West Brom: Roberto Di Matteo can't wait to see the back of January

Jan 30 2010 by Chris Lepkowski

ROBERTO Di Matteo is hardly going to mourn the end of 2010’s opening month.

An inconsistent January on the field has not been aided by a transfer window where Albion, traditionally, ‘top-up’, no more – despite the interest in Victor Moses.

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Di Matteo feels January is not an easy month to do business in.

He has a point. It’s a time where clubs raise prices, agents become foolish in their demands and where not even Sky’s Andy Burton can hype up a month of little activity.

“The January transfer window is one where if you can sign your target that’s fine – you go for it,” said the Albion boss.

“Otherwise you usually pay a premium or it is just players other clubs don’t want and want to get rid of.

“We identify a target and if we can get him, fine. If not, you might just end up signing someone for the sake of it – and that’s not me. We’ll have to get a player out first to be able to bring a player in.

“We’re working on getting one or two of the current players out so we can bring in someone else.

“You want to sign a player for the right price. You don’t want to be over-paying because it’s the January transfer window.

“Sometimes they might ask you for a premium. If we feel it’s the right price for him it’s a possibility, otherwise we leave it up to other people to deal with it.”

■ Albion’s Former Players Association will be holding their AGM before today’s game.

Dave Walsh, Cyrille Regis, Graham Lovett, Ally Robertson, Stan Jones, Ian Hamilton, Gary Hackett and Bob Taylor will be among those attending the dinner in the East Stand.

Follow West Brom v Sheffield United from 2.30pm today on our live blog with Chris Lepkowski