Manchester United apparently aren’t interested in a Karim Benzema loan despite reports to the contrary, but surely Premier League clubs will be looking at other low-hanging fruit from the Saudi Pro League.
Here are five Football365-approved January loan deals (sorry, Jordan Henderson – you’ve made your bed).
Aleksandar Mitrovic to Chelsea
Chelsea needed a goalscorer, and being linked with Roberto Firmino – the unscoring third in the Fab Three at Liverpool; he of no goals in his last 17 appearances for Al-Ahli – felt like more of a practical joke than a Telegraph exclusive.
Karim Benzema is more like it, but still wouldn’t scratch the itch Chelsea fans have been clawing at for five years since Diego Costa left the club.
He was the sort of striker to win the hearts and minds at Stamford Bridge, not that there’s been a great sample size with which to make that judgment. There’s essentially been two in a couple of decades – Costa and Didier Drogba.
In truth, Chelsea fans would take anyone who could score 20 goals a season, but a brute would be nice. Mitrovic meets both requirements, and 83 goals in his last 101 league games for Al Hilal and Fulham is a ludicrously good record.
Sergej Milinkovic-Savic to Arsenal
Perennially linked with the Premier League and Arsenal quite frequently, Milinkovic-Savic could fill that awkward left-sided No.8 spot, which Mikel Arteta is to blame for leaving unfilled.
Granit Xhaka’s departure has been more keenly felt than the Arsenal boss would have hoped after he signed Kai Havertz on the proviso he could work some coaching genius to fit what is a square peg into a round hole.
Milinkovic-Savic has been and would remain, a box-to-box midfielder far better suited to that role. He’s got nine goals and five assists this season.
Ruben Neves to Newcastle
The transfer rumor led to the Premier League vote on multi-club transactions before it became apparent that Neves had no interest in moving to Newcastle anyway.
PIF-owned Newcastle could still sign Neves from PIF-owned Al-Hilal after the two-thirds majority for a rule change wasn’t reached by the 20 clubs. And six defeats in seven Premier League games is surely reason enough to game a system so heavily weighted in their favor in the face of another that could see them lose their best players despite having owners rich enough to buy the countries they could end up in.
17-year-old Lewis Miley starting nine of Newcastle’s last ten Premier League games is lovely, but it also shouldn’t happen.
Ruben Neves moved to Al Hilal from Wolves in the summer.
Marcelo Brozovic to Manchester United
Everyone’s basically in agreement that Rasmus Hojlund needs some support up top at Manchester United. We all predicted the pressure would be too much to bear, and that’s proven to be the case, despite recent inklings of him starting to come good.
A Karim Benzema loan deal sounds lovely in that a) he’s a brilliant goalscorer, and b) he ticks the experience box required for a Hojlund alternative. But therein lies the problem – Karim Benzema is no alternative. Karim Benzema is the main man. If Karim Benzema comes to Manchester United, he plays, and Hojlund doesn’t.
In any case, Hojlund is far from United’s biggest problem, which may well be Erik ten Hag, but could at least be papered over by a midfielder who’s calm in possession and can neatly knit defense and attack together, with those two facets of the United team completely detached entities as thing stand.
Gabri Veiga to Tottenham
Arguably, he is the most significant of all of the big transfers from Europe in the summer, in that he is both very good at football and was born in this century. He’s got as much skin in the Saudi Pro League game as anyone, as there is so much of his career ahead of him. If it’s a success, he can reap the rewards of arriving in its infancy.
Liverpool, Arsenal, and Newcastle were all linked in the summer, but as is quite possibly the case with every young, talented footballer right now, we would love to see him under Big Ange at Tottenham, who are thought to be chasing midfield reinforcements having already signed Timo Werner and Radu Dragusin to bolster the attack and defense in January.
