I've taken a rather conservative view of this game so far and opted to spend almost all my available cash on stadium development.

This means, after 1.5 seasons, I have paid cash for a grand total of one player. But as the holiday season draws closer I find myself lingering a little longer in the Transfer screen.

A few days ago I spotted a chap who looked as cheap as chips, noted the time the transfer was due to close, then sat back to wait. Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond my control I was stuck in the middle of nowhere on the British motorway system when the transfer ended. At the appointed time I left the motorway, parked up in a layby behind a line of sleeping truckers, logged on and waited, finger on trigger....

With a few seconds to go I raised the bid and sat back, smugly. But then I noticed that the deadline had now shifted by a few minutes. In that time I was outbid. I bid again. The deadline moved. I was outbid. I bid again. The deadline moved. I was outbid.

By now it was close to midnight and I still had some distance to travel so I was unable to stop the adonis I'd wanted to shore up my ailing OL from going somewhere smelly, like Frankfurt. So apart from setting off earlier, drinking lots of coffee, and having loads of spare cash, what's the secret to bidding when time is about to expire?

Any time a bid is made with less than 2 minutes left on the deadline, the deadline is extended to 2 minutes from the last bid. As long as managers continue bidding on a player, the player will continue to stay on the list and be bid eligible. You could increase your bid by a large amount in hopes of scaring off your competitor quicker. Sometimes this works, sometimes not.
I usually have a maximum bid that I will allow myself to bid on a player. If I'm at the keyboard when the deadline hits, I will continue to bid up to the maximum. After that, I just let him go. Others seem to follow a similar strategy as well since I've won some players and lost some players. I've found that good players seem to be on the transfer list quite often. If I don't get one, maybe I'll get the next one.