frustration, frustratedA £1m proposed bid for Matt Mills is the sum-total of Leeds United transfer speculation as we head into June.

The usually rampant Leeds United rumour mill has been eerily quiet with few names linked since the season ended.

It seems the newspapers and Sky Sports have lost interest in Leeds, saving their transfer speculation for other clubs whose fans are more willing to believe a big name, mega-money deal is about to be completed.

That’s not a bad thing though. Leeds fans expectations are often unrealistic as we head into each transfer window and the press do little to help matters, feeding on our desperation for success and dangling big names in front of us knowing we’ll lap it up. Doesn’t matter how many times they’ve lied to us before, the “what if” scenarios we ponder are enough to keep us coming back for more.

And it’s the “what if’s” that make every transfer window so excruciatingly painful. We’ll assemble starting XI’s based on the players we’re linked to, prophesying a season of unparalleled success based on little more than a few 3 minute YouTube clips.

We’re our own worst enemy when it comes to transfer windows. In the absence of press speculation, fans turn to social networks where anonymous accounts claiming to be football agents or a person with “various contacts in the game” happily fill the void.

One of the more successful “in-the-know” merchants, IndyKaila, has amassed 45,000 twitter followers by making rumours up and attributing them to anonymous sources.

In May alone, he’s made up five different stories about Leeds United, linking Adam Le Fondre, Billy Sharp, Chris McCann, Andre Bikey and Carlton Cole with moves to Elland Road, all of which were shared and retweeted creating pandemonium across social networks as fans contemplated the “what if’s?”

The nature of social networks allows rumours to quickly take on a life of their own as people comment and share what they’ve heard. It’s Chinese whispers for the 21st century. Within a couple of hours, no one has the foggiest clue where the rumour originated and very few people care, they’re far too busy considering how great a season Leeds United will have when we sign all the names being linked, building up expectations based on little more than a tweet from some  anonymous guy who makes up a different Leeds United rumour every few days.

Some of these rumours could still transpire, of course. There’s nothing to say Adam Le Fondre or Billy Sharp won’t sign for Leeds this summer, leaving IndyKaila to point out how great his “inside knowledge” is. It isn’t, of course, he’s no better than every other anonymous “in-the-know” account on Twitter, but when you throw enough mud, something will always stick. He’s bound to get one right sooner or later.

Until such time as a credible news organisation links us with a player, or, better still, players sign on the dotted line, there’s little point speculating on what might be. We’re only setting ourselves up for a fall when these players don’t sign for Leeds United, bemoaning the club’s “lack of ambition” by early September when we’re losing away to Watford and lacking a goal-scoring behemoth up front. “If only we’d signed Billy Sharp…” fans will cry as we continue to torture ourselves with dreams of “what if…?”