It just seems odd to me all this "teams don't want to sell us their best players" line, surely they never do? Ajax didn't advertise Luis Suarez in exchange and mart, West Ham weren't mad keen on letting Andy Carroll go with about half an hour of the window left.
In the Summer, we didn't want to sell Luis ourselves (allegedly) or Sterling (ditto). I shouldn't think Hull wanted to sell Jake Livermore but they did, they didn't want to sell Robert Snodgrass but they would for the right money, as no doubt Sunderland would Defoe and Swansea Llorente. West Ham didn't want to sell Payet until someone turned his head, Chelsea didn't want to sell Oscar and don't want to sell Costa, the list goes on and on.
Does any team ever "want to sell" their best players? This looks to me like PR bullshit.
For what it's worth Mick I do agree, even though I have expressed reservations about how January is more difficult than a summer window
Quickly here's why
Teams don't ideally want to sell their best players in a shortened window which could affect their season and if the do sell they only have a few weeks to replace, it's ok thinking they have x amount of time before the window opens to put a deal in place but why would they if they don't want to sell their player in the first place? Would they put deals in place on the off chance they have to sell a player in their squad they don't want to?
The teams at the highest level (where we should aim) don't that often sell their players this month
Where you talk about Suarez, there was circumstances surrounding that that drove that deal, Suarez admitted himself he didn't want to leave Ajax that window as he was captain and wanted to win the league (something he didn't do there) they won it and he went back and was given a medal, he even phoned the team the day before the title winning game to give them a team talk
Then did Newcastle want to sell us Carroll? No until they got what they could keep a straight face offer wise (that's the key which is probably what fsg don't want to repeat which is why we never do business in this window anymore)
The difference with a summer window is there is 3 months for clubs to replace and start again without the risk of wrecking an ongoing season(Defoe with Sunderland, they sell him at market value then that's their goals gone, almost resigning themselves to the drop for a few quid, could they replace guaranteed goals in their situation? What good goal scorer goes there where they find themselves? So they are likely to dig their heels in and not sell)so even though you won't get a bargain on a particular player the willingness to allow a deal through is there
Deals can be forced, players (more often than not behind the scenes) will make it clear they want out which forces their clubs hand ala Payet and more close to home Torres but leaves a bitter taste all round
In the summer before, at the type we are targeting their is often unspoken deals, give us another season and you can go next summer, it's happened with us before. They don't tend then to break that in the January
The two you mention of ours, we may well didn't want to sell but a willingness was ultimately there for a couple of slightly different reasons, Sterling, again like Payet/Torres the player was clear he wanted out, his agent constantly fueled it and made it happen (similar to Ashley Cole from Arsenal to Chelsea)
Suarez, it's naive to think that so soon after the Arsenal summer a new deal was signed that it wasn't inevitable from there
When you talk about the others you mention
Hull with Snodgrass and Livermore
I was talking to a mate who works for the same company as ne who is from Hull and he said that the club wanted Livermore out for a while, since his drug thing, who knows but it adds to the willingness for that one
Snodgrass? I bet they don't want to sell but he is saying he wants out, he is forcing it a bit, maybe more behind the scenes and he only has 6 months on his current deal, that may force a willingness. But the have a new manager and have won a couple, he may well stay as the club's so far haven't sufficiently turned his head seemingly as he wants to move to Celtic and they want to wait til the summer, if they came in and he wanted gone? A transfer request may well go in to force it
Sunderland stated west ham could offer what they like Defoe isn't for sale, now you could say that if they offered 50m rather than 6 they may well get him but they won't. Sunderland know they cant replace his goals this window so don't want their best player to go.
Llorente, this is where it does get interesting because if there is genuine interest from Chelsea that will turn his head and being at a club like Swansea he will probably force it
What I'm trying to say is Alot comes down to the player forcing it or the buying club offering stupid money
Now we don't seem willing to offer stupid money and the players we are after aren't at clubs like Swansea or Sunderland that make them think, know what this may be the only time I get to go to that type of club again, I'm forcing this. We are going for players at good clubs who know that offers will be there again in the summer, it's not a one off and they can wait
But again if we got in the players ear and offered them silly money? They'd more likely force it, or if we offered daft cash the club's may well be willing
Our prudency is the key factor I'm guessing ultimately and that's frustrating and frankly the ultimate issue but there is no doubt that January isn't as easy as the summer, maybe not in terms of ultimately what you pay (within maybe 20%
) but just the selling clubs willingness not to rip up their season
There has to be major financial reasons for them or the player has to kick and scream for it
It's more difficult that the summer but not impossible if you really want to. It seems we don't want to go that extra ultimately