Five players who failed to get the transfer they needed

Martin Macdonald

• 1 Feb 2022 12:38 GMT
• 4 min read

Clubs around the major leagues in Europe will have to settle for the squads they have for the next six months as the January transfer window has now closed.

It was a busy day around the continent as clubs attempted desperately to get deals over the line before the deadline.

Several big transfers occurred in the window, with Ferran Torres joining Barcelona, Dusan Vlahovic joining Juventus, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang joining Barcelona, and Luis Diaz joining Liverpool.

However, there were also many potential deals that failed to materalise for one reason or another.

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That has left some players frustrated at having to stay with their current club until at least the end of the season.

Here are five stars who missed out on a January move that their career needed.

Ousmane Dembele (Barcelona)

Ousmane Dembele's enormous €105 million transfer from Borussia Dortmund to Barcelona has turned out to be a disaster.

The Frenchman's injury record has been shocking and, although he has showed glimpses of his true talents, those showings have been few and far between for the Blaugrana.

The club have still attempted to get Dembele to sign a new contract over the past year, but negotiations broke down due to the player's reported wage demands.

Barcelona subsequently told Dembele to find a new club in January, but apart from a late flirtation with Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain, nothing happened.

He now faces staying at Barcelona and not playing for six months.

Luka Jovic (Real Madrid)

Luka Jovic has been underwhelming since his big-money move from Eintracht Frankfurt and is now arguably the third-choice striker behind Karim Benzema and Mariano Diaz at Real Madrid.

The Serbian showed tremendous promise in the Bundesliga and there is certainly a player in there, but the pressures of playing for Madrid have proved too much and the club are happy to let him move on.

A transfer to Arsenal was mentioned but didn't happen, while other suitors weren't exactly lining up.

Jovic will need to reassess his future in the summer when Kylian Mbappe arrives and he falls further down Carlo Ancelotti's list of options.

Eddie Nketiah (Arsenal)

Arsenal were absolutely desperate to sign a centre-forward in the January transfer window.

Mikel Arteta is facing an exodus of strikers at the Emirates as Aubameyang has already left, while Alexandre Lacazette and Eddie Nketiah have contracts which expire in June.

Nketiah expressed a desire to leave as early as January after seeing opportunities hard to come by, but he will now play a much bigger part in the second half of the season.

He might end up signing a new contract, but Arsenal will go big for another striker in January so Nketiah is ultimately just plugging a squad gap for the next six months.

Jesse Lingard (Manchester United)

Jesse Lingard won't know whether he is coming or going at the moment.

After failing to play a single minute of Premier League football in the first half of last season, the England international was sent out on loan to West Ham, where he flourished.

He returned to Man Utd after being promised more game time from Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. That didn't happen, and the January rumours commenced.

Newcastle and West Ham both attempted to sign him, but were priced out of a deal by Man Utd.

Lingard was then told by the club he was needed until his contract expires as Mason Greenwood is no longer part of the squad.

Arthur Melo (Juventus)

Arthur Melo was desperate to leave Juventus in January. He appointed a new agent, Federico Pastorello, purely to get him a move away from Turin.

The Brazilian does not fit into the plans of Juventus coach Max Allegri, who prefers more physical central midfielders over technical, short passers like Arthur.

Arthur has featured little under Allegri this season and Juventus were very open to offloading him in January.

They were in negotiations with Arsenal for weeks but the two clubs failed to agree over a formula for the deal. Arsenal wanted a dry loan for six months, Juventus wanted 18 months with more guarantees.

So Arthur remains at Juventus and, after the club signed Denis Zakaria from Borussia Monchengladbach, he is likely to fall further down the pecking order.