Aston Villa, Liverpool and Manchester United might regret turning down January transfer offers

Aston Villa and Manchester United should share a £40m January transfer regret – and not just because of Marcus Rashford. Arsenal were ready and willing to make a move all parties would be perfectly happy with now.

Aston Villa and Ollie Watkins
It was suggested that Villa were ‘furious’ when their preparations for a critical Champions League game with Celtic were interrupted by the fax machine whirring across details of an offer from Arsenal for Ollie Watkins.

The reaction would have been understandable; Arsenal’s great January striker search landed in the last couple of days of the window on an England international forward rated at £60m by his Premier League rival club, for whom they offered £40m. They could have at least chucked another £1 in there to trigger any secret release clauses which weren’t actually release clauses whatsoever. Amateurs.

Watkins did score his first career Champions League goal in that Celtic victory but he also missed a penalty and a handful of other chances while Morgan Rogers netted a hat-trick. And little did he know that would essentially mark the end of his first campaign in Europe’s premier competition.

The 29-year-old started both legs of the last-16 tie with Club Brugge but was substituted at half-time of the second, then was trusted with 25 minutes of a possible 180 in the quarter-final with Paris Saint-Germain.

In between, Watkins scored as a substitute against Southampton despite being inevitably “not happy to sit on the bench”. His contribution has been welcome in their Champions League qualification bid and run to the FA Cup semi-final but his gradual marginalisation since January implies Villa could have taken the £40m and coped well enough.

Unai Emery teased a partnership between Watkins and loanee Marcus Rashford before that thrilling second leg against PSG, yet he stressed the need for more “time” and “practice” in training. There are echoes of the battle for supremacy between Watkins and Jhon Duran earlier in the season; the loser of that battle left in January and the winner might be forced out by Rashford months later.

Premier League table since the closure of the January transfer window:

Liverpool and Trent Alexander-Arnold
It is pure, unadulterated, uncut hindsight but Liverpool really might have been better off calling Real Madrid and potentially Trent Alexander-Arnold’s bluff in January.

As Jamie Carragher said at the time: ‘I love Trent as a lad & a player, but his team would’ve told Real Madrid to bid & also would’ve known LFC would turn it down. It’s to try & cover themselves when he leaves for free.’

The claim was that Real, so desperate to expedite the process of waiting for Alexander-Arnold’s contract to expire, were willing to discuss the numbers involved in a January move. Liverpool rejected the approach out of hand, pointing to the four-pronged second half of a possibly trophy-littered season.

Alexander-Arnold promptly missed through injury the defeats in the FA and Carabao Cups while experiencing a significant drop-off in his Premier League form, typified by that miserable, error-strewn display against Manchester United.

It would be devastating if the final act of a 21-year relationship with the club was to come off with an injury in the Champions League tie with PSG which ultimately went to a penalty shootout he would likely have thrived in, but it does mean that nothing Alexander-Arnold has done on the pitch since January has been of any actual consequence and thus Liverpool turned down free money to keep a distraction.

Manchester United and Alejandro Garnacho
There is a palpable mutual desire to make things work between Garnacho, Ruben Amorim and Manchester United, which has not been the case for every player since the Portuguese’s appointment in November. The club and manager know they have an asset, who in turns wants to follow in the footsteps of his idol.

But the Cristiano Ronaldo redemption sequel casting is almost impossible to envisage for Garnacho, whose incompatibility in this system and environment is overriding his obvious talents.

That ability should not be downplayed. In this career-worst season at a failing club under a glaring spotlight he has 17 goals and assists at 20. It just feels like Manchester United could benefit more from the money a Garnacho sale could generate then they do from his presence.

Chelsea are interested and Napoli had an offer of around £40m rejected in January, with Manchester United citing a £70m valuation which has inevitably come crashing down in the months since.

Fulham and Andreas Pereira
“It would be really cool because of the way De Zerbi plays football,” Pereira said in November of a failed summer move to Marseille. “I was looking forward to it, but we’ll see now in January or at the end of the season if there will be a transfer or if I’ll stay at Fulham,” the Brazilian added in an interview during which he also spoke of “excitedly” meeting with his agent when he sees rumours linking him with a move.

It was a bizarre act of footballing self-immolation that Pereira both “deeply regretted” and apologised for, yet at the same time insisted was “neither accurate nor reflective of what I actually said”.

Marco Silva dropped the midfielder briefly but Pereira was back in the fold soon after and has appeared frequently since, but his output remains thoroughly and maddeningly inconsistent. Six players have more Premier League goals and assists for Fulham this season; Harry Wilson has as many despite playing less than half the football.

It was not Marseille who came knocking in the winter but Palmeiras, with £16m and then a reported £18.5m in hand. Fulham, who timed the exits of far better and more important players in Aleksandar Mitrovic and Joao Palhinha perfectly at no detriment to their performances, decided to keep an entirely replaceable player whose value will only depreciate as his contract enters its final year.

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