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And then there was one. Or, maybe, given Manchester City are likely to make their move, none. Diego Costa, Virgil Van Dijk, Ross Barkley, Philippe Coutinho have gone after transfer deadline day frustration last August. And no-one would bet against Alexis Sanchez leaving before the month is out.
Last summer it was portrayed as a show of strength from the cash-rich Premier League clubs who refused to cave in to the demands to leave that went right up until the last day. It felt like a transfer window when the clubs took control again; a window where the players could not force their way out in the way they wanted to and the clubs had enough money to resist and say no; that they would hold them to their contracts and not cave in.
The clubs, it was argued, could even afford to let them eventually go for free with the long-held notion that they had to sell in the final year of a deal debunked – just as transfer requests were ignored and minor injuries, coinciding with bids, glossed over and accepted.
Now we have seen Costa debut and score his first goals – and even get sent off – for Atletico Madrid. We have seen Van Dijk make a match-winning first appearance for Liverpool. We have seen Barkley, who had refused to be bounced into going to Stamford Bridge, train for the first time with Chelsea. And we have seen Coutinho seal his record-breaking move to Barcelona where he was presented at the Nou Camp on Monday.
Each case is different, of course. Costa was not wanted by Antonio Conte although he also refused orders to return to the club; Barkley felt disenfranchised and would not sign a new deal at Everton (and was injured); Van Dijk was Southampton’s most important player but had also been out long-term injured and a replacement had been signed in Wesley Hoedt; Coutinho continued to play well for Liverpool. But they have all gone and gone where they wanted to go.
The clubs will argue that the players departed on their terms – Chelsea got the £57million they demanded for Costa, Southampton the £75million they insisted on for Van Dijk and Liverpool the £142million, with payments structured the way they preferred, from Barcelona for Coutinho.
Incredible fees. Only with Barkley will Everton feel short-changed given they are getting £20million less than they agreed with Chelsea last summer with the Evertonian mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson even demanding some sort of investigation. But the midfielder has not played for Everton at all this season. And he had just six months left on his contract.
As does Sanchez and the decision to turn down £60million last August has always looked an unwise one with the largely underwhelming performances he has delivered this season for Arsenal and - maybe more crucially - the uncertainty in the dressing room and the continued sense that his team-mates wanted him out which has affected the atmosphere.
Arsenal are sixth in the Premier League and fighting a losing battle for fourth place. Not qualifying for the Champions League will not justify keeping Sanchez. And they will not get £60million now.
No two cases are the same but it is telling that with four of those five – and even the most ardent Arsenal fan would not bet against it being a full house of five by Jan 31 – the players have got out. And got out quickly in the end.
Liverpool and Southampton will claim – with justification – that they were not forced to sell and showed their strength by delaying the deals until now. But it will not feel like that if Liverpool miss out on the top four this season or Southampton are relegated. No-one would argue at present that either team are in a better place. Apart from in their bank balance.
For Liverpool, in particular, it is a calculated gamble while Southampton can justify selling Van Dijk if – and it is a big if – they buy in other areas of the team that desperately need strengthening. The fact that has not happened already in this window, and whether they can agree a financial package for Theo Walcott or Daniel Sturridge, for example, is already a concern.
No team should want to keep a player against his wishes, even if he has years to run on his contract. It is never a healthy situation. There is the compassionate, human side of it as articulated so clearly by Jurgen Klopp in his thoughtful statement about Coutinho, how the Brazilian had set his heart on Barcelona and – here is the crux for fans – how the Liverpool manager believed the departure would not hamper the club’s “aggressive progression on the pitch”.
Then there is the practical side of it. Keeping a player who does not want to be there does affect the dressing room. Other players do resent it or consider how the club might treat them if they were in a similar situation while no matter how professional and dedicated a player is there is always that sense that his head and heart is somewhere else.
If you do not want to play for us, then go, is the adage, but what is interesting is that in four of the five cases – and, again, it probably will be all five – what was heralded as a serious stand last summer turned out to be, as some of us always suspected, nothing more than a temporary truce. The clubs got the money but the players got their way. It was ever thus.
Are there any longer-term ramifications? Probably not. Money talks and even if the clubs gets more and more cash for the deals they agree the fact is the player – still – eventually gets his way.
FA Cup may have lost shine but still sparkles
The FA Cup will never quite capture the imagination as it used to. But it does not matter. It showed this weekend – as it tends to do every season – that it has that enduring capacity to enthral and engage. Who cares if Arsenal, the holders, make nine changes?
They were dumped out by Nottingham Forest, a struggling Championship team full of youngsters and journeyman, in a magnificent cup tie. As were Stoke City, 24 hours earlier, against League Two Coventry City. The cup certainly mattered for Mark Hughes. It cost the Stoke manager his job.
Arguments over Premier League clubs devaluing the competition are spurious. It still provides great storylines, great games and great moments for lower league clubs starved off attention, enjoying their day in the sun. This weekend it also felt especially worth it, with no non-league clubs left, that it was Coventry and Forest who claimed the glory given what their supporters have been through.
Players are showing clubs they hold the real power in the transfer market