The verdict on Blackpool's January transfer business after quiet deadline day

The complete dearth of activity might have disappointed some, but the reality is Blackpool had already enjoyed a solid window up to that point and weren’t in desperate need of further additions.

Again, plenty will argue with that assertion, pointing to positions in the team where they feel the Seasiders are still in need of strengthening – and I might not necessarily disagree.

But what Mick McCarthy has at his disposal now is a decent squad that is good enough to remain in the Championship. Now it’s time to get down to action and prove it.

Given the numbers already on the books, around 30 in total when you look at the first-team, I always found it unlikely more signings would be forthcoming on deadline day.

On that point, Ewan Bange aside, no-one departed either. This means McCarthy will be left with some tricky decisions about who to include and who to omit from the 25-man squad list that must be submitted now the window has closed.

Judging by his previous comments, expect the longer-term injured players to be left out completely, with the club leaving some spots available for them to fulfil once they’re back and ready to play.

Marvin Ekpiteta, Jordan Gabriel, Liam Bridcutt, Kevin Stewart, Lewis Fiorini and Keshi Anderson are the six that immediately spring to mind, although McCarthy revealed on Saturday Gabriel and Anderson are now back in training, while it’s understood Fiorini isn’t too far away either.

We’re also waiting for an update on James Husband, who suffered a tight hamstring during the defeat to Southampton.

By my quick maths, there are 19 players virtually guaranteed to be registered, leaving six spots. Ten players will be fighting over those spaces, meaning four will be left desperately disappointed.

Before we got to January the mantra was clear, Blackpool had to do business and do it early and they managed to do that.

Not only that, they needed players that could come straight in and impact the first-team and again, that objective has been achieved.

Andy Lyons, Charlie Goode, Curtis Nelson, Tom Trybull, Josh Bowler and Morgan Rogers – the six signings this month – should all play a major part between now and May.

The aim of any transfer window is to end it in a stronger position than you started it and from that perspective, you’d have to say it’s been a good month for the Seasiders. But then again, they simply had no choice, anything else would have been a disaster.

Another positive is that there’s been no significant departures either. There was plenty of speculation surrounding Jerry Yates during his scoring spree in October but thankfully he’s still here. His goals between now and the end of the season are going to be key.

Elsewhere, Rhys Williams, Grant Ward, Callum Wright and Theo Corbeanu all exited, but none of them were first-team regulars anyway so from that regard, they weren’t huge losses (said with the greatest of respect, of course).

As McCarthy said himself at the weekend, he has to work with the tools at his disposal and he’s got what he’s got.

Now it’s crunch time, with 19 games remaining to save Blackpool’s Championship status.