Despite recent reports of a cashflow crisis, Leeds have signed Stoke City midfielder Michael Tonge on loan until December.

Over the last few weeks it has been reported that Leeds have been struggling to raise the funds even for loan signings, and this been confirmed by the financial analysis released this morning by the supporters trust. We’ve all suspected for some time that most of the money from the sale of key players has been swallowed up by the amounts that Bates has spent on the East Stand and the centenary pavilion.

But one new piece of information is LUST’s revelation that the prospective investors from Dubai have already provided £4 million for the club, before they have even been able to complete their takeover. This has funded the transfers that we have been able to make over the summer, and without it we might have gone into administration already.

So who has put up the cash for this latest loan signing? It’s possible that GFH Capital have paid out even more cash, to help Neil Warnock to cope with an injury crisis in central midfield. David Norris and Paul Green are both out and Michael Brown is carrying a hamstring strain, so Tonge will go straight into the squad for Saturday’s game at Cardiff.

The 29 year-old played for Neil Warnock at Sheffield United and made over 300 appearances for the Bramall Lane club before moving to Stoke in 2008. But he has fallen out of favour at the Britannia and failed to make Stoke’s squad for the first half of the Premier League season, so he’s very happy to be joining Leeds. “I’d have jumped at the chance to come here whatever but with the gaffer I had no hesitation.”

And Neil Warnock told the official site “There’s a number of players I’ve been looking at with the injuries we have. It was vital we did something in time for Cardiff. Michael hasn’t been involved with the first team, but he’s played some under-21 games so he’s fit. He knows how I play, I don’t have to explain things, and he’ll fit in well with what we have here”.

Warnock has previously said that he doesn’t want to rely on loan signings, but they make sense to cover for injuries, especially when we get several at the same time in the same area of the squad. Let’s hope that Leeds can somehow scrape the cash together to strengthen the squad a bit further in the months to come.

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