Roma and Napoli were elected the winners of the winner transfer window in Serie A by La Gazzetta dello Sport, with Milanese clubs AC Milan and Inter going for quantity over quality.
As is customary after every transfer window, La Gazzetta gives a vote to all Serie A clubs based on their activity in the transfer market. The general feeling this time around, however, was that no Italian club had landed a major bargain with the window described as "imperfect."
"It's just another sign of a Serie A which struggles to set any kind of agenda, thriving only on loans and very rare, isolated deals," wrote La Gazzetta before electing Roma and Napoli as the two main winners this winter, with only 6.5 out of 10.
Roma's signings of Seydou Doumbia and Victor Ibarbo were two of the most expensive acquisitions in January, while the last-minute arrival of Spolli was anything but a panic buy as he provides much-needed depth to the Giallorossi defence.
Two weeks after arriving from Sampdoria, Manolo Gabbiadini scored the goal which was worth three points for Napoli last weekend, and that alone has paid off a big chunk of the 12 million-euro outlay.
Napoli are now up to within four points of second-placed Roma with full-back Ivan Strinic also regarded as a hit following his move from Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk.
There is no doubt about which club did the most deals in Italy, but that does not necessarily equate to a successful month for AC Milan, who led the way in terms of loan deals.
Mattia Destro, Suso, Alessio Cerci, Salvatore Bocchetti and Luca Antonelli all arrived without a fee being spent -- or at least with payments deferred until the summer -- while just one million euros was spent on Gabriel Paletta from Parma.
They recouped half a million euros from the sale of Riccardo Saponara to Empoli, but despite adding a lot of new names to Filippo Inzaghi's squad, questions are being asked about how big an impact the many new names will have.
Across the city, Inter fans are in a similar position after the arrivals of Lukas Podolski, Xherdan Shaqiri, Marcelo Brozovic and Davide Santon. They too will receive the bill in the summer for Shaqiri, who like Podolski, has yet to open his account for his new club.
At the bottom of the spectrum, Juventus were not even rated for merely swapping Sebastian Giovinco for Alessandro Matri -- one fringe forward replaced by another -- while Parma ranked in the very same place as their league position -- rock bottom.
Things could yet get worse for the Gialloblu, who lost Antonio Cassano and Paletta, with midfielder Daniele Galloppa warning of a mass exodus if overdue salaries are not paid by the middle of the month.
All in all, though, the low marks given by the Gazzetta are to be seen as "a provocation" for the declining competitiveness of Italian football.
Fiorentina's sale of Juan Cuadrado to Chelsea for an overall fee of 35 million euros practically balances the expenditure of the 18 Italian clubs combined who, in difficult times, had to resort to the footballing equivalent of panic, payday loans to see them through to the end of the season.