BURNLEY manager Steve Cotterill believes the transfer window policy could be detrimental to both clubs and players.

The Clarets boss has insisted he won't be rushed into any decisions when it comes to strengthening his squad before the midnight deadline next Friday.

But he fears that some parties will feel the pressure to buy or sell unneccessarily, resulting in some clubs either over-spending or being short-changed, or pricing wanted players out of the market.

"I think whoever's invented these deadlines are probably the ones who do''t want to do anything for eight months of the year," Cotterill said.

"The transfer windows are ridiculous, they have been from the moment they came in. Absolutely ridiculous.

"And all it does is put managers, chairmen and players under more pressure than they need to be under.

"That's my take on that.

"I don't see it benefiting anybody.

"It can make or break seasons, so therefore if you're one of the smaller clubs or the smaller squads, you have to break the bank to try to get yourself a squad that you may not use.

"If teams go on a run and all of a sudden they keep using (the same) players, they're not going to need the squad, so therefore if what comes in through the gates doesn't cover the wages the club ends up being on a loser.

"It pushes the prices up of players at certain times because you have panic times and you overpay, and you get players in that have not played and not been in teams and they're unfit and they're not confident."

He added that the knock-on effects of operating within a transfer window had, to an extent, affected his own squad this summer.

"It's been hard for us. Stephen Jordan, this time next year, will be fitter than he is now," he said.

"Now he's done enough, but he hasn't got the pre-season base that he would have got had he been here from the start with us.

"David Unsworth probably will be fitter, like I've said, in a month's time than he will be now.

"Clarke Carlisle is probably the only one out of those three that have come in that's done a full pre-season and played in the pre-season games.

"So people that come in during that pre-season period, you want to have them either at the beginning or right in the belly of it so you know where they're up to."

The transfer window was introduced in response to negotiations with the European Commission.

The system was been used in many European leagues before being brought into compulsory effect by FIFA during the 2002-03 season.