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Date: 6th February 2026
How did your transfer window going?
By Donald C Stewart
Do you feel as though your club have improved in areas that you as a spectator, standing on the terraces can see it’s blatantly obvious that was the place, prior to the transfer window, that your club is struggling in?
For me at Ayr, we have made no new signings, but yet another goalkeeper has suddenly arrived from Newcastle United. During the time as manager at Ayr, Scott Brown has gone through eight, as far as I am aware. He seems to like having pure hunners of goalkeepers in some form of rotation, which has not gone unnoticed, as he seems to like keeping goalkeepers on their toes.
That is not necessarily a headline that would have been surprising when he was playing the game.
We also have a defender in from Everton and signed a midfielder from Celtic permanently. Going out the club, one’s away to Airdrie, another to Dumbarton, and Jake Hastie has gone from being a loan to a permanent part of the Diamonds too.
Down the lower leagues, transfer windows can be interesting, not just to see who’s going where and whether or not we’re going to get the next Messi aged 17 wanting to cut his teeth down in the lower leagues, but players coming from less exotic places.
The fact that we’ve signed people on loan from Everton and Newcastle United sounds pretty spectacular given that they’re English Premier League clubs, but when you start to dig into the narratives and stories of other players, it becomes fascinating.
I find the wider landscape of Scottish football the lower down you go, where you get guts and glory stories that make football such a fascinating part of life.
And so, the transfer that really caught my eye was just up the road from Ayr at Killie, where they have signed a former Carlisle United loanee, Joe Huggil, permanently. The Durham-born striker, who’s only 22, spent the second half of last season at Carlisle United, but that’s only part of his story. Huggil spent six years at Manchester United and therefore signs not from Carlisle United, but from the red half of Manchester. Whether or not he is going to make a huge difference to Kilmarnock’s current plight, languishing as they are in the bottom of the Scottish Premiership table in 11th, it is curious to see if getting such players through the door is going to translate into results for the Rugby Park team.
Elsewhere in the Championship, you see players going one way or the other – in through the out-door and in reverse so to speak. Partick Thistle seemed to be sending out a lot of people on loan, including to Glenafton Athletic, Drumchapel United and Cumbernauld Colts, with loanees coming in from St Mirren. Airdrie seems to have some kind of link up with Northern Irish Football, with a number of players going off to there on a permanent basis.
Another transfer that caught my attention was at the club who began this season as one of the clear favourites for the Championship, but who have struggled to maintain that moniker. They are now looking to turn things round and retain their place, at least in the Championship, so that they can mount a serious challenge next year.
Step forward Ross County.
Besides the change of manager as Stuart Kettlewell has returned to where he cut his teeth in his first managerial job, there’s a Crystal Palace midfielder arrived and a defender from Polish side Piast Gliwice. Out have gone six players, four of whom have not managed to pick up a new club. Ronan Hale and George Robuston have gone to Gillingham and Weston-Super-Mare and loans out to Strathy Thistle in the Highland League show the range of business a lower league Scottish club gets involved in. Supporters who see a position like a forward going out, imagine that there’s a forward to come in. Roy McGregor, the erstwhile chairman and owner of County is likely to have been behind the business and whilst he might not have waved his chequebook to support Kettlewell as he has in the past, he will be determined to keep Ross County, in the Championship, before getting ready for 2026-27, when they will hope to be battling to get back into the Premiership.
As for us down in here, the possibility of getting back into the top four is what we are looking at with Partick Thistle and St Johnstone running away with the top two spots.
It’s a fascinating year again, and the BBC following the Championship seem to have spent taxpayer money wisely in following a league that’s likely to give them plenty of excitement between now and the end of the season.
In the meantime, however, we all sit waiting for that 16-year-old Lionel Messi, although a 15-year-old Ronaldo, either one, by the way, would do.
Image : Homes of Football
Posted in: Fan's Blog, Latest News
Tags: oor Donald, Scotland, Scottish fans, Scottish football, Transfer Window