsehole with an opinion, I'm just saying that Watson, like Mulligan are common sense signings that I would have liked us to have made because they know the league and are young scottish players which presumably we want as a core part of our squad. We're top of the league, so obviously the guys we've brought in are doing the job we need them to. But There is also the McInnes factor, and the reality is that McInnes is a much better manager and coach than David Gray, Mulligan in this team could be shining much brighter, and with us potentially losing 3 very good midfielders in the summer, Watson again looks a common sense signing that could add to out midfield. 

 

There is also the whole identity side of things too, do we want to go down the Jim Goodwin route of signing buckets of foreigners? Maybe we need players that know the league who can help support these players coming in? 

 

Ultimately, its a transfer thread so some debate around prospective signings is sort of the point of the thread (otherwise I suppose we'd just watch the news and go "aye thats good eh"), I'm glad you have a different opinion, makes it interesting   Fully supportive of JTA, but its going to get things wrong and there are more points to consider around how to balance the squad and make sure we're able to get 100% out of the players we have, Halks, Devlin & Shanks are still very much the spine of our team and none of them are JTA recruits. 

If McInnes and JTA rate Watson we will be making a pre contract offer. If either of them don’t, we won’t. This is what we’ve bought into, and what’s giving us our current success. To step outside it compromises the whole thing.
 

If, as you think, we lose the occasional good player, then the question we need to then ask is not did we feck up, but, do we have a player in the same position that is inferior? If the answer is no, then we haven’t fecked up. We can’t sign everyone.