According to ESPN Soccernet, Portsmouth chief executive Peter Storrie expects the club’s transfer ban to be lifted before the January transfer window. He said,

“My understanding is that we would expect the transfer ban to be lifted in good time for us to continue trading in January.”

“Efforts have been made to stabilise the financial situation that had been allowed to develop. We owed money to one club in October and November, and to another in September and October, and we had fallen behind, but those outstanding installments will be paid next week … There has been problems with the Revenue but we are now keeping them up to date, too.”

According to Alan Nixon at MirrorFootball, Portsmouth are interested in Zamalek footballer Amr Zaki and are trying to set up a loan deal.

According to Sky Sports News, West Ham United are not selling Carlton Cole despite interest from Manchester United. A spokesman of the club said,

“[Cole is] not for sale … We want to keep all our best players and the suggestion that we need to sell because of a financial crisis is not true.”

According to Alan Nixon at MirrorFootball, Chelsea are interested in signing Sao Paolo midfielder Lucas Piazon. Chelsea supposedly sent some of their men to negotiate and talk with the club and player.

According to Zack Wilson at Goal.com, Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson does not seem likely to spend big money this January. Ferguson told The Mail on Sunday,

“I would like to do business, but only if the prices are right - and that can be a problem in January.”

According to Sky Sports News, AC Milan striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar does not want to leave the club despite interest from Tottenham. Huntelaar told Sky Sports Italia,

“I want to stay at Milan … I had my chances at the start of the season, but I was not good enough to make the most of them.”

According to Andy Walker at the Birmingham Mail, Birmingham boss Alex McLeish would like to hold onto goalie Colin Doyle, despite his interest to leave. McLeish said,

“He (Doyle) is our third-choice goalkeeper, he’s cover … We need to have three good goalkeepers, Doyley’s had a fair bit of experience without being given the total amount of experience of the other two. But he’s still had a fair amount of experience so we know that we’ve got a terrific third goalie there.”

“It must be frustrating for him but he’s a great type, he trains hard with (goalkeeping coach) Dave Watson and he knows that happens in football sometimes.”

“You might not be first choice but you’re part of the squad and you’re getting paid good wages, then you have to give it as much as you can professionally.”