New Year, new transfer window.

Although the winter market is generally quieter than the summer one, there’s a growing trend to splash the cash in January. Teams who are challenging but who perhaps need a player or two more for the second half of the season won’t be shy about putting their hands in their pockets.

Short-term pain for long-term gain as it were.

The dynamic in Spain changed significantly over the final weekend of 2017, Barcelona emerging nine points clear of everyone else and still unbeaten. It was a weekend when the ‘experts’ decreed that the gap would be down to three points, but the scenario that panned out virtually forces their challengers to dig deep in order to bridge the chasm that is emerging.

Atletico Madrid, their nearest pursuers, are the only team in the top five that are unlikely to spend. Their business was concluded back in the summer when Vitolo and Diego Costa were tied up, albeit under the auspices of a Fifa ban, and since then the Rojiblancos have been waiting to unleash their new attacking duo on the rest of the Spanish top flight.

If there’s any business to be done at the Wanda Metropolitano, it’s likely to be through the exit door.

Barcelona, similarly, need a clear out, and at least five players (Deulofeu, Turan, Vidal, Gomes and Rafinha) could be on the move. Significantly, Philippe Coutinho appears to be on the verge of arriving.

Sources close to the deal have indicated Liverpool’s perceived willingness to now do a deal, and the Brazilian’s family are already looking for a home in the area. He won’t come cheap of course, but ridding themselves of ‘dead wood’ and buying one of the brightest players in Europe is decent business.

Ernesto Valverde has been a revelation and is clearly not content to sit on his laurels. His obvious need to want to improve when on top rather than on the way down deserves plaudits too.

Atleti have admitted that Barca have been in contact with Antoine Griezmann but that deal won’t happen until the summer when the Frenchman’s buyout clause drops from €200 million (Dh885.2 million) to €100 million.

On the other side of the Spanish capital, Zinedine Zidane and Real Madrid are the most under pressure as we enter 2018.

Talk of a move for Neymar isn’t without foundation, but, like Griezmann, the earliest that could take place is in the summer.

With Cristiano Ronaldo again suggesting his future lies away from the Santiago Bernabeu, don’t be surprised to see a swap deal of sorts at least discussed.

For the immediate future, Los Blancos’ need for a proven goal scorer is evident. President Florentino Perez has suggested he’ll back Zidane’s judgement all the way, but what that means is a break from the norm for the Frenchman.

Zizou isn’t a fan of shaking things up mid-season, and the truth is he has players like Borja Mayoral, Dani Ceballos, Marcos Llorente and Theo Hernandez to call upon should he so wish.

Of that quartet, only Mayoral is a striker, making the decision to let Alvaro Morata leave an even stranger one. In any event, Madrid are casting their beady eyes over Harry Kane, and making no secret of their admiration for him.

Both Tottenham and Kane himself appear disinterested in doing a deal but money talks, and that new stadium in north London isn’t coming cheap. Remember when Daniel Levy also told Real that Gareth Bale and Luka Modric weren’t for sale either …

Speaking of Bale, though Real need reinforcements rather than letting players go, a sale to Manchester United before the end of this window would allow them to stockpile funds for their summer assault on Neymar.

Let the merry-go-round begin …