Inside Leeds United captaincy meeting and the surprise Daniel Farke dropped on everyone — Leeds Live 30/7/24

Leeds United confirmed their leadership group last week with Ethan Ampadu named captain and Illan Meslier made one of his understudies yet he had no warning from Daniel Farke it was coming

Ten members of Leeds United’s squad are older than Illan Meslier, but only three began at Elland Road before him, only two of those have made more appearances and nobody has made more starts. Despite that longevity in the dressing room, the 24-year-old was surprised when Daniel Farke announced his vice-captaincy last week.

Patrick Bamford and Sam Byram are the only players with more United outings than Meslier, but there’s not much in it and the goalkeeper may well overtake them before the end of 2024. Meslier has made significantly more starts than them both and has seen more of this latest chapter in the club’s history than many others.

When he was confirmed, alongside Pascal Struijk, as second in command to Ethan Ampadu, it was a shock for him. There had been no prior conversation between the stopper and his manager about what was about to happen or if, indeed, he even wanted to be vice-captain.

Meslier is, of course, honoured to be given such standing in the dressing room and it is, perhaps, an outward gesture from Farke to the rest of the world about his faith in his goalkeeper. There have been murmurings from France about Marseille interest, but nothing has materialised and the Frenchman is set for his sixth season in West Yorkshire.

“The manager spoke to us all together at the same time to announce this,” he said. “I'm very happy, very proud to be [vice-captain] because now it's five years I’ve been here. I'm happy I can have more responsibility, but nothing’s changed.

“I'll keep doing what I'm doing, what I did already. It's just a name, but I'm not changing anything else. I'm just happy.

“He didn’t speak individually. He just said Ethan will be captain, Pascal and myself will be the vice-captains. I was a little bit surprised because I never expect something like this.”

Farke was happy to set a public target for the team after Wednesday’s Hannover 96 win. He wants Leeds to have the best defence in the Championship next season. That’s a responsibility that will fall on Meslier’s shoulders a lot.

The former Lorient shotstopper did his bit last term and ended up sharing the Championship’s Golden Glove prize with West Bromwich Albion’s Alex Palmer. They each delivered 18 clean sheets over the course of the campaign.

What Farke wants, however, is to have the smallest number in the goals against column. They lost out to champions Leicester City by two goals last season, which was not helped by porous displays at Middlesbrough and Queens Park Rangers in April.

“He’s (Farke) absolutely right,” said Meslier. “If you have the best defence in the league, you have a great chance to be promoted. We saw last season, we were very close. We just fell a little bit at the end of the season, unfortunately.

“He is right. I also have expectations of myself, with clean sheets. If I can beat my clean sheets of last season it would be even better, but we will see. Hopefully, we will get promoted with the best defence.”