I get the excitement of the January transfer window now that I've been out of the game and watching as a fan, I see all the scenarios with the supporters getting excited as well. But actually, there are some many other complications on why deals do not go through.

I never moved as a player in the January window, I only had three clubs and the moves I done were always in the summer. So I never experienced it from a player point of view but from a managerial point of view I was both a buyer and seller.

I've experienced selling a player for financial reasons when you didn't really want to sell them, for example Jack Butland, who I managed at Birmingham City and then sold to Stoke City and then they loaned him back to us. That was done in January window because we needed the money. I didn't particularly want to sell him at that time. I believe if we had of kept him with the club a little bit longer we would have got a bigger transfer fee.

And then obviously you have the opportunity to bring players in, but the market gets very inflated and it's very difficult. Say if you're a manager and you're looking for a striker, and the clubs that I was working with, with the exception of Huddersfield, weren't really in the market to pay transfer fees, so you're going to find it very, very difficult to get a striker of any quality in the January window on a free transfer because you're probably going to get a striker who is surplus to requirements at his club. If you're wanting to get that type of player you're probably going to have go a couple of divisions up and then you have the issue of handling their personal terms.

It becomes very difficult. It's like a domino effect. You're waiting for one big deal to happen and then it has a ripple effect back down to you four or five levels below or four or five players knocked on. So it's a bit like a chess game really. Do you go and dive in on something maybe that you don't want? Or do you wait and try right until the end? It's crazy really when you think about the business that gets done at the end of it, everyone would like to do there business early. That's chief executives, owners, managers, the players. Everyone is playing a game of poker with each other and that's why the last couple of days get manic. I've had success on holding back and going for it. When I've got them in early things have happened and worked well and sometimes it hasn't.

You have many, many facets of the window. It's not just simply buying the player. And the higher you go up it gets harder because there are such a small pool of players that have the ability to play for the bigger clubs, so everyone seems to be in for them. If you're after a player there's probably another five or six clubs in for that player so you have to fight those clubs and convince the player why you're the club is the best solution for his career, and you also compete financially with those other clubs for the player.

For all the teams struggling in the relegation battle, their January activity all depends on how much they value their Premier League status. If they think they've got a fighting chance of staying in the league I think without a shadow of a doubt, go for it. Having a couple of seasons in the Premier League gives you fantastic finances, it's just trying to take those calculated risks, as an owner or manager, to stay in the league.

Looking ahead to this weekend and I'm excited for the FA Cup fourth-round. It is the best domestic cup competition in world football. As a manager, I took Huddersfield to the Emirates to play Arsenal. That was a fantastic experience. My players playing against the likes Cesc Fabregas and people of his ilk. And as a player, the furthest I got was the semi-final against Chelsea. I was never lucky enough to get to the final but I've been there a couple of times as a supporter. It's a special competition and I hope that things start to improve and teams take it more seriously. They seem do in the later rounds but we've got to try and make sure that teams get a run in that competition.