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”.
Was this window a success or failureNancy 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."
