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The January transfer window came to a dramatic close last night as Premier League clubs scrambled for desperate last minute deals. But the window as a whole lacked the blockbuster deals of last year as clubs preached prudence over splashing the cash. Financial reality has entered the blood stream of the clubs as failures of last season's multi-million dollar January deals (Fernando Torres, Andy Carroll, etc.) has led to managers looking at the window with renewed scepticism. The club's in the upper echelons of the table, with the exception of Tottenham and Chelsea, had a very quiet transfer window. QPR were one of the busiest teams in the league as new manager Mark Hughes dug into his transfer kitty to reinforce his struggling side.

Roberto Mancini was crying out for reinforcements throughout this past month as he wanted to fill gaps in the squad as they enter a vital period in the title race. But the Italian was informed that he would have to sell before purchasing and he ended up swimming in the loan market. City signed 32-year old David Pizarro on loan from Roma to bolster their midfield, which has dearly missed Yaya Toure. City also loaned-out a notable name in Wayne Bridge, who joined Sunderland while Nedum Onouha left for QPR on a permanent deal.

Across town, Manchester United also had a quiet month, with Paul Scholes' shock U-turn their biggest event in the personnel field. The return of their midfield maestro aside, United signed young defender Frederic Veseli from rivals Man City on deadline day. There were numerous departures from Old Trafford though as Darron Gibson, Mame Diouf & Ravel Morrison joined Everton, Hannover and West Ham respectively on permanent deals while Federico Macheda joined QPR on loan.

Chelsea were the club most likely to add in the winter and they did exactly that as they made two big signings in Gary Cahill & Kevin De Bruyne. Cahill, who joined from Bolton for £7m, was a much needed addition to their fragile defence. De Bruyne was also signed for £7m, but the winger has been loaned back to Genk for rest of the season. There were some high profile departures at Chelsea as Nicolas Anelka moved to Shanghai, Alex jumped to PSG while Josh McEachran joined Swansea on loan until the end of the season.

Over in North London, Arsenal's dealings were all in the loan market as Thierry Henry made an emotional return to his old stomping ground. The legendary striker joined the Gunners from New York Red Bulls for a short-term loan while Emmanuel Frimpong & Ryo Miyaichi left to Wolves & Bolton on loan respectively. The Gunners continued to have an eye for the future signing 19-year old German Thomas Eisfeld for a nominal fee on deadline day.

Tottenham unsurprisingly waited till the final day to make their deals as Harry Redknapp once again pulled a few rabbits out of the air on deadline day. Louis Saha made a surprise move from Everton as replacement for Roman Pavlyuchenko, who joined Lokomotiv Moscow for £7.5m. The final day wheeling & dealing saw Vedran Corluka, Sebastien Bassong and Steven Pienaar seal loan deals with Bayer Leverkusen, Wolves & Everton respectively while Ryan Nelsen is set to land at White Hart Lane from Blackburn Rovers.

There was some big money spent on striking talent elsewhere in the Premier League as Newcastle United paid £10m to Freiburg for the services of Papiss Demba Cisse, the international team-mate of Magpies star Demba Ba. Everton also made a new addition to their goal-scoring department as Nikica Jelavic moved south from Rangers for £5.5m on deadline day.

David Moyes has once again made sensible moves in the transfer window as he brought in Darren Gibson from Man United and Landon Donovan on a short-term loan deal from LA Galaxy. The exports included Diniyar Bilyaletdinov to Spartak Moscow for £5m and Saha to Spurs. Liverpool had almost no activity this past month but for the low-profile arrivals of Marc Pelosi & Danny Ward.

QPR were the biggest spenders in the bottom half of the table as the Tony Fernandes backed club added experience to protect their Premier League status. Rangers have been hampered by a severe shortage of goals this season and they took a major step towards rectifying it by recruiting three potent strikers. Experienced strikers Djibril Cisse & Bobby Zamora arrived for £4m each from Lazio & Fulham respectively on deadline day while Macheda was brought on loan from United at the start of the month. Mark Hughes also added two quality defenders in Nedum Onouha and Taye Taiwo from Manchester City & AC Milan respectively, with Taiwo coming in on a loan deal.

Elsewhere, Fulham's major signing was Pavel Pogrebnyak from Stuttgart as a direct replacement for Zamora. Some of the other notable transfers include Robbie Keane's arrival at Aston Villa from LA Galaxy on a loan deal and Liam Ridgewell making West Brom his 3rd Midlands club with a move from Birmingham on deadline day. Teams struggling at the bottom of the table made a few loan moves as expected to give themselves a chance of survival.

Wolves secured Frimpong & Bassong until the end of the season while Bolton replaced the departed Gary Cahill with Tim Ream from New York. Blackburn's only major signing was the arrival of Marcus Olsson from Halmstads, while Jason Roberts & Ryan Nelsen left the club. Stoke and Wigan felt so secure with their personnel that they didn't make any sort of additions to their squad during January.

Club-wise Transfer Guide