Why Scott Sincair Is Manchester City's Player Who Most Needs a January Transfer

Scott Sinclair is the Manchester City player who most needs a January transfer because what remains of his career's prime is rotting on City's training grounds.

Sinclair is not the most famous flop of the ill-fated Manchester City summer transfer class of 2012, but he is surely near the top of that list.

Heralded as a pacy winger who could help then-manager Roberto Mancini open up the Sky Blues' offense, Sinclair instead sputtered badly in his 11 appearances under Mancini.

Sinclair did not show new boss Manuel Pellegrini enough to fit in the new regime, so Sinclair ended up on loan to West Bromwich Albion.

Simon Jones of the Daily Mail reported in May that Southampton were "tracking Sinclair in a bid to revive his ailing career. City are keen to shed their playing squad to comply with FIFA's Financial Fair Play Regulations."

That deal never materialized. Part of City's difficulty in moving Sinclair is that the entire Premier League (the footballing world, really) knows that City want rid of Sinclair.

"The winger is surplus to requirements at City and has barely featured under boss Manuel Pellegrini," wrote Paul Handler declaratively in the Manchester Evening News.

City surely know that they are going to take a hit on what they paid to Swansea City to acquire Sinclair. At this point, City are apparently trying to limit the damage moving Sinclair will do to their books.

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At some level, though, City ought to be happy that anyone is interested in Sinclair after he wasted two-plus seasons of his athletic prime.

"Sinclair has not started a game for City this season and has only begun two league matches for them since joining from Swansea for £6.2 million in 2012," wrote Richard Jolly for ESPN FC recently. "Pellegrini has admitted he will let Sinclair leave if the right offer comes in."

That transparency is probably a significant stumbling block in City's efforts to rid themselves of Sinclair. If everybody knows City desperately want Sinclair gone, they are surely not going to overpay for his services and will try to buy him at a distressed seller's discount.

Unfortunately for Sinclair, though, City are never going to be that distressed a seller. The £3 million that Sinclair might bring in a transfer fee is essentially a rounding error on City's books. Moving Sinclair will not do much to alleviate City's Financial Fair Play concerns.

This is how City end up spurning an apparently willing buyer in Aston Villa. 

"We can't do what Man City are asking us to do at this minute," said Villa boss Paul Lambert per Jolly's report.

So Sinclair sits and waits, and presumably hopes that some club will meet whatever City's unspoken price is for Sinclair in the transfer window.

If he is not sold, the best Sinclair can hope for is another loan deal. After the largely wasted time he spent at West Brom, though, Sinclair might actually prefer sitting in Eastlands and cashing wage checks.

Sinclair will not get to play much high-level football that way, but with City locked in a battle for a repeat Premier League title and headed for Champions League knockout play, he will at least see a lot of it.