David Sullivan has hit out at the January transfer window describing it as “the most horrible, horrible month and the last day is just horrendous.”

He told the Daily Telegraph:  “You have got players in the middle of nowhere and you are being told ‘you’ve got to sign him’! Thank God this time we don’t have to sign anyone desperately.”

And he added: “It’s very hard to castigate certain players but under Avram (Grant) we signed a player who was on £90,000-a-week and we paid his full wages and a big fee to an agent. Did that player help us a lot? I don’t think so. But you are desperate.

“[Three years ago] we signed Robbie Keane on loan. The classic example. Avram said ‘get me Robbie Keane and he will keep you up’. Well, we got Robbie and when he was available he was a decent player – but he was injured most of the time.”