There are many reasons why transfers go down to the wire - mostly to do with money. It's why there is almost always a flurry of activity on deadline day. Enough to make Sky Sports make a day of it in the calendar.
In many cases players are identified and there are conversations behind the scenes between middle men and agents, and players, and players' agents, and representatives of each club. An example of something that might hold up a transfer is the lack of a transfer request from the player. If a club accepts a bid for one of their player from another club, and the player has not handed in a transfer request, the player is due compensation on what is left on his contract. If the player has handed in a TR then no compensation is due. So that could hold it up. It's been well known for months that Chelsea have been in for John Stones, and yet he only handed in a TR two days ago. Why did he not do it sooner if he wanted to move?
If we do end up signing players between now and the end of the window, they won't be desperate, last minute panic buys. They will have been planned for months, and delayed for one reason or another outside our control.
We don't always leave it to the last minute. The vast majority of our signings are not made near the wire,