Iwan Roberts on deadline day, Slimane and Craig Bellamy

They just don't know what they are going to have to work with until it closes, which is not how it should be with the season already underway.

You could lose the most influential player you've got on the last day of the transfer window and then you’ve got to wait four or five months - even four or five hours - before you can replace him, unless you've got irons in the fire.

I’m going to say Josh Sargent - I wouldn't be surprised if there will be some cheeky late bids for him from Premier League clubs. He's had a good start for the season, he's got amongst the goals, he's looking sharp, he's looking quick, he looked powerful for his goal on Saturday.

The club would be naive not to have something ready just in case someone makes a bid that they can't turn down, a bid that they have to take. It would be negligent if the club didn’t have two or three targets, just in case.

But the truth is, the window should be shut before the season starts. It is absolutely ridiculous.

Back in my day - and I understand why it's changed – the last day that you could sign someone would be the last Thursday in March. You had the whole season to sign players, so I get that because the likes of Man City, Man Utd, all your big clubs could strengthen for the run-in.

I understand why it was changed and it is for the betterment of the game, it makes it more competitive the way it is now. But managers must be having sleepless nights pulling their hair out and that's why it's hard to predict where you think certain teams will finish - it's hard because that squad could lose some key players in the last two or three days of the window which could disrupt everything.

Clubs have had all summer to work out deals, three months, why leave it to a mad scramble?

If you look at the money that's been generated with the sales of Jonathan Rowe and Gabriel Sara – both on the cheap side if you ask me. I think they both possibly should have gone for more money – if you get all the add-ons then obviously it would make up for that, but there's never ever any guarantee of that.

So teams think, ‘they’ve got a bit of cash, they've lost some key players but they've got a few points to spend – put another couple of notes on the valuation of our player’. Then you're in a dilemma. You don't want to overspend, and rightly so, and sometimes you have to walk away from a deal, persevere with what you've got without maybe a Josh Sargent or a Jon Rowe or a Gabriel Sara.

They can’t sell Sargent - he looks a proper player at this level, he'll score goals at this level. I think he will score goals at Premier League level. There's a lot of centre forwards in the Premier League who won't get you double figures, and I think he gets you double figures in the Premier League with the positions he puts himself in and the work he generates in his performances.

There’s been a big difference to what City have done this summer compared to a year ago, and it’s the influence of the new head coach. David Wagner didn’t mind a more experienced, old professional coming in, but Johannes Hoff Thorup is a bit different. He's used to working with younger players, that's one of his strengths, developing and making younger players better and getting them ready for first team football. I'm not surprised that the players he has brought in are at a younger age.

What that gives you as well as a football club is a sell-on value. You’re not going to get anything for Shane Duffy, you’re not going to get anything for Ashley Barnes, two players coming towards the end of their careers, and both on the higher side of the earnings.

This is how football clubs do it: they go for younger players to develop and coach, make them better, get them ready to play first team football and if they progress like they hope they will do, two or three years down the line they sell them for big money.

Toughening up

Anis Slimane (Image: PA Images)

Anis Slimani will be just what City need.

He's only 23, looks a big boy and he’s played a few games as well – over 100 for Brondby and had Premier League experience with Sheffield United last season. He looks a proper physical specimen, which is what City look like they could do with in midfield.

I think there's a bit of a soft belly about the team at the minute. Before the opening game at Oxford I wrote about the need for patience – new head coach, new style of play, new philosophy and a process that takes time. I get that.

And you can definitely see little green shoots coming through, especially going forward.

I think Norwich are really pleasant on the eye in an attacking sense. I think there are positives, even though it’s been a slowish start, and there is a lot you can take from especially the last two leagues game, against Sheffield United and Blackburn.

Going forward, I am liking what I am seeing. Defensively there is a lot to be done.

I know it was mix and match teams against Stevenage and then against Palace in the Carabao Cup – but seven goals conceded in two cup games? It was an Achilles heel last season, the number of goals that were conceded. They have to shut up shop defensively. Whether players in front of the back four aren’t working as hard as they should do to help cover them, I don't know.

But if you've got someone of six foot two, like a brick outhouse, keeps things simple, doesn't try and be too clever on the ball, who can sit in front of those two centre halves and make it harder to get the balls into centre forwards, then you know hopefully that would help.

You can't keep conceding the goals that they are – the one against Sheffield United was a shot from outside the box, no pressure on the man on the ball.

Ready to breathe fire!

I’m looking forward to seeing Wales with my old Norwich team-mate Craig Bellamy in charge.

I’ve missed one game since about 2006 – when I had chronic toothache.

When Robert Page was sacked the first name that came into my mind was Bellers. People were talking about the likes of Steve Cooper and Rob Edwards, but they weren’t going to be leaving Premier League jobs.

Craig has talked the talk – some Welsh fans were sceptical about the appointment, but in the interviews he has done and how he has expressed how he wants his team to play, I think he has won a lot of them over and I think it could be an exciting time.

He has a tough game next Friday against Turkey in Cardiff, a real baptism of fire for him.

He'll be champing at the bit - I bet he can't wait for this weekend's games to be over with. And then he heads to the Cardiff City Stadium, somewhere he knows really well, he finished his career there and he’s a Cardiff fan.

He will give it everything and he'll get his teams playing with energy, with intensity, very similar, I think, to the way Man City play, the way Burnley played in the Championship a couple of years ago.

Andrew Crofts in his Norwich days (Image: PA Images)

He has Andrew Crofts as his assistant manager and I'm delighted for him. Crofty is one of the nicest people I've ever met through football. I only had a year with Andrew at Gillingham when he was a young boy, and what an attitude!

He will give you everything. He'll tell you he had his limitations, but if you wanted someone in midfield to get close to people and to rattle a few people, to get your tackles and then give the ball to your Wes Hoolahans, he will do that.

I do a podcast for the BBC and Crofty came on towards the end the season, and I sat there with my mouth open because of the things he was saying. I was so impressed. I could see why he's so highly regarded and highly thought of.