Following recent events, Daniel Farke’s future at Leeds United is no longer “as certain as it once did,” according to Graham Smyth.
On September 15, a journalist for the Yorkshire Evening Post stated on the newspaper’s website that the German was going to be under constant pressure this season due to his previous season’s inability to earn a promotion, and that it was now “unknown” how his relationship with the 49ers would hold up in the event that the pressure increased.
On September 14, the Whites lost 1-0 at home to Burnley, dropping them to ninth place in the Championship and five points behind the leaders. Farke expressed his displeasure with the transfer window, saying it “hinted that the relationship between manager and club might not be as entirely structurally sound as originally thought.”
CEO Angus Kinnear said that there was “tension” throughout the summer [The Square Ball, September 12], but he insisted that Farke is the best manager for Leeds at the moment and chalked it up to normalcy at every club.
Smyth, however, penned: “And what about the proper manager for Leeds United’s situation in a year? When Kinnear’s comment lingered in the air, the question started to ask itself.
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“Even then, given how the window unfolded, what he said, what Kinnear said, and what the supporters had to say following Burnley’s 1-0 loss, it does not feel as certain as it once did.”
Manager of Leeds United and the 49ers may not be close.
Even if a relationship survives, significant pressure always has an impact on it, so it’s not surprising that things at Elland Road haven’t improved after a year.
The Whites were forced to deal with financial difficulties that they could have avoided otherwise after missing out on an instant return to the Premier League.
The first indications that the mask might be partially coming off were Farke’s remarks regarding the club’s decision to not sign a number 10 to replace Georginio Rutter [Smyth, 2 September].
If the 49ers wanted to avoid these kinds of problems, they could claim that the manager and his players should have made sure they got promoted. In response, the German can reasonably raise concerns about why the team wasn’t better equipped to handle star departures.
Given that Leeds hurried to replace players like Rutter and Crysencio Summerville, who would have known about the release provisions in their contracts, at the last minute, it might be argued that neither party performed their job entirely.
However, Farke struggled to overcome Burnley last term despite having those players in his squad, and he appeared to be at a loss for solutions when the Whites struggled to defeat them this past weekend.
Although it wouldn’t have mattered if Mateo Joseph and Willy Gnonto had scored fantastic first-half chances, none of the substitutions made after the break helped the team’s deficit.
Although the squad’s first league loss of the season doesn’t have to be disastrous, there appear to be some fault lines at Elland Road that could cause problems if the team doesn’t maintain its early lead at the top of the table.
