With our Prem position all but settled, barring an epic collapse from Man City, we have to look ahead to the summer transfer window. We’ll have to clear out quite a lot of players, and there’s no room for misty-eyed sentimentalism, no room for nostaglia, no room for myopic dreaming. In this post, we looked at first teamers who might find themselves surplus to requirements. In today’s post, we look at fringe players who’ve been on loan to see who among them we should, if possible, jettison.

Folarin Balogun
He’s flattered to deceive, what with his 19 goals in 34 appearances, scoring 0.62 goals per 90. That rate of return would surely see him lead the line, would it not? Hold that thought: Alexandre Lacazette tops Balogun with 25 goals in 32 appearances, scoring 0.84 goals per 90. This only shows that it’s difficult to compare players’ performances in different leagues; Lacazette was at best a Giroud-lite who couldn’t finish 90 minutes. If we can sell Balogun, so much the better for us.

Nicolas Pépé
Here is one that might be pressing, given his age, his wages, and his fee. We’ll never recoup the £72m fee we paid to get him, but it might be nice to get his £140k weekly wages off the books. His contract expires June 2024, so we may just find ourselves on the hook for the bulk of his wages for the next year. After that, thankfully, he’ll be off the books. This one was Raul Sanllehi’s doing, may he rot in hell or at least in its vestibule.

Albert Sambi Lokonga
He’s a project but one whom Arteta tried to integrate into the first team. The loan to Palace might have born fruit if Patrick Vieira had been given more time to tutor the Belgian. We paid £18m to bring him in, and it’s hard to see him justifying that fee. If we can move him on, this might just be best for all involved. His contract comes up this summer, and it’s hard to see us working all that hard to keep him.

Nuno Tavares
LIke Balogun, he’s done quite well for himself while on loan. However, that might actually work against him. Confidence was never the issue; overconfidence was. Playing like a latter-day Ashley Cole in Ligue 1 might do wonders for his confidence, but that might only work against him. With a contract expiring this summer, this one may end up just being water under a bridge.

Rob Holding
On one hand, I really should have included Holdinho in that previous post about those with a sniff at first-team action. However, the emergence of Kiwior has shown just how far down the pecking-order Holding has fallen. To be displaced from the XI by a 23 year old new to the Prem shines a harsh light on Holding’s quality. His contract expires next summer; it’s hard to see him earning any playing time next season given Kiwior’s form, Saliba’s return to fitness, and the the signing of another CB.

That’s where we’ll leave things for this installment. Our next one will shine a harsher light on those even further from first-team action. There”ll be a mix of good news and bad, kind of like a shot of Malort followed by a beer chaser. For as exciting as it might be to contemplate the signing of Rice or Caicedo or Osimhein, we do have to have a spring cleaning first or at least along the way.