5 Premier League players who need a loan move in January

#2 Matteo Darmian

Matteo Darmian started Man United's first Premier League game but hasn't played since

Italian full-back Matteo Darmian has felt like the odd man out at Manchester United for some time now – essentially dating back to the beginning of Jose Mourinho’s second season at Old Trafford – and despite playing the full 90 minutes in United’s first league game against Leicester back in August, he’s once again gone missing in action for the Red Devils, having not kicked a ball since.

Current reports suggest that despite his lack of game time, Jose Mourinho wants to keep Darmian at Old Trafford to act as cover for his first choice full-backs, but at 28 years old the Italian international simply needs far more than that for his career to progress.

A permanent move – most likely back to Serie A – was mooted in the summer but never panned out, and while the same has been spoken about for January, with United not wanting him to leave for a smaller fee, that could prove impossible. So why not attempt to get a loan move back to Italy instead?

Napoli were apparently his closest suitors in the summer, and with the Italian club still hoping to progress in the Champions League, they could do worse than to sign a player who was once compared to Paolo Maldini with a view to making his move permanent in the summer of 2019.