2015 January transfer deadline day: Date, cutoff time, and what to expect

The 2015 January transfer window is less than a week from closing and that means a flurry of activity is probably about to happen. We've got all the details and information you need to be ready for the Monday deadline. And even if some of this is old-hat to you, it's still nice to have the date and time at your fingertips!

Let's get the important stuff out of the way first: when does the window slam shut?

Teams will be able to make transfers up until 23:00 GMT on Monday, February 2. That's 11 PM in England, 6 PM on the East coast of the US, 3 PM Pacific, and 10 AM on Tuesday, February 3 for our East-coast Australian readers. If you'd like a handy countdown, here's a site with all of the European leagues and their deadlines.

So at that time I can stop paying attention, right?

Well, mostly. That's the deadline for teams to have their paperwork in for transfers, but we sometimes see it get extended a bit. If teams have only the paperwork left, they can request an extension by submitting a "deal sheet" to the Premier League. Our friend over at The Short Fuse had a nice explainer on that this fall when Arsenal and Manchester United hadn't finished their Danny Welbeck deal in time. If granted, the extension gives clubs an extra two hours.

So the window is actually longer than the deadline?

It can be, but generally there's a pretty good sense of whether or not anything will happen at the last second. We'll often hear something along the lines of "Paul Lambert has gone home for the evening" and that generally means that we can all go about wrapping up how the window went for Aston Villa. Really if you stick around for about 10 minutes after the window closes, you'll know if anything happened.

Where can I follow the dying minutes of silly season?

I'd be remiss if I didn't start by putting our own coverage out there. All of the transfer news and rumours surrounding Aston Villa, including finished deals, will be in our Transfer News and Rumours hub. If you're looking for news beyond Aston Villa, we've got the SB Nation rumour central, where you'll find pretty much any move of note.

Otherwise, your best bet is to follow along on twitter or television. Sky TV usually does crazy deadline-day coverage that features on-air gaffes, flustered presenters, and all the rumours you can handle. It's actually pretty fun to watch in a weird orgiastic way. As with anything else surrounding transfers, be careful with rumours. Are they coming from good sources? We'll always try to give you context with transfer stories, but just because we run it doesn't mean it's a good rumour. Delve beyond the headlines and actually read!

This all sounds stupidly complicated, why do we care again?

There's the obvious reason of the fact that a January signing or two can alter the course of a club's season. But there's the less obvious (and perhaps less readily admitted) reason of it just being plain fun. An active deadline day is one of the most entertaining things in football. There's nothing more thrilling than rumours surrounding your club swirling around and watching people freak out or rejoice based on a simple "in the know" tweet. Deadline day is simultaneously a headache and a total blast. So mark it on your calendar and set aside a few hours on Monday to enjoy the insanity!