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To loan or not to loan? It is a question many clubs have been grappling with during this January transfer window and though only seven have replied in the affirmative, the fact that four of them belong to the traditional ‘Big Six’ proves that temporary transfers are by no means the preserve of those desperately scrambling to avoid relegation. There are many reasons loans make sense to even the biggest clubs.

Some clubs, of course, almost never make loan signings.



But what categories of loan exist, and how are they executed in the fraught environs of a winter transfer window?



Loans with an eye to the long-term use loans quite frequently — as they have done this window with the arrival of from Atletico Madrid — but they are usually either loans with options in their favour or loans with obligations to buy.



??s loan signing of from last January falls into this category but felt more strategically planned.