Jim White: What I've Learned

The transfer window deadline is like an election night. There's an electricity and a great unpredictability to it all, and football agents and managers are like politicians – you very rarely get a straight answer from them on deals

Fans will do anything to get on the telly. They turn up at the training ground in t-shirts, braving force-10 gales to stand behind one of our reporters for 12 hours. They get soaked, but some of them hang in there all night.

The countdown gets bigger every year. I've become the face of the window on Sky Sports, along with my co-host Natalie Sawyer, and I'm thrilled about that. I was in Sao Paolo in Brazil recently, when two guys from Coventry came up to me in a restaurant and asked if I was looking forward to deadline day. I said, "Lads, we're in Sao Paolo. Surely there are other distractions?"

Top teams are constantly trying to steal players from one another. There's a manic scene going on amongst the top clubs because everyone's out to do business under the noses of their main competitors. It happened last time when Chelsea got Willian, even though he had completed a medical at Spurs. It's fascinating. There's virtual theft going on in front of us.

There's a lot of mickey taking going on. A few years ago, a Spurs supporter emailed the studio claiming he'd spotted Kaka waiting at Seven Sisters station waiting to be picked up.

Everyone needs to bring their A-game on transfer deadline day. Even the cameramen on the road, because somebody unexpected might get out of a car at the training ground, or a newly-signed player might jump into a people carrier at a stadium, usually at night when the car park's in total darkness.

An Arsenal fan once wrecked his TV because Sky Sports News cut to a