This is no ordinary January transfer window for Manchester City, but then this is no ordinary season for manager Pep Guardiola.

His team -- winners of the past four Premier League titles -- are 12 points adrift of leaders Liverpool in this season's race, with fixtures against Arsenal, Newcastle, Liverpool and Tottenham all to come in February.

Participants in two of the past four UEFA Champions League finals, City's hopes of continuing in this season's competition rest on the result of their make-or-break game against Club Brugge at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday. Win, and they carry on. Lose, and it's an early exit from European competition for the first time since 2012-13.

In response to what has been a difficult start to the campaign, City are trying to regenerate.

While battling to save their season, striker Erling Haaland has been signed to an unprecedented 9-year contract, and 130 million has been committed to sign three new players -- Omar Marmoush (60m, Eintract Frankfurt), Abdukodir Khusanov (40m, Lens) and Vitor Reis (30m, Palmeiras) -- in the January window so far. And there is the prospect of more to come before the deadline on Feb. 3.

It's a different approach for City, who haven't made a significant January signing since bringing in Aymeric Laporte for 57m from Athletic Club in 2018.

City's shift in thinking about transfers

Man City have been forced into action in part because of the injuries that have decimated the start to their season. But there's also an acceptance that changes to the squad should have been made last summer. Instead, after winning a record fourth consecutive top-flight title, Guardiola decided to stick with the players he knew and trusted.

Savinho, the 20-year-old winger, was brought in for 30m from City Football Group members Troyes, after impressing on loan at Girona, another of City's sister clubs in LaLiga. That would have been the sum total of the incomings had Ilkay Gündogan not unexpectedly become available on a free transfer from Barcelona, just a year after leaving City to move to Camp Nou. Five months on, and Guardiola has already admitted it was a mistake not to do more to refresh the squad when he had the chance. Amid struggles in the Premier League and the Champions League, he has paid the price.

"In the summer, the club thought about it and I said, 'No, I don't want to make any signings,'" he said in a news conference before the 2-2 draw at Brentford. "I relied a lot on these guys and thought I could do it again. But after the injuries -- wow -- maybe we should have done it."

The season-ending knee injury to Ballon d'Or winner Rodri in September has been the most damaging, but other key players have faced issues, including Rúben Dias, John Stones, Mateo Kovacic, Nathan Aké, Manuel Akanji, and Kevin De Bruyne. The problems in defence have been so severe that 19-year-old Jahmai Simpson-Pusey has had to start games in the Premier League and Champions League, while midfielder Matheus Nunes has been used as an emergency right-back.

"Last season we didn't do much, due to the exceptional quality of the team," Guardiola said last week. "We anticipated three or four [signings] and we should do it in summer. We had to do it here [in January] for the amount of injuries, the problems that we had."

Injuries to defenders have had a major impact on City's January transfer business. Sources have told ESPN that 20-year-old Khusanov and 19-year-old Reis were pencilled in as targets for next summer. But they've been fast-tracked to the Etihad six months ahead of schedule to guard against more problems at the back in the second half of the season.

There are questions over the durability of Stones and Ake after numerous injury problems, while captain Kyle Walker joined Milan on loan after expressing his desire to move on. In the case of Reis, who has made only 22 senior appearances for Palmeiras, City agreed to pay more (around 30m) to bring him to the club now. Palmeiras' original plan was to keep him until the summer and have him available for the FIFA Club World Cup.

Both Khusanov and Reis are predominantly centre-backs, but might find they're used at right-back -- at least for the rest of the season. Josko Gvardiol, another young defender signed by City, arrived from RB Leipzig for 77m in 2023 as a centre-back, but has been used more frequently as a left-back.

Continuing injury problems meant Khusanov had to be thrown straight in from the start against Chelsea on Saturday. In a disastrous first five minutes, he gave a goal away, misplaced a number of passes and was booked for chopping down Cole Palmer. It was a tough introduction, in part because the Uzbekistan international had only a handful of training sessions with his teammates before his debut. It was made more difficult by the fact that he doesn't yet speak English and January signings don't get the same bedding period that benefits summer arrivals.

Why City moved for Marmoush despite risks

There is hope that Marmoush -- older and more experienced -- is better placed to make an immediate impact.

Sent on loan to the second tier of German football as recently as 2021, the Egypt international shot to prominence after scoring 37 goals and providing 20 assists from 67 games over a successful 18 months at Frankfurt following his free transfer from Wolfsburg in 2023. Signing Marmoush for around 60m is considered a risk by some at City, despite his fantastic start to the season with Frankfurt, but one they are willing to take.

City began the window with little hope that Frankfurt would entertain offers for him while they were so well-placed in the Bundesliga (they're third after 19 games) and in the Europa League (they're second with one round of games left to go in the group stage). Frankfurt knocked back an opening offer of around 50m to sign the 25-year-old, but after negotiations in mid-January, a fee of more than 60m plus add-ons was agreed.

According to sources, Man City's stance is that they had hoped winger Oscar Bobb could fill the void left by Julián Álvarez (who left in an 81m deal to join Atletico Madrid) in the summer only for the Norway international to suffer a broken leg on the eve of the Premier League season. It was unfortunate timing given how well Bobb had performed during preseason.

City have struggled defensively this season but have also struggled for goals. Before Phil Foden's recent burst of form, their second top scorer this season behind Haaland was Gvardiol, a defender. The hope is that Marmoush can chip in with goals in a similar manner to Álvarez, who averaged one every three games before he joined Atletico.

The Álvarez deal largely helped City fund their January signings, as it handed City a profit of around 65m on the modest fee 15m they paid River Plate in 2022.

On top of that, the club agreed fees to move on academy graduates -- counted as pure profit on the books in terms of Profit and Sustainability (PSR) rules -- which could total 276m in the past five years alone; including Taylor Harwood-Bellis (20m, Southampton), Liam Delap (15m, Ipswich Town), and Cole Palmer (42.5m, Chelsea). It means that while other clubs are battling to stay on the right side of PSR, City are able to spend freely while digging themselves out of a hole.

There's a chance there will be more to come before the deadline, too, with the club actively looking at central midfielders. They would be interested in former City player Douglas Luiz if he's allowed to leave Juventus this month; Éderson at Atalanta is another option, although a deal in the summer is considered more likely. The same goes for Juventus full-back Andrea Cambiaso.

Like January, the summer window is likely to be another busy one for City. Among other things, the club are watching closely what happens with Joshua Kimmich and Jamal Musiala as they approach the end of their contracts at Bayern Munich and sources have suggested there could be some big deals on the horizon.

City have used January to try to save their ailing season; Guardiola will hope they've also taken the first steps towards building his next formidable team.

Los Angeles Lakers big man Anthony Davis will be out for at least a week after being diagnosed with an abdominal muscle strain, the team announced Wednesday.

Davis exited during the first quarter of Tuesday's 118-104 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers due to the injury and did not return.

The Lakers said Davis underwent an MRI on Wednesday, will return to Los Angeles and is set to be reevaluated in approximately one week. That will rule him out for the remaining three games of the Lakers' road trip against the Washington Wizards, New York Knicks and LA Clippers.

"When our best player goes out, it's always challenging," LeBron James said after Tuesday's game. "If he's out from the beginning, then we have a game plan set. We know what to expect, we know what our lineup is going to be. But when AD or any one of our guys go down throughout the course of a game, it's just tough."

Dorian Finney-Smith started the second half in Davis' spot against the 76ers and finished with three points and three rebounds in 19 minutes.

Davis had been on a tear entering Tuesday, averaging 32.8 points on 58.2% shooting, 15 rebounds and 2.5 blocks during the Lakers' four-game winning streak. He finished with four points on 2-of-3 shooting, two rebounds and one steal against Philadelphia.

Atlanta Hawks forward Jalen Johnson will have season-ending surgery to repair an injury to his left shoulder, sources told ESPN's Shams Charania on Wednesday.

Johnson is averaging career highs this season with 18.9 points, 10 rebounds (leading the team) and 5 assists in 36 games.

He sustained his injury in a Jan. 23 game against the Raptors when he blocked a layup attempt by Toronto's Scottie Barnes.

The Hawks (22-25), losers of six straight games, are in ninth place in the Eastern Conference standings.

The Cincinnati Reds have signed veteran lefty Wade Miley to a minor league contract, sources tell ESPN.

Miley, 38, is recovering from elbow surgery after missing most of last season while playing for the Milwaukee Brewers. He's expected to return early in 2025, and this will be his second stint with the Reds. He played for Cincinnati in 2020 and 2021, throwing a no-hitter in his latter season with the team.

Assuming he makes it back to the major leagues, 2025 will be Miley's 15th big league season. He has a career 4.07 ERA while bouncing around the NL Central over the second half of his career. He's played for the Reds, Brewers and Chicago Cubs -- all since 2018. He began his career with Arizona where he finished second in Rookie of the Year voting back in 2012.

Miley has pitched almost exclusively as a starter where he's won 108 games over the first 14 years of his career. He provides depth to a younger pitching staff as Cincinnati hopes to improve on its fourth place finish last season.

Worcester Warriors, Wasps and London Irish all went bust during the 2022-23 campaign, during which nine of the remaining 10 Premiership teams saw debts of 1m or more.

Gloucester- whose debt totalled just over 541,000 - was the closest to breaking even.

The salary cap is voted on by all Premiership clubs however St Quinton says it should be no higher than the money centrally distributed to the clubs each season.

A new Professional Game Partnership was announced in September, in agreement with the Rugby Football Union (RFU) and Premiership Rugby, that sees all clubs receive 33m per season over the next eight years.

"The cap should not be no higher than the levels of central distributions that we get," St Quinton said.

"If our central distributions went up because our media rights went up and our sponsorships went up then the salary cap could go up.

"We are all living beyond our means which is why the annual losses of all 10 clubs is over 30m which is madness. The whole club game, the model is flawed."

Romain Ntamack will make his first France appearance for 17 months in their Six Nations opener against Wales on Friday.

The fly-half suffered a serious knee injury in a warm-up game for the 2023 World Cup and missed that tournament as well as last year's Six Nations.

The 25-year-old returned to fitness for his club Toulouse but then injured his calf before last November's Test matches.

However he will partner club-mate Antoine Dupont at half-back against Wales in the opening match of the championship on Friday evening.

Dupont, 28, missed the 2024 Six Nations in order to focus on sevens before his home Olympics in Paris.

Oscar Jegou and Hugo Auradou, who were investigated over rape claims last year before they were dismissed in December, will start on the bench.

The two players, allowed to leave Argentina in September, always denied any wrongdoing and said the sex was consensual. The plaintiff has appealed against the court's decision and the next hearing will take place on 10 February.

Auradou returned to action with Pau in October while Jegou was back in November with La Rochelle.

Their inclusion on the bench is escalated by injuries to flanker Charles Ollivon - who is out for the rest of the season - and lock Thibaud Flament's muscle issue.

British and Irish Lions duo Josh Adams and Liam Williams return for Wales' Six Nations opener against France in Paris on Friday.

Wing Adams has not featured for Wales since the 2024 Six Nations, while full-back Williams' most recent international appearance was on last summer's tour of Australia.

With more than 150 caps combined, they bring a wealth of experience for what promises to be a stern test in Paris.

Dafydd Jenkins, Wales' captain in the 2024 Six Nations, is also back in the side at lock.

Williams was absent for last year's tournament as a result of his stint in Japanese rugby, but returns after rejoining Saracens in November.

Evan Lloyd and Henry Thomas are given their first Wales starts in the front row alongside Gareth Thomas, while lock Will Rowlands partners Jenkins in the second row.

Wales captain Jac Morgan starts at flanker with James Botham on the other side of the scrum while Aaron Wainwright has proved his fitness to start at number eight.

Taulupe Faletau misses out, with Wales head coach Warren Gatland saying he was not quite ready after suffering a knee injury earlier this month.

Ben Thomas is given the nod ahead of Dan Edwards at fly-half, with the latter set to win his first cap from the bench.

Tomos Williams will partner Thomas at half-back, while Owen Watkin and Nick Tompkins form an experienced midfield.

Tom Rogers and Adams are named on the wings, with Williams starting at full-back.

Ruben Amorim has admitted his first few months at Manchester United have been the most intense of his career but also "the most special."

The Portuguese manager took over at United in November after Erik ten Hag was sacked with the team 14th in the Premier League.

Amorim suffered six defeats in his first 11 league games at United, the worst start from anyone in charge at Old Trafford since 1932.

Asked if the last few months at United had been the most intense of his career, Amorim, who had guided Sporting to two league titles in four years, told TNT Brasil: "Yes but also the most special ones.

"The two sides of one coin. I knew it, I knew that it would be an exciting adventure. I knew it was going to be very difficult because everyone knew the calendar that we had and the lack of time [we had to prepare].

"We also had the notion of the challenges that we would find and obviously, with a few defeats everything becomes a little more complicated."

After their last defeat, 3-1 at home to Brighton & Hove Albion on Jan. 19., an alarmed Amorim called the team "the worst, maybe, in the history of Manchester United."

Amorim would later regret making that comment. United have won their last two games since Amorim's outburst and are 12th in the Premier League.

"There's no point in looking at the [Premier League] standings right now because we are not top or in the top positions," Amorim said. "We need to be aware of the context. I don't look at the standings, I look at what the team is doing, what we have to improve on.

"The important thing is that we have a clear idea and a clear path of what we want to do. Even in challenging times we are not lost.

"Perhaps we are more frustrated and angry but we know where to go.

"To feel the support of the fans despite the bad results is a sign that we are doing something well."

Amorim made headlines earlier this week when he blasted out-of-favour Marcus Rashford for not giving his best.

Rashford was left out of the team for the 11th successive game by Amorim during United's 1-0 Premier League win at Fulham on Sunday.

"I will put [63-year-old goalkeeper coach Jorge] Vital on before I put a player that doesn't give the maximum every day", he said of the England forward.

Asked if that was a message not just to Rashford but to all of his players, Amorim told TNT Brasil: "I don't want to send messages to anyone.

"I'm demanding when it comes to certain things ... I think in order for a group to win games and win titles you have to follow a criteria and if that criteria wasn't there, everything would be subjective. There are certain things that have to be very clear with the players."

Amorim, meanwhile, explained the reasons behind Casemiro's lack of playing time under him.

The veteran Brazil midfielder, who is in his third season at United, last played on Dec. 30.

"We realised that Casemiro nowadays has other things [to offer], such as intelligence, his understanding of the game," Amorim said of the former Real Madrid star.

"But we are in a domestic and European league where the difference in intensity and physical demand is great and hence, I feel that this team needs high intensity players that at times we don't have.

"We all know Casemiro's quality, what he has won. It's simply a selection [issue]."