Ten Premier League players who could be begging for moves as transfer deadline day looms
With the transfer window set to close at 11pm on Friday, there will be players at every Premier League club who are hoping their number gets called for a move to a new home with loving owners and lots of farmland to run around on during their days off.
For some of them, it’s a matter of just not being fancied by the current manager. Others may be playing back-up roles at big clubs but would instantly improve sides just slightly lower in the table. And plenty more simply play for Chelsea…
10. Joe Gomez
Arne Slot has spoken highly of the defender’s work in training and insisted that he has not been involved yet this season is down to an injury niggle rather than being unwanted.
The questions are whether Gomez is content to be the second-choice back-up player in two different positions: Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konate and quite possibly Jarrell Quansah are all ahead of him at centre-back, while Trent Alexander-Arnold and Conor Bradley are stiff competition at right-back.
Gareth Southgate’s departure leaves no guarantee that the next England boss will have room for a billionty defenders in the squad, and more to the point, Gomez can no longer rely on being known and trusted. At 27, he should be entering his peak; does he want to spend those years sitting on the bench for club and country? And could Liverpool turn it down if they got a sizeable offer to take him away from Anfield?
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9. Ivan Toney
Speaking entirely from the outside, the centre-forward can’t really lose. If he stays at Brentford, he will surely come back into the side and continue to be lavished with lots of praise and attention, despite being in the final year of his contract. And if he gets that big move he’s been waiting for…well, he’ll have got that big move he’s been waiting for.
The reason he’s on this list is because currently, Toney is stuck in a kind of limbo. Other clubs have quite rightly balked at the massive price tag Brentford put on him in the past, price tags of course always scaling in physical proportion to the monetary value they represent (which is why sweet shops have so much less floor space than car dealerships).
Naturally, though, Brentford would much prefer to get a fee for Toney’s services, with the striker’s exclusion feeling like something of a ‘come and get him’ plea. They’ve already shown they’ll be fine without him, so why not pocket the money while they can?
8. Jack Grealish
Three in a row for marginal cases whose desire for a move will depend at least in part on their place in the England setup.
Grealish will have hoped that his £100m move three years ago was the launch point to go from a star to a megastar at Manchester City; instead he has been in and out of the side even by the standards of a manager who likes to shuffle the pack regularly, with Pep Guardiola generally preferring to save Grealish’s starts for the Champions League, and out of the England squad altogether.
There’s no shame in that whatsoever, of course, and for most players it wouldn’t been an issue. But alongside some fitness niggles, it does feel like a factor in Grealish’s loss of form and rhythm…he might just be one of those players who is better off playing every week further down the big six/eight than serving as a squad player for City.
7. Miguel Almiron
Attention, il est Almiron, l’ami favorit tout la monde. Except for Eddie Howe, at the moment, who had started to give the winger gradually fewer minutes even before his month-long injury towards the end of last season.
Jacob Murphy’s solid run that began during Almiron’s absence has seen the former retain the starting berth on the right wing into the new season, which…doesn’t feel like a great sign. That 11-goal season in helping Newcastle finish fourth in 2022/23 feels like quite a while ago now; Almiron contributed just five goals and three assists in 45 outings in all competitions last season.
At 30 years old and with just two years left on his deal, this would be the prime time for Newcastle to sell up if they can find a bidder, and Almiron would be a solid candidate to raise a bit of cash to help their longer-term PSR position and help them hold onto more important players.
6. Djed Spence
As our very own and very handsome Dave Tickner wrote a few weeks ago: “Delighted to report Spurs fans have also reached the ‘Djed Spence could be like a new signing’ stage of pre-season after an assist and a couple of eye-catching recovery runs. Comes earlier every year.”
Eighteen minutes across two appearances from the bench suggest he could indeed be like a new signing. For someone else.
5. James Ward-Prowse
The former Southampton midfielder has reportedly been told he’s free to leave if he can find a move, despite playing in every game bar the League Cup third round last season. Or, given how West Ham’s season went after Christmas, perhaps because he played in every game bar the League Cup third round last season.
Guido Rodriguez’s arrival has seen JWP benched. The most obvious solution would be for him just to go back to Southampton and call last season a loan, wouldn’t it?
4. Aaron Ramsdale
Unfortunately for Ramsdale, David Raya is really good, despite looking like Karl Pilkington has had a trip to Turkey and come back with new hair and teeth.
Ramsdale is starting to feel like the modern day David James or Ben Foster: a very good goalkeeper who would win plaudits for being ace for someone in mid-table, but who would be consigned to a back-up role he’s too good for at a club with title aspirations.
That’s absolutely grand, but if he wants to prove it wrong, he really needs to play; at 26, he’s firmly into ‘not a kid anymore’ territory. With Raya now at Arsenal permanently and winning plaudits, a move away feels like the only way Ramsdale is going to get that.
3. Raheem Sterling
It seems that Sterling is attracting more compelling interest than we gave him credit for, but making that move happen in a way everyone is happy with is by no means a certainty.
Had it been clear earlier in the summer that the winger was not wanted, he might have been top of a few shortlists. As it is, there will be a few clubs who are left turning out the coin section of their wallets to see if they have enough change left over from their earlier spending.
2. Half the rest of the Chelsea squad, for that matter
Ah, geez, where to start? Goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga is not a keeper, Ben Chilwell is not making the bench whether he’s ill or well, Trevoh Chalobah is very difficult to make a pun out of but is clearly not wanted…the list goes on.
Chelsea have put the cart before the horse and gambled that they will be able to find new homes for these players having signed approximately 427 players, and annoying they probably will: all of them start for most other clubs in the division.
1. Jadon Sancho
The decision to retain Erik ten Hag immediately felt like curtains for Sancho, despite the manager’s assertions that the winger would get a fresh start.
Manchester United have been crap in attack and yet they still can’t find room for Sancho, which speaks volumes. He will be good again basically anywhere else…just not at Old Trafford, at least not under ten Hag.
The fact that nobody has yet come for him is intriguing, though: he’s clearly been gettable for the right price, but nobody has yet been willing to stump up the required amounts. Is that likely to change by close of play on Friday? We’ll see.
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