Blackpool boss Ian Holloway rates last month his toughest in the game.
In his column for the Independent on Sunday, Holloway wrote: "Thank God the transfer window has shut, it made me ill. I've got a huge cold sore on my lip and I always get cold sores when I've been stressed.
"August was the worst month I've ever had in my 14 years as a football manager because we needed to sign so many players. In the end I was delighted with the business we did. We got 11 players in the space of the last three weeks and that is a result.
"We broke our club record to get DJ Campbell from Leicester, the first time we have ever spent more than £1m. We also got quite a few lads from overseas, including Australian, Ghanaian and Israeli internationals.
"Personally speaking, it would have been nice if they were all English, but I'm not so sure Joe Cole would've signed for us with the choices he had.
"What I have to do now is get to work on trying to mould them into a unit and that is the hardest thing. I would have loved to have got them in a couple of weeks earlier but it was physically impossible to do it because of this stupid transfer window system we've got.
"But there's no point in moaning, we will just have to get down to hard graft on the training ground. Mind you, I won't see half my squad until Thursday when they get back from international duty, so that gives me two days to prepare for - and I almost need to draw breath before I say this - Newcastle away and then Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
"Holy mackerel. It doesn't really get much harder than that, does it?"
