TRANSFER window; hmmm, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing. Say it again.

The new signing and selling system was introduced to bring English football into line with the rest of Europe.

Which can only lead us to believe that what Europe has had to put up with is a pale shadow of the anytime anyplace system we have enjoyed in this country since time began.

The first transfer window closed on January 31 and what a damp squib it has been.

Everybody was looking forward to January so that all the pent up transfer activity could explode with players shooting here, there and everywhere and multi millions of pounds could change hands just like the good old days.

January arrived and nothing happened. A few days later still nothing. Be patient, some said, clubs must be waiting until the last week when the prices go down.

But the last week has come and gone with agents still twiddling their thumbs wondering where the golden goose ran off to.

In short, the transfer window has been a waste of time all round.

It has not helped that clubs are hard up because of their past overspendings on players' wages. But that is not the reason for the lack of transfer activity.

Trying to do transfer within a restricted time space is like trying to pee in public. The pressure makes it almost impossible.

Managers have got clubs, agents and the player to satisfy financially. Then there is a medical, the terms of payment and the problem of rival clubs trying to gazump you. And throughout it all there is the little matter of five or six matches to prepare for.

The old way was the best for everyone. The fans had more transfer speculation to banter over and a new player coming every few weeks or months to get excited about or one leaving to moan about.

No, there's only one person I can see who likes the transfer window, Terry Venables. And that's because when it closed he knew his board couldn't sell any more players while he's not looking.