West Ham United boss Sam Allardyce branded deadline day as "terrible".
Allardyce wrote in the London Evening Standard: "Quite frankly, deadline day for me was terrible. I was on the telephone all day - in fact most of the weekend after the Liverpool game - the problem was that either the deals were too expensive or the players we were interested in wanted permanent deals rather than loans, which the club favoured.
"Loans, up until now, have always been more straightforward because clubs have wanted to unload certain players. This time though - and it looked like it was across the board and not just us - the players wanted permanent deals.
"Another factor was that there weren't as many players available - full stop. Because of the way things are going, clubs are more inclined to hang onto their players now, rather than sell them."
