According to the Yorkshire Evening Post's Phil Hay Sunderland outcast Will Buckley is on his way to Elland Road, but not until next week so we can exploit the emergency loan rules to our full advantage.
The usually-reliable Hay claims that 25-year-old winger Buckley will arrive on-loan but not until next week. This is because the rules state players who come under the so-called "emergency loan" process can only be loaned for a maximum of 93 days, if Buckley arrived now he would have to go back before Christmas but apparently if we put it off until next week then we can keep him until January.
Should this go through okay then it will end a long search for another wide-man and pursuit in particular of Buckley. Uwe Rosler is understood to have wanted him all summer however Leeds were apparently put-off by his wages, according to Hay. The player is believed to be earning around £20,000 a week.
Our President, Majority Shareholder and now "stand in" chief-exec Massimo Cellino is no big-fan of the traditional loan-market, preferring loans with the view to a permanent move with a fee already agreed such as Tom Adeyemi's move from Cardiff. Whilst this is good in part, in particular given Adryan's failure to light-up Elland Road last season, it also excludes us from taking many of the up-and-coming premiership stars in the making because the top-flight clubs are keen to develop them rather than sell-them.
However Hay has since tweeted that Leeds have the option of signing Buckley in January permanently or extending his loan until the end of the season.
A move for Buckley would be welcome, we are still short of width despite the signing of Jordan Botaka and Stuart Dallas last-season and he has vast Championship experience with Watford and Brighton.
Buckley will apparently train with his "future team-mates" on Tuesday.
So far it looks like our fears at having Massimo running the club on a day-to-day basis following Adam Pearson's shock-resignation last week have been unfounded, particularly if he has managed to negotiate a deal with Sunderland to sign Buckley.
In a busy day for Cellino, the whites' have also agreed a two-year extension to Gaetano Berardi's contract.