One of the busiest weeks of the year in the football calendar is just about to kick-off, you may not have realised it immediately but there are just over seven days left for managers around the country to finalise their playing squads for the run-in.

The excitement and countdown clocks that we now associate with the Transfer Window are actually a relatively new invention in domestic football following its introduction by FIFA in 2002/03.

This year the opportunity for clubs to register players runs from January 1st to 31st, and we asked Debbie Birch, Head of Player Administration at The Football League, to talk us through the actual process when a player moves from one club to another:

"It is not always as straight-forward as most people think," she told us from The Football League's administrative headquarters in Preston, "The process is mainly handled by one club, usually the one signing the player.

"We need three things in order to register the transfer. We need the player's signature on a standard contract, a financial agreement signed by the two clubs , and we need a transfer form signed by all three parties. Normally Club A send their completed paperwork to Club B, who sends the paperwork on to us ahead of any deadlines. We also collect a 5% levy on any transfer fees paid by clubs, which is used to fund the player's pension scheme and youth development.

"There are a couple of different scenarios. If a player is joining a Football League club from the Premier League then we need to check with them for clearance and vice versa. Obviously the registrations are held in different organisations so we work together to make sure everything is on order.

"Players coming into the country from abroad are different again. These are not 'transfers' between our clubs so they are dealt with as new registrations. We need to see copies of the financial agreements, because there is still a 5% levy due, and we need to receive international clearance from the FA of the country they are moving from. The time that takes can vary quite a bit."

The registrations team are vastly experienced in what must be a high pressure job at times: "There are four of us in the department. Two of us have been here since before the transfer window system was introduced, so we have plenty of years between us. It seems to get busier every year and our newest member of staff joined this week, so we've had a transfer window of our own I suppose."

Debbie and her team expect long working days at this time of year as clubs register players and build for the second half of the season:

"It builds up during the month. It simply can't be a normal 9-5 job for us at this time of year because weekends are just as busy."

The busiest day is still to come, but Debbie admits that this year's calendar was especially tricky.

She explained: "It was just one of those things with the way things fell this year but there was a full fixture list on January 2nd so New Year's Day was very busy for us. Clubs could register players before mid-day for those games and lots of them took advantage of that.

"It would usually be games on January 1st so there is no opportunity to complete a transfer before that, just loans. So that was a big day for us, but then the whole first week is very busy anyway.

"The second and third weeks are still hectic, with Thursdays and Fridays in particular ahead of matches, but it is the end of the month where things really go mad."

31st January must surely be a day that Debbie and her team are glad to see the back of?

"It builds and builds in the days before it and we always expect an influx of registrations as the deadline approaches. Fax used to be the way but now with emails with scanned signatures things are much quicker.

"We deal with every registration in the order they come in. If there is a fee involved then we like the transaction to be completed on the same day so that may occasionally take priority, but we have a system in place to deal with things in the correct order.

"The one thing that fans ask is why some transfers seem to be completed after the deadline. I can assure them that it's not like that in reality. As long as the paperwork has been received before 11 o'clock at night we will check it and we try all we can to get it all finished there and then.

"But if it gets to half one in the morning and we know that receipt has been logged before the deadline, we can always finalise that in the morning. Whatever way you look at it, we are in for a long working day that day anyway."

So this time next week, when you head off to bed, safe in the knowledge you've signed the player you've been after, the one who will make a difference to your season, spare a thought for Debbie and her team who have a few more hours ahead of them making sure the i's have been dotted and the t's crossed properly so he can take his place in the starting line-up in time for Saturday.