For all the hype, and for all that it was another obscene, record-breaking transfer window south of the Border, deadline day itself in England was rather a damp squib.

Apart from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s £35 million switch from Arsenal to Liverpool, the main news as the transfer window rather tamely swung shut was about the deals that didn’t happen, and the whereabouts of Leicester winger Riyad Mahrez.

Sure, all the big names were in the headlines, but the list of unhappy players who failed to force through moves was far more extensive than those who enjoyed a change of scenery.

From a Scottish perspective, there would have been disappointment at Celtic Park after the proposed £70m transfer of Virgil Van Dijk from Southampton to Liverpool fell through, with the Hoops rather wisely inserting a 10 per cent sell-on clause in the deal that took the defender to St Mary’s.

The extra £7m would have been welcome, but the £30m bagged from qualifying for the Champions League group phase will just have to do for now.

The day took a turn for the bizarre when it was revealed that Arsenal and Manchester City had agreed a fee for Alexis Sanchez, only for the London club to then inform Pep Guardiola that they wouldn’t be 
selling the wantaway superstar after all.

It was a similar story for Philipe Coutinho, whose proposed move to Barcelona fell by the wayside despite his repeated promptings to engineer a switch to the Nou Camp.

Ross Barkley had the biggest change of heart of the window, turning the car around on his way to Chelsea for a medical 
after they had agreed a fee of over £30m with Everton, where he will now stay.

Arsenal could have had Thomas Lemar, the exciting young Monaco attacker, but the deal faltered at the final hurdle despite an £80m fee being agreed between the clubs.

Some reports suggested that Arsenal didn’t feel the deal could be finalised in time, whereas others cited the lack of Champions League football as the reason why the player didn’t want to join up at the Emirates.

There were also suggestions that Liverpool may have been the player’s preferred destination.

In any case, the watching Arsene Wenger must have been kicking himself almost as hard as Lemar kicked the ball into the Dutch rigging for his country at the Stade de France last night, walloping home a beauty against the Netherlands and then another goal late on to rub salt into the Gunners’ wounds.

Now Wenger knows for sure how the crestfallen losing contestants on Bullseye must have felt, as he surveyed the prize that he could have won.

This is all not to say that a few eyebrow-raising deals didn’t take place, with possibly the biggest coup of the day coming from Swansea City, who captured Portuguese sensation Renato Sanches on a season-long loan from Bayern Munich.

Tottenham also completed the signing of Paris Saint Germain full-back Serge Aurier on a five-year deal for £23m, a player with a colourful past to say the least.

He has picked up suspensions for insulting a referee on Facebook and using homophobic slurs against French coach Laurent Blanc, as well as calling then team-mate Angel di Maria a “clown” on Instagram.

He was also refused access to the UK for a Champions League quarter-final against Arsenal last year after picking up a two-month jail sentence for elbowing a police officer as he left a nightclub.

Come to think of it, maybe deadline day will prove to have been not so dull in the long run, after all.