Man Utd pair join winger ghosted by Palace among five stranded after transfer deadline | OneFootball

One Manchester United player seems rather more content to remain at Old Trafford after the deadline, while a Palace palaver has left a winger ‘cruelly’ stuck…

The window closed on Monday night, with all these players having got their moves.

But not everyone completed the transfers they might have been hoping for. These five appear to have been left stranded until at least the summer…

Joshua Zirkzee

Perhaps Zirkzee’s motivation for a move wasn’t as great as we initially thought…

The United forward was absent from Michael Carrick’s first two squads when City and Arsenal were defeated but that was due to a knock rather than the interim manager taking an instant dislike to his indefinability.

He returned to the bench for the win over Fulham and his celebrations with Benjamin Sesko after the Slovenian netted a late winner suggests he’s not exactly bristling at being made to watch from the sidelines.

But that really is all he will do for the coming months. Carrick has no use for a 9-and-a-half, with three better options as a 9, and perhaps the same again at 10.

Again, maybe it’s not so bad; Zirkzee will definitely have much better options in the summer than whatever clubs might have rushed to make him a mid-season offer.

Tyrell Malacia

In contrast to Zirkzee, Malacia is very much stranded at United. For reasons we cannot fathom.

Apparently, the left-back was about to board a flight to Turkey in recent days before Jason Wilcox told him not to get on the plane.

Why? Wilcox only knows. It’s hardly as though Malacia is needed at Old Trafford. He has played two minutes in the last 12 months and his prospects don’t look like improving.

Perhaps all is not lost for the 26-year-old. The Turkish window remains open until Friday which gives Wilcox time to reconsider. Or at least explain to Malacia exactly what he is expected to do for the next four months because he won’t be playing.

Harvey Elliott

Elliott also finds himself stranded at the mercy of officials making the decisions with priorities above what’s best for the player.

The England Under-21 star will remain at Villa Park despite no reasonable prospect of being used by Unai Emery. The Villa boss knows Elliott is three appearances away from triggering a £35million permanent transfer which Emery has no intention of facilitating.

Liverpool don’t want him back – it’s bad enough that they won’t get the fee they reasonably budgeted for last summer, but they certainly don’t want to be liable for his wages too.

And because he played a single minute for the Reds in August, Elliott cannot go anywhere else in Europe.

It’s not an unreasonable rule and though it seems unfair on Elliott, the midfielder has been stiffed by his clubs more than the regulations.

He could go further afield, like the MLS, but at the end of a season in which Elliott intended to kick on, perhaps even force his way into England’s World Cup squad, the 21-year-old will be out of sight and out of Thomas Tuchel’s mind.

Jean-Philippe Mateta

Is there a bigger January loser than Mateta?

At the turn of the year, especially after Marc Guehi departed and Oliver Glasner really saw his arse, the Palace striker was probably buzzing at his options to move on and up.

Even as he entered the last weekend of the window, Mateta would have been relishing a move to Milan: from Selhurst to the San Siro; from the Premier League nether regions to a Serie A title race.

Then a Milanese medic took a look at his knee. Now not only is Mateta stuck somewhere he had already mentally checked out of, but he could also be left stranded on the sidelines for the rest of the season.

Mateta has been playing through a knee injury which everyone now knows requires surgery. With Palace having signed his replacement, it makes sense to go under the knife now in time for the club and player to seek another deal in the summer. Ideally with a small window at the end of the season for Mateta to prove he’s fixed.

Dwight McNeil

Palace might have been blindsided by Mateta’s medical woes. But we still await their excuse for leaving McNeil high and dry on deadline day.

The Everton winger was all set to join Palace, with a £20million deal agreed, medical done and deal sheet submitted. Then, nothing.

Everton sources suggest they did their bit but Palace failed to complete the rest of the paperwork and just decided not to bother.

McNeil’s camp were rather more happy to go on the record, the 26-year-old’s partner taking to Instagram to bemoan the ‘cruelty’ of it all, revealing Palace’s actions had left the player in tears and at ‘the lowest point in his career’.