The resurgence of Marcus Rashford is excellent if embarrassing news for Manchester United, with Arsenal and Spurs loanees far less likely to join permanently.
The following players were the 10 most valuable Premier League loanees according to Transfermarkt at the time of their move; which should expect the arrangements to be made permanent and who will be back on the market?
10) Jesper LindstromDavid Moyes has his faults but there is a proud succession of forwards who have thrived under his coaching to suggest he might have some idea what he is doing. It extends to wingers and runs through David Eyres and Iain Anderson at Preston, to Steven Pienaar, Kevin Mirallas, Adnan Januzaj, Carlos Vela, Said Benrahma and Jarrod Bowen.
“You won’t have longevity if you’re not going to get me assists and goals. They both need to improve greatly on that,” he told current Everton incumbents Lindstrom and Jack Harrison early last month; Lindstrom promptly assisted a Harrison goal two days later.
But it will take far more to convince Everton to make the move permanent for what would be a sizeable portion of their budget. The Dane could hardly argue if it is decided that £19m could be better spent elsewhere.
9) Kalvin PhillipsThere is a fundamental sadness about the fall of Phillips, not least in that he is still yet to really establish where he now exists in the football food chain.
While his spell with Ipswich has not been nearly as disastrous as the half-season with West Ham which cost him his England place for Euro 2024, the 29-year-old has still been on the bench more often than not for a side sliding towards the Championship.
He might have cursed his luck at the cruelty of Rodri finally properly breaking down and a space in the Manchester City midfield opening up when he was halfway across the country, but Phillips was at least spared the ignominy of Pep Guardiola coming up with increasingly absurd ways of playing literally anyone else there instead of a £42m signing still depressingly contracted to the Etihad for three more years.
And even in the vanishingly unlikely event Ipswich stay in the Premier League, they will have neither the option nor inclination to make the deal permanent. Phillips might be best served reading up on how to play at right-back while crossing every phalange that Leeds don’t make a complete Leeds of another promotion bid.
8) Lesley UgochukwuAn incompatibility with Russell Martin did nothing to harm the reputation of Ugochukwu, but before the Frenchman’s rise to a more prominent role under Ivan Juric it would have been no surprise if Chelsea had recalled their asset early; the shock might have been them remembering he was theirs to begin with.
It has been a useful if chastening experience as a semi-regular Premier League starter for Ugochukwu, and the 21-year-old will be able to wash off the stench of a potentially historic relegation easily enough.
But he will not accompany Saints on their drop down a division. It also seems improbable that Chelsea will pretend Ugochukwu has a part to play next season before eventually banishing him to train with the youth team. He might even be promoted to an admin of the loanee WhatsApp group this summer. Strasbourg is meant to be lovely.
MORE ON CHELSEA TRANSFERS FROM F365
👉 Chelsea open door to ‘eleven’ summer sales to ‘fund super signing’ with PSR fear ‘confirmed’
👉 Ranking the Premier League ‘Big Six’ by magnitude of their 2025 summer rebuild
7) Jadon SanchoWhile most Chelsea loopholes essentially amount to selling an asset to themselves in some convoluted PSR scheme, the emergence that their obligation to buy loanee Sancho for £25m could be overwritten by a £5m charge was a welcome surprise.
It was long assumed the Blues would solve a considerable Manchester United problem when it became clear they would finish higher than 14th and thus meet the conditions to make the arrangement permanent. It was also understood that Chelsea would be happy with their side of the deal after Sancho scored two goals and assisted three in his first 10 appearances.
But a single assist in 18 games since early December has planted a seed of doubt in the minds of a team generally desperate to sign anyone just to feel alive.
The expectation is that Sancho will join the Chelsea forward stockpile, but he should not be stunned if they plan to immediately sell him.
6) Axel DisasiChelsea received £5m in exchange for the temporary services of Disasi, but Aston Villa will start any race to sign the French centre-half in the same summer starting blocks as everyone else.
The Unai Emery effect helped Villa beat Spurs to the front of the queue of clubs wanting to borrow Disasi in January but no option, obligation or even right of first refusal could be negotiated with the Blues, who were reluctant to help a rival for Champions League qualification in the first place.
The outcome of that race will be crucial in determining Disasi’s future. If Villa can make the finances work while still offering elite European football, some mightily persuasive groundwork has already been laid.
5) Mathys TelThere is sympathy for Tel, who albeit only for a few months has swapped the relative serenity of infrequent Bayern Munich cameos to start pretty much every possible game for a poor Spurs side as their teenaged fan liaison officer.
That has understandably distracted from his other role on the pitch, with a solitary goal to show for his efforts in north London across 487 minutes in four competitions.
Spurs have an option to sign Tel permanently for around £45m at the end of the season but it doesn’t seem like an outcome the club or the player really wants, the experiment having worked for neither party.
4) Jean-Clair TodiboWest Ham should ordinarily want to distance themselves from the era of Tim Steidten as much as possible but littered among the deposed technical director’s many expensive mistakes were a couple of potential gems.
The capture of Todibo from under the noses of Juventus was among them. The defender was not alone in finding things difficult under Julen Lopetegui and an ‘intense spat’ with the manager combined with injuries to limit his early opportunities.
But his renaissance since the appointment of Graham Potter has been clear and West Ham will happily hand over the £35m necessary to make Todibo theirs for good this summer.
3) Raheem SterlingIt was ostensibly a mutually perfect transfer. Arsenal identified a cost-effective and ludicrously experienced option to provide cover in attack, while Sterling was granted a more stable environment in which to work under a familiar coach with whom he had previously enjoyed immense success.
The undoubted anticipation of being able to prove Chelsea wrong was a powerful motivator for both.
Yet it hasn’t quite worked. Even when Sterling produced his finest performance in recent memory against PSV before the international break, it was tinged with a booking which ruled him out of the Champions League quarter-final with Real Madrid; the 30-year-old has as many yellow cards as combined goals and assists for the Gunners.
An attacking injury crisis should have been Sterling’s cue to step up but the lack of trust has been stark and he can hardly argue that such chances should have been made more readily available. Mikel Arteta’s faith is yet to be rewarded and an awkward return to Stamford Bridge awaits.
2) Evan Ferguson“From our perspective that is unfair to be honest,” Graham Potter said of criticism surrounding the slow curve on this Ferguson revival arc. “You have to see the context of where he was in terms of the minutes he’s played previously and how he was on his return from injury.”
Perhaps it was a case of absurdly unfortunate timing for West Ham but supporters who have endured their essentially strikerless recent performances might have been asking questions when Ferguson played 143 minutes over the international break, having managed just over 90 in five substitute appearances for the Hammers.
A well-taken goal for Ireland against Finland must be the catalyst for Ferguson to at least start upon his return to east London. From there, the pressure is on to rebuild what was once a £100m reputation, even if West Ham know the better he does over the next few weeks, the less chance there is they will be the long-term beneficiaries.
1) Marcus RashfordFair play to Ruben Amorim, who since January has fielded basically the exact same questions at each increasingly laborious Manchester United press conference. Why is Sir Jim Ratcliffe like this? Why do you appear to have made things considerably worse for little discernible reason? Is Bruno Fernandes actually quite good? And how inherently embarrassing is it that apparently hopeless players improve immediately after leaving?
There are only so many ways Amorim can phrase his response to the last question in particular. And he is basically right each time: the better Antony and in particular Rashford fare on loan, the better it is for Manchester United in terms of making an entirely necessary future sale.
The bridges back to Old Trafford have been burned and that is fine. Amorim had his reasons for ostracising the club’s grossly under-performing highest-paid player and the foundations he hopes to lay are contingent on that sort of brick being painstakingly removed first. A proper judgement should be reserved for how Amorim properly replaces Rashford when the opportunity arises this summer.
But it would be exceptionally funny if Aston Villa are inspired to a Champions League and FA Cup double by a player a historically poor Manchester United felt compelled to force out, and most importantly fundamentally embarrassing even if it earns them £40m.
READ NEXT: Marcus Rashford putting Manchester United misery firmly behind him with Aston Villa revolution