We all know who’s most desperate to seal a January exit in the last week of the window but Marcus Rashford won’t be alone in asking for frequent updates from his representatives, or dare we say refreshing Football365 in the hope of fresh insight into which club chiefs are flying where or which club has opened up, say, £325,000 worth of wage bill wiggle room.
Here are the ten players, including Mr Rashford, who have seven days to escape.
Marcus Rashford (Manchester United)
Ruben Amorim’s brutal response to the same old Rashford question may just have lit a fire under the Manchester United person or persons responsible for finding the wantaway forward a new club as they wonder just how far back through the club staff the manager is willing to go to make his Players Must Do The Maximum In Training point. Like goalkeeping coach Jorge Vital, Jason Wilcox could probably do a job (probably in with a shout of being the best left winger at the club now we think about it), but we’re less convinced by Omar Berrada as an impact substitute.
It always felt daft but the closer we get to deadline day the more stupid Rashford’s decision to publicly announce his desire for “a new challenge” becomes. After Kyle Walker screwed him out of a move to AC Milan and with Barcelona needing to get rid of players who don’t want to leave to sign him on loan, Rashford faces the reality of six months on the sidelines in his supposed prime years having suffered the ignominy of his BOMBSHELL announcement being met with little more than a shrug by the vast majority of the clubs with the ability and clout to sign him, and a cursory effort from a couple of them who looked at the first negotiation hurdle and thought F*** That.
Christopher Nkunku (Chelsea)
As someone who’s frequently told to “cheer up” both by strangers and my long-suffering partner as a purveyor of Resting B*tch Face we’re in clear Pot Kettle Black territory here, but surely, SURELY, my frown lines would be nowhere near so pronounced if I was playing Premier League football.
Resting Shock Face more likely, from me and everyone who’s ever seen me play football, and that would be far more palatable (great fun actually) than Nkunku’s expression when he plays for Chelsea, which isn’t so much one of frustration or anger – both reasonable emotions having started just three Premier League games this season – but complete and utter indifference, which is rather more difficult to stomach.
Chelsea would apparently be ‘tempted’ by a £70m bid from Manchester United or whomever else and we bet they f***ing would be given Nkunku’s played 43 games since signing for them for £52m 18 months ago. Could be brilliant for United in either of those two inverted forward roles, but then we would also definitely be saying that about Alejandro Garnacho if he was being linked with a move to Old Trafford rather than the exit door.
James McAtee (Manchester City)
It can’t have felt great that less than two weeks after being hailed as a “special talent” by his manager having scored a hat-trick against Salford City, McAtee was joining his Manchester City teammates in welcoming a £63m player into the dressing room as direct competition for his already frustratingly limited game time.
Bayer Leverkusen sensed an opportunity and were reportedly knocked back by City on Guardiola’s orders, but McAtee isn’t alone in struggling to see a way through to a regular starting spot in a team that’s barely featured him even when enduring their worst run of form in over a decade. It may well be time for a Cole Palmer-style ultimatum from McAtee.
Casemiro (Manchester United)
We’re a naive and idealistic bunch here at Football365 but we’re also not so green as to think a man taking home £350,000-per-week who’s at least two years beyond his prime would be willing to take a financial hit For The Love Of The Game, so his inclusion is essentially based around the assumption that he’s waiting for a Saudi Arabian area code to appear on his phone in the next week.
Cristiano Ronaldo is reportedly ‘insisting’ on his former Real Madrid teammate joining him at Al Nassr having signed his own extraordinary new contract, with Casemiro’s predicted wages falling some way short of Ronaldo’s absurd €3.8m a week but still a significant increase on his current packet.
Oleksandr Zinchenko (Arsenal)
In the last six months Zinchenko has watched on as Arsenal spent £34m on a left-back, fast-tracked another through the academy and found a third eternally crocked rival for his position down the back of the sofa to ensure he plays as little football as possible.
If all three of Myles Lewis-Skelly, Riccardo Calafiori and Kieran Tierney featuring in the win over Wolves on Saturday wasn’t the final straw for Zinchenko as he watched from the bench then we are genuinely impressed by the depth of shame he’s willing to put up with.
Atletico Madrid are supposedly keen and that’s far less surprising than Mikel Arteta’s apparent dislike of a pretty decent footballer.
Timo Werner (Tottenham)
It’s not at all surprising after Ange Postecoglou openly berated him for his “unacceptable” performance for Tottenham against Rangers last month that Werner is angling for the exit, especially as his manager reneging on his promise a week prior of keeping such criticisms in house is just one of several examples of him losing the plot this season. It’s also hardly a shock to see him linked with a return to the fizzy drinks group.
It is though at least worth noting that his stock has fallen to the point where he’s not in talks with the best Red Bull or even the second best, but maybe the third? Less than four years on from starting and winning the Champions League final, at the age of 28, Werner is in talks to sign for New York Red Bulls, whose entire roster (sure, we know the lingo) is worth almost exactly half of what Chelsea paid RB Leipzig to sign Werner in 2020.
Evan Ferguson (Brighton)
No amount of Brighton bench-warming would be enough to dispel us of the notion that Ferguson is the answer to every Premier League team’s striker problem. Just like Manchester United when they were supposedly preparing a £100m bid two years ago, we were (and remain) entirely convinced as a result of a then (and still) meagre goalscoring record that this guy is Erling Haaland but better.
Roberto De Zerbi was wrong, so is Fabian Hurzeler and while we’re at it whichever other so-called coach in the future fails to recognise Ferguson as the second coming of Christian Vieri is too.
Graham Potter handed Ferguson his Brighton debut and we would be delighted to see him at West Ham, just as we’re sure every fan would be delighted to see him play for their club, unless like the aforementioned, they’re accustomed to getting things wrong.
Carney Chukwuemeka (Chelsea)
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s proposed exit is more in vogue by virtue of him being Enzo Maresca’s Man who’s already set to leave but Chukwuemeka’s need is greater.
The 21-year-old has featured for just 130 minutes all season compared to Dewsbury-Hall’s 934. Maresca said he wanted Chukwuemeka to leave on loan in the summer as he wanted him to “play 30 to 35 games”, which makes sense, but to not even include him in a single Premier League squad despite injuries in midfield and what has seemed to the casual or expert observer like decent displays whenever he has played for Chelsea makes no sense at all. He clearly doesn’t like something – or indeed many things – about him.
Juventus are thought to be keen having already completed the signing of Renato Veiga on loan, while West Ham are also in the mix.
Ben Chilwell (Chelsea)
We’re starting to feel as though Chilwell must have some deep, dark secret we don’t know about or did something horrible in a past life because we felt sure that having been captain of The Chelsea Bomb Squad for half a season the offers would have rolled in as soon as the January transfer window opened.
It’s been very quiet up until now, possibly due to the reasonable concerns of previously interested parties over his fitness and indeed whether he’s still any good at football. West Ham and Everton are the very predictable suitors currently linked with a guy who is equally likely to prove himself as Thomas Tuchel’s best option for the World Cup as he is to fail to start a Premier League game this season.
Jakub Kiwior (Arsenal)
Kiwior playing more football this season than he or anyone else expected and that still only amounting to 821 minutes is exactly why he needs to leave the club.
Arsenal have had to deal with significant injuries to Ben White and Calafiori, and yet Kiwior has only started two Premier League games. He’s been a victim of joining the club at the onset of Arteta’s great obsession with signing defenders, with Jurrien Timber and Calafiori usurping him since.
