Jimmy KebeBrian McDermott secured his first signing of the January transfer window yesterday and more are expected to follow quickly.

Hull Tigers’ Cameron Stewart joins The Whites on a 93 day “emergency” loan deal, which is never ideal, but the Football League’s utterly pointless rules left the club with little choice since Stewart has already made appearances for two club’s this season and is therefore disqualified from making a permanent transfer for the rest of this season as a result. 

So emergency loan it is, which means Stewart has 93 days at the club before he has to return to Hull on the 12th of April. where he’ll presumably be shackled to a railing inside the KC Stadium until his contract expires at the end of June and he can return to Elland Road (if both parties wish for that to happen).

But in the meantime, The Whites now have a genuine winger to call upon as we head into the latter part of the season. All being well, Stewart’s loan should cover all but the last 4 fixtures (and any play-off fixtures which may follow, not that I’m counting any chickens here…)

And it seems width is the main priority for the January transfer window with Brian McDermott revealing yesterday that he expects Jimmy Kebe to be confirmed as his second signing of 2014 before the trip to Hillsborough this weekend.

“It’s great to get Cameron in and we’re very close with Jimmy [Kebe]. Jimmy has pace to burn, makes a lot of goals, and is very much a team man”

McDermott is a man Kebe knows well having played in the Reading team which won the Championship in 2012. Now at Crystal Palace, Kebe was victim to a change of manager shortly after his arrival which has seem him fall out of favour and limited his appearances this season.

Like Stewart, Kebe will arrive at Elland Road on a loan deal with a view to a permanent transfer at the end of the season. Any such deal will hinge on Leeds United’s promotion push however since Kebe has a three-year contract with Premier League wages that a Championship Leeds United are unlikely to match.