Wolverhampton Wanderers manager Mick McCarthy has condemned the transfer window as a restriction on players' rights.
He cannot understand why players must be tied to clubs and have freedom of movement in only two periods of the year. He said it would take a challenge similar to Belgium player Jean-Marc Bosman's successful legal battle in 1995 - he fought for players' rights to move freely at the end of their contracts - to change the system.
McCarthy said: "I don't understand it to be honest. I don't understand how, if you work in a job, you can only move jobs at certain times of the year. It isn't the same in any other industry.
"I don't know whether it comes from Brussels. I find it incredible. If a player moves and it doesn't work out for him he can't move until the end of the season or January. You end up with disaffected players who don't want to be at the club.
"In this day and age, with such political correctness, I find it hard that you can determine that one person has to stay in a job and go nowhere else for a certain time period. I find it incredible. How can you make someone stay in a job?
"How do they make these regulations? They can't make regulations on how many foreigners you can have but they can deter-mine that people have to work in one place for a certain time period. I don't know if they are trying to make it fairer for other clubs so bigger clubs can't just go and buy players when they want. There is a certain sense that if a smaller club has a player they might want to sell him to help the club's finances or to get someone else in and turn things around."
The January transfer window is the busiest time of the year for managers and agents as they scramble to do business before the window closes at the end of the month. However, McCarthy said it would be a lot easier for all concerned if all deals were not condensed into such a short time frame.
"I take it with a pinch of salt and whatever we do we just get on with it. It would be a lot easier for everybody without the window."
Meanwhile, McCarthy quashed speculation that striker Freddy Eastwood would be leaving the club to return to Southend United.
The 24-year-old has struggled to establish himself as a regular since his £1.5 million move in July but McCarthy said: "Reports of Freddy going back to Southend aren't true. He has to fight for his place. It is only when a player is out of the team that their future is questioned.
"I always think a player's future is deter-mined by the player, not the manager. If a player is playing well, managers want to pick him and play him. I am looking to add to the squad but he is not going back to Southend."
Having negotiated the extension of the loan deal of Darron Gibson with Manchester United, McCarthy is hoping Reading will allow goalkeeper Graham Stack to stay at Wolves to season's end. Keeping Stack may be vital business as Matt Murray will not feature again this season and is set for another operation on his knee.
McCarthy said: "Graham wants to stay and we want him to stay because we have been delighted with him. We will have to speak to Reading and see if we can get him. He is back in training after injury and won't be too far away. "Matt has to have some more surgery following on from the earlier operation on his cruciate ligament. I didn't expect him to be back until next season. Having this done won't affect that. He just has to have it done."
