From a Birmingham cult hero who began all of it to an notorious Arsenal failure: Mail Sport goes contained in the increase or bust world of mortgage offers as Aston Villa duo make large influence

Good ones probably spring easily to mind because truly impactful short-term loans are rare. Think of Jesse Lingard at West Ham United in 2021 and Daniel Sturridge at Bolton Wanderers a decade earlier.

Go further back to find Christophe Dugarry sprinkling stardust on Birmingham City and forging an unlikely strike partnership with former bricklayer Geoff Horsfield as they climbed away from relegation trouble.

All international-class forwards who hit the ground running.

Lingard scored nine Premier League goals in 16 appearances for the Hammers on loan from Manchester United, more than he scored for one club in any single league campaign. ‘Like hitting the refresh button,’ he said when back at Old Trafford.

Sturridge scored eight in 12 on loan at Bolton from Chelsea. Dugarry five goals inside four crucial victories, including two against Southampton in what Horsfield rated as the best individual display he ever saw.

‘Arguably as good a player as I’ve had,’ was the verdict of Steve Bruce, who signed Dugarry from Bordeaux, and likened his influence at St Andrew’s to Eric Cantona’s when he arrived at Manchester United.

Bruce bent the rules for the 30-year-old who energised the dressing room, and told his other players, many of whom had won promotion the previous year, the same privileges would be theirs when they won the World Cup and the Euros.

One story from Blues folklore features the France striker, having missed the start of a fitness session, appearing at the door of the gym with a cup of tea.

Physio Neil McDiarmid encouraged him to join in. ‘Jump on the rowing machine Christophe,’ said McDiarmid. Dugarry shook his head. ‘Footballer, not rower’ he smiled, then disappeared.

Those were the heady years when Premier League clubs were beginning to understand the power of their wealth. George Weah joined Chelsea on loan from Milan. Ivan Campo swapped Real Madrid for Bolton.

English football has changed, and yet injections of quality are still inspirational.

Jack Wilshere joined Bournemouth on loan from Arsenal, just as the Cherries were establishing as a top-flight club, with several players who had risen through the divisions with Eddie Howe.

Wilshere’s good habits and infectious, down-to-earth nature rubbed off on others inside the dressing room. His mere presence instilled confidence and helped players, staff and fans appreciate Bournemouth were serious about their Premier League status.

Marco Asensio appears to be in the process of achieving something similar at Aston Villa. He has seven goals in eight games and together with Marcus Rashford is adding a dash of Champions League sparkle and trophy-winning experience to a team bound for unfamiliar territory.

It is already shaping like good business by Villa boss Unai Emery and Monchi, the head of football operations. Either or both forwards could be elevated to the honours board of top Premier League loans if they can make it through a Champions League tie against Paris Saint-Germain, Asensio’s parent club, and Saturday’s FA Cup quarter-final at Preston and bring a trophy back to Villa Park.

The perfect loan though is devilishly hard to define. Ideally, there should be something in it for everyone. The loan market is, as one sporting executive at a Premier League club told me, a tree of many branches. Each of them lives off profit, be that the club loaning out to develop their player and raise the asset value, getting them closer to the first team or a sale.

The player should profit by playing and advancing a career, and the club loaning in by signing a better player than they could normally afford. The transfer fees and long-term contractual commitments for Asensio and Rashford in January were way beyond Villa, on their profit-and-sustainability tightrope.

Finances matter in the modern game. Loan deals peaked in the Premier League amid the insecurity of the Covid pandemic of 2020. Forty-one loan players made 739 appearances in the competition in 2020/21, according to data site transfermarkt.com.

This was the season of Lingard at West Ham and Gareth Bale’s brief return to Tottenham from Real Madrid. Newly promoted Fulham and West Bromwich Albion had seven and six loans, respectively.

This season, Everton, mired in financial crisis until the Friedkin Group takeover in December, have five loan players, the most in the Premier League. Ipswich, striving to bridge the gap from the Championship with extra quality, have four.

Tottenham, who have three, have a penchant for loans becoming permanent. Cristian Romero, Rodrigo Bentancur, Dejan Kulusevski and Pedro Porro arrived on such deals.

Kevin Danso’s loan from Lens will convert to a permanent in the summer and Mathys Tel, on loan from Bayern Munich, could do the same. Perhaps a hint of try-before-you-buy together with spreading costs in an era when mistakes can be costly.

Mess it up and you end up like Spurs with Tanguy Ndombele and Giovani Lo Celso or Manchester United with Jadon Sancho and Antony, desperate to cut their losses. Transfers are seductive. And clubs don’t always learn. Chelsea signed Romelu Lukaku twice for a combined fee close to £120million. He scored eight league goals for them in six seasons as a Chelsea player, during which time he scored 17 for West Brom, 15 for Everton, 10 for Inter Milan and 13 for Roma.

For Premier League clubs, the loan system is increasingly about loaning out. There are currently 33 on loan at 15 clubs — Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool, Newcastle and Brighton have none.

A fair proportion of those 33 are serving chiefly as cover. Only six have started more than 15 Premier League games, led by Jorgen Strand Larsen, who has nine goals for Wolves, which triggers an option to make his move from Celta Vigo permanent for £23m. It probably also makes him the loan signing of the season.

Out on loan, meanwhile, there are close to 300. FIFA tightened limits on loans both in and out, in 2024. But club-trained players and those under 21 are exempt, while recruitment trends indicate millions now being spent on the world’s top-rated teenagers.

Chelsea are at the forefront with 22 players out on loan. Aston Villa have 23 and Brighton 21.

Cohesive clubs devote the same energy to finding the right places for developing youngsters as they do to making signings. Sudden managerial change can damage a loan spell, just like an injury. Facundo Buonanotte’s average minutes-per-game on loan at Leicester from Brighton has been halved since Steve Cooper left. And yet one loans manager at a Premier League club tells me there must be an element of challenge, a toughening up process with difficulties to overcome.

Andros Townsend has spoken often about the first of his nine loans from Spurs, at Yeovil, where team-mate Lee Peltier chased him into the tunnel and round the dressing room at half-time in response to the teenager’s cocksure attitude.

‘An eye opener,’ Townsend said to me in an interview last year. ‘That’s why you go on loan, to learn on and off the pitch. I learned to respect senior players more, obviously.’

There are always loans that fail — such as Kim Kallstrom, signed by Arsenal despite a broken back. Liverpool paid a £4m loan fee to sign Brazilian Arthur Melo but injuries limited the midfielder to one cameo from the bench in the Champions League and an hour in the EFL Trophy.

Nacho Gonzalez was signed for a season on loan by Newcastle from Valencia against the wishes of boss Kevin Keegan. Gonzalez appeared twice as a sub but made a more significant contribution at a tribunal where Keegan won his case for constructive dismissal.

Every loan has its own life. There are hits and misses. Some flourish at first and fade after the move becomes permanent, including Dugarry. Others can be the gateway to years of happiness, such as Martin Odegaard at Arsenal. We wait to find out into which category Asensio and Rashford will ultimately reside.