One loanee each Premier League club does NOT want back

Matt Stead

We have had those loanees who should feature for their Premier League clubs next season. Let’s flip-reverse it…

 

ARSENAL: Henrikh Mkhitaryan
It has emerged that Arsenal pushed for Anthony Martial as they began throwing keys in the bowl with Manchester United, but instead they got lumbered with the Armenian, who was half-decent for about 15 minutes before the Gunners realised just why United were so keen to shift him. He is now on loan with Roma and it’s safe to say – after a slow start hampered by injuries – that all parties want the move to be made permanent. “My time in London is over, I hope you manage to find an agreement with Roma because my desire is to remain,” said Mkhitaryan.

 

ASTON VILLA: Lovre Kalinic
While Villa have a host of players out on loan who might ‘do a job’ in the Championship – Scott Hogan, Andre Green, James Chester – they really have no interest in Croatian goalkeeper Kalinic, who basically played one month of football for Villa in January/February 2019 before being dropped following back-to-back defeats. Which is a massive waste of over £5m for a player who featured in just four games (without a win) for Toulouse on loan before injury struck.

 

BOURNEMOUTH: Harry Arter
With Brad Smith, Jermain Defoe and Asmir Begovic all set to leave this summer at the end of their contracts – taking some hefty wages with them – we are left with honest Harry Arter, who spent the season on loan at Fulham. The last of his 254 games in a decade for the Cherries likely came back in January 2018.

 

BRIGHTON: Florin Andone
It seems an awful long time ago now but Romanian international Andone actually scored for the Seagulls on the opening day of the season against Watford, but a shocking challenge and subsequent red card against Southampton saw him shipped off on loan to Galatasaray. His record of two goals in 11 games in Turkey mean that move is unlikely to be made permanent. Bad news for anyone who doubts he can add to his six goals in 30 games in England.

 

BURNLEY: Josh Benson
We cannot claim to be experts on the subject of young Burnley players out on loan, but while most are out of contract this summer, Benson appears to have a year remaining and that’s unlikely to be spent in the Clarets’ first team after a loan spell at Morecambe which ended with him being dropped from the starting XI.

 

CHELSEA: Danny Drinkwater
There’s some serious competition – from Tiémoué Bakayoko and many, many more – but Drinkwater is the man for whom such lists are made. He has not played for Chelsea in over two years and this season managed just five Premier League appearances across two loan spells that featured one victory. That he was substituted in that game with Villa losing 1-0 seems entirely apt. But at least they get to send him back; Chelsea are stuck for two more whole seasons. Oh and he cost £35m.

 

CRYSTAL PALACE: Jaroslaw Jach
The Polish centre-half joined Palace for £2.5m over two years ago and he has literally never played for the club. Not once. He is currently on loan in Rakow and – according to this shoddy translation – ‘according to our information, if Raków Częstochowa wanted to buy it, it would have to pay the English million’. We actually suspect that a couple of quid might do the trick.

 

EVERTON: Sandro Ramirez
Remember when Everton thought that Ramirez would be a seamless replacement for Romelu Lukaku? Remember that he then failed to score a single goal in eight Premier League appearances before going on loan to Sevilla and then Real Sociedad without scoring a single La Liga goal? Well the good news is that things can only get better as he has since scored three goals for Real Valladolid – his first goals in over two years – but there is a sting in the tail: Everton want £5m for his services and that is beyond the budget of the Spanish strugglers.

 

LEICESTER CITY: Rachid Ghezzal
Remember when Leicester thought that Ghezzal would be a seamless replacement for Riyad Mahrez, what with him being an Algerian right-winger who was playing in France? Well it did not go swimmingly, with Ghezzal contributing just one Premier League goal before being sent on loan to Fiorentina. Ten Serie A appearances that that yielded neither goals nor assists suggest that they will be in no rush to take up the option of a permanent switch.

 

LIVERPOOL: Loris Karius
He is already heading back to Liverpool after terminating his contract with Besiktas. Should Alisson be worried?

 

MANCHESTER CITY: Patrick Roberts
It’s been almost five years since winger Roberts played his only four minutes of Premier League football for Manchester City. It’s fair to say that his career has stalled since, with loan spells at Celtic, Girona, Norwich and now Middlesbrough reaping mixed rewards. Boro boss Jonathan Woodgate has declared himself a “big fan” so he will surely want to borrow him again. He will find no resistance from City.

 

MANCHESTER UNITED: Alexis Sanchez
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had to pretend that he wants Alexis Sanchez back at Manchester United but we know that is just bluster – both manager and club will be desperate to keep at least some of the Chilean’s mammoth wages off the books. But unfortunately one goal and three assists in 15 games for Inter Milan is unlikely to convince Antonio Conte or any other manager that he is worth the punt. And he used to be so bloody good…

 

NEWCASTLE UNITED: Rolando Aarons
When Rolando Aarons signed a five-year contract at Newcastle in 2016, he had played 11 games in a season ravaged by injury and he looked like the most promising graduate of the Toon Academy since Andy Carroll. Four years and more injuries later, he has been on loan at Motherwell – his fifth loan spell in three seasons. The last time Aarons played for Newcastle was December 2017, back when Joselu was playing up front and Rafa Benitez was glad to escape with a 1-0 defeat from a clash with Manchester City.

 

NORWICH CITY: Philip Heise
Presumably Norwich moved to sign German left-back Philip Heise from Dresden because his contract was close to expiring and he only cost a few quid, but that’s surely false economy if you only intend to play him once in a year against Crawley Town in the Carabao Cup. He returned to Germany for a loan spell with Nuremberg in Bundesliga 2 but appears to be their second-choice left-back, which suggests he is not quite up to the standards of even Championship football.

 

SHEFFIELD UNITED: Kean Bryan
Playing on loan in the lower reaches of League One has not exactly primed Bryan for potential European football with the Blades. The Manchester City youth product has only been trusted by Chris Wilder for domestic cup games (he was shown up by Barnet), with even the Championship considered a no-go area last season. And he was supposed to be so, so promising.

 

SOUTHAMPTON: Guido Carrillo
My word, they have a lot of rather expensive players out on loan – Wesley Hoedt, Mohamed Elyounoussi and Mario Lemina among them – but Argentine striker Carrillo cost them £20m and he has scored a grand total of zero goals for the Saints in ten games. Oh Mauricio Pellegrino, what were you thinking? Well apparently he was thinking that Carrillo was absolutely mint as he has since signed him twice on loan for Leganes. With Pellegrino gone, there is surely no chance of a third loan spell after one goal in 20 La Liga games this season. Presumably Pellegrino will somehow find a place for him at Velez Sarsfield instead.

 

TOTTENHAM: Danny Rose
We suspect all of the bridges have been burned. Apparently Tottenham are open to selling for a ‘realistic’ fee. It’s Daniel Levy so that’s £56m.

 

WATFORD: Ken Sema
Of the nine Premier League games started by Ken Sema last season, Watford only lost one. So perhaps they should have been a little more reluctant to allow his loan to Udinese, where he has lost rather a lot more games. But the Italians seem quite happy with the Swede and want him to follow Stafano Okaka in making his loan move permanent. Seems wise as we suspect that Nigel Pearson would have no truck with him.

 

WEST HAM: Roberto
Yes, he has another year on his contract and playing exactly zero games for Alaves on loan seems unlikely to earn him a permanent switch there. So the man who let in 21 goals in ten games – and pretty much cost Manuel Pellegrini his job – must come back to West Ham unless some other poor mugs can be persuaded to take him on.

 

WOLVES: Leo Bonatini
That Leo Bonatini scored 12 goals in his first 20 games in the Championship was remarkable. That he then did not score again for the rest of the season was almost more remarkable, but he had already done enough to earn a permanent move. But by this time, promoted Wolves were way too good for Bonatini, who struggled there and then at Nottingham Forest on loan (five games, no goals). This season he has at least scored six goals – though once again, the goals dried up at Christmas – on loan back in Portugal. But Wolves sure as sh*t won’t want him back.

 

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