Catching Up on the January Transfer Window

Hello! I hope you all had a great holiday season. We come back to the newsletter writing world in the midst of the January transfer window — a window that is often overhyped and boring, but probably won’t be this year.

The first reason for that is because it is a World Cup year, and the World Cup has been expanded, meaning more players are jostling for playing time in this closing season in order to make the squad list for the big dance.

And the second reason is because everybody, around Europe (okay, not you Germany), seems to be “in contention.” More competition for league table spots means more potential players trying to make those final moves for Champions League spots or trophies.

It should be a fascinating month around here - I hope you enjoy it.

The Big-gish Names

Rodrygo has now allegedly realised he should have left Real Madrid in the summer. But has he completely cratered his value and team interest by staying in the Spanish capital past his sell-by date? Arsenal, among others, seem to think he’s fine as they look to lock up their first title since 2004.

Liverpool are staring hard at Eduardo Camavinga in this window, which would make A LOT of sense footballistically, assuming they can convince him (or anyone, really) to leave the Spanish giants.

Real Madrid are definitely exercising their €9m option to bring Nico Paz back from the wilds of Como, where he has once again been lighting it up. I’m just including this up here at the top to save everyone a lot of pining. Now is not the pining season.

Speaking of Liverpool (and this isn’t a big name, this is basically a complete unknown, so which idiot wrote the sub headline above?), they are supposedly close to paying up to £43m for Club Brugge centre back Joel Ordonez.

Antoine Semenyo is the biggest Premier League name on the block so far, with the Bournemouth wide forward available for an alleged release clause somewhere around £60.5m. Is he worth that?

Leipzig’s Yan Diomande has been a noisy name over the holiday period, but Leipzig have made it extremely clear that they are only dating teams with big… bank accounts, as they know exactly how good the young winger is and teams should expect any move to be exxxtremely exxxpensive. Given the — look, I’m just gonna say it — INSANE fee they extracted for Sesko this summer, we’re pretty sure they can hold out for whatever they want.

Conor Gallagher used to be a bigger name, but then he went to Spain to become Diego Simeone’s workhorse. Workman. Work-midfielder? Manchester United would still like to bring him back to England, but Atléti have shut down any talks of loans for the player. Spurs and Newcastle are also probably listed by his agent as teams who would like to employ his services.

Marc Guehi’s name is in the rumour mill, but we a) can hardly believe Crystal Palace will finally sell him, and b) can hardly believe Guehi won’t just move at the end of the window and get a huge signing bonus on a free instead.

Brennan Johnson might be the most confusing Spurs player of the last couple seasons. Is he good? Is he bad? Can he only pass or shoot, but not do both in the same footballing season? Crystal Palace have already paid £33m to hopefully find answers to these questions.

Maghnes Akliouche has been a frequently mentioned name here in the past and not just on the spellchecker, and he could finally be on the move this summer to a Premier League team you know. The reason for this is because Monaco are in a bit of a reconstruire phase (that’s French for “rebuild”), so are probably more willing to sell slightly-aged assets now than they were in the summer.

Johan Strand Larsen was another name that nearly moved in the summer. With Wolves now looking to rebuild for the Championship next season, it’s past time for them to cash in on one of their more valuable assets.

Kees Smit, a 19-year-old midfield prospect at AZ Alkmaar is the sexy Dutch name on the gossip rounds.

Kobbie Mainoo, a young English midfield prospect, is looking for a brighter future outside of Manchester. Though this morning’s news might change his outlook.

Ricardo Pepi is not Dutch, but the American striker has played there for long enough to be nearing his Dutch passport. Should he choose to forego that, he could be of interest to your Fulhams, crab rangoons, and teams of that nature. Can he succeed in the Premier League? That feels like a future column topic, so thank you for asking.

Nathan Ake’s name has been in the papers for the last month, so he’d apparently like to find consistent playing time ahead of the World Cup.

Chelsea currently lack a head coach (expect us to break that down further in Monday’s podcast and Tuesday’s newsletter), and also have various and sundry bomb squadders they did not manage to send on loan before the last window closed. Remember kids (and especially player agents) — MINUTES ARE A RESOURCE.

Chelsea are supposedly kinda sorta interested in new Brazilian kids, as well as Morgan Rogers, Sandro Tonali, and Ethan Nwaneri. [Ethan… see above!]

Some teams think Joshua Zirkzee’s slightly odd forward skill set would better match their needs than whatever Manchester United have done with him so far. We’re not sure we agree, but it’s not likely to get better there, is it?

Christopher Nkunku only moved to AC Milan in the summer, but now could be off to the footballing glue factory in the sky (Turkey) after putting up fewer than 2 shots per 90 in Italy. That was not €37M well spent.

Bayern Munich would like Leon Goretzka to go play somewhere else, preferably this window.

Romano reports Ajax have identified Burnley defender Quilindschy Hartman, 21, as one of their main targets for the January window. Look at us, increasing our small team coverage around here by adding Ajax into the mix!

Aston Villa will not play Liverpool loanee Harvey Elliott one minute more because he would cost them £35m if they did. So, somewhere new then?

Omar Marmoush could be available one year after his initial City move, as he has struggled to get match time. City have no Haaland depth, so while this one sort of makes sense, it also sort of doesn’t?

Now it is me, I am the one not making sense. I guess that’s the sign to say goodbye.

—TK

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