Ranking the 10 most pointless loans this season after Liverpool and Arsenal’s double mishaps | OneFootball

Loan moves are designed to give developing players the platform to play more football. Or tee up an unwanted squad man for a permanent departure further down the line.

Sometimes a loan is a last resort for a club that can’t get a player off their books (hello, Jadon Sancho), but even in those cases, you’d expect the club taking them away to have some kind of use for them.

But no explanation is working for these failed moves, some unfortunate and others just bizarre to begin with.

We’ve ranked the 10 most pointless loan moves involving Premier League clubs this season.

10) Kostas Tsimikas (Liverpool to Roma)

Liverpool had no use for Tsimikas after the signing of Milos Kerkez and the decision to keep Andy Robertson for one final season, and thus shipped the Greece international off to Roma just before the deadline.

Over in the Italian capital, there were doubts over whether Tsimikas would be able to earn the starting berth over Angelino, one of Roma’s best players the season before.

As it happens, Angelino has been unavailable for most of the season and Tsimikas still hasn’t been able to nail down the starting left-back role, usually being overlooked for Brazil international Wesley, who’s naturally a right-back.

Tsimikas has still managed to put together 25 appearances for Roma, but has only started six Serie A matches.

Given Robertson’s upcoming departure, he may yet get a chance to put this season behind him and see out one last year as a back-up at Liverpool.

But the 2025/26 season will go down as one in which he swapped one bench for another. Rome’s nice, mind.

9) Reiss Nelson (Arsenal to Brentford)

Now 26, Nelson is at an age where he really should be settling down at a new club that’s not Arsenal, who have progressed much more rapidly than him  since his emergence from the academy.

Injuries haven’t helped his development and have been to blame for some of his issues since joining Brentford on deadline day in September.

The winger hasn’t started a league game during his loan spell, only making 13 appearances in all competitions.

He finally made his first goal contribution in the league for Brentford with an assist in their loss to Manchester United on Monday.

But Nelson will enter the final year of his Arsenal career this summer none the wiser about where his long-term future lies.

8) Karl Hein (Arsenal to Werder Bremen)

Similarly to Nelson, the thought of a long-term future back at Arsenal was already fading by the time they sent him to Werder Bremen.

The loan move was arranged to take the Estonian goalkeeper up to the end of his contract with his parent club, where he had been third choice a couple of years before.

Hein made 32 appearances for Real Valladolid on loan last season, but was only able to play twice for Werder Bremen – once in September and once in October – before his season ended early in March due to injury.

There was an option to buy in the loan deal and Werder seemed pleased enough with his efforts as a back-up goalkeeper, but he has lost any momentum he was building up in Spain as his next challenge awaits.

7) Claudio Echeverri (Manchester City to Bayer Leverkusen)

City faced a dilemma over where to send Echeverri this summer when Roma tried landing him on loan with an option to buy, but Bayer Leverkusen showed a willingness to take him without an option.

That was more appealing to City, who didn’t want to lose control of the attacking midfielder’s future. Yet they could not have foreseen what was about to happen in Germany.

Erik ten Hag was sacked by Leverkusen less than two weeks after Echeverri’s arrival, and just two games into the youngster’s loan spell.

Echeverri struggled to find a place under Ten Hag’s successor, Kasper Hjulmand, and his loan was terminated after just one start among 11 appearances.

City sent him to sister club Girona instead, which made you wonder why they didn’t just do that in the first place.

6) Aaron Anselmino (Chelsea to Strasbourg)

After debuting for Chelsea at the Club World Cup, Anselmino spent the first half of this season with Borussia Dortmund, where he was beginning to establish himself.

So encouraged were the German club that talk quickly turned to how they might be able to buy him from Chelsea, which the Blues did not welcome

So Chelsea broke off Anselmino’s loan with Dortmund (against his will) and sent him to sister club Strasbourg instead.

Affected by injuries, the centre-back has only played three times since the switch, which seems to have ruined his momentum.

Dortmund never even had an option to buy Anselmino, so Chelsea took their ball(er) home out of spite rather than necessity.

5) Christantus Uche (Getafe to Crystal Palace)

A clause in Uche’s loan from Getafe to Crystal Palace obliges the Eagles to buy him if he starts 10 Premier League games, but that won’t be happening; he hasn’t started any.

Four goals in his debut La Liga season and one on the opening day of this season earned him the move on deadline day, but Oliver Glasner has never been convinced of his best position.

Palace promptly spent £43m on Jorgen Strand Larsen in January to push Uche further down the striker pecking order. The Nigerian was subsequently cut from their Conference League squad despite scoring in their last two league phase games.

Uche has come off the bench 14 times in the Premier League but is yet to open his goalscoring account. His only 90-minute outings have been against Shelbourne in the Conference League and in the famous Macclesfield defeat in the FA Cup.

The Nigeria international is now destined to return to Getafe, who would welcome him back into their squad but will explore a sale.

4) Jahmai Simpson-Pusey (Manchester City to Celtic)

Simpson-Pusey only made one league appearance for Celtic while on loan from City over the first half of the season, often being left out of the squad entirely.

Celtic were already content enough with their centre-back options before bringing in Simpson-Pusey and he was effectively left to rot.

The deal was cancelled in January so he could move on loan to FC Koln instead, where he has found more gametime. It would have been hard not to.

3) Igor Julio (Brighton to West Ham)

Brighton defender Igor was the subject of a tug of war towards the end of the summer, being targeted by Crystal Palace as someone who could have unlocked Marc Guehi’s failed move to Liverpool.

But West Ham won the race for the Brazilian. They needn’t have bothered, since they only used him four times.

His last appearance was in November before he was sent back to Brighton in January. He hasn’t played since.

2) Facundo Buonanotte (Brighton to Chelsea)

While it’s not unusual for Chelsea to stockpile young prospects, it always felt hard to envision where Buonanotte would get meaningful gametime in their attacking midfield department.

Which made it all the more amusing when Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler claimed: “This is a great opportunity for Facundo to play regular Premier League and Champions League football this season and further his development.”

Hmm. Buonanotte wasn’t even included in Chelsea’s original Champions League squad – he was later added in September after Dario Essugo’s injury – and managed to play just once in the Premier League for the Blues before the deal was terminated in January.

Buonanotte had previously been the subject of interest from Leeds United before choosing Chelsea. After some reconsideration, he went to Leeds instead in January, but even that hasn’t worked out too well for him.

He has only played three times so far for Leeds, which is even less than he managed overall for Chelsea.

But the bizarre way his move to Chelsea was framed – and how it predictably unfolded – would take some beating.

1) Harvey Elliott (Liverpool to Aston Villa)

No loan deal has drawn as much attention for the wrong reasons as Elliott’s ill-fated spell at Aston Villa this season.

Elliott has effectively been stuck in limbo due to a clause that would force Villa to pay Liverpool £35m to buy him upon reaching 10 league appearances.

Not everyone at Villa was aligned on the late swoop for Elliott and their reluctance to go through with a permanent deal has seen him pay the price.

Elliott has only started one league game for Villa, coming on as a sub in just three more.

It was an emotional decision for him to leave Liverpool in the first place, but he did so with the intention of bettering his career with more regular gametime. The opposite has happened.

Liverpool showed no interest in recalling Elliott in January, nor did the player himself entertain an MLS move that would have represented one of his only available get-out options.

Thus, the midfielder will need to find a new solution in the summer after a wasted year, which might have dented his transfer value too.