Window closes and who will be nominated for manager of the month?

Sean Dyche - manager of the month candidate?

Early on Thursday it looked as though the Kuwaitis were splashing the cash with four new players set to arrive at the City Ground including one former Claret. Those due were George Boyd (Peterborough), Chris Burke (Birmingham), Danny Fox (Southampton) and Stephen Ward (Wolves).

Not one crossed the line. What happened to three of them is anyone's guess but Boyd failed a sight test although was up to driving back to Peterborough to face the Clarets two days later. McLeish, speculation suggested, was on his way after just days in charge but, for now, he's still the manager.

Just to rub salt into the wound he had to return to old club Birmingham on Saturday. Predictably he came home with no points and, just to rub it in even further, Burke scored both Birmingham goals in their 2-1 win.

Barnsley probably had the best week of all. They started in next to bottom position and they might only have moved up one place but picked up six points from wins at home to Millwall and at Blackpool.

They are only two points behind Wolves now and a further point behind Bolton who surprisingly are fifth from bottom despite, according to the words of their last manager, having the best squad in the division, the one he'd built.

The team in the worst sort of form right now are Middlesbrough. They were nicely placed at the turn of the year in third place and a comfortable ten points clear of Nottingham Forest in seventh place.

Then the wheels came off and they are still to pick up a point in 2013 having lost to Derby, Watford, Leicester and now a 4-0 reverse at Ipswich. They were tipped to make some big signings in the window but only the injury prone Kieron Dyer arrived with big target Danny Graham opting for a move from Swansea to Sunderland.

That leaves Tony Mowbray out of the running for the manager of the month for January but who are the likely candidates. Nigel Pearson's Leicester had a 100% record in the month, winning 12 points out of 12. Three other managers saw their teams collect nine points - Gianfranco Zola, whose Watford team played one game more, Sean Dyche at Burnley and Charlton's Chris Powell.

The results and usual stats are below along with this week's fixtures.