Matt Maher: January shopping is fraught with danger

The current month is shaping up to be the toughest ever, with concerns over coronavirus and the complexities of Brexit adding to the usual difficulties of identifying players both available and willing to move mid-season.

Pretty much every agent you speak to right now believes this January window will likely turn out to be the quietest on record.

Not exactly ideal, then, that both Albion and Wolves have begun the month with significant business to do.

The situation the Baggies find themselves in is considerably more urgent. After picking up just one win in their first 17 Premier League matches and having conceded 17 goals in their last four at home, it is clear Sam Allardyce’s squad requires several good quality additions if it is to make a serious fist of survival.

Yet securing such players is far from straightforward, with Allardyce already admitting incomings will consist almost entirely of loans and short-term contracts. Even those deals can be tricky to pull off, in a month when clubs searching for signings quickly find they are fishing in the same somewhat limited pool.

In many respects the position Albion find themselves in is not dissimilar to that of Villa a year ago. A quick study of their rivals business back then highlights the trouble of January shopping.

When John McGinn, Tom Heaton and Wesley all suffered serious injury in the space of a fortnight, Villa suddenly found themselves having to replace the spine of their team.

Attempts to find a striker began ambitiously but Chelsea’s Olivier Giroud, their top target, didn’t want to join a team battling relegation, while Burnley dismissed the idea of selling Jay Rodriguez to a club who were at that stage rivals in the survival fight.

Having exhausted several other options, Villa eventually signed Mbwana Samatta from Club Brugge. The Tanzania international had a release clause of around £8.5million, which no other clubs were particularly interested in triggering. After just one goal in 14 Premier League appearances, it became clear why. At least Samatta fared better than deadline day arrival Borja Baston. Signed on a free transfer from Swansea when Leicester’s Islam Slimani decided he didn’t fancy a relegation battle, his Villa career lasted all of 21 minutes.

Albion, who also have a striker among their needs this month, will hope to fare better, though just like their rivals 12 months they will find clubs in the lower half of the league wary of helping rejuvenate their season, with players even surplus to requirements at those in the top half reluctant to experience life at the bottom. Finding a way to incorporate the salaries of loan arrivals can also be particularly tricky for newly-promoted clubs.

January is the window of the quick fix, for getting what you want rather than what you really need. The time for long-term planning is the summer and Albion’s strategy in the weeks after winning promotion have understandably come under scrutiny.

This season was always going to be tough and an immediate return to the Championship always possible. Yet while certain deals, such as that for Grady Diangana, were done in part as investments with that in mind, the overriding impression was of a head coach, sporting director and owners all singing off a different hymn sheet.

Wolves’ transfer dealings during the last window are similarly open to question, though there is also an argument they have been unlucky. Losing Raul Jimenez is the equivalent of Tottenham losing Harry Kane or Villa being without Jack Grealish, such was the Mexico international’s importance to the team.

Yet injuries are part of the game and it feels fair to ask whether Wolves did everything they could to mitigate against his absence?

After all, they did spend big money on a striker, with the £35m acquisition of Fabio Silva, an investment which in time may prove as shrewd as owners Fosun believe it to have been. For now, however, asking an inexperienced if expensive 18-year-old to lead the line week-in, week-out appears a big ask.

There have also been mixed returns from Nelson Semdeo, the right-back who arrived from Barcelona in a deal which could eventually be worth £37m. Throw in the biggest injury crisis of Nuno Espirito Santo’s tenure so far, with Willy Boly and Leander Dendoncker missing recent matches and the under-rated Jonny a long-term absentee and it isn’t hard to understand why the season is failing to meet fan expectations.

The difference for Wolves when it comes to January, as with every other window, is the presence of Jorge Mendes as an advisor to Fosun. Mendes was heavily involved in the deals for Semedo and Silva, doing rather handsomely out of the latter as he banked around £6.4m of the fee.

It will be interesting to see whether the super agent is able to pull a rabbit out of the hat in the coming weeks, though the club’s focus is expected to be on loan and short-term deals.

The imminent returns of Dendoncker and Boly will make a difference and just seven points of the top six with still 21 matches to play, the season is a long way from over yet.

Much like Albion, their progress will likely depend on success over the coming weeks in this most tricky of markets.