It is that time of year again, when the transfer window wish list is drawn up by managers and, the men in charge decide whether or not to give the present incumbent the financial backing, or bring in someone new, in the hope of translating a new appointment into a few extra points.
So as well as it being the end of the panto season, the great football pantomime of the managerial merry-go-round is also very much on our doorstep.
The January transfer window is a particularly brutal time for players and managers alike, with chairmen feverishly punching away at calculators to see how much they can make available. Very few contracts are up in January, which means that whatever players are available, are generally those who are surplus to requirements at their clubs.
Rich pickings
There is never the amount of money spent during the winter window as there is before the start of the season. Squads have already been overhauled and even if a big club is struggling, it is highly unlikely that any chairman will sanction another huge cash splurge during January. Particularly if you have already shown to be reckless in the last window, and of course, money can apparently buy you what you want. However, what you want and what is available in January are usually at the opposite ends of the spectrum.
Managers up and down the country will be scrupulously checking back on their bulging notepads to see if someone has caught their eye in the hope that he alone might save his job.
Players, having not been involved in recent squads, will already have been banging at the manager's door in the hope of either a reprieve, or a way out. One man's stew is another man's steak pie and it's amazing how rejuvenated and revitalised a player can be, moving from one team’s reserves to the first team at another.
Scraps
Then the window itself opens and the flood (or trickle) of movement begins and as usual the last minute frenzy ensues as the clock ticks down on the final day. One thing that has always amazed is the amount of deals that are pushed through at the last minute. Jim White sitting at 22:55 scrolling frantically down his iPad searching for left-field rumours and transfer gossip. It's a question I’ve been asked many times by fans "why do they always wait til the last day in January"? Well, the truth is, it's not deliberate.
Throughout the month, budgets are discussed and manipulated and players come and go, but in the last week the risk factor comes into play and, in the last chance saloon game of poker, someone breaks and shows their hand. As is always the case, you have never been able to get in as many as you want and as more become available, the inevitable last minute game of 'one in one out' begins as you try to squeeze every penny from your by now, sparse budget. Jim's pixels go into overdrive as the last of the scraps are gleefully hoovered from the transfer table.
Finally, back to those chairmen sitting in their boardrooms with fingers poised. Sit back, take a deep breath and give your managers' one last chance. You might just find it's better to see the devil you know as you look out the window in January.
David Farrell
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