Kobbie Mainoo, Ethan Nwaneri and 12 Premier League players who most NEED a January transfer

In case you've been living under a rock for the last six months, Kobbie Mainoo wants to leave Manchester United. Not necessarily in the long term, but enough that it's no secret he's willing to go out on loan.

The young midfielder, who started for England in the Euro 2024 final, has played less than 14 percent of available Premier League minutes this term, despite the Red Devils hardly stumbling into a winning formula of any kind (as best demonstrated by the longevity of The United Strand's gimmick). He also foresaw such a drought coming having tried to force a move at the back-end of the summer transfer window too.

The saga came to a head in mid-December when the academy graduate's brother wore a T-shirt with the phrase 'FREE KOBBIE MAINOO' emblazoned across it at Old Trafford. Though head coach Ruben Amorim insisted this was not necessarily the player's fault, it's hard to imagine that went down well with those inside the club.

Amorim has claimed he has no personal issue with Mainoo and has backed him to be the face of the club for years to come. "Kobbie Mainoo will have the opportunity, he has all the time," he said. "He played in different positions - we talked about the position of Casemiro, he can do that. If you play with a three, he can play like we did in the last game with the position of Mason Mount, he can play there. He is going to be the future of Manchester United, that is my feeling, he just needs to wait for his chance and everything can change in football in two days."

Regardless, there's clearly a talented player in Mainoo waiting to spring back into the spotlight immediately. He is only 20, sure, but he is obviously good enough to be playing regularly at the top level, be that with United or elsewhere.

A Premier League great such as Raheem Sterling hasn't deserved the shoddy treatment he's received this season. Cast aside by Chelsea and sent to train with the 'bomb squad', he hasn't played a competitive minute of football since the expiry of his loan to Arsenal at the end of 2024-25.

The 82-time England international, who turned 31 in December but wasn't wished a public 'happy birthday' by his club, is said to be holding out for a move close to his family base around London, which rules out many of the suitors he could potentially have further afield. The likes of Fulham and Crystal Palace have been touted as potential destinations before but those links have since gone cold.

Sterling's career should never have come to this, but there may not be an end in sight to this spell if he is unable to secure a move as soon as possible.

It's a controversial pick up next. Sure, Omar Marmoush has done little wrong ever since signing for Manchester City 12 months ago, but he's somehow dropped way down the pecking order at the Etihad Stadium despite his obvious talent.

The Egyptian scored seven goals in 16 Premier League games last term after joining from Eintracht Frankfurt, including a ridiculous effort from 25 yards against Bournemouth, though his rhythm has been severely disrupted in recent months by injuries and competition for places, with his only strike this season coming in a Carabao Cup win at Championship side Swansea.

It's unlikely that City would allow Marmoush to leave mid-title challenge unless he kicked up a fuss, especially with Savinho and Oscar Bobb seemingly seen as the dispensable options ahead of Antoine Semenyo's arrival, though given how many of Europe's top sides are in need of attacking reinforcements, it's a stance the 26-year-old should consider taking.

Should Arsenal listen to permanent offers for Ethan Nwaneri? Absolutely not. Should Nwaneri look to leave the Gunners for good? Absolutely not. He does, however, need more minutes than he's currently getting.

Even despite the north Londoners battling another injury crisis, Nwaneri has been limited to merely 165 Premier League minutes and wasn't even in the matchday squad for Tuesday's hammering of Aston Villa. The teenage sensation reached nine goals in 37 matches across all competitions last season, but has found the net only once so far this term.

With Kai Havertz, Gabriel Jesus and Martin Odegaard all returning to the fold, Nwaneri is unlikely to feature much in any of his preferred positions down the stretch of the season. Many of the Premier League's mid-table pack could do with a versatile goal threat just chomping at the bit to impress.

One of the more obvious names on this list, Brennan Johnson is closing in on an exit from Tottenham and doesn't seem to be short of options. Crystal Palace started the bidding war at £35m, with other sides such as Bournemouth and Everton weighing up their own moves.

The Welshman was a favourite under former Spurs boss Ange Postecoglou for his penchant for popping up at the back post to score tap ins, with none more famous than his winner in the Europa League final against Manchester United last May. Thomas Frank spent several transfer windows trying to sign Johnson when he was in charge at Brentford, though hasn't heavily leant on the winger now he's finally got his hands on him.

Moreover, Tottenham are in the market for another attacker and needed to make room somewhere. Selling Johnson at that price, even at a loss having bought him for £50m from Nottingham Forest, feels like a no-brainer of a decision.

James Trafford's dream homecoming has turned into a bit of a nightmare. He was heralded as Manchester City's No.1 of a new era, the long-term replacement for Ederson between the sticks. Then they signed Gianluigi Donnarumma from Paris Saint-Germain on deadline day.

It didn't help that Trafford made an error in one of his rare Premier League outings at the start of the season, gifting Tottenham their second goal in City's 2-0 loss at the Etihad Stadium. Nevertheless, his stock remains high and is widely regarded as a future England goalkeeper.

The Daily Mail reported at the start of December that Trafford, who kept a whopping 30 clean sheets in his final season for Burnley, is already eyeing a move, and given the significant roadblock to minutes at City, he should be doing all he can to get that done in January.

Remember Tyrell Malacia? You'd be forgiven for thinking he'd already left Manchester United given the hell he's been through since what was a pretty routine debut season at Old Trafford.

Signed during Erik ten Hag's first summer as competition for Luke Shaw, the Dutchman made a decent enough account of himself during 39 appearances throughout 2022-23. Then he missed 500 days with a knee injury and complications from it.

Malacia has played senior minutes under Ruben Amorim both before and after a loan to PSV Eindhoven during the second half of 2024-25, though his standing as a member of United's 'bomb squad' last summer alongside the likes of Marcus Rashford and Antony means he's still surplus to requirements. It's probably best for all parties to move on.

Three years ago, James Ward-Prowse moved to within an inch of history. He took his tally of free-kicks scored in the Premier League to 17, only one fewer than all-time record holder David Beckham.

It felt inevitable that Ward-Prowse would at least match Beckham's total, but he hasn't scored from one since. In that time, his boyhood side, Southampton, have been relegated, he's joined West Ham for £30m, left on loan to Nottingham Forest, been frozen out under Nuno Espirito Santo, returned to West Ham and been frozen out under Nuno again. Rough.

Someone with a wicked delivery like Ward-Prowse really ought to be more of a weapon in the era of set-piece domination. Surely another team will take a chance on him in January.

Congratulations to you, reader. You have played as many minutes for Tottenham this season as Yves Bissouma, one of the heroes of last year's Europa League triumph.

How has it come to this? Well, Bissouma did himself no favours when, for a second year running, he was ruled out of Spurs' season-opener on disciplinary grounds. A move to Turkish giants Galatasaray then fell through and he has only recently recovered from knee surgery. Even if he were fit, he'd likely have been frozen out again following a second nitrous oxide scandal.

Though Bissouma's contract is up in June, Spurs are considering triggering the one-year option in his deal to preserve his value for a sale. The club's willingness to sell means he could be available for a cut-price fee, though that's probably what Tottenham thought when they snapped him up for £25m from Brighton in 2022.

Kalvin Phillips started the Euro 2020 final for England. He even got a big-money move before his midfield partner that night, Declan Rice. All these years later, one of them is among the world's best players and the other can barely get a place in the matchday squad for his club.

The fall of Phillips, who swapped Leeds for Manchester City in 2022, has been stark. He's only represented Pep Guardiola's side 32 times in all competitions, with exactly half of those coming in the Premier League. Loans to West Ham and Ipswich did little to rebuild his value.

That said, there must be a team who will talk themselves into signing Phillips this month. There are worse players out there who will garner more interest.

While Sterling is the A-list name headlining Chelsea's 'bomb squad', Axel Disasi is the forgotten man. This is someone who played in the 2022 World Cup final, though his only memorable moment for the Blues came when he scored an own goal from about 30 yards against a Leicester team ironically managed by Enzo Maresca.

Disasi wasn't necessarily terrible during a loan at Aston Villa last season, helping them give PSG trouble on a run to the Champions League quarter-finals, but there was clearly a severe shortage of suitors over the summer. Even with Chelsea in need of some leadership in defence, it's obvious he's been earmarked for a transfer rather than a return.

When asked in October about the 'bomb squad', Maresca said: "They are Chelsea players because they have a contract with the club," the Blues boss said. "In this moment, they are still training apart. The idea is to continue in exactly the same way. Since we started the season, I didn't see one of them. I didn't see Renato [Veiga], I didn't see Axel, I didn't see Raheem because they train at a different time on a different pitch. I haven't seen them since we started the season."

Pressed on whether any could return, the Italian was blunt: "With us? No."

We started at Manchester United, it's only right to end at Manchester United. Joshua Zirkzee has failed to live up to his £36.5m price tag having scored only nine times in 62 games for the Red Devils, while his inability to hold up the ball has made him an easy target for Premier League defenders.

Even a goal - a massively deflected one at that, but a goal nonetheless - in the first half of Tuesday's horrendous draw to three-point Wolves wasn't enough to keep Zirkzee from being subbed at the break by Ruben Amorim, with sections of Old Trafford even revelling in the decision to hook the striker. What made matters worse was the head coach essentially admitting United were more of a goal threat without striker Zirkzee on the pitch.

"We were running around trying to recover the ball," Amorim explained. "They overload with a lot of midfielders and we were struggling with that and sometimes you can attack better with less strikers. We played with three strikers, [Matheus] Cunha, Josh and [Benjamin] Sesko, and sometimes it is not the best thing to attack well."

A return to Serie A with Roma is in the works, with Zirkzee reportedly intent on ending his United nightmare, but the club will only sanction his exit once players return from either injury or, in the cases of Bryan Mbeumo and Amad Diallo, the Africa Cup of Nations.