Boss reflects on busy January transfer window

David Artell says that the January transfer window was the toughest one yet of his reign in management. The Alex boss was busy during the month with Perry Ng and Harry Pickering securing moves to Championship clubs. Winger Offrande Zanzala was an earlier mover to Carlisle after his contract was ended up mutual consent and defender Eddie Nolan moved on loan to Motherwell.

The Alex boss moved quickly to bring in Billy Jones on loan from Rotherham, Nathan Wood joined on deadline day from Middlesbrough to join his fellow team-mate Stephen Walker and the former Everton U-23 midfielder, Ant Evans joined us on loan after a short spell in German football.

Artell told the club’s official website: “It is the incessant nature of football management and we will have to wait and see if our business in January is a success or not. I thought we did some decent business in what I thought was the toughest window yet.

“It is always harder in January than the summer because of the time you have to get deals over the line.

“The first one was a bit of a whirlwind because I missed the first 8 days of it and it was our first one and all that - but the other ones after that have not been like the one we have just experienced.

“It was what it was and every manager would like to do more of course. We tried for some forwards and it is great to be in that market now for players who went elsewhere for £7,000 a week or join a top club in Turkey. It shows the calibre of player we would like and although our resources are light years away from paying £7,000 a week, it is great to competing against clubs with that sort of budget.

“We worked hard to get to this level and it goes to show how far we have come when we are in that market. “