Leeds United needing statement wins on and off the pitch after Georginio bombshell — Joe Donnohue's Verdict — YEP 15/8/24

By Joe Donnohue

Leeds United are under pressure to prove their worth in the transfer market and on the pitch after a difficult and somewhat unexpected start to the 2024/25 campaign.

When famed author Rudyard Kipling penned his poem ‘If—’, he didn’t have Daniel Farke and Leeds United’s summer 2024 transfer business in mind. But after two games in which Leeds have conceded six, won neither and set pulses racing for all the wrong reasons, the words written in Kipling’s opening stanza ring true for the Whites’ present activity, having drawn with newly-promoted Portsmouth in the first game of the new season, their new £15 million, right-sided defensive couplet stuttering somewhat, before surrendering to Middlesbrough in the First Round of the Carabao Cup.

“If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you. If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, but make allowance for their doubting too. If you can wait and not be tired by waiting.”

Ahead of Leeds’ cup tie, Farke exuded calm in his press conference, convinced United have the required resources to make further permanent additions on ‘really interesting players’ and that the existing, core group had enough about them to win upcoming fixtures, before prospective reinforcements arrive. Wednesday night questioned that was actually the case.

Farke himself acknowledged the decision to make eight changes to his starting line-up, which included an entirely different front four, was a risk that did not pay off. Only in the 47-year-old's mind lies the answer to whether that is down to the quality of the replacements he chose, a lack of rhythm, options or something else.

Then, on the stroke of midnight, news broke of Brighton and Hove Albion activating Georginio Rutter’s £40 million release clause to cap what has been so far, a testing summer for even the most optimistic Leeds supporter.

Fans have watched from afar as their Bramall Lane neighbours, supposedly hamstrung by an impending takeover and financial limitations, have bolstered their ranks with tried-and-true EFL players. Callum O’Hare, Kieffer Moore, Harrison Burrows and more donned the red-and-white of Chris Wilder’s side in the opening week, dispatching of Championship opponents Preston North End and Wrexham in the cup. Paranoia would be too strong a term to describe it, but there is a palpable feeling among supporters that Leeds cannot afford to be playing catch up again this year.

There is an expectation, internally and externally, that Leeds must go up this season, preferably automatically. The Blades and, on Wednesday evening's showing, Boro are both likely to be vying for the top two, as well, so the Carabao contest was an appropriate test of United’s preparedness - one which they failed.

Supporters have heard Farke suggest the club’s resources are limited, but that they could also be biding their time for primary targets to become available as the window reaches an August 30th crescendo. They’ve been told the club are able to dictate terms for outgoing players then watched as Crysencio Summerville and Georginio’s release clauses were met.

After the play-off final in May, they heard Farke implore the club to conduct themselves proactively in the transfer market, hitting the ground running for a second tilt at promotion. Then, this week, listened as he suggested ‘early window panic buys’ are not always the best course of action.

So, which is it? Is it any wonder fans are beginning to air their frustrations at a perceived lack of activity - or the conflicting messages?

Granted, Leeds’ transfer work is ongoing behind the scenes, and under the current regime which prefers to conduct this sort of activity in quiet, silence isn’t necessarily a bad sign.

Failing to win your opening two fixtures of the new campaign against opponents you’d very much like to be a division or two above in 12 months isn’t a good sign, though, even if it is too early into the campaign to cast a definitive verdict on 2024/25 as a whole.

‘Do not judge us until the end of the window’, has more or less been the message, but losing Archie Gray, Summerville and Rutter in the same summer - none of whom have been replaced, at the time of writing - is a tremendously difficult sell.

Joe Rodon’s permanent arrival is good business if he can rediscover last season's form; poaching Jayden Bogle from a rival is, too. Joe Rothwell’s addition could prove shrewd work if the glimpses displayed in pre-season and in the first half against Boro offer Leeds a different dimension in midfield, as well. Although, ifs and buts don't clinch automatic promotion - winning football matches, keeping clean sheets and scoring goals do and Leeds are not doing that right now.

During the course of a season, supporters are tided over and satiated by goals, wins, attractive football, displays of ambition and - as Farke might put it - being in the driving seat on transfers, which it is abundantly clear, they are not. The 49ers may be new to football this side of the Atlantic, but they’re no strangers to sport, expectation or brokering deals. Unless their desire is for widespread dissent, which previous administrations have justifiably been subjected to, signings will come - the quality of which dictating the strength of feeling towards those in the West Stand’s premium seats.

After Wednesday night, signings are needed, because United's supporting cast faltered with the task put before them. Leeds made eight changes and paid the price, for which Farke takes responsibility, but so did Boro who played with fluency and found the back of Karl Darlow's net three times.

If the pause between Bogle’s arrival nigh on a month ago and the next new signing is merely that: a pause, then the 49ers can restore some of their rep and early cup exits become a footnote in what may prove an otherwise successful season.

If really interesting players do not all of a sudden become available and bids continue to be rebuffed, as with Dejan Ljubičić, targets move elsewhere, like Hugo Bueno, Jesurun Rak-Sakyi and potentially Jonathan Rowe, then patience will continue to be in short supply.

If it’s true Leeds can afford to be picky, as has been the suggestion from sources close to Elland Road this summer, now is the time to show it. Pick a winner.