Without any real news to keep ourselves entertained with, here at TSS HQ we took a look at those that are teetering over the edge of realism and heading for a sharp nose-dive into the ridiculous.

We start with Darius Vassell courtesy of everyone’s favourite fascist daily, the Mail. He’s a player I’ve personally mentioned before in my ‘Five strikers with a Ken Bates-friendly price tag’ article I wrote before the season began. For me, Vassell is one of those strikers that has always failed to fulfil his potential, but at a cost of absolutely nothing, I did feel he may be worth a punt.

That was however, before the season began, at a time I was getting a little panicky about the options we had upfront. Furthermore, it was also before the return of Arsenal youngster, Sanchez Watt which in my opinion gave us a very different dynamic at the front.

If there is any truth in this rumour – and, given the source I sincerely doubt it – then I fail to see what Darius Vassell can add to the squad. When we switched to 4-4-2 against Forest, the key to it’s success was Watt’s pace mixed with Becchio’s strength. This is similar to the system we used when Jermaine Beckford was at Leeds, and if this is to be our style of play going forward we definitely don’t need Vassell.

The problem is that Vassell falls into a similar category as Becchio, Paynter and arguably Somma, so for the strong, battling striker we have plenty of options. It’s the pacey, opportunist striking role that Sanchez Watt played where we perhaps need strengthening, but even here we still have Max Gradel so will probably be OK.

For me, if we are going to add another striker it needs to be someone of real quality and a good age. Not a has-been journeyman looking for a last hoorah. I think Michael Green summed it up well over on ClarkeOneNil when he broke his no transfer speculation rule to write ‘An Empty Vassell’.

From the improbable, to the quite frankly ridiculous we land on the Patrick Viera rumour that’s making waves thanks to a child with a crayon editing his Wikipedia profile.

Before someone re-edits the entry, I took the liberty of copying the text for your enjoyment;

There now appears to be very strong rumours that Viera is havinmg his contract paid up and signing for Leeds United on a 3 year contract, 2 as player leading to coaching on the 3rd with possible extention. Source : 2 very well known Agents, 1 being the agent of Viera himself, Marc Roger.

I aren’t entirely sure where this rumour originated from prior to Wikipedia becoming a victim, but kudos to whoever has too much spare time on their hands for making me laugh.

Whilst Patrick Viera would be a very welcomed addition to the squad (even at 34) and the coaching role does add some substance to the rumour, if this does happens, you should keep an eye out for me running around Elland Road naked.

Finally, Betfair Football has today shown some love to Leeds United fans! Suspecting this was in response to my summer long obsession with the bookmakers never-ending LUFC rumours, I sent the authors a message on Twitter, to which they replied;

@ScratchingShed1 we’re very sensitive to any criticism, especially from our favourite Leeds blog.

Bless ’em! We love Betfair really – your transfer rumours have provided us with more to talk about this summer than our actual signings did. Thanks for keeping us all entertained.