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Fresh from our rather premature excitement on Tuesday at the potential unearthing of brand new M&A in the London market, it appears that we may not be alone in our elation at the tug of a real, live deal on our screens only to then encounter bitter disappointment at the minnow snared.

We’ve been spoilt - we admit it. So has Deal Journal.

The WSJ’s deal blog posts this chart to demonstrate that August will go down as the month of the incredible shrinking deal.

The number of deals fell. The volume of deals fell. And the average deal size globally fell to a massive $121m.

That’s the lowest average since November 2004 and a 65 per cent drop compared to July.

The credit crunch and ensuring squeeze on financing for mega-LBOs is behind the fall, of course. With the data from Thomson Financial showing that the average buyout fell to $198m, from $882m the month before.

We’re enrolling in a drastic course of expectation management.