The loan market's second act: Resurrection or risk?

Heading out on loan in search of minutes is typical for young footballers looking to play senior football. Come their early or mid-twenties, though, it is often a sign of a player looking to resurrect a faltering career. Chelsea's Benoit Badiashile (borrowed by Napoli) and Alejandro Garnacho (Aston Villa), as well as Villa's Evann Guessand (Crystal Palace), are a few Premier League players trying to inject fresh impetus into their careers with loans after falling out of favour at their parent clubs.

These loans can look like an obvious solution: a parent club will usually remove at least part of a player's wages from the books, the individual in question secures the greater game time they crave, and the team signing them brings in extra cover or a ready-made starting XI option. But it requires careful thought for these deals to work for all parties.

Why clubs hesitate to bet on someone else's problem

First, the club potentially bringing in the loanee might have obvious reservations about taking on somebody who has fallen out of favour elsewhere. “With these loans, there's a reason they haven't been playing — and it might well be a bad reason,” says a contact who used to work in recruitment for a Premier League club, speaking anonymously to protect relationships. “So you'd want to do all the due diligence you could to be sure that they're not going to be injured, or they're not going to be a problem in some other way.”

Fitness is a natural concern for those who have not played recently for their parent club, the same person adds. “If they've only done 500 minutes last season, how certain are you that they could come in and play 90 minutes twice a week?” In such circumstances, a club might be happy to share training or GPS data to alleviate that concern. If the player has been featuring for the under-21s while out of the picture at senior level, potential loan-destination teams could also look at physical data from those games.

Stylistic fit is another consideration — but the positive here, according to the former Premier League club employee, is that on-pitch factors are easier to judge once footballers reach a certain age, even if they haven't been active recently.

“Most of the time, once you hit about 24 with a player, what you see is what you get. So with those players, you'd just go back to look at when they were playing regularly. 'What type of striker is he? What formations do they play in? Does that bear any resemblance to how we play and what formation we play?' It's exactly the same as you'd do for a player that you're looking to make a permanent transfer on.”

The player's perspective: 'You want to play'

While a loan might be a cheaper option than a purchase, as there is no immediate transfer fee attached, there are still financial complications to consider — for instance, who covers what share of the player's wages. The primary concern for Nedum Onuoha, when he went on loan from Manchester City to Sunderland in August 2010 at 23, was simply securing more game time. “Essentially, you just want to play. That's the bottom line,” the former defender tells The Athletic.

For older players with families, he points out, where you're being sent might be more of a factor. “But when you're younger,” Onuoha continues, “then it's about just trying to play football because you still have the belief that you can do something great. And if somebody wants to come in for you, giving you the pitch that you're going to start, then you have two options: the people who tell you they want you, or the people who tell you they don't.”

He says that while many clubs employ loans managers to help players decide where they would fit best, their work usually focuses on youngsters looking to kick on in first-team football after coming through the academy: “For the older ones, you're essentially by yourself.”

Game time is the driver for most players who get loaned out, which is why buy-in from the manager they'll be working with is critical in making these moves a success. “Just like any signing, the manager is the most important person,” the recruitment source says, “because they have to believe in the player and they have to understand the player: who he is, what his strengths are, that he'll fit into the formation.”

When it works — and when it unravels

In January 2025, Antony went on loan to Real Betis before signing permanently six months later. For Trevoh Chalobah, a brief loan to Palace kept him playing Premier League football when he found himself temporarily out of the picture at Chelsea before his move to Como. But in other cases, the gamble has not paid off. Raheem Sterling's loan to Arsenal from Chelsea for the bulk of the 2024-25 season saw him make just seven Premier League starts over the next nine months.

One Premier League manager who has shown his willingness to bet on players carrying baggage is Villa's Unai Emery. Under him, Villa took in Marcus Rashford on loan in January 2025 after his exile from Manchester United, Jadon Sancho for the 2025-26 season, also from the Old Trafford giants, and now Garnacho, who joins from Chelsea for the coming campaign with a conditional obligation to buy at the end of it. Rather than being dissuaded by any clouds that hung over these players at past or parent clubs, according to sources with knowledge of Emery's mindset, he views them as market opportunities that might otherwise be out of Villa's reach financially and backs himself to get the best out of them.

Not all loans are equal: in addition to 'straight loans', where the player returns to the parent club after a fixed period, some come with options or obligations (sometimes conditional) to buy. It could be that a player's aim is to show his worth to his parent club, while their goal is to drum up interest for a more lucrative permanent exit.

'Who is the loan for? Is it for you or is it for them?'

Onuoha underlines the “massive” importance of having clear expectations for what happens when a loan comes to an end. “I thought I was taking a loan to come back and then be part of the plans going forward (at City), but it ended up being the exact opposite,” he says. “I had a really good loan spell there (with Sunderland). We finished top 10 in the league, which was the goal at the start of the season at Sunderland, and I really enjoyed it.”

However, he wanted to return to City and fight for a place at his boyhood club, and told then manager Roberto Mancini as much. “But then in the off-season, a couple of weeks before the season started, I was told that I had to find a new club permanently,” Onuoha says. “All of a sudden, that loan and the way it ended… it was very different to how I would then need to approach the start of the next season.”

Onuoha made one substitute appearance in the league for City in the following 2011-12 season before signing for Queens Park Rangers in January, where he went on to play for the next six years. “If you want to go and have a spark somewhere, it can be good. But then, when the loan is coming towards the end, it's a case of, 'Well, what next?'”

“To have things up in the air as the (loan) season progresses means that you're in an even weaker position, but instead of just being in a weak position at one club, you're in a weak position at two. These careers are short, relatively speaking, so you need to try and find somewhere to play.”

He adds: “But why should a club pick you? And if they do pick you on loan, why have they picked you on loan as opposed to a permanent transfer, for example? Can they afford to sign you? Is it one of those loans we've seen in the past, when a deal becomes automatic because he plays 26 games and all of a sudden you get to 24 or 25 appearances and everything slows down? Who's the loan for? Is it for you or is it for them?”

“As a player, when you realise the loan is for somebody else, that's when it's tricky. But when you know it's a loan for you, this is the best situation for you to bring your spark back.”