The January Transfer Window 2011

[EddieG]

Getting rid of Babel and Konchesky in the same transfer window would be better than Christmas.

It's safe to say, it would be like Christmas .. in January.

[King Ellis]

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

[Starvinho]

Today's talk in the press;

"Reports in the Italian media claim Inter Milan are ready to move for Sampdoria striker Giampaolo Pazzini before the close of the transfer window."

"Sunderland are still hopeful of signing Paris Saint Germain's Stephane Sessegnon."

"Celtic have agreed a deal with Derby County to sign Kris Commons after Rangers ended their interest in signing the attacker. The fee is reported to be in the region of £300,000, with Commons' Derby contract due to expire at the end of the season."

"Kilmarnock have snapped up Gabon international Willy Aubameyang from AC Milan on a free transfer on a contract until the end of the season."

"Aidy White has rejoined Oldham on loan until the end of the season according to the official Leeds website. The defender had an earlier spell at Oldham last November."

"Skysports.com understands Liverpool are in advanced talks with Fulham over Paul Konchesky."

"According to reports in Portugal, West Brom are showing an interest in Sporting Lisbon centre-half Nuno Coelho. West Brom reportedly want Coelho on loan until the end of the season, but Sporting are only keen on a permanent deal. Genoa, Palermo and Trabzonspor are also rumoured to be keen on the defender."

"Birmingham City have offered Seb Larsson to Aston Villa as part of their bid to land Curtis Davies, skysports.com can confirm."

[stokeriño]

Players like Paul Konchesky who sign for a new club only to get sold back to the same old club a year later must feel pretty fucking depressed. There's not much more that can happen to get the giant word FAILURE stamped over a year of your career.

[Pesci]

I'm sure his mum will give him a big cuddle and blame it all on the mean Scousers.

[DavidMarrio]

Hodgson signing ain't it Pfft his mums rant was funny its not our fault her son's shite.

All we need to do now is get rid of Poulsen and Jovanovic and it'll be happy days

[Starvinho]

Jimmy Bullard has gone Ipswich on loan from Hull, legend that lad. Been very unlucky with injuries over the last few years else I'm sure he'd still be playing in the Premier League.

[Hobo]

Konchesky out and Insua recalled would make me happy.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

Apparently Inter Milan want to make a £40mil offer for Gareth Bale in the summer.

However I think it's unlikely to go through, especially if Spurs make Champions League again. Firstly the Italian league isn't what it once was. Secondly Bale's a 21 year old Welsh lad, if he was going to leave Spurs I'd expect him to stay in England. Thirdly Bale has said he doesn't want to leave Spurs (don't they all though). Fourthly Spurs won't want to sell him.

If Bale stays on that kind of form over the next few years (and will realistically improve) then he'll be worth that kind of money to the club if they KEEP him.

[METALMAN]

I don't think the Italian league "not being what it once was" would be any demotivation when it comes to joining the European Champions.

[Hobo]

I don't think a player would not want to play at one of the biggest clubs in the world. And isn't Serie A improving?

[Twist]

Can someone explain to me how to block someone? Because good God, ONO's posts are making my eyes bleed.

On a transfer note, however, I kind of hope Bale goes to Inter. We see all these complaints about how young British footballs don't get first team football in Britain because of all the foreign players, yada, yada yada yet none of them go abroad searching for the opportunities. The rest of the world has players across the globe, I think it would be great for British (at an international level) football if we did as well. A player like Bale going to Inter might help get such a ball rolling.

[Crybaby Bunting]

"Skysports.com understands Liverpool are in advanced talks with Fulham over Paul Konchesky."

But I thought they already had him

[stokeriño]

It was quite amusing how the Guardian journalist (Ian Prior) spent two hours hyping the BIG MAJOR FOOTBALL NEWS EXCLUSIVE and sending Twitter into a frenzy...and then the article was "Inter to bid for Bale in the summer" (without a single source or quote) - which, frankly, could have been in today's gossip and no one would have battered an eyelid. In fact, I'm pretty sure I did see in a gossip column a month or two ago and no one cared.

No one knew who this Ian Prior guy was before, but now he's getting called a cunt on Twitter. That's the fame game for you.

[Baddar]

Just turned on SSN and they're claiming that Chelsea have had a bid turned down for Fernando Torres.

It hasn't been confirmed how much was offered, but ''sources'' reckon around £40m.

[stokeriño]

The bid/rejection were "officially announced" by Liverpool.

I have zero trust in all these stories where the selling (or rather, not-selling) club announces that Chelsea have made a bid (as has recently been the case with Everton for Pienaar, Atletico for Aguero, now Liverpool for Torres). In each case they have to have their own agenda for announcing it - to the extent that I doubt we ever made at least two out of those three bids.

Bizarrely, I'd even find ye classic newspaper journalistic 'sleuthing' a bit more trustworthy than this.

(The other possibility is that we're not seriously trying to buy him, but are putting up a rejectable bid as a sign of throwing our weight around...for whatever reason.)

[Crybaby Bunting]

Couldn't Chelsea just buy Suarez, leaving Liverpool with one formation for another six months?

One thing that fans should be aware about, regarding who become awesome really young, is that they have a tendency to just fade away overnight. I don't think that Torres will be peaking in his late 20s and he may well have peaked already.

So why anyone would pay that much money for Torres when they have a risk of him turning into Michael Owen or Robbie keane seems strange to me.

[stokeriño]

Having reflected for a few hours, at this stage I'm leaning towards a simple "unsettle the Liverpool squad a bit prior to our upcoming league match" motive as the most likely reason for it.

[ONO]

Why would Liverpool say Chelsea have bid for Torres, unless he is looking to go? Which I doubt considering his comments in December. Then again Darren Bent said he loved Sunderland..

[stokeriño]

Three days before the end of the January transfer window? Pick any of the following.

- Increase interest between rival bidders for a massive summer sale

- As a PR stunt to its fans to demonstrate their resolve to keep their key players

- If Torres were wanting to go, it covers the club's back from being villified if it did happen and could help persuade Torres to stay (I doubt this)

Carlo is giving his usual Friday pre-match press conference and not saying anything for or against when asked about Torres. This is the norm for Carlo though: he tends to say virtually nothing on most things.