January Reinforcements Jump to last A quick piece from me on my chosen Mastermind subject: “Unsubstantiated Transfer Speculation”. In the past (both at Everton and elsewhere, I believe), Marcel Brands has been loathe to dip into the January transfer market, rightly perceiving that the shops are a bit threadbare unless you intend to pay over the odds for players. Most of the players touted around are those who are out of favour or form – or likely both. Our last serious foray into the Winter transfer market saw us splash around £45M on Walcott and Tosun, whose contributions have been fairly unimpressive and who will leave the club for little or no transfer recompense. However, if you look further back, there have been times when the window has been used well: loans for the likes of Pienaar and Arteta stand out to me especially; both were young(ish) players, both slightly out of favour but with undoubted ability.