The January transfer window and the elephants in the room

As the window prepares to be slammed shut, Elizabeth Barnard looks at what it could mean for our future.

I can’t have been the only person glued to my phone this January, despite my new year’s resolutions and best intentions to spend less time online. It’s an easy trap to get sucked into: there’s no light outside, so I’m seeking the blue light from my screen. No-one wants to go to the pub because everybody’s doing Dry January. Oh and, of course, it’s the January transfer window.

The January transfer window is a slippery customer. It is full of promise - a month-long opportunity to fix your season, and your moves in the market could be the difference between success and failure. The gaping holes in your squad are obvious, as are the players out of favour and angling for a move. Here comes the January transfer window: a silver bullet for all of it.

And then, you’re waking up in February and all we’ve done is re-sign Willian. The January transfer window slips out the door leaving nothing in its wake. Dan Cooke had 2025’s window as his ‘What If?’ moment of last season, and it’s hard to disagree.

We’re yet to see how the final days shake out - of course, Fulham couldn’t possibly do any business earlier in the window, that would be crazy. At time of writing, we have just announced the signing of Oscar Bobb from Manchester City. It looks like we’re linked/in talks/in advanced talks (delete as appropriate) with Ricardo Pepi from PSV. There’s a necessary opacity to transfer negotiations which feels even more jarring in the age of information: what decisions are actually being made, and how, and when?

It’s even more worrying because, this January, there are a couple of elephants in the room. In his seminal photography book, Brooklyn Beckham called elephants “hard to photograph” - and so it’s proving to be the case. For every Fabrizio or Ornstein tweet about Oscar Bobb or Ricardo Pepi, there is something left unsaid that is much more difficult to capture. It’s not about the rest of the season - European qualification or a cup run - but the long term. What exactly does the January transfer window mean for the future of Marco Silva?

This slippery customer has always felt like a Catch 22 when it comes to Silva’s future. Silva was clearly frustrated with the summer’s transfer business - which he vocalised a number of times, while - of course - entering the final year of his contract. The January transfer window is a problem - Silva doesn’t want to sign a contract before he’s backed in January, and the club don’t want to buy players for a manager who has not committed his future beyond summer 2026. Recklessness or overcautiousness in this window could have calamitous consequences.

And, frustratingly, the same can be said for our star player Harry Wilson, who is also out of contract at the end of the season. Nobody saw Wilson’s renaissance coming (aside from Sammy James and Peter Rutzler on the pre-season show - they knew something I didn’t). It’s impossible not to see Wilson’s and Silva’s futures as linked; Wilson was Silva’s first signing in 2021, and now they are our star men, and their futures are hanging in the balance. Will Silva really stay if we don’t show the ambition to tie our best player down? Will Wilson want to stay if Fulham lose the talismanic manager that has crafted this team he is excelling in?

And so, I am cheered by our January transfer business, with Bobb over the line now. We are being ambitious in the market, pivoting strategy and buying young players to set us up for the future. Maybe these will be the signings that get Fulham into European Conference League in 2027, or to Wembley in the cup. But more than that, maybe they are the signings that convince Marco Silva that the club is ready to be ambitious, and he should tie himself to a good thing.

Every move in the transfer window links back to that elephant in the room. Of course, we’re right to discuss what Oscar Bobb can provide on the pitch, but we should also be delighted by what this news may mean off it.