The emotional underlying Leeds United factors behind Daniel Farke's whopping understatement — YEP 1/5/24
One of the reasons Daniel Farke says he took the Elland Road job is because Leeds United - prepare yourself for an understatement - is an emotional club.
By Graham Smyth
That much is not in dispute, not by anyone who has been in
the stadium for a big win, watched limbs cascade in response to a big goal,
travelled back on the train with supporters after a painful defeat or offered
any kind of opinion on any subject involving Leeds. This club draws the rawest
of emotion from its fans and what, in comparison with other clubs, can often
feel like extreme reactions.
Farke, whose head was requested on a platter by some after
the late-December defeat by West Bromwich Albion, insists that he enjoys the
level of passion always bubbling just under the surface of the fanbase.
"I really like how emotional our supporters are,"
he said. "I was so interested to lead this club when I signed the
contract. I know the potential this club has got. I was never naive when I
signed a contract. Everyone is so emotional for this club and it's important
you lead this club not like a flag in the wind. You've got to be capable of
what you can do. You never take anything personally. You have to be calm when
you lead this club."
Speaking after what was the most disappointing loss of the
campaign so far, the 4-0 humiliation by QPR last Friday night, he added:
"We're a pretty emotional club, [the players] need someone at the helm who
stays calm, critical, self critical and honest."
Farke has done that part of his job well this season. There
have been no touchline meltdowns worthy of viral acclaim and no press
conference bust ups with the media. Even when players have left, or tried to
leave, he has kept his cool and kept them from going under the bus. But you can
tell there are byproducts of the club's emotional state that irk him,
narratives and reactions that he cannot help from.
When some were losing their minds and others were simply
confused by the persistent playing of Joel Piroe at 10 and Georginio Rutter at
9, Farke eventually and quite clearly got fed up of it and tried to end it once
and for all with a painfully-detained explanation. When Piroe played at 9
during Patrick Bamford's absence on Friday night, Farke evidentally did not
want that to become the story of the defeat.
He said: "I got the feeling sometimes we were quite
quick [to reach conclusions]. Four days ago, before we played Middlesbrough,
everyone wants to send Patrick Bamford into, whatever, retirement and then
right now he's our only hope to win games. In both directions, we shouldn’t be
too much over the line. We didn't lose this game just because of Patrick
Bamford and didn't win the last game just because of Patrick Bamford."
Bamford himself, on his latest podcast episode, said
something that many of his fellow professionals would likely co-sign: "I
don't know whether because of social media I've noticed it more [but] I feel
like the human tendency is to be negative rather than positive. I feel like
players on one mistake get slaughtered and it creates a narrative."
Football in general has, for a long time, had somewhat of a problem with
conflating criticism and negativity but the out-of-control growth of social media
has definitely given the football conversation the harshest and most reactive
of tones.
But opinions come out when emotions run high and they rarely
run higher than when Leeds United are involved. The word meltdown has become
part of the footballing vernacular in this part of the world, for good reason.
Why, though, is it such an emotional club? Firstly, emotion doesn’t have to be
a bad thing. Some fans just really love their club and that brings out all the
feelings. They’re hopelessly addicted, tethered forever to the fortunes of a
bunch of lads kicking a ball around. There’s no real explaining that to those
who don’t love a team.
What else might explain the collective outbursts, though,
particularly of the rage variety? Beyond the fact that football fans everywhere
seem to be getting angrier and angrier - name one happy and contented fanbase I
dare you - the fact that so many people are finding life difficult,
increasingly so, due to societal reasons and the fact that football is where we
let a lot of things out, it's possible that the 'us against the world'
mentality adopted by Leeds fans, for myriad reasons, makes every success the
highest of highs and every difficulty the lowest of lows. Added to that, two
generations of supporters have grown up with the knowledge that their club once
boasted the finest team in Europe. They know their club is massive, they
believe it should still be competing at the highest level and yet look where
they have existed for the vast majority of the last two decades. Agony, angst,
frustration, bitterness, embarrassment even? Emotion, tonnes of the stuff. They
love their club but my does it put them through the mill.
Dan Moylan's experience of going through it with Leeds
United plays out to a vast audience on The Square Ball podcasts. They have
managed to turn into a business the scathing wit, brutal candour and dark
humour that is often required in order to cope with Leeds United. He sees lots
of factors behind the club's emotional state.
"Everyone in football naturally tends towards the
unhappiness and pessimism," he told the YEP. "Social media amplifies
and catalyses it. There’s little escape from it now and reading everybody
else’s anxiety fuels your own, so the whole thing snowballs and compounds. All
that is against the backdrop of the widening financial gap and the increased
threat of financial Armageddon via Profit and Sustainability Rules and loss
making. As for Leeds-specific factors, our highs and lows are particularly
pronounced versus most other clubs. We’ve gone from being the best team in the
world during Revie’s time to a near decade in the wilderness in the '80s, to
champions in '92. We were stable for a bit in the '90s but then went all boom
and bust: 2001 and the Champions League to 2007 and League One. Then the
monumental struggle back up. Bielsa and that football. And you’ve got several
generations of fans who’ve lived through some or all of it. I’ve seen us
knocked out of the play-offs five times, losing three finals. But I’ve also
seen us play Barcelona and Real Madrid in the champions league at Elland Road.
We’re the ultimate club of ‘nearly’ and ‘what if’. Fans expect us to fall
short, because we’ve done it far more than we’ve succeeded. We’ve never
properly followed our successes. I think our history and social media have
created a more anxious fanbase than many clubs. Our ceiling is so high, but
we’ve also experienced the floor. And it’s low. The stakes are always so high
when it comes to the cost of failure. In part because of the state of football
in general, but also because we’ve often gambled as a club instead of building
sold foundations."
Sounds fun, being a Leeds fan. The BBC's Adam Pope started
covering the club 'properly' as he puts it, in 2005. Almost 20 years on he's
the voice of it, synonymous with coverage and commentary. He's seen and heard
plenty, most of it highly dramatic for reasons both positive and negative. The
scars are real.
"The highs and lows just seem to be so much more
stark," he told the YEP. "So when you when you've experienced what
the club have had, a terrible play-off final defeat, and then relegated the
next year, docked 15 points, administration as well and the ignominy of League
One and come out of it, I thought that might in some ways flatten out the
accusation that Leeds fans feel they're bigger and better. I wondered if it
might bring some reality to proceedings for some Leeds fans who maybe felt like
the club was something it wasn't. But it didn't. What I found is that it's the
same old feelings that rage from nought to 100mph. And it can be over anything,
it's not just the big moments, not just the relegations or the promotions but
it can literally be one result or one person's performance or a perceived
slight from another club. I still don't think I've got my head around why that
happens."
As Pope notes, Leeds have had it so bad at times that 'doing
a Leeds' has become a phenomenon of its own. Other clubs love to see them
struggle, to an obsessive point in some cases. Many of those struggles have
been self-inflicted and many have not, with a cumulative effect, only
heightening emotions.
"There has been, I think, an inordinate amount of
injustice and unfairness levelled towards Leeds, obviously starting with the
dirty Leeds tag which is just some bias thing predicated on wrong
information," said Pope. "There's the European final with the
referee, the West Brom game with the offside. I can see why fans do rage off
the scale. It accounts for this historical sort of feeling that the club has
been hard done by and therefore the fans have been hard done by. And it's a
large fan base anyway, so it's going to affect more people, and it's a big
city. So all those things go into the mix. But fundamentally, I do think people
do tend to go off the scale quicker than they do other clubs. Or more divergent
than at the other clubs. Everything is a disaster and everything is brilliant,
nearly all at the same time, all in the same week. There's more of a gallows
humor than at other clubs, like all the predicting of play-off defeat before
the automatic promotion places are even sorted."
It takes a certain kind of person to be able to play
football in the maelstrom of emotion that is Leeds United. This current team
has been finding that out over the course of this season. When harnessed, it
can be incredibly powerful. A 'push in the back' as Pascal Struijk once said.
When the emotion takes over and the football does not match it, it can be
painful to watch. Whatever happens from now until the final whistle in May,
Farke and his squad's ability to withstand the strength and depth of feeling
around about them will be tested to its limit. As ever, with this club, it can
only be the highest of highs or the lowest of lows. Another missed opportunity
or a glorious triumph. Wild celebrations or bleak despondency. It's going to be
emotional.