On an April night at the Grosvenor House Hotel in Mayfair, four Leeds United players picked up accolades at the annual EFL Awards.
The day before, Daniel Farke’s side suffered their first home defeat of the season in the middle of a run of four points across six games which killed their chances of going up automatically.
Losing at Wembley to Southampton in the Championship play-off final was the nail in the coffin. Of those four players, three were gone by August with Archie Gray, Crysencio Summerville and Georginio Rutter all sold as Leeds banked £105million but lost a huge chunk of talent.
The other, club captain Ethan Ampadu, only returned to action last week after sustaining a knee injury in September.
Yet Leeds have five more points than they did at this stage last season and are crucially top of the tree in their bid to return to the top flight. Burnley, Sheffield United and Sunderland are all hot on their tail but Leeds boast the best attack (48 goals) and goal difference (+29), while their defence ranks third (19 conceded).
‘At the start of the season, I wasn’t thinking about winning the league,’ Farke said last week. ‘I was thinking how can we be successful losing so many key players.’
Leeds racked up 90 points in the Championship last season but failed to gain promotion
Daniel Farke’s side suffered a slump towards the end of the campaign and fell out of the automatic promotion places
Leeds suffered an agonising play-off final defeat by Southampton at Wembley in May
Defeat at Wembley was painful. Not least after winning 90 points – a tally that would have seen Leeds go up automatically in every other season since 1998.
On the pitch, the likes of Ampadu, Gray and Rutter were in tears after investing so much across 49 games. Gray, whose connection to the club runs deeeper than almost anyone else of course, told Mail Sport last month that it was the worst day of his career. Off the pitch, Farke spoke about ‘suffering’ but told his players to use it as motivation in their bid to return to ‘the Promised Land’ – a term he has used repeatedly.
The Wembley post-mortem was limited to a solitary team meeting the day after the game where the German told the players to forget about it.
Leeds’ owners 49ers Enterprises were confident that Farke was still the right man and despite growing noise from sections of the fanbase, they cited his two previous promotions with Norwich as ‘priceless experience’ in their ultimate quest.
The squad reunited in July in Harsewinkel, a quiet town on the outskirts of Bielefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia, in Germany near where Farke grew up, for pre-season.
Hotel-Residence Klosterpforte, a regular of Farke’s from his time at Norwich and used by Portugal and during Euro 2024, gave the players everything they needed. ‘If it’s good enough for Ronaldo…’ was the line from Leeds’s head of security. It even had pictures of Farke on the walls at reception.
The location was meant to be a secret but was discovered by Leeds fans who were told to stay away by German authorities, when they noted the hotel name on a video announcing Jayden Bogle’s arrival from Sheffield United.
Regardless of whether they had achieved promotion, Farke had planned this trip – he didn’t get the chance in his first summer as he joined in July, and was determined to build squad unity. He knew too that big players were headed out.
The Elland Road club began the campaign with a demoralising 3-3 draw against newly promoted Portsmouth
Farke revealed that he was not aware of Premier League release clauses in some of his player’s contracts
Away from football, where a solid 4-2-3-1 setup and possession-based play was worked on, there was plenty of team bonding from bike rides to raft-building and go-karting.
Such was the competitiveness that a notepad at the hotel had all the results from various table tennis matches and card games between the players.
‘I was enjoying that I’m still alive,’ Joel Piroe joked to the Yorkshire Evening Post. ‘I showed them a picture of my fiancee and my kid, I said I want to return to them so if you want to play Mario Kart in real life you guys do that but leave me out of it.’ But Piroe, the club’s top scorer this season with 10 goals, saw the value of it all: ‘I feel like in the last couple of weeks we’ve really grown towards each other. We know what we’re working for and you really feel that everyone is going for it.’
The players were pumped up but privately, Farke had concerns over whether his side were strong enough to beat newly promoted Portsmouth on the opening day of the season, never mind win the league. They drew 3-3.
The loss of Summerville and Rutter saw Leeds lose a combined 55 goals and assists from last season. Farke admitted: ‘we don’t have the brand anymore to be the big favourite.’
A Carabao Cup defeat at home to Middlesbrough highlighted the lack of strength in depth and a goalless draw at West Brom meant no wins in their opening three.
In the same week, Rutter left for Brighton with Farke revealing he wasn’t even aware of the Premier League release clauses that left Leeds with little room to negotiate.
It was turning into a summer of discontent and felt like the club were heading towards crisis but Farke cracked on and Leeds were shrewd in their recruitment.
The club kept faith with French stopper Illan Meslier who came in for criticism after a shocking mistake against Sunderland
Joe Rodon signed from Tottenham for £10m as part of the Gray deal, after a season-long loan. He is arguably one of the best centre backs in the division, alongside Pascal Struijk.
Bogle, Manor Solomon and Joe Rothwell all had experience while in Ao Tanaka, a gem was unearthed from Fortuna Dusseldorf in the German second tier by Farke for just £3m.
The Japanese international was nicknamed ‘James Bond’ after his display against Watford where Farke said he ‘saved’ Leeds. He has quickly become a fan favourite.
Without big names from last season, others stood up. In their first win of the season at Sheffield Wednesday, Willy Gnonto, who had wanted to leave after relegation, delivered an inspirational performance while Brenden Aaronson, who skipped the first season back in the Championship with a year-long loan at Union Berlin, scored the opener. Now Leeds fans are singing their names again. Dan James has been impressive too.
There is an acceptance that Summerville, who brought back £25m from West Ham, was too good for the Championship but his team-mates too often looked to him in matches, while those at the Thorp Arch training base questioned his commitment and professionalism. One club source says selling him was a ‘blessing in disguise’ even though he was a class apart on the pitch.
Farke made the call too to move on from experienced heads like Liam Cooper, Stuart Dallas and Luke Ayling, giving the others the chance to take responsibility.
In a youthful squad which only has two outfield players over the age of 30, his leadership group is made up of Ampadu (24), Struijk (25) and goalkeeper Illan Meslier (24).
Alongside Gnonto, Struijk was another that Farke pushed to keep. Perhaps the best example of the culture he’s created is the way the manager and the players protected Meslier after his horror last-minute mistake at Sunderland in October, and closed ranks around him. The keeper was in tears but they shut out the noise.
There was an acceptance that Crysencio Summerville was too good for the Championship
Plans to expand Elland Road to 53,000, which would make it the seventh-largest club ground in England were released in September
Meslier’s form is a concern, however, and Mail Sport understands Leeds would be open to selling him in January. The Frenchman, who is still very young for a first-choice goalkeeper, was at fault for two of Hull’s goals on Saturday as Farke’s side saw a 3-1 lead slip away late on. His form in three Premier League seasons left a lot to be desired too.
In the last week, Leeds have lost four points due to late goals with Farke stressing his side aren’t ‘the finished product which cruises through this league.’
‘We are one of the youngest sides in the league and we don’t play without making mistakes,’ he said on Saturday.
Farke’s 57 per cent win rate since taking over is the best by any Leeds manager who has managed at least 10 games. He averages two points per game.
Inevitably, there is still a Marcelo Bielsa hangover and split opinions in the fanbase but Farke’s record in the Championship is marginally better than Bielsa’s – albeit with a style of play that doesn’t capture the imagination in the same manner, even with their strong goalscoring record this season.
Not that Farke will care. At Thorp Arch, everything is geared to ‘getting promotion by any means necessary’. There is a clear demarcation whenever the first team are using facilities, from the canteen to the analysis rooms. Farke has an open-door policy and a commitment to providing thorough explanations. His press conferences are regularly long affairs.
When a local Norwich news outlet recently asked individuals for a minute message to thank Delia Smith and Michael Wynn-Jones after they stepped down from the board, Farke sent back eight minutes of personal tales from his time there.
‘The players like him and there’s not many grumbles but he’s definitely got a temper,’ says one source. ‘He can talk about building for the future but that’s not the brief and he knows that. He has to go up. If he doesn’t, he gets sacked. The Premier League is the only acceptable outcome with the current investment model and all the eyes on the club, particularly from the US. As much as people want free-flowing football, that doesn’t guarantee promotion and Farke is straight up. The club want to push on and need to push on.’
Farke enjoyed great success in the Championship during his five years in charge of Norwich
Part of pushing on involves bringing Farke the reinforcements he needs to secure promotion. Their main target in January is a new striker, while they would ideally have liked to add depth at centre back, full back and central midfield.
If they could shift the likes of Meslier and Patrick Bamford this month then there would be financial scope for a few incomings, but it is looking more like a month of loan deals with options to make the deal permanent if they go up.
Maccabi Tel-Aviv’s Dor Turgeman and Louie Barry at Aston Villa have been on their list for short-term boosts up front, while there has been discussion of going after Manchester City’s James McAtee — though they are last in a long queue there with the likes of Newcastle also in for the attacking midfielder.
But the need for more is clear, especially after the two draws in the last week. Of the last 21 seasons, Leeds have spent 18 in the EFL but they are too big for the Championship. In the 2022-23 season when they were relegated, only the ‘Big Six’ outperformed them on commercial revenue. Their £48m figure is way beyond the norm for a Championship club and reflects the need to get back to the Premier League.
The money made from kit and merchandising sales after their deal with adidas put Leeds level with Celtic and ahead of teams like Inter Milan and Fenerbahce. Their Red Bull involvement is another example of a key partnership with a global brand. Deloitte’s annual Football Money Report for 2024 placed Leeds 27th in global football for total revenue.
Plans to expand Elland Road to 53,000, which would make it the seventh-largest club ground in England were released in September. Leeds have sold every home ticket over the past six years while their waiting list for season tickets stands at 26,000.
The hierarchy see these numbers combined with the on-pitch success of recent promoted clubs like Nottingham Forest, Brentford, Brighton and Aston Villa as a taste of where Leeds could be in the short-term future.
Farke was loved at Norwich, having taken them to the ‘Promised Land’ twice. The full-time whistle at Carrow Road was often met with Blur’s 90s hit Parklife, with fans replacing the song’s title with his name.
Louie Barry starred for Stockport County while on loan from Aston Villa, and has crept onto Leeds’ transfer shortlist
Patrick Bamford is another player who could leave the club after joining Leeds back in 2018
‘I’m not sure if Elland Road is ever going to be patient. It is the most emotional club in the country, if not in western Europe,’ he said last month. He knows enough about the ‘cauldron of expectation’ there.
‘It’ll be difficult to come back stronger because we had 90 points this season,’ he said after Wembley.
But here they are eight months on, on track for 94 points and odds-on favourites to go back up.
Now Farke will be desperate to finish the job before the dreaded play-offs, where Leeds have a torrid record, and join Bielsa as the only manager since Howard Wilkinson in 1990 to take them back to the top-flight and where they believe they belong. In The Promised Land. Do that and he won’t have to worry about getting lovers among the Leeds faithful.
