The sole transfer activity involving Torquay United on deadline day was the departure of long-serving defender Chris Robertson to Preston North End.
Robertson, who was out of contract at the end of the current season, leaves Plainmoor for Deepdale for an undiclosed fee.
He had been with the Gulls since March 2007, making him their second longest serving player behind captain Lee Mansell and marked his debut for the Gulls with a goal in their 3-0 win over Wycombe Wanderers on March 10th 2007, after joining from Sheffield United.
However. he was unable to prevent Torquay from losing their league status.
Following the Gulls' relegation to the Conference, Robertson remained at Plainmoor and helped the club win promotion back to the Football League two years later. He was part of the Torquay side that defeated Cambridge United to win the Conference Play-Off final in 2009.
Despite being deployed as a right-back for a time under Paul Buckle, he re-gained his preferred position of centre back where he featured alongside a range of central defensive partners including Steve Woods, Chris Todd, Mark Ellis, Kieran Charnock, Guy Branston and Brian Saah.
Current Gulls' boss Martin Ling is disappointed to lose a valued member of his squad, but believes he has the strength in depth to cover for his departure and also has the option of dipping into the loan market.
He said: "Chris was offered top wages at our football club, equivalent to the top earners on our books," said Martin. "Even with that offer on the table, Chris was adamant that he would be heading north in the summer.
"He is on a Bosman-free in the summer and felt it was time to move back north. His girlfriend is from Sheffield and he is a Nottingham lad, so he made it pretty clear that he wouldn't stay here beyond the summer.
"The options were to either run him until the end of the season, which I was prepared to do, or see what interest was out there.
"A couple of League 2 clubs made enquiries, which we explained to Robbo, but we felt we could compete with them. Once Preston became part of the equation, there was no way a club of our standing could compete with them.
"It is a similar scenario to having a valuable car sitting on your drive, which you know will depreciate to nothing within a few months. Sometimes, a business decision overtakes a football decision, and there was very little we could do once Preston had come in because we can't compete with the wages they offer. Robbo also felt the timing was right for him to go.
"I don't think this move will weaken the team because we have Brian Saah on the bench and I felt our team was just as strong when Brian was playing at centre-back with Mark Ellis as we were with Robbo playing.
"It does, however, weaken the squad, and there will be a case for delving into the loan market.
"We will certainly be working in the February loan market for an extra forward player but we might wait until a problem arises for the centre-half position. For the meantime, we have back-up in the position with Lathaniel Rowe-Turner, Ed Palmer, Joe Oastler and Daniel Leadbitter, all of whom have played at centre-half.
"These players could plug a short-term gap but if we pick up an injury and need to fill the void for a longer period, then I would explore the loan market for a more permanent solution."
