....I suspect we will bring in quite a few, especially with the Stones money giving us scope we won't have in the Summer under fair play rules. 'Spending big' may depend on availability, it might also depend on selling clubs being aware of the situation we are in after the Stones sale.
Depends what we attempt to do mate, IF we target the likes of Strootman and players of that ilk, at those types of clubs, and with the importance they have at those clubs, then will will get nothing worthwhilst in, they will either not be willing to sell, or will demand fees that we will back away from.
IF we actually think about it rather than try to play foty manager which is what we seemed to have done in the summer by and large then we could easily bring in a good number of players that would improve us a hell of a lot, with the added bonus of not wasting the STCC allowance afforded us by selling Stones
Mid table premiership teams for example WILL sell some of there better players - in summer or January it doesn't matter really, as they are in that comfort zone of not being enough to get top 4 and being too strong to go down, teams like Saints, Palace etc have in past years sold some of there better players during a January - Cabaye from Newcastle being another case of that - as indeed was our sale of Graveson years back to Madrid.
Some of the BIG teams, by January it will be abundantly clear to a fair few of those players that they don't have much of a future at the teams (especially now that most managers like Conte, Klopp, Mourinho, Guardiola etc have had 6 months or more under their belts by then), same goes for teams across Europe as well, throw on top of that some teams like Inter are almost in meltdown - and are a good choice to try to go for players who maybe are looking at getting out of dodge so to speak.
Will probably get dgs for the first suggestion - but say Sturridge come January could be an option - same for Schneiderlin, Rooney, Begovic, Ramsey, etc, players who have either nt been given a chance or who have seen there roles diminished dramatically.
Pastore - dropped down the pecking order at PSG, Peresic out of favour at Inter (could change obviously with FDB leaving), although could say a fair few Inter players must be currently a bit unhappy given the mess the club is in from top to bottom, thats without getting silly and talking about out of favour Madrid players - who are simply out our league and a waste of time thinking about etc.
Imagine a Everton team in January, bringing in Sturridge, Peresic and say Schneiderlin and say Heaton and VVD - all makeable deals - would cost a fair amount, but not one of those players 'should' be out of our reach in terms of finances and being able to attract them here
Won't happen because the club either doesn't have the ambition stated it has, or is setting it's targets all wrong