We CAN handle the heat
Leeds’ promotion push fell apart but Daniel Farke insists...
DANIEL FARKE smiled on Friday when he was asked about the Hollywood actor Will Ferrell becoming an investor in Leeds United. As the Elland Road boss bids to guide the club back to the Premier League at the first attempt, the pressure is on to script an epic ending rather than the sob story that many fans fear.
In five attempts dating back to 1986-87, the first season the play-offs were introduced, Leeds have failed to go up. Now Farke must reignite a side who blew their chance of automatic promotion with only one win in their last six games.
‘I fully believe that we have the pedigree to return to the Premier League — hopefully as quickly as possible,’ Farke said. ‘Believe me, no one wants to do it quicker than me, but you can’t guarantee it.
‘In the past 20 years, we’ve had just three seasons at Premier League level. My big motivation is to bring this club back there, but also to establish them there in the long term.
‘I know how difficult it is because expectations and emotions run high at Leeds, but if you can’t handle the heat, then don’t go in the kitchen.’
Chaos reigned last summer as relegation led to players leaving, while 49ers Enterprises seized full control at Elland Road.
After a slow start, Farke has performed an admirable job in taking Leeds to a third-placed finish with 90 points.
Young players such as Archie Gray, Georginio Rutter and Crysencio Summerville have thrived under his guidance. However, the lateseason slump has been a cause for concern, and failure to win promotion could see some of their brightest talents sold.
That Farke guided Norwich to the Championship title twice in the past five seasons adds intrigue to Sunday’s semi-final first leg at Carrow Road. Leeds are missing striker Patrick Bamford due to a knee injury, but Farke said: ‘I don’t have a feeling that the fans have lost faith. They gave us a lap of honour after our final home game [a 2-1 defeat by Southampton], which showed they are behind us and trust us.
‘I’ve always felt during the season that when there is a special occasion, we are there. We played Leicester twice and beat them twice, and we did the same against Ipswich.
‘Now we have two spotlight games against Norwich — I’m optimistic that we can repeat this and show our winning mentality again.
‘I’ll always be grateful for my experience [at Norwich], but this is not the time for sentiment. When I joined them I thought, if I can be successful here, then I can do anything. It feels a bit like that with Leeds.’
For Norwich, making the playoffs looked like a long shot in November when they were 17th in the table and unsettled fans were demanding the head of manager David Wagner.
The board, however, stood by the German and striker Gabriel Sara revealed that it took a clear-theair meeting between the players and manager to kick-start their revival. ‘When we had the bad run everyone had their doubts,’ Sara said. ‘We heard that the manager was going to get sacked, but we felt we weren’t a bad team and the boss was not a bad manager, so what was really happening?
‘We stopped, we had a meeting, and the boss said, “I take responsibility, you guys take responsibility and we work together”.
‘From there we started playing more like friends and everything started to click. We’ve been through a lot of bad times, so maybe now is time to enjoy good times together.’