What would you like and what do you think we will get?

Like

CM to replace Marney (had he not been injured this would still be nice given Defours average minutes, Marneys age and Bartons possible ban)
Winger - direct, with pace and an eye for goal
Striker - on loan as a back up to replace Bamford but hopefuly a pedigree of some sort at this level to push the others

I think experience at this level would also be vital in at least one of these areas particularly as we get to the important part of the season where a cool head and a bit of nouse is very handy.

What will we get

Winger on loan from a prem club

Just have a gut feeling we wont buy anyone and we will use our free loan to get someone in last minute.

An injury to Hendrick or Gray and we could be really snookered.

Ideally business completed on the 4th January.

Realistically teams need to find replacements even if they're willing to sell. Then they want to advertise the offer in the hope of creating an auction, which they can push for as long as the bids continue coming in. All we can hope is that at 11.00pm on the last day we come up with a winner.

I think a perfectly realistic expectation for this transfer window was always to secure a winger capable of improving the first eleven immediately and adding a bit more pace to the team (so Brady is the obvious example of this), plus a central midfielder to understudy Marney (presuming Ulvestad is no longer considered to be that man), plus a striker to understudy our main 3 now that Bamford has gone back. Those understudies should be genuine first team squad players who can add depth and options to the squad now, but be potentially really big players for us in the future.

That is still doable.

I'm not sure an ideal transfer window exists. You just do the best you can.

A wide man, preferably with pace as well as quality.
A fourth striker and a first team central midfielder, this becomes a priority now, after the loss of Marney and the potential loss of Barton to a ban.

Ideal? Bale, Messi, and Ronaldo, for starters; I'll think about the midfield later. We're OK in defence and in goal.