Almost everyone I spoke to yesterday was of the same opinion, transfer deadline day was deadly dull.

Even the biggest move of the day Robbie Keane to Celtic was a loan deal, and taking a look at the list on the BBC you can see the pattern of loans and frees that made up the day’s deals.

A telling quote on the Beebs transfer deadline day coverage was from Simon Austin who said,

“I’ve just been to interview a sports consultant at Deloitte. They estimate only £21m has been spent in the January transfer window so far, compared to £170m last year and £150m in January 2008.

There haven’t been any £10m signings this year and only one for £5m, which Spurs paid Portsmouth for Younes Kaboul.

There were seven £10m signings last January – three were made by Manchester City (Nigel de Jong, Craig Bellamy and Wayne Bridge), three by Spurs (Wilson Palacios, Jermain Defoe and Robbie Keane) and one by Arsenal (Andrey Arshavin).”

Recession has hit football and clubs are cutting their cloth accordingly, the situation at Crystal Palace and Portsmouth stand testament to that, the days of the big money signings are over for all but the richest clubs in the Premiership. and even then Arsenals re-signing of Sol Campbell shows that the the biggest clubs are looking for value and bargains.

This means it isn’t easy for the fans.

At Derby, I think we must have had more loan players than any other club, so far I can count James Vaughan, Paul Dickov, Jake Livermore, DJ Campbell, Bryan Hughes, Frederick Stoor, Nicky Hunt, Michael Tonge and Javan Vidal all in on short terms loans so far. Of these we now currently have Hunt, Tonge and Vidal in the squad.

For the supporters this is unsettling, but Nigel Clough hasn’t got much cash and he’s having to supplement the team with the best short term replacements he can. Our strike pair of Campbell and Dickov have gone to be replaced by permanent squad members Chris Porter and Steve Davies who have come back from injury who can now play up front alongside Rob Hulse.

Rams fans though were warming to Campbell who could have provided some pace for our side and scored twice against Peterborough, and now he is playing for Championship rivals Blackpool almost before he got started at Derby and Paul Dickov had a good run with us, as Rams fans always appreciate a player who gives a lot of effort, but I guess its all about the wage bill nowadays.

Dickov is now out of contract, but whether Derby sign him up remains to be seen. It could be that he may want more than an end of the season deal in which case I can’t see the Rams going for this.

Clough has now brought in a right back (Vidal) and a decent midfielder (Tonge), so the Rams didn’t do too badly out of deadline day and more importantly we didn’t lose Rob Hulse (now a Derby legend for scoring a winning header against Forest) and Kris Commons. So our fight against relegation has, in my opinion had a boost. Despite what some Rams fans think about Hulses’ recent form I think he’s a quality championship striker.

However, Its not just Derby, other teams are losing loan players that have come in to do a job and now face losing them to rivals.

Forest for example had a capable left-back in Nicky Shorey on loan from Aston Villa who has now found his way to Fulham.

Now there are certain types of player that can expect to play for three clubs a year, once players like Hameur Bouzza were an exception, now they are a rule.

This makes it difficult for supporters, whilst we all want to see permanent ‘marquee’ signings to signal that the club has the ambition to compete, and we want to see good sort-term loan players sign permanently for the club, the financial landscape just isn’t like that at the moment, particularly at a club like Derby were there has been little stability in the way of the managerial team over the last five years.

Players are just going to come and go at teams and teams are getting used to the idea of swapping players like confetti and trying before they buy.

So whilst some Derby fans will moan and groan about the boards lack of investment in our fight against relegation and the lack of permanent signings, I think they and Nigel Clough are doing a sensible job at the moment. Of course the fan in me would love to see Derby sign a million-pound player.

I’d much rather they run a tight ship and get the club working as a business for this season at least, than harbour unrealistic achievements and end up like Palace and Portsmouth. Its more important than ever for clubs that want to survive that they watch the pennies.