5 players who could secure a free move this January

#4 Branislav Ivanovic

Ivanovic has been frozen out of the first team at Chelsea

Struggling for game time at Stamford Bridge, and with his current deal up at the end of the 2016/17 season, the Chelsea star could well be given the nudge as early as January.

According to Goal.com, Barcelona are planning to swoop for the 32-year-old as a ‘stop-gap’ option and it’s easy to imagine why the Serbia international would jump at the chance to join the Spanish La Liga champions, and one of the best teams in the world. He would add great strength to their suspect back-line and it could be one of the best moves of the transfer window.

It all depends whether Luis Enrique will want to wait until the summer to snap him up because by then although he will be available on a Bosman, he’ll also be free to negotiate the best deal with whoever comes offering him a contract – and there would be so many suitors.

At the moment, he’s simply costing the Blues money on the sideline and is clearly not part of Antonio Conte’s plans so Roman Abramovich would obviously prefer to get some cash for him. As for the player himself, he can use January as the opportunity to secure a pre-contract agreement, and if the move is on the table he'd be wise to go with the Blaugrana.