Neville left "shattered" by transfer window

Andrew Neville has described this summer's transfer window as the most stressful he has ever experienced.

The Foxes' football director was present at the closing stages of negotiations for each of Leicester City's twelve signings, including the last-ditch effort to sign Jermaine Beckford from Everton. That deal, Neville revealed in an interview with the Leicester Mercury, was completed with just seconds to spare before the eleven o'clock deadline on August 31st.

"It was getting to the stage when it was a little bit fraught. The hours were ticking by and by the latter part of the afternoon we had actually agreed everything, by around about 7.30pm or 8pm. But with three hours to go, Jermaine was still in Liverpool.

"I think Jermaine actually arrived between 10pm and 10.30pm and there were a whole lot of documents to sign," said Neville, "He still had to reach an agreement with Everton over something, we had some paperwork to do with Everton, and Martyn Waghorn was waiting to go to Hull because we had agreed a loan deal for him, but what we couldn't do was sign those documents just in case there was a last minute hitch with Jermaine.

"We actually started to register Jermaine at 10.59pm and just before 11pm I sent the papers to the league and the FA for the Waghorn deal. Hull were doing a deal on the back of that, so Jay Simpson could join Millwall if they got Waghorn in."

Neville added that he feels very satisfied with progress at the club over the summer, with big-money signings such as Beckford and Matt Mills signalling a new future at the King Power Stadium.

Nonetheless pressure is mounting on Sven Goran Eriksson, with one newspaper claiming last week that the Foxes' manager has just five games to save his job. Despite that being a little premature, Leicester face an away trip to Barnsley tomorrow and Tykes' boss Keith Hill insists that the pressure is on Eriksson and his expensively-assembled team.

"The pressure is off us, it's all on Leicester," said Hill, "There's pressure on them to perform because they're expected to come here and turn us over, but we'll be giving it everything to ensure that doesn't happen."

The Oakwell outfit spent just £1 million, Hill aiming to keep Barnsley afloat in the Championship on less than ten per cent of the budget allocated to Eriksson this summer.

The Foxes will be expecting to see 2,300 fans travel to Oakwell despite a protest from some quarters at Barnsley's hike in admission prices that have seen a £13 increase since last season.