Jose Mourinho has revealed he was never offered an option to sign Cristiano Ronaldo before his shock move to Juventus from Real Madrid.
The summer transfer window has also officially closed in Europe, but there are 10 notable players stuck in the Premier League who might wish they had found a move. Nick Miller runs down those who will be counting down the days until January.
10. Reece Oxford, MF, West Ham
Just over three years ago, a 16-year-old Reece Oxford started for West Ham against Arsenal and looked like a man who had been there forever. Now, after three seasons in which his star has faded and two loans at Reading and Borussia Monchengladbach didn’t go well, Oxford is back at West Ham but nowhere near the first team.
He’s clearly still a player of promise whose ability is there to be unlocked, but might that have to be somewhere other than West Ham? Perhaps someone will take a chance on him when the transfer window opens again.
9. Phil Jagielka, DF, Everton
Phil Jagielka is showing his age. At 36, that’s not exactly a colossal shock; but last season, it became clear that he’s perhaps no longer up to the pace of the Premier League. Was his red card against Wolves on the opening day of the season another indication of that? It’s also never a particularly good sign when your club recruits two players in your position, and the arrivals of Kurt Zouma and Yerry Mina suggest that Marco Silva is looking beyond Jagielka.
Will he stick around at Everton or squeeze the last from his playing days somewhere else?
8. Lazar Markovic, FW, Liverpool
Perhaps Anfield’s forgotten man (apart from among the staff who arrange the paperwork for loan deals), Lazar Markovic was on the verge of a move to Anderlecht on deadline day, but it reportedly broke down over personal terms. You would think he would be desperate to get away from Anfield but seemingly only on the right terms, which Anderlecht couldn’t meet.
Markovic has been on loan at four different clubs since signing for Liverpool, and sometimes people just need somewhere to call home.
7. Eliaquim Mangala, DF, Manchester City
Eliaquim Mangala was signed to be the future of Man City’s defence. It looks like that future will be realised somewhere else.
It seems a long time ago that there was so much excitement in Manchester about the signing of Eliaquim Mangala. Four years, in fact, during which time he flattered to deceive at Manchester City before going out on loan to Valencia then Everton. In that time, he has shown hints of what persuaded City to pay north of £40 million for him. But now he’s back at City and languishing behind John Stones, Vincent Kompany, Nicolas Otamendi and Aymeric Laporte in the pecking order.
There’s still a good player in there somewhere; perhaps a fresh start in January will help him find it again.
6. Moussa Sissoko, MF, Tottenham
Moussa Sissoko has become a jack of all trades at White Hart Lane, but to say he’s a master of none would be something of an understatement. At some points last season it looked like he might become a reclamation project for Mauricio Pochettino with a few positive performances; but thanks to other players improving or returning from injury, it’s tough to see him finding a way back into the team.
Lucas Moura’s improvement and goals put him ahead in the pecking order at winger, with Erik Lamela and Son Heung-min to get past too, while Harry Winks is back from long-term injury. So central midfield is pretty crowded with Eric Dier, Victor Wanyama and Mousa Dembele. It looks like Sissoko is a midfielder without a position.
5. Mohamed Elneny, MF, Arsenal
First-team chances were tricky enough to come by last season. Mohamed Elneny made 13, but that was under a stubborn manager who signed him, and given the new arrivals at Arsenal this summer, even repeating that looks ambitious. Matteo Guendouzi and Lucas Torreira have nudged ahead of him in midfield, so it would be an optimist who predicts much game time for the Egyptian at Arsenal. He’s not a bad player, meaning someone will find use for him, but that probably isn’t Unai Emery.
4. Victor Moses, MF, Chelsea
If you suggest footballers deserve sympathy, then you’ll frequently get quite short shrift, but sometimes it is worth dwelling on the fragility of their positions. In Antonio Conte’s 3-4-3 system, Victor Moses — previously a fourth-choice winger — had carved himself a niche as a wing-back and performed very well in that role. Now, with Mauricio Sarri’s 4-3-3, he’s back to being that winger behind quite a few other players in the queue for a first-team place. Perhaps this will change. After all, who saw him becoming that wing-back in the first place when Conte arrived? But at the moment, that seems optimistic.
3. Tom Heaton, GK, Burnley
Perhaps they were distracted by the early stages of the Europa League, but Burnley’s summer didn’t seem to make much sense. They didn’t make a signing until the last week of the transfer window, and that was to bring in Joe Hart after Nick Pope suffered an injury. That felt a bit like buying a new shirt because a button fell off an old one, particularly as Tom Heaton was returning from his own injury. That leaves Heaton, who might well have gone to the World Cup had he not missed much of last season, in a curious position: seemingly second-choice now and presumably third when Pope returns. It’s possible he could seek to leave in January.
2. Simon Mignolet, GK, Liverpool
Plenty of people on Merseyside were relieved when Loris Karius left for Besiktas on loan, not least Karius himself. This was a chance for reinvention and for the young German to rebuild his shattered confidence. But while he might not have suffered the same cataclysmic single game as Karius, one would imagine Simon Mignolet’s self-belief can’t be sky-high after spending much of last season on the bench — where he’s now likely to stay, unless something happens to Alisson Becker. “I find it bizarre that Karius was loaned while I also had options to be loaned,” he said recently. It’s going to be a long few months until the winter window opens.
1. Anthony Martial, FW, Manchester United
Anthony Martial’s struggles at Man United are well-documented, but is a new contract a sign of a brighter future?
In some respects, Anthony Martial is lucky because he has become a much better player when out of the Manchester United first team than in it. He has become something of a cause celebre for Mourinho sceptics, a great lost talent cast aside at the whims of one manager despite rarely achieving his clear potential on the pitch. Also, if the stories about him signing a new contract against Mourinho’s wishes are true, then this might have worked quite nicely for Martial. But it’s still difficult to escape the feeling that he would be much happier somewhere else. One suspects we’ll be revisiting this situation again soon.
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