Take 1: Well, deadline day appears to be coming and going, and as Earnie was seen still in Birmingham earlier this morning... Take 2: Well, deadline day is almost at an end and it seems as if this little Canary is about to see a wish come true – Rob Earnshaw in yellow and green.

TAKE 1 - JANUARY 31, 5PM:

Well, deadline day appears to be coming and going, and as Earnie was seen still in Birmingham earlier this morning, delivering pints from his fastest milk cart in West Bromwich, it was always a fair bet that his battery-operated float wasn't going to make it to Norfolk! Pity. I rather fancied seeing him in the yellow and green and he's absolutely wasted at The Hawthorns, in my humble opinion. Plus I'd like to see that famous forward flip/machine gun celebration in our colours to see if the super fast mixing of them does indeed produce blue!

And then there was the Bluebird seen hovering in the skies above Cardiff, pondering a move to more easterly climes. Shame it is sunny in the west and downright cloudy and grey here on deadline day. No wonder Cameron Jerome decided to stay put in the warm! Even the extra 50p in the meter at Colney couldn't tempt him away from Wales, though I should think the presence of Jason Koumas (remember him? . . . creative midfielder) might have been the clincher!

Down south, further south than our invaders of this weekend, lay yet another reported target who just wasn't playing ball - well, for us anyway! Since abandoning his career selling car manuals, inner tubes and anti-freeze at his dad's business, Greg Halford has obviously become quite a hit with Colchester fans since he's firing on all cylinders and regularly overtaking opponents in football's fast lane. Well, as there aren't any motorways here, small wonder he chose to ignore our tractor-laden country lanes and stick to tarmac heaven!

Finally - of the ones we currently know about - there was a last-ditch bid to prize Queen's Park Rangers defender Danny Shittu away from the capital that failed, despite the incentive of the odds of the weekly baldies v hair bears training game at Colney being heavily stacked in his side's favour!

At least the City faithful has something to ponder in two Premiership bodies in the form of Charlton striker Jonatan Johansson and Fulham defender Zesh Rehman. Hallelujah for loans, then, as it seems the rest of the Championship sides were intoxicated by the sniff of pennies gained from the Ashton sale and decided to push up their asking prices.

TAKE 2 - JANUARY 31, 9PM:

Well, deadline day is almost at an end and it seems as if this little Canary is about to see a wish come true - Rob Earnshaw in yellow and green, by heaven! Just when I thought Earnie's little old milk float wasn't going to make it, we offered a few more gold tops to buy him.

This I cannot wait for as I have long been an admirer, and I believe he could just be the real injection of pace we have been lacking up front for some while. He's a proven regular scorer at this level and will surely be desperate to prove a point . . . so bring on the old enemy for I feel a “Leon two seasons ago” scenario coming on!