Early but the speculation/rumours have already started (do they ever stop?)

The January window can be frantic at times, deals that were close to completion but never closed in the summer can be revived and some clubs will have spent that past few months thinking "we should have done that in the summer" and this is their window (see what I did there) of opportunity to fill any voids in their squads.

This window should be busy, particularly in England with TV money increasing by a massive 40% in the summer, this more than any other is the year not to be relegated. 4th place and the holy grail that is the Champions League is looking enticingly at several clubs right now too, some who would have expected to be in contention and others who may have not. Will they push the boat out in January to make that leap?

Here are a few of the more successful January signing of last season..













Notable mentions to both Sigurdsson and Pienaar who rocked up at Swansea and Everton in respective loan deals and had huge impacts, impacts that resulted in Pienaar staying on at Everton permanently and Spurs beating Liverpool to the signing of Sigurdsson.


So what will happen this year, there are many questions to be answered.

Will Liverpool actually sign a striker?

Will Spurs return for Moutinho?

Will QPR sign another 57 players?

Will Louis Saha's agent get another cut of a signing on fee?

Sturridge and Walcott, willy they sign, stick or twist?

Will Chelsea splash the cash on a striker, United a new physio or midfielder?


Plenty of sides have needs and/or wants, let's hear them.

Hopefully Liverpool are forced to massively overpay for a mediocre striker, everyone is aware of how desperate they are and should rape them accordingly.

I'll be happy with the window if Chelsea don't sign Falcao.

Tottenham are apparently interested in loaning Rafinha from us in winter. He's a cool dude, and I like him. I just think he won't see much playing time with us, being the replacement for Lahm (who never gets hurt because he's superhuman).

Should Lahm get hurt anyways (which he won't), we have Mitchell Weiser to fill in, who I'm hearing is doing a good job at RB for FC Bayern II.

meh, they might have to overpay a bit, but massively overpay for even someone mediocre? i don't really think it works like that.

i mean how many clubs in the world could be looking to potentially sell a striker that LOLerpool might be interested in? a dozen? 50? 100? so what, they're all gonna band together and hold out for some massive offer knowing that the buyer might be desperate to benefit the club who receive the best offer, when they themselves are rejecting +EV offers?

20m for Carlton Cole!?! i don't buy it...

Posting to subscribe, first time I'm actually going to follow all the rumors and signings.

Seems to be noise regarding Hunter to Lpool in Jan. Seems to make a lot of sense. Not sure how it'd work with the 4-3-3, it'd be a shame to shunt Suarez out wide but I suppose not as much of a shame (from Liverpool's POV) as just never scoring and losing a bunch.

Will Europe's top scorer move to the Premier League?

Obviously there isn't 100 strikers Liverpool will be interested in, they will have a shortlist of a few and whichever clubs they play for should hold them to ransom, the owners are under a lot of pressure after the summer transfer window.

Mediocre is the wrong word, but they won't sign a world class striker (which is what they need) and should still overpay for any 2nd rate striker they bring in.

Who is realistic? Huntelaar/Bent/Walcott/Llorente/Cavani/Sturridge?

Some of them like Cavani/Llorente/Huntelaar will have better offers than Liverpool, so they'd need to offer bigger wages and pay more to tempt them away from champions league clubs. Walcott/Bent/Sturridge all come with English tax and definitely fall into the 2nd rate bracket.

Who's a better offer for Huntelaar? Liverpool can pay wages competitive with CL clubs and has prestige and fanbase exceeding most CL clubs. I don't see him heading to a top top tier club. Juve, maybe, but they only need one striker and were in for Llorente in the summer. Who else? Liverpool is still, when you combine wages/fans/prestige/ambition, a ~top 15 destination club.

@72o: that's what makes Huntelaar an attractive option: he's 29 and in last year of contract so he'll be cheap and stopgappy.

Don't get your hopes up. January window pretty much sucks.

i really don't see LOLerpool nabbing an elite level striker in this January window

it'll prob be a cheaper stopgap solution type (maybe a big fish in a small pond)

He could be an option for Chelsea.

We'll give you 50mill

IDK what other team's have planned, I can only speculate on the sides which obviously need a striker Juve/Arsenal/Liverpool. But I'd be surprised if Huntelaar doesn't have a number of good offers in this window.

Juve and Arsenal are both more attractive options than Liverpool atm.

anyone got a list of players in the last year of their contract?

Schalke is attractive enough (2nd in Bundesliga, great chance of being in CL knockout round and seeded) that Huntelaar won't be leaving. Especially to join a team that makes him cup tied.

Would like to see Huntelaar with Liverpool, for a good price ofc. Can liverpool somehow sell Carroll?
Slovenian rumors so far for the winter transfer:

Berič(Maribor) to Aston Villa/Norwich/Tottenham/Leicester or Cardiff? Or mebbe Napoli or Sampdoria?


Matavž from PSV to HSV?

huntelaar will never make it at a top top club given that he is far too one-dimensional and needs to get carried by the team
he should stay at schalke who have built a new team around him

Another problem with Huntelaar is Schalke might think it's worth it to keep him beyond January to give them the best chance of getting into the CL next season, missing out on the CL would cost them more than whatever fee they could command for him.

While he's a very good finisher he's stamina and work rate have never been assets so how he would perform if Rodger's was asking his forwards to press from the front could be a problem.

Posted earlier in English thread about us being close to completing our option for Wallace, although all signs are he'll probably be loaned out (possibly straight back to Fluminese) for now.

Falcao would obviously be the ideal signing, his buyout clause is actually probably a reasonably fair valuation.

Wouldn't mind Damiao either though, came across this earlier.

http://sportwitness.ning.com/forum/t...e-and-join-him

We'll also be in need of a midfielder as Mikel will be off to ACON and we're threadbare there as is.

And I still say we should just straight swap Sturridge for Walcott.

Oscar is married

He looks about 12

That was my reaction as well. Has to be lost in translation though.

edit: just googled it, seems like he is actually married. holy ****.

He's 21, not that unusual.

Lol you're crazy, you'll get nothing but lies for weeks. Best off tuning in for the last day of the window.