Of course, once the window opens again in July, this will not stop hordes of fans from screaming from the rooftops if their club doesn't sign anyone within the first few hours. Be careful what you wish for though. As we've seen too often this season, splashing the cash is no guarantee of success.
The obvious example would, of course, be Tottenham Hotspur, who cashed in on Gareth Bale and promptly went about replacing the Real Madrid bound star with no less than seven players. And decent players too: Roberto Soldado from Valencia (£26m) Erik Lamela from Roma (£26m), Christian Eriksen from Ajax (£11m), Brazilian Paulinho from Corinthians (£17m), to name the top four. Manager Andre Villas Boas struggled to cobble all the new faces into a coherent unit, and he was soon out of the door after shipping 5 goals to Liverpool at home in December. Tottenham, now under Tim Sherwood have pretty much muddled along since then, many of the new names hardly featuring, and now sit nervously in 6th place with a woeful goal difference of zero.
On the flip side, Arsenal , whose recent collapse - first to fifth in 8 weeks - means they can't be poster boys for how to behave in the transfer window, started the season in fine fettle, winning 8 of their first 10 matches and sitting top of the log for 14 weeks. Admittedly, the deadline day arrival of Mesut Ozil played a part in the Gunners' early season success - as did a kind fixture list - but the key factor, in my view, was the improvement of incumbents like Per Mertasacker and Laurent Koscielny at the back; Olivier Giroud in attack ; and, most especially, Aaron Ramsey - 8 goals in 13 league games - in midfield. At that stage of the season, Wenger's team certainly made a strong case that a team could improve without necessarily bringing in new faces, while their North London rivals showed how an influx of talent could go wrong.
If one team has shown that improvement need not come from new buys, though, it's got to be league leaders, Liverpool. After missing out on both Mohammed Salah and Yehven Konoplyanka in the January window, meaning they didn't bring in a single player in that window, many fans and pundits concluded that their pursuit of a top four place would be seriously compromised. Yet, Brendan Rodgers' side has simply gone from strength to strength, unbeaten in the league this year - a 15 match sequence - and stringing together 10 wins in their last 10 matches.
It's true, of course, that Liverpool - despite missing out on prime targets Henrik Mkhirtayan, Diego Costa and Willian - did bring in eight new players in the summer window. But save for the ever-present Simon Mignolet in goal, it's hard to make the case that any of the new faces has made a significant contribution to this team's improvement. Indeed, when Liverpool won 3-0 at Old Trafford a few weeks ago, all 10 outfield players had been at the club for longer than one year.
Of the other new faces, Kolo Toure has played more than most, although a couple of high profile mistakes have put him back on the sidelines; Mamadou Sakho had a decent run before Christmas, but has only just returned from injury; Aly Cissokho didn't win many admirers during his stint in the side, eventually losing out to the impressive Jon Flanagan. The other arrivals have hardly featured - Iago Aspas, Victor Moses and Luis Alberto have had a few cameos, while Tiago Ilori didn't take the field before leaving on loan to Granada.
It's easy to point to the attacking threat of Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge as the key to Liverpool's recent success, but most of the credit has to go to Brendan Rodgers' tactical creativity and flexibility, as well as the individual improvement of players like Flanagan, Martin Skrtel,Jordan Henderson, Raheem Sterling, Joe Allen, and even veteran captain, Steve Gerrard, who is re-inventing himself in a new position.
That's not to say that bringing in new faces is a bad thing. There is no arguing that Chelsea are a much stronger side for the inclusion of Willian, Samuel Eto'o and Nemanja Matic, and the likes of Fernandinho, Jesus Navas and Alvaro Negredo have certainly had a positive impact on Man City's season. Furthermore, some new buys, despite underwhelming starts, may only come good in the long run, if given the time to settle - see Henderson, at Liverpool.
At some point or the other, every club will need to dip into the transfer market to address personnel concerns. Indeed, sometimes that is the best course of action. Despite their early season form, Arsenal's current struggles - not helped by the loss, to injury, of both Ramsey and Ozil, as well as Theo Walcott - suggests that some January reinforcements would have been in order.
Yet, for all the excitement and drama - and the disappointment and angst - of the transfer window, splashing out on new players isn't always the answer to all that ails a team. Player improvement and tactical smartness could be even more rewarding.
