From the Sidelines (From Richmond and Twickenham Times)

From the Sidelines

4:38pm Thursday 8th January 2009

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Brentford manager Andy Scott is far from being alone in his lack of love for football’s transfer window.

January is the month when agents go into overdrive, trying to secure a move for their clients, and there is little doubt that managers bear the brunt and their phones never stop ringing.

Scott, like many others in football, preferred the days when there was freedom of movement through to March and believes the window benefits the big clubs – to the detriment of smaller clubs.

There is a counter argument for clubs such as Brentford, however, who are in the thick of the promotion issues.

I am sure one or two other clubs will be casting envious glances at some of the Bees players who have performed so well under Scott’s tutelage this season.

The good news is that, come the end of the window, no one can come up with an offer that unsettles a key player, or could see a pivotal member of the team leave.

I would also have thought that the transfer window benefits managers who have taken great care in building a squad and team spirit, as Scott has, rather than those who look for short-term fixes and panic buys.

Scott himself pointed out that he made good use of last season’s transfer window to turn around what had, until then, been a dog’s dinner of a campaign under Terry Butcher.

As it turned out, Brentford’s board made the correct decision to entrust Scott with their transfer deadline dealings and there can be no coincidence that, again this year, there have been a spate of manag- erial changes ahead of the transfer window as clubs look to ensure they use it to their maximum advantage.

The latest this week saw Nigel Clough swap Burton Albion for Derby County – a long overdue switch into the big time for a manager who has been consistently successful in the higher echelons of non-league football for more than a decade.

It did, however, occur to me that there should be a cut-off point after which managers should not be allowed to switch clubs.

Clough left Burton 13 points clear at the top of the Blue Square Premier, and it will be interesting to see whether Roy McFarland can finish the job.

Back to Brentford, the damage to their promotion ambitions of losing a key player at a pivotal point of the season would be nothing compared to that if a higher-ranked club decided Scott was worth taking a punt on.

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