Some people seem confused over the exact dates of the January 2012 transfer window. Unlike the summer transfer window which runs from the end of the season until the 31^st August, the January transfer window essentially does ‘exactly what it says on the tin’.

The January 2012 transfer window will run from January 1^st at 12:00 am (aka New Years Day) until midnight on January 31^st.

Hope that clears it up for all you football fans. I would say ‘it’s a stupid question’ but to be honest, a lot of the things in football are unclear and aren’t always as they seem so we’ll let you off with this one

In terms of what to expect from the January 2012 transfer window, at Transfer Deadline we are sure that this will be a bis spending window for the ‘mega powers’ of the football transfer market like Manchester City and Chelsea.

This is because Uefas financial fair play rules kicks off its 3 year transaction after the season 2011-2012 in an attempt to make top clubs move closer to breaking even.

This will possibly see Sheikh Mansour and Roman Abramovic go all out in attempt to bring a couple of huge signings, for example Manchester City have been linked with Christiano Ronaldo in the past in a ridiculously large £500m deal, whilst Chelsea have been linked with young Brazilian Neymar in a huge money deal. These are the types of signings that will be difficult to fund after the financial fair play rules has come in and had its full effect.