Don't expect many transfer fireworks!

Aug 29 2010 by Mark Douglas, Sunday Sun

THE 24-hour news channels will be breathless. Twitter and internet message boards will go into meltdown.

But Chris Hughton and Steve Bruce reckon that the North East transfer fireworks will be few and far between when the transfer window slams shut on Tuesday.

With money tight, Manchester City wielding all the power and the emergency option of the January window, clubs are unlikely to panic unless they have endured a nightmare in the first fortnight.

And seen as neither Newcastle, Sunderland nor Middlesbrough qualify on that front – the North will only see a handful of deals done.

“Generally there isn’t something that just comes out of the blue,” Newcastle boss Hughton said.

“All of the moves are in the pipeline before the deadline – 90 odd per cent of your business has been negotiated long before the final day.

“But I have got calls for my players on the last day of the window – someone ringing up with a bid – and you’ve got to be around and to be available to listen to them.”

That won’t stop Sky Sports News doing it’s best to hype it up though. The channel has its knockers but you can’t deny it is entertaining – even if the live pictures of Big Ben and the ruddy-faced excitement of presenter Jim White are a bit over the top.

But scratch beneath the surface and is deadline day really like that? Well yes and no, according to one of the region’s leading administrators.

Carlisle MD John Nixon recalls one deadline day when they spent 12 hours negotiating a loan deal for Michael Bridges from Hull.

And last season he remembers a coach trip to Southend for an away game in which neither he nor boss Greg Abbott were off the phone.

This time he envisages less panic buying. But he reckons last night’s results will have prompted some worry in boardrooms across the land.

“We’re expecting to start getting calls from about 5pm on Saturday,” Nixon said.

“That is when teams will be travelling back from games with some of them thinking ‘Hold on, we’ve not started as well as we thought we were going to do.’

“Those teams will be looking at the next 48 hours as critical.”