Liverpool may spend big but January transfer window likely to be quiet

Though Liverpool need additions, we can expect the bigger clubs to stay cautious but Danny Ings and Charlie Austin could be prized targets

• Premier League fans’ half-term verdicts, A-L

• Premier League fans’ half-term verdicts, M-W

Restraint has been the watchword of the Premier League season so far: all 20 clubs reached Christmas with the same manager they started out with for the first time this millennium and a cautious prudence also seems likely to govern spending when the transfer window reopens in January.

It is a truth almost universally acknowledged by now that midwinter is not a time for bargains in football. It is possible to pick up good players. Chelsea’s Nemanja Matic was the standout capture a year ago but José Mourinho was forced to pay an eye-watering £22m for a player the club had let go for next to nothing three years earlier. That determined bit of business, paid for by the sale of Juan Mata to Manchester United, turned out to be the exception rather than the rule.

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