From Sofa to Seat 114 - Deadline Day

Transfers. The hope, the intrigue, the betrayal - it’s what we as football fans live for. After months of rumour, speculation and hearsay, it comes down to this - deadline day.

I’m not a big fan of transfer deadline day. It’s mostly overhyped nonsense that seems to be manufactured to keep Sky Sports hacks gainfully busy. As a Liverpool fan, it’s never been much of a feature. Since Klopp has been in charge, they haven’t tended to do much business at the end of the window. While I’ll usually casually refresh my browser throughout the day for news, it’s never the edge-of-your-seat kind of stuff that seems to happen at other clubs like Spurs or Chelsea.

It was with some surprise then that I actually found myself fully invested in last Wednesday's proceedings. And not really how I expected. While Liverpool pulled out a major surprise in signing Arthur Melo, it wasn’t this deal that I found myself willing over the line. As the clock ticked down, it was the signature of Michal Helik that was giving me the most cause for concern.

I’d heard rumours he was on his way for about a week or so and it sounded very much like a done deal. Yet here I was, still waiting for confirmation from the club that he’d signed. As the day rolled on, this passing concern turned into mild panic as there was still no news. Had there been a hold-up on the M1? Had Leigh Bromby’s fax machine run out of ink? Maybe Helik had changed his mind and was actually off to Nottingham Forest with everyone else? There was a rumour that he was at the training ground mid-afternoon but still no news from the club's official Twitter feed. As 11 o’clock came and went, I was despondent. While we’d brought in Simpson and Mbette, it looked like the player I really wanted had slipped through our grasp. Thank god the morning brought better news. Helik had actually been announced fifteen minutes after I went to bed.

Checking the team sheets on the way to the match it was pretty disappointing not to see any of our new signings make the starting eleven. With Simpson injured, Mbete out with a concussion precaution and my new hero Helik not deemed match fit after an injury hit pre-season, I was all poised for an underwhelming afternoon of football. Town duly delivered.

Even without the help of Hawkeye, Blackpool kept Huddersfield at arm's length for most of the match. There’s no point in having possession if you don’t know what to do with it, or worse, if it’s just an invitation to make a mistake as happened a few times in the first half. It looks like there’s a lovely player somewhere inside Jonathan Russle but he’s never going to show it passing backwards all the time. I can see his speed isn’t a problem if he’s pinging the ball about, dictating play but when he’s not, everything he does just slows the team down. By way of contrast, it was nice to see Pat Jones for the first time. He looks a talent and the sheer fearlessness of his performance bodes well for the future. Once his delivery is even half sorted, he’ll be creating chances that I can see Danny Ward banging in every day of the week.

I’m sure this is just my naivety but there is just something about the end of the transfer window in the Championship that seems more honest compared to its Premier League counterpart. The whole thing lacked the obscene desperation of spaffing many multiple millions of pounds on decidedly average players. I wonder if it’s partly down to this contrast that I actually quite enjoyed deadline day. It felt almost virtuous knowing that each and every one of our signings wasn’t paid for by the Saudi state or off the back of a dubious leveraged buyout. Say what you like about Dean Hoyle, but you’ve got to admit that it’s good to know that his money has come from selling nice things like books and birthday cards.

I’m really looking forward to watching our signings grow together as a team and maybe even pick up a point or two along the way. God knows we could do with a few right now.