I've read a few interesting comments on this thread about the financial fair play regulations that are now in force and took some time out to read the rules and consider the implications for ourselves. It is evidently clear to me that for GFH to invest large sums of money into a transfer kitty now, would be to create a massive risk of severe financial penalty in the future if that investment were to not pay off (see Leicester if you want to go down the ""speculate to accumulate argument"). For the coming season, Leeds will breach the "fair play" rules if we were to incur losses of more than £3 million - which, if they were to invest the £5 million to £7 million suggested by Aces and others, would, in my opinion be highly likely.
If, for example, we were to lose £8 million and get promotion, then the impact of this would be a fine of the order of £5 million. This fine would rise by £800,000 for every £1,000,000 over that limit.
If we were to not get promoted, a transfer embargo would be applied the following season until we could demonstrate balancing our books. That represents a potential "meltdown" of our playing strength.
To put it another way, if we gambled even relatively small amounts (by today's premiership standards) and failed, we would end up having to sell off every playing asset we had to balance the books. (Deja vu anyone?)
The shining light at the end of our tunnel is our Academy, investment in which is exempt in the financial fair play regulations. If I were GFH and had a couple of million to spend, I'd put it into improving our "grass roots" players facilities and take the time to build the club. This might seem frustrating for us supporters, but that's the constraint that the ffp regulations are putting on clubs.
In summary, I assess what GFH are apparently doing is absolutely right, and I support their strategy and tactics 100% (apart from that lousy away kit
)
We're on our way to....