The six Man Utd players who could leave in January

Stefan Bienkowski

• 1 Jan 2022 16:15 GMT
• 4 min read

The January transfer window can often be seen as a useful reset button for a number of teams and no side will feel that way quite as much as Manchester United.

After a disastrous start to the season which saw the Old Trafford club dump Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and bring in German tactician Ralf Rangnick, Man Utd will now be looking to iron out all of their issues in the coming transfer window.

MANCHESTER UNITED'S MOST VALUABLE PLAYERS

Part of that will naturally mean selling a number of first team players that are no longer needed or have been hankering for a move for some time.

Jesse Lingard

There’s little doubt that January will be a busy month for Manchester United and perhaps the most likely player to depart in the window is Jesse Lingard.

Not only is Lingard out of contract at the end of the season and completely underused at Old Trafford, but he also has a number of clubs that would happily pay a nominal fee to bring him to their club six months earlier than signing him for free in the summer.

Paul Pogba

Another Man Utd star that is edging precariously close to leaving for free is none other than Paul Pogba.

Despite starting the season well, the towering midfielder’s form began to falter and a straight red card against Liverpool ruled the player out for two consecutive league games.

A hamstring injury then befell the midfielder and we’re now in a situation whereby Pogba could agree to join another club before the next time he pulls on a Man Utd top.

Edinson Cavani

Edinson Cavani had to be convinced to stay at Man Utd at the start of this season over a return to South America and a few months on from that decision the towering forward is probably wondering if he made the wrong decision.

Unless Rangnick can convince Cavani to stay put for the second half of the season as a valued member of the first team, it seems more than likely that an offer from Barcelona or another enticing chance to return to South America will be far more tempting to the forward in January.

Eric Bailly

When Eric Bailly signed a contract extension with Man Utd in April of this year, fans of the club would have understandably expected to see more of the underused central defender in the forthcoming campaign.

However, to date the 27-year-old defender has managed just six starts for the team across all competitions this season and unless Rangnick is about to drastically drop Raphael Varane or Harry Maguire for the Ivory Coast international it seems as though Bailly’s time at Man Utd may be up.

Donny van de Beek

Few players at Man Utd were as routinely ignored by Solskjaer as Donny van de Beek and now well over 12 months on from his move from Holland, few can connect the dots to why he joined the club in the first place.

Granted, the Holland international is a talented playmaker on his day and could be of some use to Rangnick in the second half of the season. But unless he can be convinced to stay put, Van de Beek will undoubtedly be looking for a move when the January window opens.

Anthony Martial

Man Utd’s demise over the past 12 months can undoubtedly be chartered alongside the parallel dip in fortunes of Anthony Martial, who now sits in this squad as something of an unused and out of form forward star.

Martial is still young and could be assigned a proper role by Rangnick to thrive in this team, but if the new Man Utd manager is desperate to make new signings he could instead decide to cash in on the France international.