As transfer windows go, that one was pretty much a non-event.

Since the introduction of this mid-season player market a few years ago, the 31 days of January have rarely thrown up so little to get excited about.

Usually there are one or two big signings that get the blood flowing but this year it appears money was too tight to mention for all the big boys. I guess it’s always an indicator of how much cash is available in the market when even Chelsea don’t spend a penny, despite a defensive crisis.

In truth, only West Ham seemed to have received their new cheque book in time, buying Louis Boa Morte, Mathew Upson, Lucas Neil, Calum Davenport, Nigel Quashie and Kepa Blanco.

The rest of the top flight, with the odd exception here or there, has sniffed around a few free transfers or bargain buys, preferring to make do with what they already have on their books.

The biggest surprise, to me, is that Wigan and Charlton didn’t follow West Ham and spend big. Normally I wouldn’t support the concept of buying your way out of trouble but it worked for Portsmouth last season.

Going into the January transfer window in 2006, Portsmouth were bottom of the league and with no hope of staying up. They spent 25 million during the window and promptly survived.

Obviously not every struggling club can do that but I would have expected a bit more of a financial fight from the two out of the bottom three with a realistic chance of staying up.

Only time will tell whether it is money not well spent or intelligent stinginess.

Season ticket e-mail

I have received a few e-mails this week from people asking if that story about the season ticket and the wife was true. “Is it possible anyone could be that daft,” one asked.

Well, yes. It’s true. She did buy him a Manchester United season ticket for this season. And yes she did give it to him last week. On his birthday. Twelve games and 40 goals late.

I know. The mind boggles…

Chant of the week

Chant of the week, if not the entire season, has got to be the one at St James Park a short while ago.

In time-honoured tradition the Newcastle fans decide it would be nice to take the Mickey out of their West Ham counterparts.

However, this time their rivals fought back.

“Going down, going down, going down!” the Geordies sang.

“So are we, so are we, so are we!” the Hammer fans sang back.

Truly excellent.

Premiership’s big four

Three of the Premiership’s big four should be afraid. They should be very afraid.

If that was future-Arsenal that beat Spurs on Wednesday then future-United, future-Liverpool and future-Chelsea should be quaking in their boots.

It’s not just that Arsenal’s kids are good. It’s how good they are at such a young age that should worry their rivals.

At the moment I would say the top four are pretty close in terms of first team. Maybe Manchester United and Chelsea are slightly better than the other two, but not by a huge margin.

However, take away their respective first 11s and the Liverpool, United and Chelsea reserves look fairly ordinary.

Arsenal’s combination of back-up players and kids, on the other hand, looks world class. Fabregas, Baptista, Aliadiere, Denilson, Hoyt, Senderos, to name but a few.

As one paper put it this week, while the other three have built teams capable of winning for a short period of time, Arsenal are busy building a dynasty.

From what we have seen of these young gunners so far it looks like the next decade of Arsenal players is already taken care of. And you can’t say that about the others.

Arsene Wenger has now promised to give the kids that got Arsenal to the League Cup final their chance in the final itself. Which is fair enough.

But I certainly wouldn’t bet against any one of them making it to a lot more finals during their Arsenal careers. A lot more.

Quote of the week

Unexpected witty quote of the week goes to Tony Adams.

The former defending legend, now assistant manager at Portsmouth, was reminiscing when he first met Alex Ferguson. “Fergie said that I was a Manchester United player in the wrong shirt – I said he was an Arsenal manager in the wrong blazer.”

Apparently he went out for a drink to celebrate his wit and never looked back.

Meanwhile, I couldn’t let the column come to an end without mentioning Jose Mourinho.

We all know he is more than capable of a weird quote every now and then. But this one just takes the cake.

“When I read a few things, I smell a few coats,” he told Gary Lineker during an interview.

Hmmmm….

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