Next season is ludicrously nearby now, you know. But there is still business to attend to for everyone. Even those who’ve done shrewd work with their incomings will have to sort the other side of the ledger. And that’s where these lads come in. One player for each Premier League club who is still there despite, for whatever reason, really needing not to be…
Arsenal – Hector Bellerin
The hipster footballer yer da loves to hate – did you know he’s a bloody vegan as well? – appears to have run his race at Arsenal but having returned from a suitably enigmatic loan spell at Real Betis is still technically a Gooner. Hasn’t featured in the Premier League since May 2021, when an injury to Calum Chambers – himself no longer at Arsenal – afforded a 22-minute cameo against Chelsea. Betis would very much like to sign Bellerin, who isn’t a full in-the-wilderness outcast having been taken along for Arsenal’s US tour, but other dominoes need to fall first. Most notably, Nottingham Forest signing Alex Moreno from Betis.
Aston Villa – Frederic Guilbert
Thanks to the rona-delayed conclusion of the 19/20 season it’s almost exactly two years since Guilbert’s last Premier League appearance on the final day of that elongated season on July 26. Spent the first half of the 20/21 season either injured or unused on the bench before heading to Strasbourg on an initial six-month loan in January 21 which he enjoyed so much he hung around for a whole other year. Currently on tour with Villa in Oz and could yet spend the final year of his contract as Matty Cash’s understudy.
Brentford – Joel Valencia
Hasn’t played for Brentford since their failure to reach the Premier League via the play-offs two years ago. Also hasn’t scored a goal since his solitary Brentford strike in the 2019/20 season, despite loan spells at Legia Warsaw and Alcorcon. Admittedly he only started six games for Alcorcon but when ‘only started six games for a Spanish second division side’ is a key plank of the case for the defence you’re already struggling. Now entering the final year of his Brentford contract and here’s a hot take for you: we don’t think he’s getting another one.
Bournemouth – Junior Stanislas
Injuries kept the 32-year-old to a bit-part role in the promotion campaign – he wasn’t involved at all after the new year – and it’s very hard to see how even with the Cherries’ slim pickings on the transfer front thus far how he manages…
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