Beware the knee-jerk reaction......

So no doubt lots of you are rushing to sign David James, various Portsmouth defenders, Kanu and Zamora in Transfer Window 1......?

These signings would be known at YTM HQ as "Knee-Jerks" - players who have been on a run of good form and are hastily transferred in to teams because they are bound to keep the run going.

Although they could be great signings (anything is possible in football) it's our feeling that a "Knee-Jerk" more often than not fails to live up to expectations.

Taking the above player examples here's some thinking:

1) Portsmouth have not played Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Man Utd or Spurs yet.
2) If you want your transfers to be a success over the long term look forward rather than back and consider who your potential goalkeeper and defenders have not played against yet.
3) Portsmouth signed another 2 strikers - Andy Cole and R M Douala - before the transfer window closed.
4) Whilst Kanu is on fire at the moment expect Harry to rotate his strikers in an effort to keep them fit. The tall Nigerian is susceptible to injury so he won't be playing every game.
5) No matter what Alan Pardew says Carlos Tevez will start most of West Ham's games up front.
6) Bobby Zamora will have a job on his hands to keep ahead of Harewood, Cole, Sheringham and eventually Ashton as Carlos' preferred partner.

So there you go - a few thoughts to help (or confuse!) your transfer strategy.

To help a bit more here is how Darren Ingram of Playmouth won £120,000 playing YTM last season:

Starting XI: P Cech, G Barry, J Terry, A Del Horno, W Gallas, M Carrick, F Lampard, T Sinclair, S Kuqi, R Earnshaw, Mido.

TW1: Barry out for Stalteri. Carrick out for Essien. Earnshaw out for Bent. Mido out for RVN.

TW2: Essien out for Bullard. Sinclair out for Pedersen. Kuqi out for Harewood. RVN out for Henry.

TW3: Cech out for Reina. Del Horno out for Finnan. Pedersen out for Gerrard.

TW4: Gerrard out for Nolan.

A faultless (apart from maybe the final transfer) example of how to make transfers......The ones in TW2 are particularly impressive.

Good luck!
YTM HQ