In addition to the escalating vagaries of form, the horrible winter weather and the sudden accumulation of injuries and suspensions in December, and the insane domestic fixture congestion we suffer at this time of year (when just about every other league in Europe is sensibly enjoying an extended break), we now have an additional layer of disruption due to the mid-season transfer window opening.
It began for the Premier League (and most of the other leagues worldwide) on 1st January, and - because the month ends on a weekend this year - the final deadline is 7pm, UK time, on Monday, 2nd February. A few of the European leagues have a little bit longer; Switzerland has a whopping two extra weeks. Clubs playing in European competitions have a few further days - up until midnight on Thursday 7th February - to submit any squad revisions to UEFA.
At the moment, the best summary of all the details of how this works appears to be on Chelsea's website.
Fantasy Football Scout usually runs the best regular update page on all the moves; but of course, there's nothing confirmed yet.
It will be interesting to see if any Premier League clubs can radically shift their form and fortune with some handy acquisitions this month. Villa did some good business this time last year, getting Asensio, Malen, and Rashford in on loan for the second half of the season. Given how thin their squad now looks, after an absence of any major transfer activity in the summer, they could really do with some more of that this time. Burnley might also be looking to bring in a few new players to try to salvage their hopes of survival - although I feel a new manager is more needful for them. Palace, Newcastle, Bournemouth, Manchester United, and of course Forest and West Ham are also in conspicuous need of some strengthening.
For some clubs, though, the impacts of this window are going to be mainly negative - key players lured away from them. I really hope Antoine Semenyo will see out the season at Bournemouth; it would be a huge loss for them if he leaves. (And it will ruin his value in FPL for the rest of us, if he goes to City or Liverpool or Arsenal, to sit on the bench most of the time...)
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