The moves in and out of England's top flight that actually could be completed this January, brought to you by Daniel Storey
Predicting transfers is often a folly, but we're going to have a crack anyway. The moves below have a genuine chance of happening this month – assuming that many of the men below aren't particularly keen on keeping their backsides warm on a bi-weekly basis right now, that is.
There's even someone for you, Spurs fans. Yes, really – now go and ask Uncle Daniel very nicely.
If there's a good one you think we've missed, head over to @FourFourTwoand tell us why don't you?
Danny Drinkwater (Chelsea to Fulham)
January is the time that you look through the list of Premier League squads – particularly those in the top six – and raise an eyebrow at the players who you'd entirely forgotten existed. Drinkwater is very much included in that list.
In October, the midfielder insisted that he was in no rush to leave Stamford Bridge. But he’s 28, isn't playing any football and could still feasibly get a Premier League move.
The £100,000-a-week wages mean that a loan exit is the most likely, but with Claudio Ranieri having got the best out of Drinkwater at Leicester and now just down the Kings Road, there is an opening at Fulham. Helping them to avoid relegation could well lead to a permanent move.
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Batshuayi is currently enduring a miserable spell on loan at Valencia, for whom he has scored just one La Liga goal in 14 appearances – only four of those as a starter.
The Belgian has been on Palace’s radar ever since Chelsea beat them to his signature in 2016, and it seems likely that the Eagles will swoop in their latest attempts to fix a longstanding problem position. Ditto West Ham, who were also interested back then and are being linked once more.
Miguel Almiron (Atlanta United to Newcastle)
Much depends on Mike Ashley’s willingness to finally sell the club and allow it to breathe, but there have been multiple reports linking MLS’s best player with a move to Newcastle. They were hardly eased when it became clear that Arthur Blank, co-owner of Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta United (where Almiron plays), was interested in buying Newcastle.
Almiron moving would be massive for MLS. He would represent the first player since Clint Dempsey to truly establish themselves in the US before moving up to a top five league in Europe, rather than the other way around. It would offer evidence that MLS is maturing as a league – Almiron would become Newcastle’s record signing.
Jarrod Bowen (Hull to Tottenham)
There are at least five young players in the Championship who could feasibly make the grade at a Big Six club, but Hull’s Bowen might well be the first to move. Reports suggest that Tottenham could make a £22m bid if they can get Vincent Janssen, Georges-Kevin N'Koudou and Fernando Llorente off the wage bill this month.
Tottenham would be the perfect place for Bowen, surrounded by excellence and playing under a manager who has gained a reputation for improving young talent, either purchased or inherited. They have preferred to sign homegrown players from the Football League, and missed out on Jack Grealish in the final days of the summer window, although Pochettino did warn in September that “it's about getting lucky with this type of player [in the lower leagues]”.
For the price, though, 22-year-old Bowen would be worth the risk.
Nathaniel Clyne (Liverpool to Bournemouth)
If Eddie Howe could bolster one position in January, it would be at right-back. Keeping hold of Callum Wilson might be priority No.1 for this transfer window, but serious injuries to Adam Smith and captain Simon Francis leave Bournemouth very light on options.
Clyne would be the perfect replacement, at least for now. He is clearly surplus to requirements behind Trent Alexander-Arnold at Anfield, not only in the short-term but going forward too. The 27-year-old has actually featured in Liverpool's last four Premier League matches, but as nothing more than a late substitute in the most recent three. He'd do well to stay in the Premier League, and the Cherries offer a perfect destination.
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Gary Cahill (Chelsea to Arsenal)
Few Premier League players have suffered quite such a fall in status over the last 12 months. Cahill played 37 league games as Chelsea lifted the title in 2016/17 and played 27 more last season, but has featured just once in the league under Maurizio Sarri. The redemption of David Luiz has hit him hard.
Cahill turned 33 last month, but his game has never relied upon pace and Arsenal are desperate for a central defender so that Shkodran Mustafi can be bundled into a cupboard marked ‘do not open’. The only question is whether Chelsea consider it foolish to let a player join a top-four rival, or allow Cahill to join Arsenal as a mark of respect for his service a la Petr Cech.
Neal Maupay (Brentford to Huddersfield)
Included in our list of Championship surprise packages, and with good reason. At the age of 22, Maupay has already proved himself to be the complete Championship centre-forward. Given that Brentford will not be promoted this season, they must have expected significant top-flight interest.
And no team needs a goalscorer more than Huddersfield. Joe Lolley was their second-highest league goalscorer at home in 2018, and he signed for Nottingham Forest on a permanent deal in January.
Not only do David Wagner’s team have the lowest shot conversion rate in the Premier League at 5.2%, their top scorer this season is a central defender with fewer than 20 career league goals at the age of 28.
Tammy Abraham (Chelsea to Wolves)
Wolves are in the market for a striker to provide competition to Raul Jimenez, Chelsea will be happy for Abraham to score goals against their top-four rivals and Abraham gets the Premier League minutes he craves. Wolves getting to harm Aston Villa in the process is a happy little bonus.
The suspicion is that Abraham is another of those strikers who can be prolific in the second tier but will struggle to score goals regularly at Premier League level. But with 16 goals in 20 Championship matches in 2018/19 and two England caps by the age of 21, he surely deserves another chance.
There’s a caveat here, though: while FIFA rules allow a player to be registered to three clubs in a season, they only allow them to play for two of those. Hatem Ben Arfa was denied the chance to play for Nice this time in 2015, having already turned out for Hull and Newcastle’s U21s – considered an official match. Abraham has played for Villa and Chelsea’s U23s.
Brahim Diaz (Manchester City to Real Madrid)
The Premier League’s top clubs have a problem. The financial elite have spent some time hoovering up the best young talent at home and abroad, with the intention to integrate them into the first team and create home-grown superstars. But the pressure of maintaining results and ever-increasing transfer budgets makes it easier to sign players than develop them.
At Chelsea, Callum Hudson-Odoi may well push for a move to Bayern Munich. At Manchester City, Jadon Sancho left for Borussia Dortmund and Brahim Diaz may well choose to leave for Real Madrid. With 49 Premier League minutes at the age of 19, combined with a smattering of cup appearances, can you really blame him?
In 10 years, the saga of Adrien Silva and Leicester will be the subject of a 1,000-word retrospective think piece about terrible football club administration. In August 2017, a £22m deal was agreed for him to move from Sporting to Leicester, but the documents were registered with FIFA 14 seconds after the deadline. Silva was forced to spend five months on the sidelines in footballing no man’s land.
Having finally become eligible for Leicester but seen the manager who signed him depart the club, Silva has failed to impress Claude Puel and is now left on a shelf at the King Power Stadium. Eighteen months after his initial signing he has played only 850 Premier League minutes, 88 of which have come this season.
Now a move back to Sporting to end this nightmare beckons.
