5 Transfers that will happen in the January transfer window

Edit : 5 Transfer that will may or may not happen in the January transfer window

Ahhh, the January transfer window, drink it in...it always goes down smooth. On that Anchorman inspired note - another thing that also tends to go down in January is the amount of...

...that any clubs who actually NEED to buy players will have left by the end of the month. There is no doubting that, compared to its more glamarous and exciting twin sister, the January transfer window is certainly a sellers market. Regardless of this universally accepted truth, clubs will be targeting players in the remaining two weeks of the window with a view to either, dragging their bloodied carcasses out of  relegation contention (Aston Villa) or giving themselves that extra boost of quality to help them challenge for the title (Man City.)

With this in mind, They All Count are going to go out on a limb (more than likely the left leg, its always been our weakest), grab our crystal balls and take a punt on the upcoming transfers that we are almost nearly quite certain will probably happen...

1. Shaun Wright Phillips ----> Newcastle

We featured little Shaun (btw, how cute does he look on that bike. He looks like 'teddys first motorbike' in real life) in last years list of 'The top 5 man city players who will be on their way out in the January transfer window' and we stand by this prediction. After losing Hatem Ben Arfa to injury, the geordies are now left with Wayne Routledge as their first choice right sided midfielder. Now we have been quite rude about SWPs footballing abilities in the past and will not cease to do this untill his name is as far away as possible from an England team sheet, but one thing we can say is that he is at least as good as, if not slightly better than, Wayne Routledge.

2. Robbie Keane ----> Sunderland

After getting rid of TAC's favourite twat tweeter Darren Bent, reportedly for a cool £24million, the Black cats now have a little bit of spending money and an opening for a 'fox in the box.' Well who else could it possibly be than confirmed 'fox in the box' and also 'journeyman striker' Robbie Keane, whos potential Birmingham deal has reportedly fallen through, leaving him free to do the inevitable - join his 4th team in 3 years. I have always been a big Robbie Keane fan and if he can regain even a smidge of this former glory then Sunderland will have a ready made goal machine replacement for Bent - unfortunately what will probably happen is he will be signed, probably for about 5million more than he is worth, not score, get injured and retire.

3. Ashley Young ----> Liverpool

The Wire reference for those in the know

Liverpool, liverpool, liverpool. What the hell did you do? 13th place, 10 points of a champions league place, all this with a managerial appointment that for me has the faint whiffs of Newcastles panic signing of 'the messiah' Shearer as manager (and we all know how that ended.) With a team full of players who 'should' be good, but are resolutely refusing to play as such, they need some attacking input. Joe Cole seems content to be a shadow of his former self and Maxi being just mainly awful, Ashley Young would seem like the sensible option. There have been links between the two before, on top of which Aston Villa have spent 30m on transfers so far in this window, so it is likely that the bank might need to be balanced with a few player sales.

4. David Luiz ----> Chelsea

You know how people say 'I hate to say I told you so' - well we do not subscribe to this theory. Remember last year when we said "Chelsea have sold to many players and they will be hit by the lack of back up in defence and as a result of this will be pretty much out of title contention by christmas" or something to that effect. Well - "told you so!" So lets hope, for Chelseas sake, that they splash out the 20million+ pounds that will be nessecary to prize the highly rated 23 year old Brazillian centre back, so they can limp into the 4th spot that seemingly has their name written all over it.

5. Christopher Samba ----> Arsenal

Now this just makes sense. With Vermaelen and Squillaci injured, Koscielny struggling to adapt to the Premier League, Arsenal need to bolster their central defensive options by the end of the window if they really fancy a go at the title. Regardless of the  'Arsene needs to sign a central defender but almost certainly wont' cliche that is (rightly) rolled out at about this time for the last 4 years, common sense would say that Samba would be the intelligent choice. Firstly he is a unit - secondly he is proven (to be 'quite' good) in the Premier League - thirdly he has expressed an interest in leaving Blackburn - and finally, he is a unit of the most vast proportions. If he can be bought for a reasonable price, this deal could certainly go down.

So remember you heard it here first....