ROBERTO Martinez and Tony Pulis have little in common apart from profession and hairline. Oh, and a sincere loathing for the fact that the transfer window remains open even after the Premier League has begun.

Martinez, whose centre-back, John Stones, is coveted by Chelsea and has been the subject of multiple bids, called it a “stupid system” and described the England starlet as “a victim”.

Referring to the unsettling effect of Chelsea’s interest, he said: “I don’t think it’s fair that any player should have to go through that while having to perform on a football pitch. The football authorities need to look into it very seriously.”

Pulis, whose own budding England star Saido Berahino has been in Tottenham’s cross-hairs, echoed the sentiment, calling for the window to shut prior to the start of the season, because of its “unsettling” effects.

This one is pretty simple actually. If they lived on an island insulated from the rest of the world where nothing exists but the Premier League, then they might have a point. But while sometimes it may feel as if they do, the reality is they don’t. Leagues kick off at different times around the world and it is a minor miracle that we even have a common transfer window in the European game.

And, make no mistake about it, there is plenty of benefit to the fact the window shuts roughly at the same time around Europe. If England did their own thing, shutting up the transfer shop on the eve of opening day, it would mean that Everton might lose Stones (to, say, Bayern) and West Brom Berahino (to Juventus) with no way of replacing them until January.

Now that wouldn’t be unsettling or anything, would it?

Shutting it earlier Europe-wide is simply unworkable. Those pesky Scandinavians play straight through the summer. The Swiss League began back on July 19. Should the window have been shut then? Before clubs in late-starting leagues like Portugal, Spain or Italy, even began their pre-season training camps?

Let’s give them sympathy for the fact that they could lose their star assets with only hours left to replace them. (That said, getting a combined £65 million for the pair should mitigate pain.) But let’s also be realistic. It’s all about which foot the shoe is on. When they sign players from smaller clubs, they are the ones who are unsettling them. And this transfer window closing stuff is nothing more than fodder for folks who fail to see beyond these shores.

CHAMPIONS League draws are only ever going to excite the neutral so much. That is what happens when the same clubs are in the competition year after year. There are only so many permutations and, ultimately, you know that of the 16 spots in the knock-out round no more than five or six are realistically going to be seriously contested.

Thursday’s draw was no different, despite the added novelty of Uefa’s new seeding system. National champ-ions in the highest-ranked leagues are now guaranteed spots in Pot 1, which means the likes of Arsenal, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid – brand-name non-champions – slip down to Pot 2. Potentially this creates some intriguing scenarios; in practice, the effect was somewhat limited. Manchester City got stuck, again, in the toughest group (Juventus, Seville and Borussia Moenchengladbach), while Zenit and PSV Eindhoven got to enjoy being top seeds. The Russians can rejoice somewhat (Valencia, Lyon and Gent are manageable), but the Dutch champions find themselves stuck with Manchester United, CSKA Moscow and Wolfsburg, not far off the type of group they might have had as a third seed.

The real novelty is the presence of Astana from Kazakhstan. Talk about nouveau. Kazakhstan has only been a country since 1991. Astana, the capital, has only existed since 1998, when the president, Nursultan Nazarbayev (yes, the kind of guy who regularly gets re-elected with 90 per cent-plus of the vote) decided to build a planned city on the steppe filled with mega-buildings straight out of an architectural fantasy. Kazakhstan has only been a Uefa member since 2002. Prior to that it was in the Asian confederation which, if you look at a map, makes more sense. And FC Astana, the football club, have only been around since 2008, after two clubs from Almaty, 600 miles away, were merged and moved to the new capital.

Welcome to football’s brave new world. For a club such as Benfica, who were drawn into their group and will travel there on November 25, it will mean an eight-hour flight (provided they charter a plane), crossing five time zones and a 9pm local kick-off at a time of year when the average high is minus six and the low dips to minus 22. At least that will provide a talking point.

MICHEL Platini, in his traditional seasonal kick-off press conference, chose not to answer any questions about his candidacy for the Fifa presidency, much to the disappointment of the press who were hoping for some anti-Blatter darts and maybe something for the headlines.

But buried deep in Platini’s presentation was something that was overlooked but is nevertheless hugely significant. In 2011, European clubs lost in excess of £1.1 billion. Last year, the losses were limited to just under £400m. Financial Fair Play may have its critics and its flaws, but in terms of reaching one of its stated goals, limiting the sea of red ink, it’s working.

That is why the regulations have been modified. Clubs will be able to go beyond the break-even requirement if they present a business plan and get approval from Uefa’s Club Financial Control Body. It is not quite a “relaxing” of the regulations, because clubs will still need to meet targets, it’s just that they will have a few more years to do it, provided their spending plan is approved.

“We had a period of austerity, it worked and now we are trying to encourage growth and investment,” said Uefa general secretary Gianni Infantino.

Pity that few noticed, since most were preoccupied in extracting something, anything, from Platini on the Fifa race. The Uefa president says he will speak “later, at the appropriate time”. Odds are, unless a credible challenger emerges, that time may not be until after he wins the presidency.