THE MANAGERS

STEVE BRUCE (Aston Villa) THE transfer window should be closed for Premier League clubs BEFORE the season starts.

That would stop the madness we saw on Thursday night.

I played for Alex Ferguson at Manchester United and he rarely let things go down to the wire. Of course, there were exceptions, but they were few and far between.

As a rule, he did all his business early in the summer, very soon after the season ended.

There was no need for the scenario we saw the other day.

Same as Alex, Jose Mourinho got his business done early and that is how it should be done as far as I am concerned.

Management is difficult enough but to maybe lose a key player three games into the season and then have to replace him in a short space of time is so difficult.

For me, the window should close before the start of the Premier League season. As for the Football League, I don’t think there should be a window. It blocks young players being able to go out on loan and getting valuable firstteam experience and playing time. SEAN DYCHE (Burnley) THE madness of it is that a manager can be judged by those first two or three games of the season.

Having bought or sold players once the season has started can make a huge difference. It can change the whole situation.

If, for example, you’ve had three players who have helped you and then they get sold, that can have a high impact on the manager’s role. In this game you can go from being a hero to zero very quickly.

Our striker Andre Gray joined Watford just before the start of the season for £18.5million and takes with him inside knowledge of our pre-season planning.

He moved just before the start of the season and in theory he could take all the work we’ve done in pre-season and let Watford know it.

Ideally, you want the deadline 10 days before the first game because usually those final 10 days are when you are fine-tuning for the season.

You don’t really want any of your best players leaving.

So there are many reasons why the deadline should be pushed forward. Any transfer work would just have to be done earlier.