Sean Gregan's exclusive column

Transfer deadline day is fun to watch I guess. Sky do it well with the yellow ties and everything else.

But I’m of the opinion the window should be shut before a ball is even kicked.

Manager’s can get their squads sorted out then and know what they’ve got to work with.

Either that, or you should go back to how it was back in the day and allow clubs to buy people at any time.

I’m not sure what was wrong with that.

Now you’ve got a system where there’s a month of games with the window still open.

It’s a farce to be honest. Look at what’s happened with North End and Jordan Hugill.

I imagine if someone had come in and met their valuation for him then he might have been on his way.

But they wouldn’t have had time to bring anyone in.

He ended up making a transfer request but now you would hope he will get his head down as he always has done and do his bit for the team.

North End have given him the platform to perform and he’s really come on in the last 18 months.

He’s come from non-league and used to have another job alongside his football. In terms of being a professional he’s still quite young.

I guess we’ll just see how things stand in January.

It might be he stays for a bit and then if the right offer does come in it might make all parties happy.

You never know though. Wolves are a big club and Reading made the play-offs last season but they could be down at the bottom and North End might be challenging in the play-off positions in the new year.

It would have been interesting to be in the dressing room when he went in for training on Wednesday after his transfer request had been turned down.

In my experience how the other players react depends on why they want to move.

For me, I had a chance to go and play in the Premier League and at 28 my time was running out.

That’s the only reason I left North End.

Dressing room’s are generally pretty self policing places though. That was certainly the case when I was at the club.

A couple of people will have a word and if he gets his head down then things will settle down.

Whatever’s gone on attention will soon turn back towards the football this weekend.

There’ll have been a couple of days off here and there during the international break but now it’s almost back to a normal week ahead of the game against Barnsley, apart from a couple of the players being away with their countries

North End have done well after starting the season with some tough fixtures.

There are no easy games in the Championship but the supporters will be looking at this as one their team should win.

I’m sure that’s what the manager and players will be looking to do so they can pick up from where they left off.