January 2025 Transfer Window


Northern saint

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Mitchell makes a lot of sense.

We badly need depth behind Balodis and Mikulic, and he seems to fit the ball exactly as a "ball playing defender" that Valakari wants us to have. If hes not up to it then we have 2 CBs who should be, plus Douglas whos impressed in there, and if he is up to it then hes a perfect fit style wise and theres a place in the defence for him.

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Got Charlton supporting friends that say they wished that they had kept Mitchell and given him much more game time this season. He has done well in a back three. Reckon he could also make a career out of being in a defensive midfield role. Looks another shrewd signing, although clearly just a short-term deal.

The winger seems a bit of a punt, but gives us another wide option, which we needed.

The moves for Rae and MacPherson suit all parties. I feel for Rae, chucked in before he was ready and without proper coaching at the start of the season. Hopefully he can progress at Raith.

Was always going to be hard getting McPake and co off the wage bill.

Zero issues with Benji rejecting deals if he does not think it is right for his career. He is seeing out the contract that we gave him and as long as he gives 100% when in our shirt, then I have no problem with it. For me he should only ever be on the pitch if he is playing as a striker. Any deeper and it derides the whole team.

Simo has really been backed since coming in and allowed to mould the squad to the way he wants it. Lots of midfield options to choose from now and players that can play out from the back as he hoped for. Lets see how we get on for the rest of the season.

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6 hours ago, Cagey said:

Anti climax,after all this but apart from a few outgoings we don't have any more signings than we did this afternoon.

Agree.Ā 

Transfer window went out with a whimper rather than a roar, and Uncle Eric told us who was coming in the morning. No disrespect to the two that signed yesterday, but I was holding out a bit of hope for another rabbit being pulled out of the hat late on. I wonder if the talk of Montgomery was journos just reading forums or if there was actually substance to it?Ā 

Wonder if there may still be overseas free agents that we could pick upĀ šŸ¤”Ā ? and there are still opportunities for some of our "fringe" players to be loaned out.

Taken as a whole window, we've strengthened and upgraded. Maybe I'm too old to believe in Santa nowšŸ¤·ā€ā™€ļø

Simo now knows what he's got to work with and can plan accordingly. The rest is up to the fans to get behind the guys in blue shirts, be the 12th man and get them over the safe line.Ā 

Cami "may" learn a lot where he' s going that will be his choice, and I hope Rae gets time to take a breath and enjoy football again away from the constant pressure and not being under the microscope as much.Ā 

COYS

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Expect there will still be a few announcements to come, but here's the squad as it stands at the close of the window.

Ā 

GoalkeepersĀ 

Andy Fisher -Ā 2025Ā -Ā on loan from Swansea City

Kyle Thomson - 2025(?) - on loan at St Andrews United

Josh Rae -Ā 2026

Ross Sinclair -Ā 2026

Craig Hepburn -Ā 2027

Ā 

Defenders/wing backs

Sam Curtis - 2025 - on loan from Sheffield United

Zach Mitchell - 2025 - on loan from Charlton Athletic

Barry Douglas -Ā 2025

Sam McClelland -Ā 2025

Oludare Olufunwa -Ā 2025

Bayley Klimionek -Ā 2025Ā - on loan at Civil Service Strollers

Liam Parker -Ā 2025Ā -Ā on loan at Cove Rangers

Joe Ellison -Ā 2025

Bozo Mikulic -Ā 2025

Scott Bright - 2025(?) - on loan at Brechin City

Daniels Balodis - 2026

Andre Raymond -Ā 2026

Ā 

Midfielders/wingers

Max Kucheriavyi -Ā 2025

Matt Smith -Ā 2025

Cammy MacPherson -Ā 2025

Sven Sprangler -Ā 2025

Graham Carey -Ā 2025

Drey Wright -Ā 2025

Elliot Watt - 2025 - on loan from Burton Albion

Stephen Duke-McKenna - 2025 - on loan from Harrogate Town

Alex Ferguson -Ā 2025

Arran Cocks -Ā 2025

Ben McCrystal -Ā 2025Ā - on loan at Berwick Rangers

Jason Holt -Ā 2026

Jonathan Svedberg - 2026

Josh McPake -Ā 2026

Fran Franczak -Ā 2026

Taylor Steven -Ā 2026

Victor Griffith - 2026

Aaron Essel -Ā 2027

Ā 

Forwards

Nicky Clark -Ā 2025

Benjamin Kimpioka -Ā 2025

StevieĀ May -Ā 2025Ā -Ā on loan at Livingston

Jackson Mylchreest -Ā 2025

Adam McMillan -Ā 2025

Adama Sidibeh -Ā 2026

Uche Ikpeazu -Ā 2026

Makenzie Kirk -Ā 2026

Ā 

-------

Ā 

Arrivals

Andy Fisher from Swansea City (loan)

Sam Curtis from Sheffield United (loan)

Daniels Balodis from FK RFS

Zach Mitchell from Charlton Athletic (loan)

Elliot Watt from Burton Albion (loan)

Stephen Duke-McKenna from Harrogate Town (loan)

Jonathan Svedberg from Halmstads BK

Victor Griffith fromĀ C.D. Ɓrabe Unido

Ā 

Departures

Lewis Neilson (returned to Hearts, end of loan)

Kyle Cameron (returned to Notts County, end of loan)

Connor Smith to Hamilton Accies (undisclosed fee)

David Keltjens (released, signed for Ironi Tiberias)

Jack Sanders (to MK Dons, Ā£150,000 approx)

Brodie Dair (to Fulham, Ā£150,000 approx)

Bayley Klimionek to Civil Service Strollers (loan)

Kyle Thomson to St Andrews United (loan)

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On 2/3/2025 at 9:07 AM, Aitchy said:

Peter Bosancic possibly the defender we are bringing in. Croatian centre half. Known to Simo from Latvia.

Depending on who has still to leave to free up wages, this fella, or others like him without clubs, could still be within our reachšŸ¤·ā€ā™€ļøĀ and, luckily we have Santa Simo who knows that market, in that part of the world, better than any of our competitors.

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Apologies for not fully knowing the rules, but we can still loan players out to lower league clubs for a certain time? I'm thinking of the likes of Max and McPake here.

But we can't loan anybody in, like a Montgomery for example? That opportunity ended when the window shut? All sales and loans had to be concluded by 11pm last night.

We can still pick up free agents, like the Croatian CB who was mentioned before who is without a club.

He was probably only coming in if Benji went though.

The football authorities love a bit of red tape don't they?

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18 minutes ago, Gekko said:

Apologies for not fully knowing the rules, but we can still loan players out to lower league clubs for a certain time? I'm thinking of the likes of Max and McPake here.

But we can't loan anybody in, like a Montgomery for example? That opportunity ended when the window shut? All sales and loans had to be concluded by 11pm last night.

We can still pick up free agents, like the Croatian CB who was mentioned before who is without a club.

He was probably only coming in if Benji went though.

The football authorities love a bit of red tape don't they?

We can loan players to lower league clubs until the end of February, but we can't bring players in from other premiership clubs.

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8 minutes ago, Linky said:

We could only sign Montgomery if Celtic release him

My understanding of the rules is that Celtic would have had to release him BEFORE the window closed to make him a free agent eligible to sign for other Spl clubs.Ā 

Similar to ourselves, however, the window for loan players to go to lower league clubs remains open until end of February.Ā 

Edited by Graeme S
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5 minutes ago, Linky said:

We could only sign Montgomery if Celtic release him

As Graeme has said, I read somewhere else that it would only work if he'd been released before the window shut.

Doesn't he have a deal until 2027? If so, I can't imagine that will happen.

That's a shame, because he would've been a good addition.

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If we manage to loan out a few more of Smith, Max, McPake, etc, we may find it frees up enough money for Simo to dip into his wee black book again and pull out another unknown free agent gem šŸ™

If what I'm hearing here about Ikpeazu is even partially correct, I'm very concerned that the club has failed to undertake due diligence AGAIN and has not learned anything. I was told that there is a current, high earning, player signed under a previous manager, without a medical, and who had/has (?) a chronic injury. I wonder if Mr Webb has any comeback on the person(s) who agreed the Uche thing or if he's just writing it off, happy (?) in the knowledge that "ahve goat a nippel ring you know" will never be back near the club and we're well shot of him.Ā 

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48 minutes ago, Graeme S said:

My understanding of the rules is that Celtic would have had to release him BEFORE the window closed to make him a free agent eligible to sign for other Spl clubs.Ā 

Similar to ourselves, however, the window for loan players to go to lower league clubs remains open until end of February.Ā 

You may be right there

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8 hours ago, blueheaven said:

Expect there will still be a few announcements to come, but here's the squad as it stands at the close of the window.

Ā 

GoalkeepersĀ 

Andy Fisher -Ā 2025Ā -Ā on loan from Swansea City

Kyle Thomson - 2025(?) - on loan at St Andrews United

Josh Rae -Ā 2026

Ross Sinclair -Ā 2026

Craig Hepburn -Ā 2027

Ā 

Defenders/wing backs

Sam Curtis - 2025 - on loan from Sheffield United

Zach Mitchell - 2025 - on loan from Charlton Athletic

Barry Douglas -Ā 2025

Sam McClelland -Ā 2025

Oludare Olufunwa -Ā 2025

Bayley Klimionek -Ā 2025Ā - on loan at Civil Service Strollers

Liam Parker -Ā 2025Ā -Ā on loan at Cove Rangers

Joe Ellison -Ā 2025

Bozo Mikulic -Ā 2025

Scott Bright - 2025(?) - on loan at Brechin City

Daniels Balodis - 2026

Andre Raymond -Ā 2026

Ā 

Midfielders/wingers

Max Kucheriavyi -Ā 2025

Matt Smith -Ā 2025

Cammy MacPherson -Ā 2025

Sven Sprangler -Ā 2025

Graham Carey -Ā 2025

Drey Wright -Ā 2025

Elliot Watt - 2025 - on loan from Burton Albion

Stephen Duke-McKenna - 2025 - on loan from Harrogate Town

Alex Ferguson -Ā 2025

Arran Cocks -Ā 2025

Ben McCrystal -Ā 2025Ā - on loan at Berwick Rangers

Jason Holt -Ā 2026

Jonathan Svedberg - 2026

Josh McPake -Ā 2026

Fran Franczak -Ā 2026

Taylor Steven -Ā 2026

Victor Griffith - 2026

Aaron Essel -Ā 2027

Ā 

Forwards

Nicky Clark -Ā 2025

Benjamin Kimpioka -Ā 2025

StevieĀ May -Ā 2025Ā -Ā on loan at Livingston

Jackson Mylchreest -Ā 2025

Adam McMillan -Ā 2025

Adama Sidibeh -Ā 2026

Uche Ikpeazu -Ā 2026

Makenzie Kirk -Ā 2026

Ā 

-------

Ā 

Arrivals

Andy Fisher from Swansea City (loan)

Sam Curtis from Sheffield United (loan)

Daniels Balodis from FK RFS

Zach Mitchell from Charlton Athletic (loan)

Elliot Watt from Burton Albion (loan)

Stephen Duke-McKenna from Harrogate Town (loan)

Jonathan Svedberg from Halmstads BK

Victor Griffith fromĀ C.D. Ɓrabe Unido

Ā 

Departures

Lewis Neilson (returned to Hearts, end of loan)

Kyle Cameron (returned to Notts County, end of loan)

Connor Smith to Hamilton Accies (undisclosed fee)

David Keltjens (released, signed for Ironi Tiberias)

Jack Sanders (to MK Dons, Ā£150,000 approx)

Brodie Dair (to Fulham, Ā£150,000 approx)

Bayley Klimionek to Civil Service Strollers (loan)

Kyle Thomson to St Andrews United (loan)

8 in 8 out but 3 of those are kids who would be on peanuts so need at least 3 out to balance the books a bit.

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