The silver lining behind the Butland non-deal

I was pretty excited when Birmingham City accepted Chelsea's bid for Jack Butland. Buying cheap, talented youngsters and then selling them on for a profit down the road, even if you don't expect them to do much for your team, is a good way of avoiding Financial Fair Play regulations without resorting to cheating, and Butland would have been a superb backup for either Petr Cech or Thibaut Courtois had he decided to move to Chelsea.

But he didn't, because of playing time concerns, which means we get more of Hilario and Ross Turnbull. Booooo (although good for Butland for turning down a Chelsea move in order to play more football. You have to respect a youngster who'll do that). We're not getting a new backup goalkeeper, probably... but there is a silver lining as far as this deal is concerned.

Chelsea moving in on Butland, who would have been part of the first team squad had we acquired him, means that Rafa Benitez's claim after the Brentford draw, in which he said that the club was definitely not buying anyone new this January, has been proven rather conclusively false. The club is still going after people, and if you want a more competitive side than the one we've been seeing over the past few weeks, that means that there's still hope.

Let's hang tight and hope for some fun on Thursday.