Yesterday, many people across the nation – from die-hard football fans to bemused stock market analysts – were, like me, caught up in the drama of football’s “transfer window”. What a crazy – if hugely entertaining – way to conduct recruitment.

For those that don’t know, the football clubs in the English Premiership can only sign new players within a select period of time, known as the transfer window (the same systems applies for most other national football associations). It begins on the 1 July and closes on the 31 August (it was 1 September this year as the 31 Aug fell on a Sunday). Then there’s a second one, which arguably exists for the purposes of clubs who realized they had hired duds in the previous window, or need some quick cash by selling off their star player, between the 1 and 31 January. But, for reasons unknown to most, everyone seems to leave their buying and selling till the very last minute, holding their breath and squeezing through the window before it shuts.

If you missed yesterday’s frenzied action, the biggest news was that Manchester City sold itself in the morning – new owners came in from a phenomenally rich Abu Dhabi consortium – and by the evening had broken the British transfer record by buying one of the world’s best young players, Robinho, out from under the chequebook of Roman Abramovich’s Chelsea (who now comparatively seems like the ‘old money’ aristocracy). And Sir Alex Ferguson finally got his man by signing the Spurs striker Dimitar Berbatov, using tactics that would make even the most aggressive City headhunter blush.

Imagine if you only had a month in which to recruit and to sack all the staff necessary for your next year’s financial success? Say it was BP’s CEO, heading for Shell, who then got snapped up by Texaco who ran in at the last minute and thrust a more lucrative contract under his/her descending pen? In a way, it might make things easier – get it all out of the way, feel safe and secure in the knowledge that your staff ain’t going anywhere, and you can plan the coming months knowing they’ll be no surprises. Although, I can’t help but feel sorry for the Abu Dhabian who now needs to get their head around the Tupe regulations.