January transfer window: Why is the market quieter than normal this year?

Sky Sports News' chief reporter Kaveh Solhekol analyses why this January transfer window is so quiet - and why it could pick up in the final few days...

The real reason is the Premier League's Profit and Sustainability Rules. They have been around for a long time but in the past couple of months, we've seen the league being very serious about applying those rules.

For instance, Everton were deducted 10 points for breaching the rules, while they and Nottingham Forest have been charged. So that has focused minds at a lot of clubs as the last thing they want to do is break those rules and potentially be deducted points. That is the main reason - people are being very careful.

There are other reasons: the Africa Cup of Nations and the Asia Cup are on at the moment. But let's not forget the January transfer window is normally pretty quiet every year, a lot of the big business is usually done in the summer.

It was only very busy last year because Chelsea spent a lot of money. A third of the 2023 January spend was Chelsea spending money. Their new American owners came in and made a big splash in the transfer market. And that's why last year was a January busier than normal.

This year, a lot of the deals that have been done are either loan deals or deals on young players for the future. It's also part of a trend that I'm seeing where the days of wheeling and dealing in the transfer market seem to be disappearing fast.

I do expect it to be a little bit more busy in the next few days. But nothing like what we saw 12 months ago.

Most clubs have very professional recruitment departments, they use a lot of data. Everything they do in the window is planned well in advance.

So there's not so much panic buying that we saw in the good old days,