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Take a look at a table of points gained by Premier League clubs from February 1 last season and beyond the top three of Manchester City, Manchester United and Arsenal lies the unlikely quartet of Wigan, Newcastle, Everton and Fulham.
In those crucial 15/16 games after the closure of the window, Newcastle took a remarkable 29 points to Tottenham's 20, Everton took 27 points to Stoke's 15 and Fulham took 26 points to Liverpool's frankly pathetic 14.
Those figures should be shown to any manager spouting the standard line about there being no value in the January transfer market, because the connection between those three over-achievers is that they each invested in genuine goalscorers in January.
No value? Nikica Jelavic cost £5m and scored nine goals in 13 Premier League games, Papiss Cisse delivered 13 in 14 for his £8m and Pavel Pogrebnyak cost nothing but wages for his haul of six goals in 12 games. Even exceptionally strong finishers Wigan signed Jean Beausejour, making it possible for Roberto Martinez to change his formation.
Would Tottenham have missed out on the Champions League if they had signed a striker under the age of 33 in January? Would Blackburn have lost their place in the Premier League if they had spent serious money on Jordan Rhodes in January rather than waiting for relegation?
We can only speculate on the answers to those moot questions but the evidence from January 2012 suggests that large strides can be made in the final straight of the season if clubs go against accepted wisdom and spend money on players at their peak (this is not the time for 'players for the future') in the winter window.
Fingers were obviously burned in 2011 - the combined £85m farrago of Fernando Torres and Andy Carroll was enough to make anyone a tad reluctant to spend anything other than a penny. But last year proved that not all January striker signings are ill-considered and over-priced.
Which brings us to Demba Ba - scorer of 33 goals in 61 Premier League games for West Ham and Newcastle. Read those statistics again and tell us why any club outside of the top two should not be interested in the Senegalese striker at just £7.5m. Yes, the wage demands are high but at £90,000 a week, that's merely a Joe Cole.
Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea should all be in the market for a striker who has scored ten goals in 15 games already this season. Apart from an irrational fear that his knee may suddenly blow up after two practically injury-free years, it's difficult to understand why any of those clubs weren't interested at £7.5m during a summer that saw Fabio Borini (£10.5m) and Olivier Giroud (£12m) arrive in the Premier League.
January is not a time for wondering whether a striker will fit into your system in the long term. January is a time for clubs short on goalscoring strikers to buy goalscoring strikers. And that is a description that certainly suits a man who should now have his pick of clubs.
Sarah Winterburn
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