TWELVE months ago the transfer window closed after more than £150m exchanged hands. This time around all the indications suggest the spending is less than £30m. A sign of the times, or a sign that football clubs are beginning to see sense?

Adam Johnson’s move to Manchester City represents the biggest deal of the day, accounting for around £7m of the total and it is difficult to criticise Middlesbrough for buckling.

Criticism will inevitably arrive, but just two weeks after outlining on this blog why Boro should do everything to keep him until the end of the season, Manchester City’s interest changed all that.

The Daniel Sturridge ruling a few weeks back – when Chelsea were told to pay an initial £3.5m rising to £6.5m by a tribunal – hardened Middlesbrough’s resolve.

But in the end, with Johnson indicating on more than one occasion he wanted the chance to play for City, it would have been unfair on the 22-year-old to keep him at the Riverside Stadium.

Steve Gibson, the Boro chairman, was not too bothered about looking after the best interests of Johnson, but even he would have to admit it would have been an enormous gamble to keep the winger until the summer.

Even if Middlesbrough received a similar fee to that which City received for Sturridge, it clearly makes more sense from a business perspective to accept an offer of a little more than that now.

The argument that Johnson’s departure brings an end to Middlesbrough’s promotion hopes is a strong one, given that his 12 goals have kept the Teessiders in touch with the play-offs.

But at a time when the club are struggling to come up with substantial funds for Gordon Strachan to invest in the squad, the cash raised from the sale at this stage has at least strengthened his attempts to land Scott McDonald.

That is the striker Strachan always wanted, he just didn’t feel he could afford him after being quoted £5m at the start of the month. Whether fans agree or not, the Boro boss looks to have got his wish.

He might not have been able to bring in the extra creativity from midfield that he had been looking for, in the shape of Charlie Adam, but he will be looking to make inroads on that front once the window for emergency loans reopens a week today.

It is now hypothetical to claim Middlesbrough would or would not have gone up had they retained Johnson. He has gone and now Strachan must show the decision to offload an unsettled player at this stage made sense.

Kyle Naughton has also arrived on loan from Tottenham, while he will spend the next seven days trying to make progress on further loan recruits. Johnson’s departure, though, was inevitable, it is just the timing fans will have to accept.

THE biggest North-East winners in the transfer market this month appears to have been Newcastle United, with Leon Best’s arrival yesterday bolstering a squad that had already been strengthened with five new faces.

But across Tyne & Wear, Sunderland manager Steve Bruce has a number of months remaining to prove that his decisions are very much a work in progress.

He has weakened an already small squad by allowing Daryl Murphy, David Healy and Nyron Nosworthy to depart, while replacing them with Matt Kilgallon and Alan Hutton with, possibly, Benjani to follow.

But on a night when Sunderland must increase a worrying three point gap they have to the relegation zone, it goes without saying that Bruce would have liked to have added more, having missed out on his main targets.

The 2010 January transfer window might have closed, but it is likely to be today’s dealings – or lack of them – which are remembered when the season ends in May.