5 Most Expensive Players Who Were Sent Out on Loan

What does a club do with a player with a long-term contract when they aren't sure whether they should retain him or sell him? Simple; send him out on loan.

While loan spells are usually reserved for potentially good youth players who need a few minutes under their belt before simply walking into the senior team, there have been cases where even high-profile senior players have been packed off.

That can happen for a variety of reasons. A new manager doesn't quite fancy the player in his system, a better player has taken his place, or because that player simply needs a different challenge to get back to his best.

Here are five world-class players who were sent out on loan.

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#5 Fernando Torres (Signed for £50m): Chelsea to AC Milan

It was a move that saw an entire fanbase (and a few rival fans too) go up in arms. Fernando Torres was Liverpool's most lethal striker since the heydays of Michael Owen and he had had enough at Anfield to force a move to Chelsea.

The Spaniard scored 81 goals for the Reds before ownership issues at Liverpool saw him move to a more ambitious club. But at Chelsea, he struggled to come good and never rediscovered that magical touch that made him one of the most feared strikers in the Premier League.

After three seasons, the board had seen enough and had decided to offload him. But there were no takers at first. Desperate to get him off their books, Torres was loaned to AC Milan (a two-year loan deal).

By then he was already 30. And he was no longer the player whose pace was his ultimate weapon.

He struggled to make any sort of impact in Serie A too, scoring just one goal in half a season at the San Siro despite publicly stating that he wanted to emulate legends such as Marco van Basten and Filippo Inzaghi.

He was loaned again to Atletico Madrid, after which he made his move back to his boyhood club permanent.

#4 Radamel Falcao (Signed for £51m): AS Monaco to Manchester United & Chelsea

Radamel Falcao never made the grade in the Premier League

Poor Radamel Falcao. After a knee injury in early 2014 ended any chance of representing Colombia at the World Cup in Brazil, the AS Monaco striker looked for a springboard to get back into the big time.

Monaco's owner, who had pumped in money to make them a competitive Ligue1 outfit, couldn't do so any more due to a very messy and expensive divorce (to the tune of £2.7bn). And players on high wages such as James Rodriguez and Falcao had to be taken off their books.

That was when he had the opportunity to move to the Premier League. Enter Manchester United who signed him on a one-year deal worth £16m. It turned out to be a disaster.

Falcao was never the same player who made a name for himself at Porto and Atletico Madrid, and he scored just four goals in all competitions with the Red Devils.

Jose Mourinho then took a punt on him at Chelsea and he scored just once in 12 games (all competitions). Five goals in two painful years.

Luckily for him, he found his form once he was back at Monaco, averaging 27 goals in the past two seasons since.

#3 Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Signed for £57m): Barcelona to AC Milan

Zlatan Ibrahimovic was not a big fan of then Barcelona boss Pep Guardiola

There is no question that Zlatan Ibrahimovic is a serial winner. He has won trophies with every major club he has played with since the turn of the century and only the Champions League title has eluded him.

Barcelona had just won the treble under Pep Guardiola but the Catalan boss was looking to shake things up and get rid of the old guard. Out went Samuel Eto'o to Inter Milan and in came Ibrahimovic in a cash-plus-player-swap deal that was quite astounding when it was announced.

With a strike force of Ibrahimovic, Lionel Messi, and Thierry Henry, one would expect defenders to simply give up and roll over but all was not well in the Barca camp. Ibrahimovic and Messi came in each other's way and tensions between the Swedish striker and Guardiola simmered beneath the surface.

Getting knocked out to Jose Mourinho's Inter in the Champions League only seemed to exacerbate that relationship. At one point, Ibrahimovic even yelled at Guardiola, saying: "You haven’t got any balls! You’re ******** yourself in front of Mourinho. You can go to hell!"

Ibrahimovic would seek a way out of the club after the relationship broke down and he chose to move on loan to AC Milan before making the move permanent.

#2 James Rodriguez (Signed for £63m): Real Madrid to Bayern Munich

James Rodriguez failed to nail down a consistent starting berth at Real Madrid

It's not easy to live up to expectations after a superb World Cup. The quadrennial tournament has the habit of making unlikely heroes who can steal the spotlight when they hit their peak before seeing their stock fall.

James Rodriguez is no exception. The Colombian midfielder made waves in 2014 when he won the Golden Boot in Brazil which saw some glorious goals. And it prompted Real Madrid to spend a whopping £63m to sign him from Monaco (fourth most expensive signing ever at the time).

The midfielder had a very good first season, with 13 goals and 13 assists in La Liga. But soon after, he struggled to convince Zinedine Zidane to start enough games.

From 2,290 minutes in his debut season, it dropped down to 1,180 in his final season at the Bernabeu. It was expected as players such as Luka Modric, Toni Kroos, and Isco were undroppable.

Real saw it fit to loan him to Bayern Munich on a two-year loan deal with a €13m loan fee. Under Jupp Heynckes, he did find that spark that made him such a valuable asset as he had his best season (7 goals and 11 assists in Bundesliga) since his debut campaign with Real.

#1 Gonzalo Higuain (Signed for £75.3m): Juventus to AC Milan

Gonzalo Higuain became the sacrificial lamb at Juventus

Back in 2015/16, Gonzalo Higuain nearly made history when he finished as Serie A's top goalscorer with 36 goals for Napoli. It was a record-equalling feat, achieved by Gino Rossetti of Torino - 87 years prior!

The Capocannoniere then sealed a record-breaking move to Juventus who were hungry for more success after dominating the Italian top flight. With an eye on the Champions League, Higuain tried to make it work but he didn't hit the same heights despite scoring 32 and 23 goals in his two seasons with The Old Lady.

That was when Juventus decided to make good on their long-term vision of signing a superstar like Cristiano Ronaldo. Years ago, they had said they would sign a player like him and eventually settled for Ronaldo himself.

But spending £99.2m on the transfer and a further eye-watering €30m a season on his wages, they needed to offload a big player to balance the books.

That is where Higuain, sadly, became the sacrificial lamb to be sent on loan to AC Milan. There was no way they were going to sell Paulo Dybala while Mario Mandzukic would certainly not have fetched enough.

Higuain was used as a pawn to ensure Juventus would also get Leonardo Bonucci back from Milan with Juve's Mattia Caldara also making the switch to the Rossoneri.

Milan signed Higuain for a loan fee of £16m and also have the option of making his move permanent for a transfer fee in the region of £32m.