Good Morning. It's Tuesday 3rd September, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road Is there friction between Farke and the ER board? Graham Smyth was stirring the pot last night, insinuating that there could be some friction between Daniel Farke and the Elland Road board after another Summer of discontent. The Chief Football writer of the YEP was a guest on 'The Square Ball' podcast last night, discussing Leeds Summer transfer activity. Losing your three talismen; players with the individual ability to turn a game on a sixpence, was always going to be a difficult pill to swallow, but to refer to the replacements (Ramazani, Solomon, Tanaka and Schmidt) as “young and interesting” is possible a little contemptuous. Whilst Farke fell short of publicly criticising the board, he certainly took several sly digs at them if Smyth is to be believed. His (Farke's) demeanour had been described as chagrin, and he distanced himself from the board by saying 'the club' decided not to spend big, retorting that he was not an accountant when asked why he thought that was! According to Smyth: “I asked him why it was so difficult, he talked about the homegrown market being difficult, he talked about, ‘You want the right experience, you want character, you want quality, and if you want that, you have to spend an unbelievable amount of money, but the club decided not to do that’. “When I asked why… he said, ‘I’m not an accountant, I can’t tell you if we had the money to spend’, whilst also noting that they spend quite a lot on [Joe] Rodon and a bit on Jayden Bogle… “It did feel like there was a bit of chagrin in his words, and I don’t think we’re over-interpreting that, as he would say”. please log in to view this image Was this window a success or failure Nancy Froston has penned an interesting piece this morning, backing up Graham Smyth's claims on 'The Square Ball' that Daniel Farke is less than enamoured with Leeds transfer activity this Summer. 'The Athletic' journo claims Farke's repeated mentioning of 'lack of Championship experience' is a major cause of concern for the German, who sees the Whites as a 'work in progress' side, rather than a team setting their sights on automatic promotion! Leeds spent a grand total of £27m this Summer, making them the second highest spenders in the Championship behind Burnley (£40m). The players bought in look decent enough, but fall a long way short of fans expectations at the beginning of the Summer. Gray's departure was supposed to 'balance the books', or at-least, that's what we were led to believe. We'll find out whether the squad is good enough in two weeks time when Burnley visit Elland Road. "What should have been a period of calm preparation for the new season ended up becoming a rebuild. Eleven outgoings (not including released players) and eight signings brought anger, panic and finally, a degree of hope that they now have a squad with enough quality to win Premier League promotion this season. "The positives of the weekend’s 2-0 Championship home win against Hull City should have put a neat bow on Leeds’ summer business, which closed 16 hours before kick-off. Instead, manager Daniel Farke’s comments raised more questions about a window that was full of them. "Did Farke get what he wanted? Crucially, did he get what he feels Leeds need if they are to do better than last season’s painful promotion near-miss? His repeated mentioning of the signings’ lack of Championship experience — and, save for Manor Solomon, experience of any kind in English football — shows he sees Leeds as a ‘work in progress’ side." please log in to view this image
Good morning. After the last two performances, i now feel we are a more balanced side, who work for each other giving a more of a team look, whereas last season we relied solely on individual performances, so when the likes of jimmy/Ruter/Gnonto were having an off day, which was all to often we looked very poor. So after a very shaky start i am now quite hopeful for the rest of the season. I for one am very happy with the transfer business, and feel we will gel and get stronger as a team as the season progresses, possibly with shades of a Bielsa side at it's peak, but we will see.
Can see where these opinions are coming from. Could the board have done less in the transfer market, barely. The work in progress is a worry as we don't know yet again if the new crew will handle championship football. Farke not going to be ecstatic hardly as he has to shoulder the blame for any bad results. If were outside top four by xmas hell he shown the door regardless of the tools he's been given and then the revolving door approach continues. Window looks a failure to me but hoping Ill have changed my mind by mid October
Morning all Reading between the lines you’d imagine Farke wanted the board to spend big on Hamer. When you look at our team we still have an abundance of talent at this level, Solomon is also a great signing. If you are against the board you’ll side with Farke, if you want to flip the coin it’s Farke getting the excuses in early if he fails. My opinion, we’ve got a very comfortable top 4 team, automatics are the aim with the squad we have, Farke still has an excellent pool of talent at his disposal but… It could have been better and the board should have got Hamer or another marquee signing The signings we made, could have been made without selling Rutter who we tried to keep. If we tried to keep him but ended up accepting £40m why did we not spend another £15m or so
I think we were 2 short in the window, obviously Hamer was a big opportunity to give us a great chance of the auto's and for the sake of an extra £3m we could have made us stronger and Sheff Utd weaker, I don't think the board were ever serious in getting him, just a pr stunt to say we tried blah blah blah. One other position we missed out on was cover for CB, Wober isn't interested and has the face of a child that's just had a slapped arse, Debayo is young and hardly fair put that responsibility on him if Rodon gets injured. I think Farke has every right to be pissed off.
Morning all, people keep moaning on about the sale of our prize assets Rutter/Cry/Gray I personally think it was very good business, Rutter wont cut it in the Prem, Cry used to go missing at crucial times and Gray was not a full back and didn’t light the place up in midfield, yes his age is on his side and I wish him well. I think the squad is in a far better position than we were this time last season, Solomon is going to be better than Cry, Rutter couldn’t score in a brothel, Aaronson can and has shown he can. The additions have yet to be intergrated into the squad fully so let’s see what momentum builds in the coming weeks. Farke has handled the bad player contracts well and was in the wilderness when he got the bullet in Germany, he could of picked a job up easily with the likes of Bristol City, Cardiff etc but he got offered a life line with us and we are a big club so I think Farke is happy at LS11 for the time being, time will tell come the end of the current season.
Just reading an article and it says Junior Firpo has more assists than any other player in the Championship in 2024. Surprised me that
There's no doubt we cheapskated in the window.. so Farke has a point. He likes championship/british experience. Agree with Ristac's point that it sounds like he wanted us to go big for Hamer, maybe aarons too. Sure he's getting his excuses in, but then they may be legitimate. I think the point is that Solomon apart, these guys we got later in the window were relatively low ticket, and in a couple of cases minor league guys. That doesn't mean they won't be good and we won't do great. It just means its more of a risk... and historically less likely. I understand people's point about squad balance, but it would have been balanced had we bought more proven/experienced players for those positions. Was it a good transfer window? No idea. Time will tell.
Doesn't surprise me at all. Like I said yesterday, he's a crap defender but he's great going forward. Many times last season I'd say to my son "Bloody hell, another assist from Firpo!"
Agree with all that. Has to be worrying re owners though that they'll pull in 140m and spend 27. And it's not all down to ffp or whatever it's called. It wouldn't fill you full of confidence that they'd find 120m per season for the squad every season if we're in pl. Anyway, they are a bank after all
It dosn't scream we're here to break the bank for promotion does it. We know (led to believe) only Gray was required for FFP. Hey we may have done some great recruitment and unearthed bargains. Let's hope so.
Neutral !!! Only neutral you know is in a car gearbox Ell But on the other hand you are a descent Mod and keep us all entertained
Afternoon all. I did question whether there was tension between Farke and the Board on another thread a couple of weeks back (can’t remember which one) from something he said in an interview. I made the point that this rarely ends well for the manager once you start blaming those running club / sending the message to the fans for a lack of big signings. He’s definitely put himself under pressure if we don’t compete for promotion and can even see him being replaced next season if we do go up. As Simon Jordan always says, managers always want to spend big but it’s not their money being spent.
I heard this on some podcast, so of course me being me had to go and check. This is based upon the 21 players who got 7 or more assists in the Championship last season, plus Tom Fellows who has 3 assists this season.(Makhtar Gueye also has 3 assists this season, but wasn't playing in the Championship last season).
One thing that stands out to me is we made an awful mistake letting Ayling go. Not only had he still a lot to offer on the pitch he would have been invaluable in last seasons run in and in the Wembley fiasco
It's got that bad on here that me and @ristac are the happy go lucky ones. That one is on the rest of you.
Lots of mistakes made for me starting with Marsch getting rid of Leif Davies another was backing FARKE after he failed so badly last season. The 49ers obviously worried about backing Farke now as they are worried about the first three games this season and the concessions. Farke now has a very very good side as long as the new boys live up to their potential. We still have the most highly valued squad in the league and better than last season. This is the second time a couple of weeks that FARKE has thrown the 49ers under the bus and they won’t like it. Seems to me he is getting his excuses in early. Wonder how a skint WBA are feeling right now listening to Farke whine but you can bet they will be in the play offs again on a shoestring budget. Sorry guys you all know my views on Farke and I am still waiting for him to show me he is the man to win us promotion. If he does I will apologise profusely but just don’t see it happening
You might well be right but in any other season 90 points would see us promoted. I get that he needed more but I think that last international break wrecked our run in through injuries and the affect on the Welsh boys after the playoff defeat.
