Inside the fall and rise of Leeds United: How Daniel Farke turned things around and took the club from the brink of promotion to the big time

Daniel Farke had a half-grimace smile when he was told on Friday that a huge image of his face had been displayed on Trinity Leeds, a shopping center in the city.

“I would have been distracted by that when I was younger,” the German said. “In my job there are two options: build a statue and put pictures on a shopping center or throw tomatoes. I say, “Don’t let these emotions guide you. Stay as you are.”

The 47-year-old’s response sums up the binary condition of the modern manager, loved or hated depending on the results. On this monumental weekend in which Leeds attempt to return to the Premier League, the truth is that it will be judged by many on the events of Sunday afternoon alone.

Fail to recapture Leeds, and some will want him gone.

It’s tough, because Farke has transformed the team and the dressing room to put the club in a position that seemed almost impossible in the first months of the season.

Sources within the camp point to his individual work with players, his sense of how they can develop and his ability to ease anxieties as keys to the club’s surge towards the play-off positions after a painful start slow. There were no wins in their first three league matches and one in their first five.

The German turned them around and placed them in a position that seemed impossible

Those desperate first weeks, in which a return to the top flight seemed so far away, were something for which Farke could hardly be held responsible.

It was an inauspicious start due to last summer’s player exodus – partly a consequence of former Leeds director of football Victor Orta giving players clauses in their contracts allowing them to go on loan in the event of relegation.

Leeds lost Robin Koch, Diego Llorente, Brenden Aaronson, Rasmus Kristensen, Marc Roca, Maximilian Wober, Jack Harrison, Tyler Adams, Rodrigo and Luis Sinisterra. Of the 10 players who started 20 Premier League matches last season, seven were absent.

A change in club ownership to 49ers Enterprises — and the hiring of Farke — came just weeks before the season, leaving little time for planning. Farke made some good additions early on. Ethan Ampadu was one of the rookies of the season.

And as a manager intimately familiar with promotion to the Premier League, having managed Norwich City twice in three years, he knew how the second tier, away from the goldfish bowl of the elite, can give young players a chance to breathe and develop. .

Sources say he saw particular potential in striker Georginio Rutter. He arrived for a club record £35million in January of their relegation season – struggling with expectations and earning just one Premier League start. It turned out the Frenchman just needed time and space to deliver on that promise. Farke saw it. Rutter’s name now rings around Elland Road every week.

“It’s a real gift,” says a source close to the club. “Had Leeds not been relegated, Rutter’s future would have looked uncertain, but he now looks like a future Premier League player, whether the club gets promoted or not.”

The same goes for left inside forward Crysencio Summerville. He had fewer trust issues and simply thrived.

Leeds lost many key players this summer and Farke helped them rebuild under pressure

Ethan Ampadu was one of the rookies of the season under Farke’s tutelage.

For Archie Gray and Wilfried Gnonto, this Championship season has been continuous training. The pressure Farke faces this weekend is compounded by the fact that some, or all, of these players could prove attractive to Premier League clubs if Leeds do not reach the top flight now.

Leeds’ recovery, which accelerated with an extraordinary unbeaten run between January 1 and April 1 where they lost just four points, is not just a matter of individuals.

The collectivism created by Farke is why some make comparisons with Howard Wilkinson, who took over a struggling Leeds team – 21st in the Second Division – and made them First Division champions within four years, in 1992.

A gem of a book about Wilkinson’s success at Leeds, The Man with the Plan, by Dave Tomlinson, details why the austere Yorkshireman succeeded at Elland Road in that extraordinary start to the 1990s.

The fundamental principle was a collectivism that is just as applicable today as it was then. It is striking how often, in conversation with Wilkinson this week, he uses military metaphors.

“Sergeant Wilko”, as it was called in Leeds, a play about the old TV character Sergeant Bilko, was always sworn by the players that you would have with you in the trenches. “If you have six men in a platoon, you look for specific qualities,” says Wilkinson, now 80. “It’s not about learning how to shoot this weapon. It’s about knowing how to shoot when missiles come in front of you.

Farke will be without Patrick Bamford on Sunday after the striker failed to recover from a knee injury and there will be a desperate sense of danger at Wembley. Expect it to be suspicious. Ten of the last eleven Championship play-off finals have seen two goals or fewer in 90 minutes. This clash between the third and fourth teams in the division is unlikely to be any different.

Leeds entered their play-off semi-final against Norwich in worrying form. After being in the lead in mid-March, they finished poorly, losing four of their last six league matches and scoring four goals against QPR and three against Middlesbrough.

The collectivism encouraged by Farke has given rise to comparisons with Howard Wilkinson.

Sources claim Farke saw potential in Georginio Rutter, who has struggled in the Premier League

How to stop the rot before the away semi-final was Farke’s biggest difficulty of the season. He opted to maintain the same routine entirely, with a full week at their Thorp Arch training base rather than take his team, who were looking tired, on a team-building exercise.

“No psychological games. We work hard,” he said. The players organized their own group meal at a Leeds restaurant, independently of him.

Farke had been criticized for his lack of boldness in his substitutions. For the semi-final matches, he reverted to the 4-2-3-1 formation that had served him so well earlier in the year.

Placing 18-year-old Gray in 10th behind Rutter was designed to shore things up in the middle and they earned a 0-0 draw at Carrow Road. It then helped that Norwich were woefully poor in the second leg.

Southampton had no reason to change their system. When the clubs met at Elland Road three weeks ago, the Saints came away with a 2-1 victory, to go with the 3-1 victory they secured in the reverse fixture at St Mary’s last September.

These games have shown that Leeds can be vulnerable against Russell Martin’s side, who have been more than capable of unleashing the high press they invite by playing from the back and throwing players forward.

Right-back Kyle Walker-Peters caused problems for Leeds’ Junior Firpo during this match at Elland Road. Another problem for Leeds was Southampton striker Adam Armstrong, who scored three times in the two games.

Yet Southampton’s commitment to high-possession football is predictable. And unlike Farke, this is entirely new territory for Martin, who has never finished higher than 10th in a managerial career that took him from MK Dons to Swansea, before St Mary’s.

Farke managed to stop the rot as Leeds faced Southampton in the play-off semi-final

“I know there are many legends here. I’m not near them, but in a few years I hope I can contribute a little to play my part in the history of this club.

The achievements of the three managers who took Leeds to the top flight – Wilkinson, Don Revie and Marcelo Bielsa – were cited to Farke as he held his press conference ahead of the trip south.

“I know there are a lot of legends here,” he said. “I’m not near them, but in a few years I hope I can contribute a little to play my part in the history of this club.

“I want to create a legacy and I came here because I believed this club belonged in the Premier League.”

The Man with the Plan, by Dave Tomlinson. RRP hardback book £25. pitchpublishing.co.uk