What do we reckon for January then ? Here are my predictions :-

 

Rangers will sign nobody. We will be linked with a few random names fed to the press by David Murray, but none of these will be realistic transfer targets. We will possibly put in a bid or two, but the bids will be described by the other team as "laughable" or "insulting", and will be less than half of the transfer fee required to actually secure the player.

 

Round about mid January the speculation will increase about Rangers selling Madjid Bougherra to Marseille and Pedro Mendes to Tottenham Hotspur. These deals will be denied by both players and the club, but both deals will go through on 30th January. Rangers will then be linked with some tanned foreigner with long hair that plays for Brescia in Serie B, who's apparently the next best thing since Del Piero. We'll agree a fee with his club, but he'll have some clause in his contract that means he can't move out of Italy till he is a certain age and will go on loan to Empoli instead.

 

As for Celtic, well Peter Liewell's name and picture will be in the papers almost every day between now and the end of January, promising to "splash the cash" as usual. Celtic will be linked with every young prospect in Japan. Despite the huge list of names that will be linked, Celtic will not sign a left back. At the end of the month, Celtic will have signed somebody who will be paraded in a blaze of publicity as the next best thing since sliced bread, but who will ultimately proceed to sit on the bench and struggle to ever get a game, e.g. Gravesen, Donati, Mizuno, McCourt, Loovens, Hutchison. Celtic will also be linked with every single player that is linked with Rangers, but not till two or three days after the initial story broke about the interest from Rangers.

 

Does anyone think I'm being unrealistic ?