Seven Premier League stars who need a January transfer

Stuart Telford

• Updated: 26 Jan 2023 20:00 GMT
• 5 min read

The January transfer window has less than a week to run, but there are a few stars who will hope to have their futures resolved before it slams shut…

Chelsea have spent €180 million in the winter window, with the arrivals of Mykhailo Mudryk and Joao Felix perhaps the most headline-grabbing, but their signings push others towards the Stamford Bridge exit.

Erik ten Hag's Manchester United revolution has left players like Harry Maguire and Jadon Sancho behind, meanwhile. FootballTransfers looks at seven players in dire need of a winter transfer…

READ: Premier League 2022/23 January transfers: All the Done Deals

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Chelsea)

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang joined Chelsea from Barcelona on the final day of the summer transfer window, but his reunion with former Borussia Dortmund manager Thomas Tuchel lasted less than an hour of football before the German tactician was replaced by Graham Potter.

Aubameyang has only started four Premier League games since, scoring just once. Barca would like to bring him back to Camp Nou having sold Memphis Depay to Atletico Madrid, and are looking for a workaround to a La Liga law precluding registering the same player twice in one season.

Harry Maguire (Man Utd)

Ten Hag re-confirmed Maguire as Man Utd's club captain earlier in the season, but the England stalwart has since watched on as Lisandro Martinez, Raphael Varane and, latterly, Luke Shaw - a left-back by trade - have dominated the central defensive positions.

Maguire starred at the winter World Cup in Qatar, but can't get a look in at Old Trafford. The big defender was spotted with his agent in a restaurant near Aston Villa's training ground recently, and needs a way out.

READ: Man Utd fan finds 'proof' Harry Maguire is Aston Villa-bound

Kieran Tierney (Arsenal)

Another defender who has lost his first-team place at an English giant is Scotland international Kieran Tierney, who has fallen out of favour under Mikel Arteta at Premier League leaders Arsenal.

Tierney has started just four games as Oleksandr Zinchenko, a £32 million (€36.3m) summer arrival from Manchester City, has made the left-back position his own. The Gunners' lofty league position vindicates Arteta's decision, but Tierney is too talented to warm a bench.

Hakim Ziyech (Chelsea)

Christian Pulisic's Chelsea future has come into question with the arrivals of Mudryk and Felix, but Potter insists the American is not for sale. No such statements have been made about Hakim Ziyech, however, and he is another who has only started four Premier League games this season.

Everton have been credited with an interest in the Morocco winger - who helped his nation into the World Cup semi-finals in Qatar - as a potential replacement for the Newcastle-bound Anthony Gordon, although a reunion with Frank Lampard is now impossible with the Toffees' manager recently sacked.

Jadon Sancho (Man Utd)

Man Utd waited a year to sign Sancho from Borussia Dortmund, before securing his signature for €85m in the summer of 2021. But he has simply failed to recreate the blistering form that shot him to prominence in the Bundesliga.

Sancho was recently sent away for personal training with Ten Hag saying he wasn't "physically or mentally ready" to play first-team football. Now has Marcus Rashford, Antony and even Alejandro Garnacho ahead of him in the pecking order of wingers at Old Trafford.

Billy Gilmour (Brighton)

Billy Gilmour got his move away from Chelsea last summer, but in a cruel twist of fate the manager who signed him - Potter - left Brighton for the Blues just days later. Potter's successor at the Seagulls Roberto De Zerbi doesn't seem to fancy the Scot, who has been restricted to just 100 minutes of Premier League football.

Brighton are bracing themselves for a bumper bid from Chelsea for Moises Caicedo. Testament to the regard Gilmour is held in is that the club have already bid for RB Leipzig's Amadou Haidara as the Ecuadorean's replacement in midfield. Club and player need to cut their losses.

Aymeric Laporte (Man City)

Aymeric Laporte's Man City career has been derailed by injury. A stalwart of the side that won the club's fourth Premier League title in five years last season, the Spanish international needed knee surgery in June.

But he overcame that in October and still can't get back in the team. Each of Manuel Akanji, John Stones, Nathan Ake and Ruben Dias have enjoyed more minutes than Laporte at centre-back this season, and Barca would love to offer him a way out - if they can afford him.