According to reports in Italy it appears that our Vice President Mario Cognigni has said that we can only spend upto €5 million during the winter transfer window.

This would be a big disappointment because I am sure it was earlier said that we had a budget of atleast €15 million. And also because our participation in this season's Champions League has already generated us more than €25 million and we have even managed to qualify for the round of sixteen.

We need to make a few signings to plug a few holes in the team if we are to compete for a top four place, something that is slowly becoming a concern following four defeats in the last six matches. While I am confident we will be able to bounce back as we did last season, the added distraction of the Champions League could come back to haunt us come May. And in order to be able to handle both competitions and playing those twice a week games, we need to have squad depth.

Also our defensive weaknesses are no secret. While the current lads have done well in some of the big games so far, it does not change the fact that it is not upto the standards of a top four side in Serie A and one that is playing in the round of sixteen of the Champions League. With this budget we won't even be able to land Ezequiel Munoz, who till now seemed the most certain arrival in January. He is currently valued at around €5.5 million and it was said that Boca had rejected a bid of €8 million for the defender.

This ofcourse is not an official release, but then such things never are. Sporting Director Pantaleo Corvinho has so far been very optimistic about all his targets in January especially that of Munoz, so lts just hope that this bit of news is nothing for media rubbish and that we are able to make a few additions to our squad. A similar report on tribalfootball puts the figure as €9 million, which is still decent enough.

In any case I hope none of the chiefs misunderstand our fans concerns because we just want them to understand our reasons behind them. Just as was our case during the summer, and I for one was deeply disappointed when Andrea Della Valle decided to step down citing this as the reason.