Daniel Farke insists Leeds CAN handle the heat of the play-offs — Mail 11/5/24
Daniel Farke insists Leeds CAN handle the heat of the play-offs after they blew automatic promotion from the Championship... but admits it is 'difficult' handling expectations as his side prepare for clash with Norwich
Daniel Farke believes his team can handle the high
expectations at Leeds
They kick off their play-off campaign at Norwich's Carrow
Road on Saturday
By ROSS HEPPENSTALL
Daniel Farke smiled on Friday when he was asked about the
Hollywood actor Will Ferrell becoming an investor in Leeds United. As the
Elland Road boss bids to guide the club back to the Premier League at the first
attempt, the pressure is on to script an epic ending rather than the sob story
that many fans fear.
In five attempts dating back to 1986-87, the first season
the play-offs were introduced, Leeds have failed to go up. Now Farke must
reignite a side who blew their chance of automatic promotion with only one win
in their last six games.
‘I fully believe that we have the pedigree to return to the
Premier League — hopefully as quickly as possible,’ Farke said. ‘Believe me, no
one wants to do it quicker than me, but you can’t guarantee it.
‘In the past 20 years, we’ve had just three seasons at
Premier League level. My big motivation is to bring this club back there, but
also to establish them there in the long term.
‘I know how difficult it is because expectations and
emotions run high at Leeds, but if you can’t handle the heat, then don’t go in
the kitchen.’
Chaos reigned last summer as relegation led to players
leaving, while 49ers Enterprises seized full control at Elland Road.
After a slow start, Farke has performed an admirable job in
taking Leeds to a third-placed finish with 90 points.
Young players such as Archie Gray, Georginio Rutter and
Crysencio Summerville have thrived under his guidance. However, the late-season
slump has been a cause for concern, and failure to win promotion could see some
of their brightest talents sold.
That Farke guided Norwich to the Championship title twice in
the past five seasons adds intrigue to Sunday’s semi-final first leg at Carrow
Road. Leeds are missing striker Patrick Bamford due to a knee injury, but Farke
said: ‘I don’t have a feeling that the fans have lost faith. They gave us a lap
of honour after our final home game [a 2-1 defeat by Southampton], which showed
they are behind us and trust us.
‘I’ve always felt during the season that when there is a
special occasion, we are there. We played Leicester twice and beat them twice,
and we did the same against Ipswich.
‘Now we have two spotlight games against Norwich — I’m
optimistic that we can repeat this and show our winning mentality again.
‘I’ll always be grateful for my experience [at Norwich], but
this is not the time for sentiment. When I joined them I thought, if I can be
successful here, then I can do anything. It feels a bit like that with Leeds.’
For Norwich, making the play-offs looked like a long shot in
November when they were 17th in the table and unsettled fans were demanding the
head of manager David Wagner.
The board, however, stood by the German and striker Gabriel
Sara revealed that it took a clear-the- air meeting between the players and
manager to kick-start their revival. ‘When we had the bad run everyone had
their doubts,’ Sara said. ‘We heard that the manager was going to get sacked,
but we felt we weren’t a bad team and the boss was not a bad manager, so what
was really happening?
‘We stopped, we had a meeting, and the boss said, “I take
responsibility, you guys take responsibility and we work together”.
‘From there we started playing more like friends and
everything started to click. We’ve been through a lot of bad times, so maybe
now is time to enjoy good times together.’