Dawson

“Making it clear that he wouldn’t be signing a new contract once a Championship club had come in for him, accepting an ‘undisclosed six figure fee’ became a no-brainer for the club.”

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So, after some half-hearted speculation, one or two deals of mediocre-at-best importance (Zamora to QPR probably being the standout… exactly) and the ritual day-long boreathons on Sky Sports News and the BBC website feed, the transfer window has slammed shut.

And to what end? Well, if nothing else it will ensure that clubs getting into financial difficulties won’t be able to ease their woes by selling off a player or two, which is ironic seeing as the rules were brought in at the insistence of the European Commission to protect smaller clubs.

Ostensibly it allows clubs to hang on to their better players by creating a shorter window of opportunity for big clubs to steal them. In reality, it gives the buying club far more power due to the advent of the Bosman ruling, as the selling team are forced to make snap judgements on whether to keep players or lose them for nothing in the summer.

It’s also incompatible with EU employment regulations, but no-one really seems to mind.

What with many deals happening at the last minute, the opportunity to replace key players now relies solely on the loan market or the charity of clubs releasing players from their contracts so they can be signed as free agents – after a week, of course. Having lost top scorer Nikica Jelavic, Rangers’ last gasp bid for Grant Holt characterised what Orient Chief Exec Matt Porter calls the “…horrendous culture of panic” that the transfer window causes. Whilst for many (Premiership) football fans deadline day is a case of: “Where’s our big money signing?” for the rest us it’s the far more worrying: “Please don’t make our players one of your big money signings.”

The bear pit atmosphere is summed up perfectly on SSN who dedicate an entire day of their programming to the window to the detriment of all else in the sporting world. The requisite older, semi-respected male journalist/dolly bird who’s on there because daddy was a sportsman combo pounce upon reported sightings of players at grounds and Conference sides loaning League One youngsters with un-ironic gusto. At least the sight of roving reporters shivering in sub-zero temperatures outside Premiership training grounds (“No Hayley, still no activity to report here at Stoke”) raised the odd schadenfreude-induced smirk.

Watching SSN whilst simultaneously refreshing the Beeb’s flow of user-driven effluence (‘My mate’s mum’s dog walker just saw Wayne Rooney arriving at Carlisle’s Brunton Park for talks – Gordon, Renfrewshire, via text’) was made all the worse by the fact that, in comparison to last year, nothing happened. There was no Torres saga; no Carroll/Suarez double swoop; no will Charlie Adam/won’t Charlie Adam kill Blackpool’s survival hopes. Just a Liam Ridgewell transfer saga, a Zamora/Cisse double swoop and will/won’t Sebastien Bassong go on loan to Wolves. Oh, and Leyton Orient sold their captain.

Up until around half six last night, the transfer window had been kind to Orient. Aside from two loanee left backs being recalled leaving us horribly short in that position, the O’s had secured three coups for the club. Athletic midfielder Tom Taiwo joined on a season long loan with a view to a permanent move from Cardiff, classy centre back Dean Leacock (who has had two very good games since arriving) was snapped up upon his release from Derby, and Dean Cox put pen to paper on a new 3.5 year deal with the club.

The retention of a player who has 19 goals and 30 assists in the past 18 months – and who attracted a £500,000 bid from Peterborough last summer, but could leave for nothing in July - was a massive boon for a club which saw fellow left-sided raider Charlie Daniels sold to Bournemouth and top scorer Alex Revell leave for Rotherham earlier in the season. Cox’s fantastic working relationship with Russell Slade made up the player’s mind, and hope was kindled that the remaining mainstays of last season would be kept together.

Alas, it was not to be. After making it clear that he wouldn’t be signing a new contract once a Championship club had come in for him (especially as it was on oop Narth, where his girlfriend and daughter still live), accepting an ‘undisclosed six figure fee’ became a no-brainer for the club.

His loss will be keenly felt on the field, where his leadership, driving runs and off the ball movement are integral to how Orient play when they’re being effective. One of the resolutely static duo of Marc Laird or Jimmy Smith is going to have to work out how to find space in midfield or Matt Spring is going to have about 90% of the possession in any one game while he waits for those in front of him to make themselves available.

As you would expect, there have been the usual catcalls of derision from the fans at his departure, with some decrying a lack of loyalty from the skipper (this being the same Steven Dawson who turned down a late contract offer from Swansea 18 months ago in order to honour a gentlemen’s agreement to sign for us) and others a lack of ambition from the club (we offered him a hefty new contract and turned down a £40,000 bid for him earlier in the window). Personally, I can’t see why either party should have done anything differently.

Russell Slade has publically acknowledged that there are gaps in the squad which need rectifying, and Matt Porter’s twitter feed should offer some hope to disappointed O’s fans: “…we have ambitions to make it to the second tier… Russ has an outstanding knowledge of what is out there and when the time is right we will make our moves.” How and when we do so will determine how serious those ambitions really are.

In the meantime, it’s perhaps important to remember that even though we have sold a number of good players this season, it wasn’t so long ago that we didn’t have any players worth selling. If Orient can keep signing free players whom we can sell on for large amounts of money even in the ‘austerity age’, it’s got to be better than releasing deadwood into the Conference South like years gone by, hasn’t it?

Follow me @KidSampsonO and England’s second oldest fanzine @leytonorientear on Twitter.