The January transfer window

"In the November break, there will be a chance to go over and put our plans and needs to the Abu Dhabi group. We hope we will be able to spend in January.

"We will get better, but we are still a te"In the November break, there will be a chance to go over and put our plans and needs to the Abu Dhabi group. We hope we will be able to spend in January.

"What we need to have is that consistent level of performance and that resoluteness to be able to see games out and take something positive from every game we play. At the moment we are struggling on that point, but we are a young team in terms of experience and development."

>>telegraph.co.uk

I'd imagine that once we head towards December, then we are going to begin to feature prominently in the transfer rumour pages.

The Telegraph article links us with moves with Roque Santa-Cruz and Torsten Frings, and I can see the benefit of adding both players to the current squad.

What I think we have to be careful of though is making sure that we only bring in the right players for the squad to improve us. Traditionally, the January transfer window does not signal big name signings. Invariably, the best players (which we we should be looking at) play at the top clubs, who are heavily involved in domestic and European campaigns at that time, and are reluctant to sell.

I know that we do have the ability to blow any team out of the water in terms of our finances, but I don't see the likes of Gerrard, Ronaldo, Torres et al arriving at the club at the point in time.

The danger we then have is that we run the risk of signing what I'd class as 'second tier' players - and imbalancing the squad, for the sake of placating owners, fans and management by adding players simply for the sake of it.

He won't be thanked for it, but one virtue Hughes needs to show in the next couple of months is a degree of patience.