Doubt over Warnock's future as Leeds manager

The Leeds United manager is in dispute with the Championship side's owners over signing expensive players on loan to drive promotion to the Premier League.

Former QPR boss Neil Warnock is now working without a contract at Leeds United
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's future as Leeds United manager has been cast into doubt by a dispute over expensive loan signings from the Premier League.

Warnock, who has been working without signing a contract for the current season, is pushing his club to use the Championship's emergency loan system for new recruits in central midfield and attack.

Currently seventh in England's second tier, Leeds have been hit by injuries to vice-captain David Norris, Ireland international Paul Green, and the experienced Michael Brown.

Warnock wants to cover for them by taking Jermaine Jenas or Shaun Derry, a pair of Premier League midfielders stuck on the periphery at their current clubs.

While

are open to the idea of Jenas, 29, finding playing time away from White Hart Lane, they are only prepared to cover a percentage of the England international's salary.

will also expect Leeds to make a significant contribution to Derry's income.

Leeds, however, are one of the rare Championship clubs who keep wage costs significantly below turnover and are limited in the amounts they can offer.

Warnock has also proposed taking Sean Scannell on loan from Huddersfield Town, just two months after the Ireland B international joined the Championship club from Crystal Palace.

"We want to look - if we can financially - to bring another forward in because we're so thin," says Warnock, who has frequently talked about Leeds' straitened finances of late.

The 63-year-old spent part of the summer outlining his plans for an expensive restructuring of Leeds squad to Salem Patel, a broker representing a part-Bahraini consortium that tried to takeover the club.

Although a deal was agreed with Ken Bates to purchase his majority shareholding, the group failed to meet the payment terms by the July handover date and now seem unlikely to complete.

Bates is understood to be unimpressed by Warnock's activities in the transfer market, which have included several attempts to press Leeds' chairman into signing players.

According to several sources, Warnock has been dissatisfied with the resources available to him to secure promotion to the Premier League, and has discussed the possibility of walking out on the club.

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