On our January transfer dealings

On New Years' Eve I identified what I thought ought to be our priorities in the January transfer window. In a rough order: a centre forward, a central midfielder, a centre back, a left back, a goalkeeper and a new contract for Danny Sturridge.

In our dealings in January we have met four of these requirements. The signing of Nigel de Jong (and movement of Zabaleta into midfield) has in a sense bought us a new centre back, in that Vincent Kompany can now focus on playing there. So make that four and a half out of six. Which I suppose constitutes success.

What has been pleasing about our dealings has been that they represent an absolute triumph of the 'Hughes list' over the 'Mansour list'. While the Kaká deal was close, there were no successful moves for any galacticos, wunderkinds or 'marquee signings'. No risks were taken on a Karim Benzema, a Sergio Agüero, Davids Villa or Silva or any other ludicrously talented foreign star who may take a bedding in period that our league position could not afford.

Instead, those signings we did make are all of a distinct character themselves: all with at least 30 international caps, all in their 20s (barring 32 year old Given), all with years of Premier League experience (barring de Jong, whose time in the Eredivisie and Bundesliga is as good a preparation as any), all with Champions League experience, all fit, athletic and hungry. In all of those ways our four new buys represent smart and sensible additions to a rather unbalanced squad.

And, as players brought to the club by Mark Hughes, they significantly tip the scales towards the pro-Hughes element within the camp. I wrote in December that it seemed as if the squad was divided between those players who approved of the Hughes regime, and its analysis of the Eriksson failings, and those who did not. Ireland, Kompany, Zabaleta and Wright-Phillips were on his side, Elano, Jô, Hamann, Ben Haim and Ball were not. Robinho, Dunne, Hart and Richards floated somewhere in between. But with the exiling of Ben Haim and Jô, and the introduction of de Jong, Bridge, Bellamy and Given (who if they were not latent 'Hughes players' would surely not have come in) the balance is firmly in the manager's favour. Regardless of what you think of Hughes this is surely a good thing: the manager must have a monopoly on authority to succeed at a football club. And now we should be able to move forward with a more unified squad than he had more most of 2008.

While it is a shame that we have not tied Danny Sturridge to a longer deal - and it must be the immediate priority of the club to rectify this - it is good that we have not lost him yet, nor any of the other Academy graduates linked with moves away. The 'Ireland to Arsenal' talk could never have been serious, but the Sturridge to Villa, Richards to Villa, Johnson to Fulham and Johnson to Newcastle rumours were uncomfortably regular in recent weeks. But in the rejection of Newcastle's £8million bid for Johnson we demonstrated that the Academy players still form a big part of our future plans. And rightly so. I don't know why Ched Evans didn't end up at Celtic or Cardiff City though.

And finally, it is a relief to see that Robinho is still at the club. Not merely because of his quality, but because of the humiliation of the preposterous Ian McGarry that it ought to represent.