Spud’s teaser: Which player did we sign on the last day of the transfer in March 1997 only to fail the fitness test?

The Pink Un: Grant Holt - signed by Bryan Gunn for around £400,000 - is proof that buying 'cheap' can work . Picture: ANTONY KELLYGrant Holt - signed by Bryan Gunn for around £400,000 - is proof that buying 'cheap' can work . Picture: ANTONY KELLY (Image: © ARCHANT NORFOLK 2009)

(Answer at bottom)

This coming Wednesday at 11pm, the transfer window will close. It will end another crazy month of rumours, sightings of players shopping in local supermarkets and people doing strange things behind Sky Sports reporters’ backs.

It’s now 15 years since the transfer window began, after Fifa brought the rule in. Actually, it’s reported it was the English football authorities who initially thought of the idea of the transfer window in the early 1990s.

It was hoped to improve football clubs’ stability and prevent agents from searching for deals all year round. Well, sadly in my opinion, I think clubs are lot less stable and agents have gained more from footballers and clubs and it’s made it a lot worse for the game.

Before the transfer window was allowed, it had to be agreed by all competitions’ governing body.

I personally am not a fan of the transfer window. I honestly believe, with how it is now, it has ruined the game we love. We end up with two periods in a year where clubs will just up their fees for the players, agents gaining more than ever, and, overall, smaller clubs suffer.

Like many things in football I am old school and I preferred when there were transfers throughout the season until the second last Thursday in March. If you needed a player you could. None of this waiting for a transfer window. Then there was the last transfer day in March always finishing at 5pm. I remember it well. I would spend that Thursday evening flicking through Teletext pages to see who’s left which club.

My favourite last-day signing must be Efan Ekoku’s signing in 1993 from Bournemouth. Top of the league going into March and manager Mike Walker, along with many Canaries, was hoping he was the final piece to provide us with a bit of history and score the goals to win us the inaugural Premier League title. It wasn’t to be – but he did score two goals on the last day of the season in a 3-3 draw against Middlesbrough to confirm third place and the next step to European football.

Now we have Sky Sports presenters repeatedly saying the same things before Jim White tells us how long is left before the window shuts. And that’s not including in the past David McNally telling us we could go to bed, as there’ll be no more transfers.

I’m not sure if Steve Stone will be telling us supporters if we can go to bed on Wednesday, but I won’t be waiting up to find out.

I must say I have been impressed with the work of Daniel Farke, Stuart Webber and Stone in this transfer window. Slowly but surely we are definitely changing our team, hopefully for the better. It appears we are definitely reducing our wage bill. It’s sad to see certain people go, but this is definitely an exciting new chapter in the history of our fine club.

The four, yes four, signings in the last week definitely sound exciting – even if I didn’t know any of them a few weeks ago. I definitely hadn’t heard of Moritz Leitner and Dennis Srbeny before Wednesday. But what I’ve seen, read and heard sounds promising. Sadly, at the same time I’ve heard negative comments about us buying on the cheap. You just can’t please some people. All I would say is some of the legends through the years have been bought on the cheap – Grant Holt and Wes Hoolahan to name but two. But we must be patient with them.

Whilst I believe we’ve done well, I would like one more striker. We are one injury or suspension away from having a lone striker, – but is it me being greedy?

Whatever happens between now and Wednesday we must do our bit by supporting the club; you never know what may happen before the end of the season.

Come on you yellows.

Spud’s teaser answer: Simon Haworth