Tottenham Hotspur yesterday sealed the Premier League's second £10m plus transfer of the recently opened market by signing Portsmouth striker Jermain Defoe.

Away from the glamour of the top flight, however, it is a very different story with many clubs worried about the impact of the credit crunch.

Bradford City joint chairman Julian Rhodes has been on the board at Valley Parade for more than a decade so has experienced at first hand the tumultuous events that saw the club promoted to the Premier League before imploding amid a financial meltdown.

The spectacular slide that followed a two-year cameo in the top flight included two stints in administration and seasoned observers at Bradford are in no doubt that the club would have gone under without his backing.

Bradford's well-documented money troubles are, finally, in the past with the club even posting a modest profit in the last financial year, their first since the turn of the Millennium.

But Rhodes, who is now in joint charge with Mark Lawn, remains acutely aware of the financial headaches many clubs are facing and he believes the transfer window is only adding to those problems.

And to illustrate the danger being posed by a system that was adopted by the Premier League in 2002 and the Football League three years later, the Bradford joint chairman cites the example of his own club.

He told the Yorkshire Post: "In the 2006-07 season, we had serious financial problems that came to a head in the January – a month that along with December is invariably our worst of the year.

"We had to raise funds to keep the club going and we did this by selling Jermaine Johnson to Sheffield Wednesday and loaning Dean Windass to Hull in the second half of the window.

"I remember the JJ sale went through on January 29, which was the Monday, and his work permit hearing was two days later. The money was then paid by Wednesday to the League who passed it on to us straight away.

"It was only then that we were able to pay the monthly wage bill.

"It was a bit hairy at the time and without that money, we would have been in trouble.

"And it is that what concerns me most about having a transfer window because if we had been badly in need of money at the start of November, for instance, then we would have been in real trouble.

"There is no way we could have waited until January and the end result would have been going back into administration for a third time. How would that have helped anyone?

"It concerns me that if a club gets in a similar position outside of a transfer window in the future and has no other means of raising money then they could end up in administration with a points deduction."

A Yorkshire Post investigation has revealed that Rhodes is not alone in his thinking with managers, agents and even players admitting to having huge reservations about a system that allows clubs to only trade during a 12-week period up to August 31 and in January.

It has been in place in the top flight since 2002-03 when advocates suggested it would help place more emphasis on coaching and tactics rather than which club had the biggest bank balance.

The reality has, however, been rather different with the trend for clubs to sack their managers in November and December having soared amid many chairmen admitting that "getting a new man in before the transfer window opens" was a major reason behind change.

Hull City's Phil Brown is among the fiercest critics of the current window, going so far last night as to brand it as "absolute rubbish" even though he made one of his most inspired signings – Windass from Bradford – in the window of two years ago.

The Tigers chief said: "I did not think it would be a good idea when it came in and I have not changed my mind since.

"It puts undue pressure on managers, directors and chairmen, while creating a false market."

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