Farke's Leeds United pitch to keep Harrison, Adams, Sinisterra and Gnonto laid out - Leeds Live 17/7/23

Daniel Farke has not pulled any punches since arriving at Leeds United and he has laid out the messages he has been exchanging with those players he wants to keep at Elland Road

By Beren Cross

Sunlight and glory days has not been the pitch from Daniel Farke to the Leeds United players he wants to keep in the Championship. The German begins his 13th day in the job today with the last of his players set to report for pre-season and the workload only increases from here.

Robin Koch, Brenden Aaronson, Rodrigo, Rasmus Kristensen, Alfie McCalmont, Diego Llorente and Tyler Roberts have all found a way out of Elland Road since relegation. There will be more to come too.

Marc Roca, Illan Meslier and Junior Firpo seem like smart bets to be elsewhere by September 2, while last season’s loanees are currently fighting to show Farke why they should be kept for the season to come. There are others who don’t need to prove themselves, but have Farke pitching why they should stay on.

Jack Harrison, Wilfried Gnonto, Tyler Adams and Luis Sinisterra are the players expected to be at the centre of the hardest-fought summer debates. They are all wanted by Leeds, but surely set to face attractive offers before the end of the window.

Gnonto, for example, saw a £15m bid from Everton for his services over the weekend. Leeds swiftly rejected it in a neat illustration of what Farke is trying to do with each passing day at the helm.

“Each and every day we have many, many conversations, but it's not up to me to speak in public about this,” said Farke. “So, it's important we do this behind closed doors and be sure so we work our socks off right now each and every day.

“At the moment, the days don't have enough hours, if I'm honest, in order to do all the work. It will last a while until we are in a really solid position that we have a big, clearer picture of who is with us and who is not.

“It's also important to be professional and to work really hard on our fitness level also, to bring our ideas to the players in order to be prepared when things really count.”

Farke feels he has had positive noises from those talks with players he does want to retain, but has put honesty and transparency above any unrealistic promises. Not for the first time, Farke has publicly stressed how difficult it is going to be, with this tight turnaround, to deliver quick success for Leeds.

“If you're not convinced then you can't do this job, you always have to be optimistic, but also realistic,” he said. “So my topic is always I like to speak honestly and pretty transparently about the situation and not paint a picture just full of sunlight and glory days.

“Our club will always be full of ambitions and want to play on the top level, this will always be our mid and long-term ambition and also our long-term and mid-term target, but the reality is also it's a difficult situation and we have a hell of a task ahead of us and we're working unbelievably hard. It's also quite important to be honest and open about the situation.”