Well we have all this money now but do we need to spend it?  The team is unbeaten after twelve games and our manager hasn’t felt the need to change the team much during that run.  It’s possible that a sudden influx of new players could unsettle the team so most fans would agree that only two or three quality additions would be needed to boost the squad and cover for injuries.  The question is who can we get.

The most prominent story in recent days has been that Liverpool have turned down a nine million pound bid from us for Ryan Babel.  It seems strange to me that they would turn down such an offer as Babel is only an occasional first teamer for Liverpool but to be honest a lot of Benitez’s decisions baffle me.  I’m not too bothered that they have turned it down though as it’s a lot of our budget for someone who is talented but inconsistent.  The other option talked about is Aiden McGeady of Celtic but there are conflicting stories about his availability.  Some reports say that Celtic have asked for ten million while others say that he is not for sale.  Either way it doesn’t look like he will be coming to us.

In the ”More Likely” column is another bid for Sporting Gijon’s Michel who in some reports has already had a medical.  This was a player we were close to signing in the summer so hopefully the small print can be sorted out this time.  Craig Gardner of Villa was also talked about in the summer and the rumours have started again as they have for Kris Boyd of Rangers.  Gardner has not featured for Villa much this season and Boyd is close to the end of his contract so they are both more likely to happen now if they are players McLeish really wants.  It’s interesting that despite us having a new board and a much bigger budget we are still being linked with the same players as in August.

Other stories doing the rounds are a bid for Wigan’s Charles N’Zogbia.  McLeish is obviously looking for wide players.  It doesn’t look like Wigan really want to sell though.  The Ruud Van Nistelrooy rumour has come round again but I can’t see that even the chance of first team football will make him want to swap sunny Madrid for freezing Birmingham.  Kevin Kuranyi looks unlikely to come now as well so at the moment there is no sign of the new striker that we all said was a priority.  Early days though.

The one deal that we would all like to happen, the permanent signing of Joe Hart won’t go through but there is a chance that we could extend the loan for another year like we did with Mikael Forssell.

Still twenty six days to go so I expect there will be many more rumours, good and bad, to come and maybe we”ll actually sign someone before deadline day.