THE decision to bring next summer’s transfer deadline forward to before the Premier League season starts is understandable, but I've never understood what was wrong with the old system.

I would have suggested a return to the days when transfers could take place any time until around March.

In those days, with not so much money around, most clubs were mainly looking to bring players in because of injuries.

The two windows were introduced in August and January to settle things down, so there weren’t too many transfers during the season.

But the outcome has been that transfers have all been packed into a small period of time, which has created some ridiculous situations.

Last week, Leicester City missed out on the £22m signing of Adrien Silva after missing the deadline by 14 seconds!

Even though there is an extension of two hours while negotiations take place, apparently Leicester did not get the paperwork to the Football Association in time despite flying home in a plane hired at a cost of £40,000!

Leicester are currently appealing the decision.

We will not have situations like this during next season but the decision to bring the deadline forward was not unanimous and means the European clubs have an extra few weeks to do their business.

Five clubs, including the two Manchesters, voted against it and for some reason Burnley abstained.

The change brings with it problems which are no doubt the reason for these clubs not being in favour.

One is that the new date only applies to our Premiership clubs. Football League clubs can carry on as normal.

But the biggest single impact is that the European clubs now have an extra four weeks to do their business.

So while our clubs will not be able to bring a player in once the games start, they are in danger of big overseas clubs coming in for one of theirs.

In that situation the answer of course is to do what Southampton did with Virgil van Dijk. They knew there was interest but categorically said ‘we don’t need to sell this player, who was happy to sign a long contract and is staying - end of story’.

But when you hear of situations like Chelsea’s Diego Costa, who went AWOL in a bid to force a move, you realise how much player power and, in particular, agent power has changed things.

Television money has made our league arguably the world’s strongest and certainly the most viewed, but it hasn’t necessarily changed everything for the better.

Talking about the old days, I had the most surprising and enjoyable reunion with Terry Venables on a recent trip to Spain.

We were visiting our son Chris, when an English taxi driver took me down a small road 40 yards long on the quiet estate we’d been visiting.

He said “guess who’s in here?”, knocked on the window and out came a very sun tanned and surprised El Tel!

I hadn’t seen Terry for many years but knew he had more or less emigrated and that he and his wife had run a very successful small hotel up in the hills somewhere.

But he happened to be at a house close to the one we were staying in.

We reminisced about many things, including the time he was number two to the shy-and-retiring Malcolm Allison at Crystal Palace when they met us in the 1976 FA Cup semi-final.

Terry of course went on to have a wonderful career as manager, not only at club level but at international level.

Like most of the expats, he regularly tunes in to the Premiership.

One of the other subjects we discussed was Wayne Rooney and the sort of reaction he can now expect at away grounds – and the Everton dressing room.

It took me back to a time when one of my senior Southampton players, who had probably had one or two drinks too many after a late night, was driving a young lady home when he realised he’d been spotted by a police car.

He made a quick decision to accelerate up a country lane before jumping out over a fence and across a field.

Surprise, surprise! The police were waiting for him when he got home as he’d forgotten that his number plate was made up of his initials and shirt number!

There was an embarrassed silence the next time he was in the dressing room with the rest of the squad. But it was soon broken when Mick Channon dropped the paper he was reading and said: “You had no chance, the police knew who you were because the lady was beating you by four or five yards!”