Daniel James’ handbrake is off – Leeds are finally reaping the benefit — The Athletic 30/11/23

By Phil Hay

In the minutes after Dan James’ loan from Swansea City to Leeds United fell through, sympathy was reserved for him. Leeds were a proficient team with or without James. Swansea smoking them did not seem likely to derail their season; just a needless, political charade which has been written about in detail many times.

But was there, with hindsight, a competitive impact? Leeds came up short in going for automatic promotion from the Championship and to look at James’ output in that division now, the idea of him making the difference from February onwards in 2018-19 is not that fanciful.

It would not have taken a major swing to keep Leeds in the top two. Perhaps his presence on loan was what Marcelo Bielsa needed, a means of gleaning extra points here and there. The club were promoted automatically a year later so maybe it did not matter either. But still, Sliding Doors and all that.

What can be said of James is that since that transfer window when Swansea stuck a spoke in his wheel he has not been in the habit of making a concerted difference for anyone. He was, for a while, a player who went to Manchester United and exacerbated annoyance about a former powerhouse of English football joining the also-rans and fishing in the wrong ponds. When Bielsa eventually got his man and brought him to Elland Road in the summer of 2021, James became the £25million signing Leeds did not need.

Bielsa experimented with the Wales winger, to no great effect, but Jesse Marsch, his replacement as head coach, did not particularly want him.

Marsch annoyed James by making the right noises about his prospects during the summer of 2022, only to sanction a loan to Fulham shortly before that transfer window closed. James, incredibly, was at risk of another deadline-day debacle as Leeds messed about with Cody Gakpo and Bamba Dieng before expediting the purchase of Willy Gnonto. Had it not been for Gnonto’s late signing, James could easily have been dragged back from a medical at Craven Cottage.

And Fulham, after seeing James at close quarters for the best part of a season, were none too sold on him. There was an option to take him permanently but no appetite to activate it, even when the number of loanees in their squad was limiting their flexibility in the transfer market.

So the 26-year-old came back to Leeds this summer facing the classic question of: what next? To which the answer is currently: five goals, four assists, and bright success in generating a new sense of purpose. The James that Swansea saw in Leeds’ 3-1 victory over them at Elland Road last night was a little more like the James they pushed through from their academy and knew they would end up selling; the handbrake off but with control, not lost.

James’ attributes are such that the only sensible way to make an asset of him is to properly harness his pace. It was that which made people sit up at Swansea, the 84 yards covered in 8.48 seconds to score against Brentford which propelled him onto YouTube and the pages of various newspapers.

Daniel Farke is an on-the-front-foot coach, one who values a weight of possession, but he has built his Leeds team in a way which reflects the fact that he has players in his squad with fairly lightning speed. The 4-1 rout of Huddersfield Town last month, in which James scored twice, was how it needs to be for him, with yearning space to go at, turnover ball, a licence to run riot. Georginio Rutter, Crysencio Summerville and Leicester City’s Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall are the only Championship players responsible for creating more big chances than James this season. His performances are tackling the perennial criticism of him: roadrunner legs but no end product.

Summerville has, by any estimation, been Farke’s best winger to date and it was the Dutchman who hassled their visitors in a first half which, through gritted teeth, Leeds ended with a 2-1 lead through a goal from Joel Piroe and an exquisite finish from Rutter.

James was fairly quiet to that point, as his team had been, but their press fell into place on the other side of the break and with 61 minutes gone, Sam Byram crunched Ollie Cooper on halfway, Rutter came up with the possession and James ghosted into Swansea’s box, fashioning space, rifling a shot into the roof of the net, declaring the contest over at 3-1. It was virtually his last act before Farke replaced him with Gnonto, but enough to explain why the manager keeps leaning towards him over other options, of which he has several.

James was not the only ex-Swansea player on the pitch at Elland Road last night.

Piroe made his presence felt too and Leeds’ motivation for paying the Welshmen £10.5million to get him in August was that, irrespective of what James or others might offer, there was a collective urge to recruit more meat in attack.

All the same, Farke understood that the summer just gone could not lead to an entire post-relegation overhaul of the squad. A good level of influence would have to come from the players he inherited.

Piroe, for his part, had proven himself for two years running at Swansea and let his finishing speak for him against his former club. James, in contrast, had been on the drift.

But five months in Farke’s pocket has broken the feeling that James and Leeds were an irredeemable blend of ill fate.