They say that it is difficult to find a good deal in the January sales, and Manchester City boss Sven-Goran Eriksson knows it.

The Swede had no problems in splashing the FA's cash when he was out of work last year, but offloading Thaksin Shinawatra's money in 2008 is proving to be slightly more tricky.

"It's a lot more difficult than I thought," said Sven who, according to The Sun, wants to seal a deal with Bayern Munich for benchwarmer and sometime striker Lukas Podolski.

City are willing to part with £12 million for the Germany international and has sent his trusted friend Tord Grip to Munich to negotiate for the 22-year-old.

Back in Manchester, Sven must be ruing his decision to publicly laud flavour of the month Richard Dunne - the City skipper has begun to believe the hype and is holding out on signing a new contract at Eastlands. The Irishman wants a deal that reflects his importance to the club - possibly something in the region of the £70,000-a-week central defensive partner Micah Richards is asking for.

Across town, England defender Wes Brown wants to stay at Manchester United, club chief executive David Gill wants Brown to stay, the fans also want him to stay. So why has a contract not been signed yet? Just one of life's little mysteries.

Another United fringe player who sees his future at Old Trafford and nowhere else is Scotland international Darren Fletcher. Having fallen behind in the pecking order following the arrival of Anderson over the summer, Fletcher's future has been brought into question. Incredibly, Roy Keane has yet to put in an offer for the midfielder, but even if the Sunderland boss had, Fletcher knows he has it good at the moment and wants to stay put.

Forwards are the talk of the town in north London at the moment, with Tottenham apparently still in the market for a few more to add to their already robust strike force.

Lyon's Brazilian ace Fred is set for talks with Juande Ramos, although quite how much first team action he will get at White Hart Lane is beyond us. The same goes for the golden boy of Russian football, Andrei Arshavin, who is also being chased by Spurs.

Should either arrive in north London, Jermain Defoe's Spurs career would surely come to an end with Newcastle, Middlesbrough, ManchesterCity and Portsmouth all still reportedly interested in his services. Darren Bent should also be wondering where he will be playing come February, although it is nice to see Dimitar Berbatov's future apparently settled for the time being.

Unlike that of Didier Drogba, who has been at it once again. The Chelsea marksman has identified Barcelona as his next preferred port of call, telling The Daily Express he would love to have a chance to play alongside Sameul Eto'o. "But Barcelona would need to get their chequebook out to make it happen," Drogba added. Either that or a sensational swap deal involving Ronaldinho, who is unlikely to go to Milan now after the Italian giants insisted they would not bid for him. But first, expect the usual flurry of denials from Drogba, who cannot quite seem to make his mind up whether to stay or go.

There could be a flourish of activity in Birmingham soon, as the Blues are set to sign Argentinian youth Maruo Zarate from Qatari club Al-Sadd. Boss Alex McLeish and director Karen Brady are also plotting to make a double swoop for out-of-favour Everton striker James McFadden and Hibernian defender David Murphy .

In other rumours, Arsenal are after Torpedo Moscow defender Vyacheslav Dmitriev, Teemu Tainio is a £2 million target for Fulham, Wigan have turned down a £3 million bid from Fulham for Paul Scharner and Amdy Faye's move to Blackburn could be blocked by red tape.

Mike Hytner / Eurosport