🔟 Premier League players you definitely forgot existed | OneFootball

“Who are ya? Who are ya?”

That’s a common refrain from England’s terraces, but it’s not something you’d usually sing at your own team’s player.

Here are 10 lads who’ve been missing in action for so long that you probably wouldn’t recognise them if you fell over them.

Matty James

The former Manchester United trainee is Leicester’s longest serving player but he hasn’t played for the club since an FA Cup third round defeat to Newport County over a year ago and was left out of the 25-man Premier League squad at the start of this season.

Ben Gibson

It was only a couple of seasons ago that Gibson was being linked with an England call-up and a move to Manchester City but since joining Burnley from Middlesbrough in a club record £15m move, the 27-year-old defender has made just six appearances, with only one of them coming in the whole of this season.

Jack Colback

Believe it or not, Colback is technically still a Newcastle player but after returning from a loan spell at Nottingham Forest last season, the 30-year-old midfielder was left out of the 25-man Premier League squad and reportedly “politely declined” to be included in the club’s 2019/20 official team photo.

Winston Reid

Once the bedrock of West Ham’s defence, Reid hasn’t played a senior game for the Hammers since March 2018 due to injury. The 31-year-old New Zealander is fit again now, however, and recently featured on the bench under David Moyes. According to reports, he rejected an approach to join Charlton on loan last month.

Maarten Stekelenburg

He was once the Netherlands’ number one goalkeeper at a World Cup but 37-year-old Stekelenburg hasn’t made a first-team appearance for Everton since losing a Carabao Cup penalty shootout in October 2018. A few months before that game he signed a two-year contract extension which will finally expire at the end of the season.

Marco van Ginkel

Ah, the curious case of Marco van Ginkel. The former Dutch wonderkid originally joined Chelsea in 2013 but a series of serious injuries have seen him make just four first-team appearances for the Blues during that time. The 27-year-old returned to training before Christmas but it seems unlikely he will feature in Frank Lampard’s plans and is expected to leave when his contract expires at the end of the season.

Scott Carson

To be fair to Carson, he probably didn’t expect to play when he swapped Derby County for Manchester City last summer, and so it has proved. The 34-year-old has at least featured on the bench nine times, however, and it will be interesting to see whether Pep Guardiola takes pity and gives him a run out before the end of the season.

Oumar Niasse

As the above picture shows, Niasse has actually made a Premier League appearance very recently for Everton but his grand total for the season only adds up to a whopping 19 minutes. It seems the Senegalese striker’s days at Goodison Park are numbered and a Toffees fan site recently described the 29-year-old as “embodying everything that has been wrong at Everton in recent years”.

Tim Fosu-Mensah

Given Manchester United’s struggles in defence, Fosu-Mensah probably would have played a lot of football this season had he not undergone knee surgery last summer. The 22-year-old hasn’t pulled on a United shirt since the final day of the 2016/17 season but after spending the last two seasons on loan at Crystal Palace and Fulham respectively, he will be hoping to force his way into Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s plans once he eventually does return to full fitness.

Ravel Morrison

Remember when Sheffield United signed Morrison last summer and we all wondered whether Chris Wilder would be the manager to finally tame him? Well it turns out the former Manchester United, West Ham, Lazio and Atlas (what a list that is) player’s time at Bramall Lane was completely uneventful and he was loaned to Middlesbrough on deadline day having played just 12 minutes of Premier League football for the Blades.

What a let down.