Paul Warne on the transfer window, the Joey Barton blast at Trevor Clarke, good teeth and Neil Warnock ... the Rotherham United boss writes for the Advertiser

The transfer window is open until September 1 and until it closes signings will dominate the agenda.

I ‘get’ that. Supporters love nothing more than a new arrival. The lads like it too and I don’t deny that I’m a bit partial to an incoming or two myself.

My view is that we’ve done good business so far but still need to do a bit more to help us establish a foothold in the Championship.

We lost out on Ashley Fletcher last week when we thought we had him. It happens, you move on. There isn’t time for sulking, you’ve just got to focus on your next target.

As a manager, I want us to bring in the best players we can, to play the best football we can and entertain the fans. The lads like to see better players come in, unless it’s their position!

Of course it is frustrating when you’ve put all the work in and don’t get someone you want. It’s even more frustrating when you get to the last step and it gets taken away from you.

The week leading up to deadline day has the makings of a bun-fight but I’m hoping we avoid most of the madness.

It’s been the strangest of windows for me. Nothing happened at all at the start — you’re sowing loads of seeds as you go for your targets— then it kicked off a bit, then it went quiet again and now the activity is really building up.

The market gets a bit of a boost when the Premier League sides start loaning out young players. Ellis Simms went to Sunderland from Everton and he was a striker everyone was after.

The top-flight teams are making signings now and everything starts dribbling down the pyramid.

There’s a Premier League club I tried to take a player from earlier in the window. They weren’t letting him out at the time. I couldn’t wait and signed another player I really liked. Now the initial target has become available but we have filled that position.

You can’t always take the risk of waiting. You could get to September 1, not have the players you need and end up being sacked.

I feel that we won’t have a last day of huge activity at New York Stadium. Hopefully we’ll have signed a couple of players before then and be happy with our lot.

The last deadline day we had that was full of drama was in 2014 when the manager at the time, Steve Evans, signed Luciano Becchio just before the 11pm deadline and it seemed like the whole town threw a party.

Recruiting players is very challenging and so is keeping them.

For example, I did everything I could, fully supported by the chairman, to persuade Michael Smith and Michael Ihiekwe that their futures were with us but still lost them to a League One club.

I was heartbroken when they left. I loved those two lads and I still do. It took me a couple of weeks before I could reach out to them again. They were both big characters here, both leaders, and I did feel a bit of a personal slight when they left, I admit that.

I shouldn’t have really because I know how football works. Maybe I’m too sensitive.

When we go for players, an obstacle we have is that we seem to be everyone’s favourites to go down.

We can offer targets a reasonable Championship contract which might be appealing but their agents are always obsessed with the question: ‘What about League One money?’ Obviously, League One money is significantly less than Champ money and players are worried their wages will drop within a year of joining us.

I wish potential signings would just take a leap of faith but I also understand it from their point of view.

I think if we can sustain our place in the second tier it would be much easier to recruit next summer.

Agents can be a real headache. A player wanted to come to us and we offered him a similar deal to the club he eventually went to. He went there because his agent got a better fee.

We are a well-run club, a tight ship. We won’t be held to ransom by agents.

JOEY Barton has made headlines by having a right go about one of his players, Trevor Clarke.

Tricky Trev, you will all remember, used to be with us until he moved to Bristol Rovers, where Joey is in charge, last summer.

He had signed a new deal only a few weeks ago but then his manager questioned the way he played in the media and said that he had no future at the club.

You just don’t know what’s happened, do you? I’m trying to read between the lines because it’s quite a severe thing for Joey to do.

Fans wants honesty from their manager. Joey had been honest and said why Trev isn’t going to play. I feel for Trev. He will go and play somewhere else. Maybe he will enjoy it more there. He can rip the plaster off his wound and get on with things.

He was a great pro during his time with us. He wasn’t often in the team but always took it in the right way when I told him he wasn’t playing. In fact, he took it so well that it would made me feel even worse when I broke the news to him. He never caused me a moment’s trouble.

Slating one of my players in public is not something I would do but I’m not saying Joey is wrong to have what he’s done.

He’s had a good managerial career and a great playing one. It’s not for me to judge how he manages his team.

INJURIES in pre-season were an issue for us and in most cases it was the new boys who went down with niggles.

Quad strains seemed to be very fashionable! Fortunately most of them took only seven to ten days to heal so in the end it wasn’t a big problem

Injuries happen quite a lot when players join new clubs, experience a different way of training and push their bodies in a way they’re not used to.

We’ve changed our training a little bit because we want to press in a different way.

We’ve also changed our fitness coach. Brent Dickinson has come in from Nottingham Forest and is doing a fantastic job. He’s settled in really well and the players really like his sessions.

What hasn’t changed is how hard we generally push the lads.

We can’t be the best team in the Championship but we can be the fittest.

We don’t have a first-team 11 and then another 11. We just have a squad of around 22 players who can all play in the first team.

Whoever plays, I expect them to give their absolute nuts for the club. And more often than not they do, bless ‘em.

They’re a fit, motivated group who want to achieve something. Achieving anything comes through hard work.

I’m blessed with the group I’ve got. It just needs the sugar of a couple more signings.

YOU know me, I’m never totally satisfied.

Even when we were beating Reading 4-0 last weekend there were things I wasn’t happy with.

I thought our first-half defending was decent. Shane Ferguson not letting Tom Ince come in on his left foot, the tackles and headers that Grant Hall and Richard Wood won, they’re those little things that win you the game.

After the break, not so good.

We rode our luck a little bit for 20 minutes or so and Reading could have scored. Our keeper, Viktor Johansson, pulled us out of it a couple of times.

On Saturday night, Rachel and I went out with Richie Barker and his missus, Tracey, for a meal.

I’d gone for a run with Richie before the game and I said that whatever happened we had to try to enjoy our lives.

The Port Vale match seems a long time ago now.

It was good to beat them at their place last week and set up a Carabao Cup tie at home to Morecambe next Tuesday.

Although it wasn’t a great game, I was pleased with some individual performances. I thought our midfielders, Scotty High and Ollie Rathbone, were excellent.

Grant Hall has been brought in to add ‘nous’ at the back and he was really good as well.

The other thing about Hally is that he’s very good for team photos. He’s come in from Middlesbrough with the best teeth in football and is our most handsome player.

We need his Championship experience but really I’ve signed him to help us sell calendars.

THE sun can’t shine enough for me.

There’s nothing like working with it on your back and our Roundwood training complex is a wonderful place to be when the elements are being kind.

Things have cooled down this week but I can’t complain about the last couple of months. It’s been a long, hot summer.

There was a heatwave in Croatia when we were out there and then we had to come off the lads a little bit in training towards the end of pre-season because of the temperatures. We didn’t go ‘full Conte’ on them.

We’ll soon be moaning that there isn’t enough sun so we need to enjoy it and soak up the vitamin D while we can.

I used to love playing in it because I knew the opposition centre-halves wouldn’t be in as good condition as me and would struggle in the heat. The sun was one of my super-powers.

Drinks breaks during matches have become a thing when the temperatures really climb and I’ve no objection to them as long as they’re conducted in the right way.

If players on both teams are dying of thirst and aren’t going to perform at their maximum, I welcome the chance for them to take on fluids.

But I don’t want it to be a drinks/tactical break that lasts five minutes, kills momentum and bores the crowd. That’s not right.

Players should come over to the touchline, get a drink and go back on to the pitch.

There is no need for that to take more than 45 seconds.

NEIL Warnock is a genius.

He was in charge of Rotherham United for only 12 weeks when I was fitness coach but I learned so much from him in that short space of time

Some of my approach to man-management has definitely come from Neil. He was a master at it.

It’s not just about coaching players on the training pitch, it’s about the little chats here and there, the sneaky things that no-one sees.

I send my players voice messages and text messages, making them feeling valued and loved. I got that from him.

Russell Slade was my gaffer when I was playing at Yeovil Town and he has had a big influence on me as well.

He was a brilliant manager who treated people with massive respect. He was someone I wanted to play for.

On that theme, my aim now that I am a manager is to be the type of manager I would want to play for.