What a move in the January transfer window is really like for a player

"The final days of a transfer window are no fun for a professional footballer. When you know that you might be changing clubs, those days and hours are full of uncertainty, confusion, selfishness and, in some cases, betrayal. Your whole world can be turned upside down on the whim of a manager or director, but that's the harsh reality of the business of football."

"But no deal materialized and I was back at City the next day, saying hello to everybody again. I knew that my prospects of playing for the first team were going to be limited, and that I might be in the same situation six months later when the January window opened. And so it proved. When January came around, Queens Park Rangers came in for me late in the window."

Nedum Onuoha spent 14 Premier League seasons with Manchester City, Sunderland and Queens Park Rangers before ending his playing career at MLS side Real Salt Lake. He joined ESPN in 2020, appeared on ESPN FC and became ESPN's lead studio pundit in England. Transfer deadline periods generate uncertainty, confusion, selfishness and betrayal for professional players. Onuoha emptied his locker on the August 2011 deadline expecting to leave Manchester City, but no deal materialized and he returned the next day. In January, Queens Park Rangers signed him late in the window under manager Mark Hughes as they sought to avoid relegation, while Onuoha felt out of the first-team picture at City under Roberto Mancini and needed playing time.

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