These guys were all heavily linked with summer exits but stuck around because asking prices weren’t met, personal terms couldn’t be agreed upon or simply because they didn’t actually want to leave. Their managers will be happy they stayed.
 
Joe Gomez
“He is a lifesaver, to be honest, that he was here, that he could play,” Jurgen Klopp said after yet another impressive display from Joe Gomez against Fulham. “People forget how important Joey was in the best years we had.”

In fairness to “people”, Klopp has made it quite easy to “forget” about Joe Gomez, using the defender to such a limited extent that it could in fact be argued that it’s him that’s been the forgetful one.
Gomez started 22 Premier League games in Liverpool’s title-winning season, but just 25 across the next three campaigns, partly due to injury, but mainly because he wasn’t fancied by the manager.
The lack of game time caught the eye of Al Ittihad, who apparently fancied a double deal for Gomez and Mohamed Salah, and Liverpool are fortunate the Saudi club interest never became more than that because we’re pretty convinced they would have sold him, and would now be in quite the pickle.
 
Conor Gallagher
“Are Chelsea really going to sell him?” Neville asked as he watched Gallagher warming up on the touchline on Tuesday, though he could have selected a harder-hitting moment to explain all the reasons why it’s ridiculous and frustrating for them to even be considering it (and it is) than when Chelsea had handed out a schooling to cruise to a Carabao Cup final without Gallagher on the pitch.
Related video: Liverpool fans spill out their emotions around Klopp's decision to leave (Metro)

Metro
Liverpool fans spill out their emotions around Klopp's decision to leave

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It’s Tottenham that remain interested having had a £40m bid rejected in the summer. Mauricio Pochettino doesn’t want him to leave now and didn’t then, and has made that abundantly clear to the Blues owners by making the midfielder captain in the absence of Reece James and Ben Chilwell.
Gallagher has quite frequently looked as though he’s the only Chelsea player who’s given a damn this season, and there would almost certainly have been talk of a lost dressing room without him.
READ MORE: £60m for Conor Gallagher? Chelsea outrage at Todd Boehly trumps logic; that’s a lot of money
 
Bernardo Silva
If we’ve learned anything about football it’s that you should never sell Bernardo Silva. Every time Manchester City don’t sell him, they win at least a Premier League title.
First linked with Barcelona in 2020, Silva stays and City win the title and League Cup in 2021.

Nearly leaves for Barcelona that summer, stays, and wins the Premier League again in 2022.
PSG and Barcelona heavily linked in 2022, stays, wins the treble.
Barcelona continue to bark up the wrong tree in the summer of 2023, Silva stays, and another Premier League title this way comes.
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola hugs Bernardo Silva after a win.
© Provided by Football365
Pep Guardiola hugs Bernardo Silva after a win.
 
Scott McTominay
His five Premier League goals have been worth eight points to Manchester United this season, the difference between their current position of eighth and 13th in the table.
And when the Scot hasn’t been saving Erik ten Hag’s job on the pitch he’s acted as his guardian and spokesperson off it, shutting down “toxic” dressing room claims and insisting he’s “100 per cent sure” the Dutchman is the man to turn their fortunes around.

No wonder Ten Hag has been ‘won over’ by McTominay, according to reports which claim the 27-year-old will now be offered a new long-term deal by the club who were more than willing to accept any reasonable offer for his services in the summer.
 
Harry Maguire
Returned to the starting line-up at the start of October and was named Premier League player of the month in November after three clean sheets in three games. We all had a good laugh when he said he wanted to stay at Old Trafford to fight for his place and wondered just how Gareth Southgate would manage to select a player with half a dozen cup starts to his name for the Euro 2024 squad.
But he won what looked like a losing battle for his place before being struck down by injury, and looked to have packed Raphael Varane’s bags for him through his displays.
Lisandro Martinez is back now, meaning Maguire faces another battle, but we won’t bet against him this time.
You can’t keep a good man down. Or rather others can sink even lower.

Africa Cup of Nations Round of 16 predictions, fixtures and results: Saturday 27 January 2024

It’s knockout time at the delayed 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in Cote d’Ivoire, as the Round of 16 kicks off on Saturday.
A huge clash between Nigeria and Cameroon takes centre stage on Saturday night, in a contest between the Super Eagles and the Indomitable Lions that would be worthy of the final in two weeks’ time.
The starter course is no dud either, with another pair of local rivals going head-to-head in the shape of Angola and Namibia with a place in the quarter-finals on the line.

Afcon Round of 16 predictions and fixtures for 27 January

*All kick off times are in Central Africa Time.

Angola v Namibia
Nigeria v Cameroon
Equatorial Guinea v Guinea

The Africa Cup of Nations Round of 16 has thrown up a surprise derby on Saturday, as neighbours Angola and Namibia face off for a place in the quarter-finals.
Both have arguably exceeded expectations already in Cote d’Ivoire, in an event where there have already been a number of big-name casualties at the first hurdle.
The Angolans are a dangerous prospect having emerged from an unpredictable Group D unbeaten and top of the pile.
An opening draw with 2019 Afcon champions Algeria felt like a low watermark for their opponents, for whom it got far worse as they went on to tumble out of the competition at the group stage for the second time running.
Related video: Nigeria & Cameroon finalise training prep for AFCON encounter (Reuters)

And then came a pair of precious victories for the Black Sable Antelopes.
First a dramatic, 3-2 success against surprise package Mauritania, before they kept a clean sheet in seeing off much-fancied Burkina Faso 2-0 to breeze into the knockouts.
Namibia gave themselves a fantastic opportunity to progress in their first Group E assignment.
The underdogs stunned Tunisia with a win by the only goal, setting the Carthage Eagles on the path to an ignominious exit at the first hurdle.
A 4-0 reverse at the hands of local rivals South Africa threatened to undo that good work, but in clinging on for a notable draw against Mali, they came through safely as one of the best third-placed finishers.

Nigeria vs Cameroon – 22.00

A monumental Africa Cup of Nations battle lights up the Round of 16 on Saturday night, as former champions Nigeria and Cameroon go head-to-head in a heated derby Cote d’Ivoire.
It’s a knockout showdown between the west African neighbours that last lifted the Afcon trophy in 2013 and 2017 respectively.
And for the Super Eagles, it was a relatively drama-free journey through Group A to qualify.
An awkward opening draw with Equatorial Guinea has since been put into context, with their opponents going on to top the pool on goal difference.
But that was as rough as it got for the continental giants.
A slender victory over the host nation in Abidjan put them in great shape to make it through to the knockouts, before a repeat trick against Guinea-Bissau sealed the deal for a second-placed finish in their bid to win a fourth African title.
It was a different story for the Indomitable Lions, who were on the brink of a disastrous tournament exit having picked up just a sole point from their opening two matches.
An opening draw with Guinea wasn’t a complete disaster, but a 3-1 loss to reigning champions Senegal left the five-time continental kings on the brink of despair.

Then came the late show for Rigobert Song’s spirited side.
A madcap closing ten minutes saw them pull level at 2-2 via an own goal against Gambia, before Christopher Wooh became the hero with what proved to be an injury time winner amid VAR controversy and much more besides.
It gives them the perfect momentum to take into their tussle with their border rivals in green and white.