It’s always a big decision for a club to make when it comes to bringing a player back who was out on loan.
WIth younger players it makes a lot of sense because they should come back with more experience, but older players are a different proposition.
If someone is near the age of 30 and struggled to make an impact before, will anything have changed during a loan spell to a different country?
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That’s something that Man United will need to decide with Chris Smalling, while Arsenal could also face that choice with Henrikh Mkhitaryan. Neither were considered important members of the team before they left, so it would be a surprise to see them come back and challenge for a place.
According to Sky Sports, the Roma manager Paulo Fonseca wants to sign both on a permanent deal, so this could be the ideal chance for both clubs to get some money for out of favour players.
There doesn’t seem to be any indication that clauses were included in either loan deal which allowed Roma to sign them, so it sounds like they will need to agree a fee.
It’s been fascinating to see Smalling play abroad to see how he adapted to a new culture and style of play, and there’s even a chance he might get back into the England team.
It does seem unlikely that United would want to bring him back, but that could add some extra pounds onto his eventual fee.