Manchester City boss Mark Hughes knows there's great expectations around what his club will do in the January market.

"We're aware of this assumption about the level of finance that we'll throw at the project in January, but we still have realistic market values," Hughes told the club's website.

"There is also an assumption that we will stimulate the market, that the money sloshing around will be from deals that we have started, but we have to make sure we protect the club as well.

"We're hoping to go into the market and acquire players that we think will help us, but it is still dependant on whether clubs are willing to deal with us or not.

"The deals that we do will have to be good ones, but we are quite happy at the moment.

"We know that there will be a premium that we have to pay because it's January, and teams don't want to lose their better players. But it will not be to the extent where we are paying hugely over the market value."