Deadline Day: Behind the scenes of a football transfer

«It's madness. Every time it comes around, it shortens your life by another two years. You would never conduct any other business in the same manner.»

Ah… the transfer window. A cause for excitement and intrigue among fans — but a «horrible experience» for those directly involved in it.

If only it was as easy as creaking up your laptop lid, opening your Football Manager 'save' and giving the mouse a few clicks.

However, the harsh reality is, it is just a tad more complicated than that. But just how does it actually work?

With January's deadline approaching, we dusted off our BBC Scotland detective hats and made a few calls to find out what goes on behind closed doors.

So you are in the shoes of a club manager and have identified a problem area in your team. You need a clinical goalscorer to find the back of the net, or perhaps an imposing centre-back to sort out your leaky defence, what next?

You will firstly have to liaise with your scouting and recruitment department, providing your club has one.

«You're in constant dialogue with the manager,» a former top-flight director of football tells BBC Scotland. «You need to know what type of player they're looking for. This takes place on an ongoing, weekly basis.

»You will often be instructing your scouts to look at certain types of players a year in advance. Say you need a left winger, do you need one that goes on the outside, one that'll cut inside or one that'll score at the back post?"

Once the specifics have been ironed out, your scouting team will aim to provide you with a longlist of suitable targets.

Then you are treated to endless hours of going through all potential options, narrowing the list down to your top four or five targets you can pursue in the upcoming window.

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