Robinho on his way but 'quiet day' at county clubs

Robinho, a 32.5m signing from Real Madrid exactly two years earlier, beat the deadline to join AC Milan in one of the few notable deals of a flat final day.

Sunderland also signed Ghana World Cup star Asamoah Gyan on a four-year deal for a club-record 13m, while former Leeds United winger Jermaine Pennant moved to Stoke on loan from Real Zaragoza and Birmingham City captured Alexander Hleb on loan from Barcelona.

Otherwise, however, the window closing proved to be a low-key affair as no-one came close to eclipsing the 26m deal that earlier in the summer had taken James Milner from Aston Villa to Eastlands.

Nowhere was this more evident than in Yorkshire where Leeds signed Honduran international Ramon Nunez and Manchester City midfielder Adam Clayton.

Hull City loaned Anthony Gardner to Crystal Palace but were unable to off-load Jimmy Bullard, meaning the 45,000-per-week midfielder will now be made available for selection.

The departure of Gardner did, at least, allow the Tigers to bring in Anthony Gerrard on a season-long loan deal from Cardiff City.

Perhaps the best news of the day, though, for the White Rose county came with Rotherham United chairman Tony Stewart revealing the club would be offering striker Adam Le Fondre a new contract.

The Millers had slapped a 3m price tag in order to ward off potential suitors for their 30-goal top scorer from last season.

And after getting past yesterday's 6pm deadline with Le Fondre still at the Don Valley, Rotherham's Stewart said: "Now we are looking forward to sitting down with him and his agent for contract talks."

Nationally, the transfer window was something of a damp squib with spending down around 25 per cent on last year.

Spending in the top flight amounted to around 350m during the window, the lowest since 2006 when 263m was spent by the elite 20 clubs.

The Premier League's overall summer transfer spending peaked at 500m in 2008, and was down to 450m last year.

Window closes on summer transfers: Page 24.