Tantrum transfers, hysteria, and endless cash: The greatest window ever had it all

An emotional, strategic, plot-driven entertainment product was all wrapped up in a single epic three-month tracking shot

Liverpool signed Sweden striker Alexander Isak from Newcastle for a British record transfer fee

By the time the clock hit 7.30pm the main presenter on Monday’s Sky Sports Window Slam Countdown looked not just frazzled, but oddly heroic, like a man who has ingested a potentially fatal overdose of late-breaking excitement and is now being encouraged to keep talking in a low, dogged voice about massive deals and unexpected snags just to keep himself awake until the paramedics arrive.

There was something of the Situation Room about the whole tableau, five nobly dishevelled talking heads leaning in around the curved tables, lists of names earnestly reeled off. Eberechi Eze. Randal Kolo Muani. We’re hearing that Coventry has fallen. In the bottom corner of the screen a picture of Marc Guéhi would flash up now and then reproachfully, wearing a strange, lost smile. And below it all the countdown clock replaced with the simple end-of-days message: WINDOW CLOSED.