Unlucky!

As well as being an exciting time for a club to strengthen its squad, the transfer window is also an opportunity to get high-earning driftwood off the wage bill. Some players just don’t quite make it and end up being quietly offloaded with their club often taking a huge financial hit in the process. However, others are sometimes quite unlucky to get moved on by overambitious, short-sighted clubs.

Tom’s Thursday Premier League blog (TTPLB; pronounced tuhplub) presents its list of five players who were unlucky to get sold or loaned out by vain managers in the last transfer window.

Ashley Cole

Cole made 26 appearances for Chelsea last year and although he was no longer the first choice left-back, he still could have played a role in the Chelsea squad for many years to come. Unlucky to be dropped by England (Leighton Baines is nowhere near good enough) and wide hated, he probably felt it was high time to get the hell out. Why should you stay when you are not appreciated? But I find it very odd that Mourinho allowed him to go. His performances against Atletico in the Champions League semi-final show that he’s still world class.

Javier Hernandez

His record of 56 goals in 150 games (many of those as a substitute) is a fantastic for a fourth choice striker. Manchester United are crazy to get rid of him. Sure, he’s not quite world class, but he has been a very valuable addition to the squad for a number of years and is still only 26. Shipping him out on loan after one poor season seems like an overreaction; nobody at Manchester United played well in 2013/14. Manchester United are a club in panic and Real Madrid have got themselves a bargain.

Julio Cesar

Signed by the incompetent Mark Hughes for QPR on a huge salary, the next manager, Julio Cesar didn’t play badly. However, Harry Redknapp didn’t take a liking to him at all despite being Brazil’s national goalkeeper. He was sent out on loan to Toronto last season and then given a free transfer to Benfica at the end of the window. You have to feel a bit sorry for him, I doubt he would be treated that way if he was Spanish or German. 

Nani

Not an out-and-out superstar, but a typical Ferguson era squad player at Manchester United. He was signed for 18 million in 2007 and played 229 games for United scoring 40 goals. He also managed to win eleven trophies at Old Trafford including four Premier League titles and the Champions League. Still only 27 years old he has bizarrely been sent on loan to Sporting in Portugal for the year. Quite how that will help anyone remains a mystery. Nani is exactly the kind of hardworking player (one who does a job for the team and doesn’t mind being rotated) which a big club needs.

Alvaro Negredo

Another strange one, Negredo scored 23 goals in 48 games for Manchester City last year, but lost form badly towards the end of the season. Nevertheless, he can surely have been considered a success as a third/fourth striker. City though have decided that they no longer need him and have sent him off on a one year loan to Valencia with an clause obliging Valencia to buy him after that. He had a far, far better season than his Spanish contemporary Roberto Solano who, bizarrely, is still at Tottenham. What do you have to do to get retained over at the City of Manchester?