Transfer deadline day has thankfully passed and we can stop worrying about how many millions Manchester City have spent or whether Sven has lured Ashley Cole to Notts County. It’s funny to be mentioning these two clubs in the same sentence – you can say Man City or Manchester City, whereas it’s Notts County and only Nottingham County if Sven says it (you can hear Sven saying “Nottingham County” in his own distinctive way, can’t you?) And, as usual, it comes with all the rumours, panic and damp squibs.

Column inches are filled with details of unknown East Europeans, who presumably spend August in a cheap hotel near Heathrow, so that they are ready to sign for any club that enjoys the last minute scramble to add to the squad. Of course, it’s not confined East Europeans. There will be “Mick from Hull” posting on the BBC website that they have just seen Richard Dunne on the M62 services buying a Costa coffee with a street map of Hull spotted on the front seat of his car, while “Excited of Southampton” has posted one minute later that Richard Dunne was spotted at a Happy Eater just outside Southampton. Get real, “Excited of Southampton”.

For the fans, it’s a day when work has to take second place. Refreshing your club’s website every five minutes changes the focus of your day from that important sales meeting to dreaming of the line up next week. How would Barnsley fit Kaka into their diamond formation if he joins? Excitement reaches fever-pitch when you see your club’s website has changed after 40 checks. But it’s a huge come down when that reserve you have never seen, although you have heard some good reports, has been loaned out to Kettering Town for 3 months.

And then, the deadline arrives. There’s a feeling of loss. It’s hard not to keep checking for a further two or three hours in case news has arrived late or the fax to the FA was jammed in the fax machine and the FA have allowed a dispensation for a late registration. Sadly, there is no more news and nothing to do. The preparation for tomorrow’s sales meeting can wait until the morning and all we have to look forward for the rest of the week are the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy ties.