Stan has to admit, he was not overly worried about midnight striking this time round.
There were two reasons for this: first, the loan system allows for transfer dealings to go on in between the official transfer window.
Given that we – as with many other Championship teams – now rely on loans to make up our squad, the workings of the window were thus rendered academic in our little world. This, of course, is not good for the game, but neither is much else at the moment.
Second, we all know that our No1 target will not get here until December at the earliest. As such, Stan kept the radio off – an easy thing to do given that it was full of Man City fans celebrating their colonisation by the oil barons – and finished watching the third series of The Wire.
Come 11 o'clock and off to bed, content in the knowledge that Saint Glenn would probably pull something out of the bag in time for Plymouth away – that most heart-warming of fixtures and the graveyard of many a manager, player and dreams alike.
As it was, daylight brought with it better news than Stan expected.
Although, as predicted, the Iversens remained neighbours to Father Christmas, we had filled the 'last piece of the jigsaw' with a quality striker right out of the 'in-betweenies' draw that we heard so much about at the end of last season.
Indeed, from amongst the millions of names thrown about over this summer, Antoine Sibierski was one of the more realistic and appealing.
Big and strong; good in the air; good on the floor. Though not blessed with a Hucks-like turn of speed (who is?), he has better feet than Iwan and more mileage to go on his clock than Dion. All in all, a good signing and – if he is all fit and working – one that will help us turn decent performances into winning ones.
Stan would like to think, too, that the board will do their job and find a little investment to ensure that Sibi stays post-December and battles it out with Iversen for the number 9 shirt. Who knows, we may even have a strike force to reckon with come the New Year.
There was other business, of course. Shacks got thrown to the Wolves, and Stan wishes him the best of luck.
Shacks was a frustrating player. He had the potential; he had the left foot. What he never had – bar the odd game with Dion at the back – was the experienced mentor to show him the way.
In the end, he formed the ill-fated partnership with Doc that bungled along for at least a year too long. Quite why neither Worthy nor Grant dealt with this is anybody's guess – and even Glenn almost bungled it with the Tiny debacle.
Now, with Stafanovic and Kennedy looking like the real deal, Shacks' time was up. As such, good luck old chap, you served us well.
As for Jonathan Grounds, Stan pleads ignorance. You cannot argue with Boro's recent record of finding young talent, and so Stan presumes he's more Pearce than Henry in terms of quality.
So, there we go. Hardly the merry-go-round that it could have been, but nor was it the painful anti-climax of previous years.
Our squad is looking pretty good, bar the caveat that half of it could disappear in January.
Behind the scenes, Stan hopes that plans are afoot to make at least Kennedy a full-time Canary. Stan imagines, too, that the pursuit of Iversen will continue once Rosenberg finish their season in November.
As it is, we now have – effectively – our fourth brand new squad in five seasons. Let's just hope that this time, it's a good 'un.
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