Five loans that MUST be cancelled ASAP: Liverpool, Man Utd deals

When a player gets sent out on loan, it’s usually for one of two reasons: their parent club wants them to gain more experience elsewhere so they can come back stronger, or wants to get rid of them but can’t find a buyer.

In either case, it’s in the best interests of the club allowing the player to leave on loan for them to get as much gametime as possible, either to equip them with crucial first-team experience or to boost their profile in view of a permanent transfer away in a later window.

But that sufficient level of gametime doesn’t always come and, put bluntly, some loan spells can end up being a waste of time.

Here, we’ve taken a look at five loan spells that haven’t got off to good start this season, which might need to be backed out of (where possible).

Harvey Elliott (Liverpool to Aston Villa)

Elliott’s move to Aston Villa is scheduled to become permanent once he reaches a certain number of appearances – understood to be 10.

He’s currently on five appearances since his move, but has been an unused substitute for their past three matches, raising questions over how committed to him Unai Emery is.

Although he was largely a rotation player at Liverpool, Elliott was almost better off back at Anfield. And given that he grew up as a Liverpool fan, his current situation must hurt.

“I am incredibly ambitious and feel that at this stage of my career it’s important to be in an environment where I’m able to have the opportunity to play and progress as much as possible,” Elliott explained in an Instagram post after leaving Liverpool on loan.

At this rate, it doesn’t look like Villa Park is the environment he was looking for.

If Villa don’t want to see their obligation to buy Elliott activated, they may have to see if they can send him back to Liverpool.

That said, Elliott made a couple of appearances for Liverpool earlier this season, so he wouldn’t be allowed to go anywhere else this season and would be returning to a stacked Reds squad, when his parent club were viewing him as someone to help counter-balance their big spending.

FULL STORY: It’s unanimous – Liverpool star REGRETS summer move and deal could be cancelled

Jadon Sancho (Manchester United to Aston Villa)

Discarded by Chelsea after they backed out of an obligation to buy him from Manchester United, Sancho took his time to commit to his next step this summer.

Eventually, he joined Villa, hoping it would spark a similar kind of career revival to what Marcus Rashford had experienced over the second half of the previous season.

But Sancho has struggled to make an impact for Villa yet, only managing eight minutes of action in the Premier League.

United’s chances of recouping money for Sancho were already dwindling when they sent him to Villa for the last year of his contract – unless they utilise their option to extend his stay by a year – and things only seem to be heading in one direction.

Reporter Graeme Bailey told United In Focus this week: “There is concern at United about Sancho’s situation.

“It’s not that they were hoping a return to form would signal a return to Old Trafford, far from it, but the chances of getting any money back for a player that cost over £70million are looking as slim as they ever have.

“In ideal world Sancho would have featured constantly and impressed and United would have a decision to make about whether to take up his option and possibly sell him, or even sell him in January.

“Sancho could clearly return to form and the hope within United is that he does so they might have a decision to make.

“They will continue to monitor the situation but hopes are not high.”

Facundo Buonanotte (Brighton to Chelsea)

Buonanotte’s switch from Brighton to Chelsea seemed questionable at the time and there’s been little to change that opinion since.

“This is a great opportunity for Facundo to play regular Premier League and Champions League football this season and further his development,” said Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler at the time, seemingly speaking from a parallel universe where Chelsea are the lower-ranking club, and adding: “Facundo has great potential and we see his long-term future with us here, and we will be monitoring his progress with Chelsea this season.”

The attacking midfielder has since only played once in the Premier League for Chelsea. He was also left out of their initial Champions League squad before being added.

Still only 20, the former Leicester loanee has time ahead to strive towards a high level, but the Chelsea move feels like a misstep at this moment in time.

Claudio Echeverri (Manchester City to Bayer Leverkusen)

Echeverri attracted some serious interest in the summer, with Manchester City refusing to send him to Roma, who wanted an option to buy attached to a loan deal.

The Italian side didn’t want to take Echeverri without having a chance of keeping him, so in stepped Bayer Leverkusen, who were willing to welcome the playmaker on a straight loan.

All three clubs might have regrets over how they handled the situation. Roma didn’t sign an alternative, Leverkusen are barely using him and City may be concerned about the environment he’s struggling to develop in.

Not much time had passed at all after Echeverri’s move before Leverkusen sacked Erik ten Hag as their manager.

Yet to start a Bundesliga game, the 19-year-old was taken off at half time of his only start in the Champions League so far against PSG this week.

Kostas Tsimikas (Liverpool to Roma)

Tsimikas made a decent start to his Roma spell, recording an assist on his first start against Nice in the Europa League.

But he has fallen out of favour recently and Roma boss Gian Piero Gasperini cited a ‘technical choice’ when opting to use a right-back (Wesley) on the left instead of Tsimikas against Viktoria Plzen on Thursday, which may have started to ring some alarm bells.

While he could yet become more useful for the Italian side, there’s an argument he could be useful to Liverpool right now given the slow impact of summer signing Milos Kerkez and the fading qualities of Andy Robertson.

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