It seems that Leeds United signings are like the buses. You wait ages for one and then two or three come along at once. In the wake of yesterday’s signing of Adam Drury, we’re likely to complete a couple more free transfer signings by the end of the week.
Last week there were plenty of rumours flying around that Neil Warnock was on the verge of quitting the club in frustration over the club’s inability to sign any of the players he wanted for his big promotion push. But last Thursday’s meeting in Monaco with Uncle Ken came and went without any news of his resignation, so we’ll have to assume that he was assured that some extra funding would be available to him shortly.
This was confirmed by the Yorkshire Post today, as the paper ‘understands that discussions over a cash injection have been progressing positively, something that has allowed Warnock to tentatively step up his rebuilding plans’. In other words Bates is sufficiently confident to allow Warnock to increase the wage bill with a couple of free signings, but he’s not going to push the boat out and sanction any transfer fees until the talks with the investor have been successfully completed .
Warnock flew into Leeds on Monday from his family home in Cornwall and spent the rest of the day talking to of targets and their agents. The signing of Drury was completed late last night and at least one more free transfer could follow before the end of the week. But this won’t include Paddy Kenny, who the manager wants to bring in from his former club QPR, as the Loftus Road mob want £500,000 for the goalkeeper.
It’s still not very impressive for a club our size to be trawling through the bargain bins while several promotion rivals are investing heavily in improving their squads, but I suppose we should just be grateful that our manager is still around.