By Geoff Twentyman BBC Bristol

Rickie Lambert's goals have made him a possible transfer target

I don't know anyone who is a fan of the transfer window. No doubt someone in a lavishly furnished, palatial office at Fifa's headquarters in Zurich thought it was 'a good idea at the time'.

He or she was probably rewarded incredibly well financially. Money well spent - not!

I simply do not understand why the window exists. In my eyes nobody benefits from it.

The window puts pressure on managers to make signings. Football managers do not have crystal balls and do not know what their requirements will be after the window closes, a sudden spate of injuries could derail the best laid plans.

Often lower league clubs need to sell to survive. The window is sure to create financial problems for clubs with financial difficulties as they cannot sell once the window closes.

For football fans the window brings with it considerable worry and angst. The genuine concern is that the cream of the crop could leave.

Locally, Bristol City's Marvin Elliott and Rovers' Rickie Lambert have been the subject of much speculation. Before the window opened the rumour mill was already in motion, throughout January it has gathered genuine momentum.

I feel the Premier League has three divisions and I think Marvin Elliot could play in any of the teams in the middle or bottom sections of the top flight Geoff Twentyman

The bottom line is every player has his price and more than ever the affluent clubs have the spending power to more or less cherry pick whoever they want.

It is not just the Premier League clubs who can spend big. The top Championship clubs - invariably with the unfair advantage of parachute payments - can table multi-million pound offers.

Modern day transfer deals are not always simple. Agents are proactive in engineering moves for their clients, contracts can be complicated and some agreements have clauses stipulating that a minimum bid triggers a deal. It's not always crystal clear.

Personally, I feel the Premier League has three divisions and I think Marvin Elliot could play in any of the teams in the middle or bottom sections of the top flight.

Lambert is a predator and a natural goal scorer and I think he too could step up a level, it's not beyond the realms of possibility for him to also dip his toes into top-flight waters.

Elliott has to be worth �3 million of anyone's money and I'd value Lambert at an overall package of �1.5m. Any takers? I hope not, as I want both players to remain in Bristol and continue to play leading roles at their respective clubs.

We are nearly at the end of January but it could be a long wait until the window closes at 1700 GMT on Monday 2 February.

Geoff presents the 'Twentyman Talks Back' football phone-in at 1900 GMT on Fridays on BBC Radio Bristol and BBC Radio Somerset. If you missed the latest programme, listen to it now.

I think with a fairly unbalanced squad Rovers might be better off cashing in on Lambert and strengthen other areas of the team. We struggle to produce enough crosses because of a lack of natural wide men and we miss a dominant Centre Back who can tidy thing's up at the back. Don't get me wrong i rate Lambert highly but i think if we got 1.5mil and could spend 1mil on reinforcement's we would be mad not to take it.
Wesley, Weston-super-Mare

The transfer window has its positive and negative aspects. I would like to talk about the positive sides.

The transfer window brings up a lot of pressure on managers, chairmen, agents and players. A positive of the window however is that clubs don't have to worry about losing players to other clubs apart from during the window. That is a benefit to lower league clubs that they won't lose top players and they may get more for them than they would normally.

The transfer window also tests the skills of managers, chairmen, scouts and agents. The managers and chairmen have to negotiate and try and get the best deals and get the best players while trying to hold off other clubs. The transfer window is also exciting for fans as well with lots of speculation and debate on who should go in and out.
Dan, Trowbridge

The reason that the transfer windows were brought in in the first place was to stop the wealthier clubs buying themselves success or saving themselves from relegation towards the end of a season. It actually has an adverse affect on the lower league clubs because it restricts the ability of the smaller clubs to balance their books depending on the season that they are having. The Football League fought off the transfer windows for some time after the Premier League had it enforced on them but Lord Mawhinney cleverly got FIFA to agree the emergency loan system which has made a mockery of the transfer system with players moving on loan until they can sign permanently during the next window.

The whole system is wrong and I would prefer to see no players moving during a season including loan signings and this would encourage clubs to spend more time with their youth set up as they would have to use them more often without the abused loan system available to them.
Kevin, Olveston

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