Embargo

Firstly, apologies about the absence. A mixture of a change of circumstances in life, and general busyness have curtailed my blogged for a month or so now. Hopefully we can be back to something more akin to regularity.

Um Bongo - Not an embargo

We have talked repeatedly before about the threat of a transfer embargo, and now, for us Leeds and Blackburn, those fears are reality. After not falling within the Football leagues criteria on spending we will face the prospect of a January with no signings.

Except it’s not so simple. The caveats included are numerous, and basically it turns outs we may be able to sign players, but with strict rules. What it does limit is going out and spending cash with reckless abandon again. The rules pertain to how much spend, transfer fee and agent fees wise, one in for one out if we were to sell, and rules surrounding numbers of active “senior” players.

Negating all that, we have a fairly strong squad. We should be higher up the table no doubt, but with key players returning soon they will, as the cliché goes, be like new signings. The squad should be strong enough with the money we spent, and discounting players out on loan we have 24 players. That’s pretty much the limit of many other squads. Add in a few other kids on the fringes who can make odd bench appearances and even discounting the embargo workarounds the squad has strength.

In fact speaking to a Leeds fan at work yesterday we both agreed it could work out well. It might mean looking internally rather than externally and forcing our hand to try Academy products.

The thing is with this is the Football League want to be seen to be doing something about clubs overspending, this is a new era and the reprimand we and others have received will be closely monitored. Furthermore, so will people pay close attention to efforts to start trading in balanced manner.

On another hand is the fact Stuart Pearce had said that we would not likely be making any signings in the window anyway. What we have we hold. So maybe a calculated risk was made to do the trading in the summer and take whatever punishment we get as that was our business done. We can still potentially bring in freebies, and probably loans though longer term ones might not be within rules (I should really check)

There are those would have you believe this is a portent of doom. The usual anti Fawaz crowd who have been subdued this year since he spent a club record fee on Assombalonga to shut them up. Now they creep out the wood work, despite us also having the much coveted CEO, everyone claimed would be a panacea to all financial problems.

All in all, we spent, we risked, now we take what is handed to us. Will it be a disaster? Barring another horrendous injury list, it shouldn’t be a problem except for maybe an odd game where a suspension and injury coincide. As always. Keep the faith. Stuart will deliver.