The start of the January sales

Far more than when the August transfer window closes, the January window is surely the more crucial one, where virtually every team is looking to manouvere and improve on their squads for various reasons - to challenge for the title, try and desperately escape the drop zone or even just to jockey up a few more positions in the table to bring in some extra TV money.

Leading upto January the column inches began to fill with transfer news - much of it complete nonesense, but expect this to increase moreso from now on as teams will be looking to swing deals.

Most of the speculation around City is of course centering on who may be leaving the club with the trio of Richards, Distin and Barton being heavily focused on.

For me, none of them will be moving on in January window for the following reasons:

Much focus has been on the defensive frailties this season for Chelsea, but is Richards really the answer? John Terry will not be out for too long and I would think if they were to make a move for a defender it would be a short term one rather than one who is far from the finished article. If Chelsea are genuinely interested, they will wait until the summer before they move.

Barton has shown no sign of wanting to move on - in fact the opposite is true with him stating he doesn't want to leave. He has a rumoured 'release fee' clause but I feel he will only be tempted if one of the top four sides are interested - something that won't happen.

Distin has maintained a silence from the start of the season over his contract talks, but it was clear that sides like Middlesbrough or Portsmouth interest him. I believe he does want to remain at the club, but is ambitious and wants to play in Europe and for the French national side - something that doesn't appear likely at City. I feel he will stay for the remainder of the season before getting his move in the summer.

As for players coming in, from memory of last season the moves that Stuart Pearce made were at the end of the transfer window so if again he follows the same approach it may be a little while before anyone is brought into the club.

It is unknown exactly how much money Pearce has to play with, but estimates put it around £1-£2 million which doesn't give Pearce a lot of options, but one area that has been focused on in the media is the striking positions which have been a source of frustration this season.

Plenty of names from far and wide have been suggested, ranging from young players in the Championship to older players currently operating in Europe so it could be possible that he moves for a couple of younger players such as Billy Sharp and Billy Jones, whilst also bringing in a couple of loan signings to bolster the squad until the end of the season.

Throughout January, I'll be posting up regularly about all the speculation and news of players moving both in and out of the club.