Frozen out: Ranking all 20 Premier League clubs by the size of their unwanted Bomb Squad | OneFootball

Eric Dier, Rob Holding and Mason Greenwood have no future at their clubs

Most clubs start the season with a bomb squad. The players they no longer want or need and are desperate to get rid of before the transfer window slams shut. Or failing that before the transfer window in Turkey slams shut. Or these days, also Saudi Arabia.

Who’s in these bomb squads, then? Well, we’ve tried to be fair. These are the players who have yet to make even a Premier League bench this season, but we’re not counting third or fourth-choice keepers, because they are by definition still doing precisely their intended job even if not making a Premier League bench.

Injured players don’t count either, obviously, and nor do new signings who may be being slowly integrated into a squad but can in no sense really be said to be ‘frozen out’ when they’ve literally just turned up. Younglings are also excluded unless they’ve played an eye-catching amount of football and are now being shunned.

Crystal Palace – 0

Injuries are keeping your Michael Olises, your Nathan Fergusons and the Will Hugheses of this world out of Palace contention. Only youngsters and keepers haven’t even made the bench this season, although Vicente Guaita genuinely is frozen out – self-frozen, really, having had a huff in pre-season – and heading off to Celta Vigo.

Sheffield United – 0

It’s not a big squad.

West Ham – 0

Ins rather than outs are the order of the day at West Ham.

Bournemouth – 1 Jamal Lowe

Bournemouth have a whole gang of players who haven’t been involved this season but all of those are due at least in part to injury problems with Ryan Fredericks, Adam Smith, Marcus Tavernier, Emiliano Marcondes and Dango Ouattara all awaiting their chance to impress the new manager. The one player fully on the outside looking in is Jamal Lowe, who spent the second half of last season at QPR, has been linked with Hibs and is currently training with the development squad.

Brighton – 1 Andi Zeqiri

Birmingham City are interested in striker Andi Zeqiri, whose 18 goals in 50 games on loan at Basel last season haven’t got him any further up the pecking order at the Amex.

Liverpool – 1 Nat Phillips

Celtic for a season-long loan appears to be the next chapter in the Nat Phillips Story. And what a story it is, by the way.

Manchester City – 1 Joao Cancelo

Dragging on, isn’t it? Come on, Barca. Pull your finger out.

Brentford – 2 Mads Bech Sorensen, Charlie Goode

Mads Bech Sorensen went to Nice on loan last season, but that deal was cut short in January by the French club who sent the Dane back without having used him for a single minute in Ligue 1. His reward for this was an extended Brentford contract and a new loan at Groningen. He did at least play some games in the Eredivisie, but hasn’t had a look-in on his return to Brentford. Charlie Goode spent the second half of last season on loan at Blackpool, where injuries rather scuppered things for him.

Burnley – 2 Charlie Taylor, Samuel Bastien

Leeds have been keen on bringing Charlie Taylor back to Elland Road on loan this summer, but Burnley will only let him go if they have a replacement. Caveat for Burnley players here, of course, is that they’ve had only two league games rather than three so far and Taylor did play a full 90 minutes of Carabao against Forest this week. Samuel Bastien did not make the match-day squad even in the Carabao, and could return to Belgium if a buyer can be found.

Chelsea – 2 Malang Sarr, Callum Hudson-Odoi

Forest and Fulham are currently arguing over Malang Sarr, with Forest also keen on Callum Hudson-Odoi as their proven Premier League survival policy of just signing all of the footballers shows no sign of abating. At least the Romelu Lukaku saga is over for another year as he reunites with Jose Mourinho for a third time at Roma. A glutton for punishment.

Everton – 2 Jean-Philippe Gbamin, Demarai Gray

Imagine not being able to get a game for this Everton side. Mortifying. Jean-Philippe Gbamin could be off to Cadiz while Demarai Gray apparently has a choice between Fulham or Saudi Arabia.

Wolves – 2 Daniel Podence, Bruno Jordao

Wolves and Daniel Podence remain on “a different page” according to manager Gary O’Neil. “At the moment the squad’s ambition and where we’re trying to get to and Daniel’s aren’t aligned. So at this moment it’s best we focus on our own goals,” said O’Neil with some slightly unfortunate phrasing around the words ‘own goals’ there. Bruno Jordao, meanwhile, intends to fight for his place at Wolves but appears to be losing that fight on early-season evidence.

Aston Villa – 3 Kortney Hause, Leander Dendoncker, Keinan Davis

Kortney Hause couldn’t get in Watford’s squad last season – playing just three games in the Championship during his loan spell – and his is now very much a career at a crossroads. None of the paths appears to be marked ‘playing for Aston Villa’ despite the injury problems they have at the back. Villa have been willing to listen to offers for Leander Dendoncker all summer. We must assume, then, that no such offers have been forthcoming. Hull and Swansea are keen on Keinan Davis, with £2m likely to be enough to get that deal through for someone.

Anthony Knockaert remains a Fulham player in name only, having last played for the club when making an appearance off the bench in a 4-1 FA Cup defeat to Manchester City in February 2022. Spent the second half of last season on an underwhelming loan at Huddersfield and is currently without minutes, a squad number or even tangible links to suggest he’s about to pop up anywhere else. By Friday night, though, someone will surely have taken a punt on the former Brighton man. Someone at the arse end of the Championship, we’d imagine. Terence Kongolo’s future seems similarly Sky Bet and Tyrese Francois could end up anywhere but it’s unlikely, sadly for the Aussie, to be anywhere close to a Fulham first-team matchday squad.

Manchester United – 3 Eric Bailly, Donny van de Beek, Mason Greenwood

Eric Bailly is so forgotten that he doesn’t even get mentioned in Harry Maguire dispatches these days. Anyway, at various points this summer he’s been linked with Fulham, Saudi Arabia and Besiktas – which is eclectic – but he’s still technically a Manchester United footballer. Donny van de Beek has lots of loan options but doesn’t seem particularly sold on any of them. Mason Greenwood you all know about.

Newcastle – 3 Jeff Hendrick, Paul Dummett, Isaac Hayden

Leeds, Sheffield Wednesday and West Brom fancy a bit of Jeff Hendrick. Paul Dummett is a curious case, he’s not so much frozen out as willingly adopting a sort of mascot role having signed a new contract despite not playing a minute of Premier League football last season. It’s nice, really. Isaac Hayden was all set to join Luton on loan, but that deal collapsed.

Luton – 4 Admiral Muskwe, Glen Rea, Dion Pereira, Louie Watson

Rotherham lead the chase for Admiral Muskwe, who barely figured in the Championship and isn’t about to do so in the Premier League. Glen Rea and Dion Pereira have been deemed surplus to requirements by Rob Edwards.

Nottingham Forest – 4 Harry Arter, Jonjo Shelvey, Jonathan Panzo, Emmanuel Dennis

That contract clause handing Harry Arter an extension after Forest’s promotion has to go down as one of the worst ever bits of contract framing. He’s still at the club for another 12 months, still earning £40k a week, still hasn’t played a game for Forest since January 2021. Sheffield United have been linked with Jonjo Shelvey, as have Leeds who seem to have been linked with about 73% of the names on this feature. Swansea and Cardiff are engaged in a Wales-based squabble for Jonathan Panzo, Udinese’s long pursuit of Emmanuel Dennis appears to be nearing its conclusion.

Arsenal – 5 Nuno Tavares, Rob Holding, Cedric Soares, Albert Sambi Lokonga, Nicolas Pepe

Some of these will be shipped out in the next 48 hours, but it’s still a lot. Mikel Arteta has ‘lost faith’ in Forest-bound Nuno Tavares, Luton are interested in Rob Holding and his hair hat, Cedric Soares has been ‘attracting interest from’ and ‘on the radar of’ all manner of teams for months but is inexplicably still an Arsenal player long, long after everyone agreed this was a terrible idea while Lokonga has been linked with everyone from Brighton to Burnley to Liverpool. Nicolas Pepe? Still? Bloody hell. He’s turning down moves and running down his massive contract like a boss.

Tottenham – 5 Hugo Lloris, Eric Dier, Tanguy Ndombele, Japhet Tanganga, Sergio Reguilon

It’s a remarkable group, really, most notably for including two of Spurs’ six all-time leading appearance-makers in the Premier League. Hugo Lloris holds top spot in that particular list, while Eric Dier has only been nudged out of the top five this season by Son Heung-min. Both were part of the fabled ‘leadership group’ under previous regimes, neither has any future in the current one, neither appear any closer to exits that have appeared inevitable yet still elusive. Spurs really don’t want either of them around clogging up the squad and wage bill, but might be stuck with them.

There are amusing reports of Bayern being keen on Dier, which looks like a classic case of buying a mediocre player from the same country as a brilliant one just to keep them from going all homesick and sad. Japhet Tanganga was heading to Torino before that fell through, but has other options; unfortunately for Tanganga, Everton is the main one. Fulham and Manchester United have looked at Sergio Reguilon, while Inter appear to be Tanguy Ndombele’s likeliest next destination. Spurs are also still actively looking to move on Davinson Sanchez and Giovani Lo Celso, who both .