There has been a lot of focus on the transfer market this week with the close of the window tomorrow and if you look at the market as a whole and the crazy prices being paid you can see it has snowballed.

That is especially true of British players. There is a shortage of good British players and everybody wants to sign somebody who has played in this country and that means you have to pay premium prices which makes it very difficult for everybody.

We have experienced how the Premiership clubs have so much money to offer and the lure for players to go there is so great.

We've experienced it this summer and it's difficult because we have then got to try and replace them.

Of course you don't want to lose your best players but that's the reality - an outstanding player in the Championship is increasingly lured to the Premiership sooner rather than later.

It will always be busy as the transfer window comes to a close but in truth for several weeks leading up to it it can be very hectic.

The window generates so much speculation in the press and that effects individuals and teams.

When players read about offers and other people talking about them they can be unsettled and then they will have agents telling them the money they can earn.

There is a lot of pressure on players and it's very difficult to resist.

It can be the same for clubs if you need money.

Most clubs don't want to lose their best players unless financially they are pushed to because then trying to replace them is virtually impossible.

You go and ask for prices at other clubs and you are talking about spending as much money as you've sold them for to try and get a replacement.

It's been a very busy week for me talking to people about transfers.

Naturally John Gorman has had a similar scenario where he has been talking to clubs and agents and the question always is how can we replace players we have lost and who else can we bring in?

It's not been an easy time but if you do lose a player you've got to try and bring other players in but the ones you want are never easy to get from other teams because they also don't want to lose their best players the same as you didn't.

If you go to the Premiership looking for players the wages are a big deterrent. You have a wage structure in place and for 95 per cent of the Premiership players you are not going to be able to afford the wages.

Naturally though Championship clubs won't give good players away cheap.

To see all of George Burley's exclusive column see today's Daily Echo.