The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Sport Saturday
Leeds hope for redemption song afte
Much to rivals’ delight, Farke’s side stumbled in promotion run-in but tomorrow’s play-off final could bring Wembley joy
Joy Division are still a big noise around Leeds. Forty-five years on from their mesmeric performance at Futurama in the city, their most famous song continues to be perverted to taunt Leeds United.
Leicester City midfielder Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, having secured promotion, gloated “Leeds, Leeds are falling apart again” and later that week Ipswich fans joined a chorus of exuberant mockery as it was confirmed Daniel Farke’s side would miss out on automatic promotion.
Leeds restored a sense of hope on the road to Wembley with their return to form in the play-off semifinal demolition of Norwich. But before, that song – based on Love Will Tear Us Apart – reminded an older generation of other apt excerpts from Joy Division’s back catalogue to soundtrack the bleak mood following three defeats in April that left them marooned in third place: She’s Lost Control, New Dawn Fades, Wilderness.
Such ingrained pessimism was everything Farke had sought to mitigate. He was appointed manager last July when the takeover by 49ers Enterprises had yet to be ratified, impressing his interviewers not only with his record of two Championship titles in three years at Norwich but his conviction that this was his perfect opportunity to finally thrive in the Premier League. Above all, the incoming board admired his certainty, revealing later it seemed like he was evaluating them – not the other way around.
New owners should equal a clean slate, but 49ers Enterprises has had board representation for years and the consortium needed a credible appointment after the farce of the preceding two seasons.
Moreover, many of the players bought over the previous 12 months for the failed Jesse Marsch project had informed the club that they wished to activate clauses in their contracts drawn up under the previous ownership that entitled them to be loaned rather than sold upon relegation. No one shed any tears over the departures of Brenden Aaronson, Rasmus Kristensen, Max Wober and Marc Roca, but the loss of expensive assets with no compensation except for a saving on wages, smelt like the economics of the madhouse.
Leeds were still a Championship club in essence, but one paying Premier League salaries. When Victor Orta, the sporting director since 2017, walked out in April 2023, it left them going down without a first-team coaching staff and someone braced to deal with the detonation of the contractual time bombs.
Shrewdly, the new owners sought expert help, bringing in Nick Hammond, former sporting director at Reading and the man who had shaped Newcastle’s successful transfer strategy in January 2022 following their sale, as a consultant. Farke, pointedly named “manager” rather than “head coach”, like his immediate predecessors, joined the recruitment process, delivering the first sign of encouragement for months with the purchase of Ethan Ampadu from Chelsea for £7 million.
In August, Luis Sinisterra and Wilfried Gnonto both announced they wanted to leave and asked to be stood down from first-team duty. Farke dealt with it decisively and exiled the forwards from training.
Ultimately Sinisterra, threatening court action, forced through a loan move to Bournemouth, while Gnonto, without an enforceable clause or a credible bid, was warned and reintegrated after an apology.
After their misfiring start, Leeds began to click in early October, winning nine and drawing one in a run of 11 games that propelled them up to third. Playing 4-2-3-1 with the outstanding teenage midfield prospect Archie Gray mainly used at right-back, Farke’s style was based on control, relying heavily on the slight, fast, skilful wingers, Crysencio Summerville, Gnonto and Dan James, who shared 40 goals between them.
When they lost back- to- back matches against Preston and West Brom after Christmas, they started the year six points behind Southampton, nine off Ipswich and trailed runaway leaders Leicester by 17 points with 21 matches to play. Eleven weeks later, they were top of the league.
Finding the right chemistry
What had changed? After two years of unreliable fitness and capricious form following his England debut, Patrick Bamford was restored to the centre- forward role. Ampadu dropped back to centre-half from midfield to form such a durable partnership with Joe Rodon that they did not concede a goal in open play for 13 games – 12 of which they won.
For all the flaws in his finishing technique, Bamford’s movement
Farke had taken them to the threshold but they were left jiggling the wrong key in the lock
apology to the official but the regulatory commission rejected Gifford’s defence.
“As to Rule E3.2, it is evident that the comments made by Mr Gifford included a reference to race. It is difficult to reconcile Mr Gifford’s position,” the decision read. “There is no place in the game, or society, for comments of this nature.
“Again, it was averred that there was no malice in the comments made, and it was ill-judged banter, but this lacks any merit. Moreover, Mr Gifford denied the charge.”