Leeds United and 'promising' Georginio Rutter - notes of caution from Germany and French mystery

Other than perhaps one of the agents camped out in Victor Orta's office to work on the deal nipping outside for a cigarette, there was no Whites smoke to be seen. Club sources have been insisting since Sunday that things were not quite as advanced with Hoffenheim as had been suggested and there was no plane booked for a Tuesday medical. The end of the week has always felt likelier, if Leeds are to get it over the line.

Of course the longer it takes the more twitchy fans become, because there are summer transfer window wounds, in the shape of Charles De Ketelaere, Cody Gakpo and Bamba Dieng, still healing, or festering, depending on your disposition. Back then, someone, at some point, was giving Leeds the eyes, because Orta headed out to Holland with the intention of bringing Gakpo back with him, yet everything said by player and PSV since has been a freezing cold shower for the Whites. Minds don’t have to be cast much further than that to recall the awkward, telling silence that engulfed the club the night of the Michael Cuisance no-deal incident, when the length of time that passed after the midfielder flew in became more and more ominous.