The Athletic FC

Welcome to the Athletic FC podcast with me, Ayur Akimudere.

It's less than a month until the January transfer window opens.

So with Wharton, Anderson and Belabre on Manchester United's radar,

will they finally fix their midfield in 2026?

All right, in for this one. We've got Laurie Whitwell. We've also got Mark Critchley as well. Jens, 13 games into the season, and we're already talking January transfers. Look, I'm trying to gaze this one. Is this going to be a big window for clubs, do you reckon? Are we looking forward to it? Are we excited? This is the business we're in, right? Ayo, you know,

we write about football and it has a funny way of bringing interesting stories to us via the transfer market. And yeah, it feels very early to be getting into the weeds of this. But then again,

you know, I suppose

these are the kind of weeks and days where clubs will be making those kind of calls ahead of

January. Personally, from Manchester-Night point of view, clearly they could do with strengthening,

but I don't think they see January as an ideal opportunity to do that. Then again, if something

comes onto the, you know, onto the landscape, then then they could

act quickly, I suppose.

But yeah, from my understanding, it was kind of be, you know, loan in or loan out, that kind

of thing.

And I wonder if that's the kind of case for most clubs across the Premier League.

I suppose it just depends on each individual objective for the end of the season.

If they can do something in January that helps them get there,

you know, avoid relegation, for example, or, you know, really push on to try and win the title or, you know, qualify for the Champions League places, I think that's, you know, maybe where we will see some action. But, yeah, I don't go into this one thinking that it's going to be, you know, loads of huge

spend going on

and loads of

incredible stories happening.

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