The January transfer window hype is a media-created feeding frenzy used to fill up inches on paper or speculate in blogs as to sightings of new players around training grounds. It's great entertainment. 

It creates discussion among fans and journalists as to the requirements of their squads and what the manager needs to do.

Personally having moved twice in the January window, it’s incredibly exciting and daunting for a player. It starts with ‘Benno, can I have a quick word. Tempted to say acceleration or speed but instead I say ‘Sure Gaffer’ then following a conversation everything is turned upside down. 

All the immediate future plans you have made, the work you have put in, the planning and preparation for the upcoming games are dissolved and the current bubble you're in has popped.

The first January move for me was in in 2007 from Cork City in the League of Ireland to Reading in the Premiership. The second was last season from Cheltenham Town to AFC Wimbledon, both in the Football League. The two moves were completely different but still as exciting and intense.

Heads I win! Alan Bennett's exploits for Cork City earned him a move to Reading

In 2007, it was long and took up the whole of January with several phone calls and bids back and forth. In the League of Ireland this time of year is the off season, so the details were done mainly by phone. Once I had to leave a cinema to answer the phone, I was annoyed because I was missing the end of the film!

My short low-budget ski holiday in France was disrupted several times. I remember thinking these international rates will destroy my phone bill. Oblivious to the hazards of a ski holiday, one girl actually in our group badly hurt her cruciate ligament in her knee.

It never occurred to me I might injure myself and jeopardise the move. Once I took a call after a few beers, really focusing and concentrating on my voice trying not sounding too merry!

Because it went on so long I thought it might not happen and, rather than putting everything on hold, I just got on with things.

Ecstacy: Bennett celebrates his goal against Accrington earlier this season

When I got back from my holiday I was sitting on my couch watching TV about to go back to pre-season training with Cork the next day. I was told to come down to the training ground because the manager wanted to speak to me.

On the way I thought he was going to tell me to forget the move and concentrate on pre-season, I got there but first I had to take his dogs for a walk. I went out with the dogs and decided to leave them off the leash. One stared at me stupidly, the other shot off into the fields.

The manager eventually came out, ‘where’s the dog??’ This is all I need a lost dog ruining my potentially life-changing move. 

The deal got there eventually and literally overnight I had to pack a bag to be at training the next day with Reading. Coming over from an off-season straight into a fully-fit squad was difficult. I was playing catch up and never really caught up.

Howard of Everton catches a cross from Cheltenham Town during their FA Cup third round soccer match at the Abbey Business Stadium in Cheltenham
Farewell: Bennett's last game for Cheltenham came in the FA Cup defeat to Everton

In mid-January of last year I had just played against Everton at Whaddon Road for Cheltenham in the FA Cup. A great game to be part of but I didn’t know at the time it would be my last.

It was toward the back end of January and I was told that in the summer there would be no deal for me and another centre-back was coming in immediately.

I wasn’t told either way why or what plans for me lay ahead. Interest from AFC Wimbledon came up and it was the last few days of the window and a decision had to be made.

I tried to gather as much information as possible to make an informed decision. On January 31 I was again sitting on my couch in Cheltenham staring out my window at about 9pm.

With the transfer window closing at 11, I made my decision and travelled to the ground to sign forms and move back to London. It wasn’t as prolonged as my first move but still it was intense.

Bearer of bad news: Cheltenham boss Mark Yates informed Bennett he wouldn't be getting a new deal

That’s probably the most disconcerting thing about the mid-season UK move; you’re in your routine. You’re forming partnerships on the pitch and at the training ground.

As a player you’re working towards the last few months of the season and the run in. Then the focus switches and a new set of targets emerge. New partnerships and goals are set. 

This is where a conflict of interests emerge, a grey area, I’m a loyal and passionate person and love competing with myself and others through football. But it’s not an individual game, it’s a squad game and bonds and alliances are formed. But at times like this you are very much left on your own.

A move popping up on the banner on Sky Sports News might mean a new player for your club but it also means a lot of upheaval.

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The player had to pack up all his stuff, maybe move his family, move to a new country, meet a whole new bunch of people he has to work and live with every day. 

He may also have to sort out a new place to live, find out routes to the training ground and to the stadium. The player has to deal with the new surroundings, a new dressing room, new personalities, new demands and a new focus or goals.

Sometimes these are positive and sometimes negative. In comparison to a summer move where a player has more time, a January move is immediate. Of course higher up the player moves to, a lot of these things you can pay somebody to do, but not in a lower-leagues move.

As a fan perhaps give new players a bit of time to settle in before judgements are formed. Enjoy the football. 

Benno.