The Sky presenters were falling over themselves with excitement as the clock in the corner of the screen ticked down.

"And with only three hours, 13 minutes and 41 seconds to go, it is all hotting up," declared one. "We're in for a late night so why not join us because it's all going to happen."

And happen it did. Right up to 1am-ish (though I do admit to sacking it in about an hour earlier) when Manchester City announced they wouldn't be signing the player that Sky had informed us all day would be definitely going.

The transfer window is now four years old. How did we possibly survive without it?

Every five minutes, the presenters would switch to a reporter with a mobile permanently clamped to his ear. This guy would then rattle off as many "whispers we've heard" in the space of 30 seconds before his phone would go off again on cue.

"Got to go now that's the Fulham press office getting back to me."

Cue the cheesy grins of the presenters and another excuse to remind the viewer that it's still all happening here.

Then they would shoot off on location to our man in Newcastle/Manchester/Portsmouth/the car park to tell us exactly the same news we'd heard in the last bulletin.

Occasionally there would be snatched interviews with players who couldn't wait to get away. Jermain Defoe looked particularly happy to be kept from his bottled water in the back of the blacked-out Mercedes that had transported him away from the Tottenham subs' bench.

"So this move is really happening then?" "Yeah, suppose so." "You must be really excited about playing football". "Yeah, that's what I wanna do."

Yet, it was strangely riveting television.

But no more transfers now until the summer when we can go through it all again.

Make a note in the diary, the next transfer window closes on August 31. By my reckoning, that leaves only six months, 29 days and 13 hours remaining!

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