Most English clubs resist big moves in transfer period

In Nicolas Anelka, Chelsea brings in the third highest-scoring striker in the Premiership. AP

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Like most English Premier League managers, Team Limey has been working off the excesses of Christmas and New Year to battle with a horde of like-minded bargain-hungry individuals perusing the January sales.

And unlike our meager expenditures on oversized designer crap at our local TJ Maxx, most EPL managers are ready to splash significantly larger sums of money to improve their squads for the second half of the season in this month's transfer window.

The benefits of the transfer window aren't particularly clear -- it produces a period in which players and managers alike are unsettled by rumors and conjecture. Reading boss Steve Coppell, who has several players on his books who are the subject of potential moves, is firmly against it.

"I've had a couple of what I'd call scurrilous inquiries," Coppell said. "I cannot see the logic in a transfer window. It brings on a fire-sale mentality, causes unrest via the media and means clubs buy too many players."

In this column, we'll attempt to decipher and mine through the rumors and take a look at the likely comings and goings in the EPL.

Of the big four clubs, Chelsea has been first out of the blocks with the capture of Bolton's Nicolas Anelka for nearly $30 million, and unsurprisingly it's likely the Blues will be the big spenders in the window. With Didier Drogba, Salomon Kalou, John Obi Mikel and Michael Essien at the African Cup of Nations, and with injuries to key players -- John Terry, Frank Lampard and Petr Cech -- Chelsea is currently threadbare.

With Andriy Shevchenko also out injured, the misfiring Claudio Pizarro is the only fit striker at the club. That's the reason why the Blues have landed a striker of Anelka's quality. So far this season, he has scored the same number of goals as Kalou, Shevchenko and Pizarro combined.

Along with Anelka, and perhaps Tottenham Hotspur striker Dimitar Berbatov, Serbian defender Branislav Ivanovic is rumored to be close to joining Chelsea from Lokomotiv Moscow, and World Cup winner Gianluca Zambrotta could be on his way from Barcelona.

What about the other big clubs? "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," is how Alex Ferguson and Arsène Wenger see it at the summit of the EPL. Manchester United and Arsenal have strength in depth in all positions. At the Emirates, the only door opening this January seems to be the exit door, with the likely departures of want-away duo Lassana Diarra and Jens Lehmann.

French midfielder Diarra moved from Chelsea only last summer due to lack of first-team opportunities. Sporadic appearances in the Carling Cup haven't made life much better for him at Arsenal, and a move to Newcastle looks likely. And after spending most of the season playing second fiddle to Manuel Almunia, Lehmann has remained modest in his goalkeeping: "The positive for me is I am an all-around talent," the German said. "I have no weakness."

Lehmann's supposed transfer to Borussia Dortmund is reportedly off for now, with the German club saying it failed to reach a deal for "personal reasons." Stay tuned.

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