The following five players all have one thing in common; that patience is wearing thin and opportunities are fast running out to prove their future lies in the English top-flight.
For each of them, 2023/24 is a career-defining season.
Neal Maupay (Everton)
Unless the 27-year-old forward gets anywhere close to double figures this term the Championship surely awaits, and likely not even with Everton whose Premier League odds suggest are heading in the same direction.
Bought for a nominal fee last summer to bolster the Toffees’ slender attacking options, Maupay has been pitched in as their main goal-scoring outlet in light of Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s injury woes and to say this specialist second striker has struggled in a reconfigured role would be an understatement.
Since heading to Merseyside, the former French under 21 international has scored precisely once in 23 hours of football.
Tom Davies (Sheffield United)
Five years ago, the midfielder was named by the CIES Football Observatory as the seventh most promising young player in the world. A few months after this lavish estimation, Davies became Everton’s youngest ever captain, handed the armband for a League Cup clash.
It is fair to say, his standing has dipped since with steadily decreasing appearances in blue leaving him a peripheral figure at Goodison.
A move to newly promoted Sheffield United can be viewed as a fresh start and as importantly a chance to claim regular first-team football again.
Djed Spence (Spurs, for now)
By the time you read this, the 23-year-old full-back may already have returned to the Championship with Leeds reportedly keen on resurrecting a career that has flat-lined in north London.
Sensational throughout a season-long loan at Nottingham Forest in 2021/22, Spence was promptly snapped up for £20m by Tottenham but in defence of the defender he has never really been given a proper chance to excel at the highest level, making just a handful of outings down Spurs’ right.
By all accounts, the player is holding tight, hoping that a Premier League club comes calling.
If they do, he must grab his second-chance with both hands.
Matheus Cunha (Wolves)
According to the football betting and the opinion of most, Wolves have a tough season ahead, spent firmly in the relegation mix, and though there are extenuating circumstances for their decline - namely FFP complications that have financially hamstrung the club - sustained profligacy in front of goal has hardly helped their cause.
Last season, the Black Country side had the lowest chance conversion rate in the top-flight by some distance and just two games into this term, they have already racked up a remarkable 39 shots. From this plethora of chances, they have scored only once.
At least some of the blame must be fixed on their misfiring Brazilian, who flattered to deceive last year and is showing similarly wasteful tendencies this time out. There’s an excellent player in there for sure. He just needs to show it.
Antony (Manchester United)
It is admittedly a touch ridiculous to suggest that a player still acclimatising to English football is already sipping energy drinks in the Premier League’s last-chance saloon.
Antony though cost a substantial £90m and plays for Manchester United, and - as unfair as it is - them’s the rules.
The odd glimpse of magic didn’t cut it last season and further inconsistency will quickly have the Brazilian labelled as a player who shines in Europe’s inferior leagues, but who flops elsewhere. And that will be that.
*Credit for all of the photos in this article belongs to AP Photo*
