Calmness, youth, leaders - how Daniel Farke compares to Leeds United's great managers — Yorkshire Post 24/5/24

By Stuart Rayner

Anyone who enters the manager's office at Elland Road is walking in the footsteps of giants.

Granted, Leeds United history has its fair share of hapless Hockadays, but names like Don Revie, who built the modern club, Howard Wilkinson, the last English manager to win its title, and the inspirational Marcelo Bielsa cast long shadows.

Daniel Farke is the latest to take on the challenge, and whether he leads the Whites to victory over Southampton in Sunday's Championship play-off final could have a big bearing on how history judges him.

He inherited a second-tier side – recently relegated like Revie's in 1961, not long in the doldrums a la Wilkinson in 1988 or Bielsa 30 years later.

In a Premier League era where parachute payments skew competition and ramp up urgency, circumstances are very different but there are echoes of the greats in some of what he has done, and contrasts too, say two authors who have written about their club.

Ask Rocco Dean, author of The Sons of Revie, what leaps out as the big similarity and he replies: "Building a young team that can grow together. Farke's not interested in short-termism. Revie was the same, building a team of kids who came up through the ranks.

"The main difference is Don had Bobby Collins and Alan Peacock to guide the young players. Maybe Farke will have that next season.

"It was absolutely vital Don had people not just like Big Jack (Charlton) and Bobby Collins but Jim Storrie and Willie Bell, who wasn't particularly old but was experienced."

Dave Tomlinson, writer of The Man With the Plan, admits that difference concerns him.

"Farke didn't really have much choice but to make a standing start," he acknowledges. "What I worry about is have we got leaders on the field? (Liam) Cooper's still there and he'll be a voice in the dressing room but I'm not sure they've got the experience to change it on the field.

"With Farke, a lot of criticism is that there's only one way to do it and it's a bit slow in some cases."

Wilkinson’s masterstroke was to pay Manchester United £200,000 for ready-made leader Gordon Strachan in March 1989. The Scot captained Leeds to the Division Two title in his first full season, and the First Division two years later.

"Bobby Collins dropped down a division, Peacock was an England international," Dean says of Revie's leaders. "It wasn't long before that John Charles was considered the best player in the world. Even in Wilkinson's time there were a lot of players who felt like First Division players and were probably getting paid like First Division players."

Strachan fell into that category and was worth every penny.

"Wilkinson got a unique set of players who were really team-first," explains Tomlinson. "They really bonded well and Strachan made a difference.

"You do need someone to take hold of people and I think that's a shortage now. When they've been poor they have lacked that."

Revie needed three full seasons to get Leeds into the top division, a luxury Farke is highly unlikely to get. But the evolution of his side was in contrast to Wilkinson's.

"Don and Howard had a real plan for the future but it was also about what they do for today," says Tomlinson. "Howard built one side to get up and another side to do well there."

Once Revie made Leeds one of English football’s big clubs, the challenge changed. Tomlinson sees a calmness in Farke he recognises.

"Daniel has this don't get too high or too low (attitude)," he argues. "Wilkinson did too. Howard always talked about a long-term target. Farke does the same with his two points a game."

Dean is not sure Revie fits into the same category.

"He was saying we were going to be the new Real Madrid when we were Second Division strugglers and Real had won five European Cups on the trot," he smiles. "Maybe Don was a bit more like Bielsa, an idealist.

"People have always speculated about his superstitious nature unnerving players on big occasions."

The biggest lesson is there is no right way to manage Leeds.

"Bielsa saw it as inspirational, a project, he took absolute control and that was a fundamental break with the past although he did it with the same players," says Tomlinson.

“I'm not sure any of the managers we've talked about would have succeeded at a different time.

"You can do anything as long as you can take people with you."

Farke has created optimism out of the despair of 12 months ago.

"If we don't win on Sunday we've always said it was a two-year plan and I'm sure next year we will go up but I don't want to lose many of these players," says Dean. "I want to see what they can do in the Premier League. We could surprise a few."

“In Archie Gray, Ethan Ampadu, Joe Rodon, they've got the basis of a really good Premier League side,” says Tomlinson. “They could thrive.”