Leeds United vs Portsmouth press conference highlights as relaxed Daniel Farke boasts clean bill of health — YEP 8/8/24

By Joe Donnohue

Leeds United manager Daniel Farke hosts his pre-match press conference this afternoon ahead of the Whites’ opening fixture in their 2024/25 Championship campaign.

Portsmouth are first up for Leeds this season as the newly-promoted south coast club prepare to arrive at Elland Road on Saturday morning.

United kick off at lunchtime this weekend and a sell-out stadium in LS11 will be keen to get off on the right foot after play-off final disappointment two-and-a-half months ago.

In that time, Leeds have bid farewell to the likes of Archie Gray and Crysencio Summerville, both of whom have secured Premier League moves, whilst welcoming Joe Rodon back on a permanent transfer as well as seeing Jayden Bogle, Joe Rothwell and Alex Cairns sign.

During pre-season Farke has witnessed his team win five out of five, including an impressive 2-1 victory over Spanish side Valencia. Whether they can carry through their friendly form into Saturday’s meeting with Pompey remains to be seen but certainly bodes well for the season ahead.

Follow everything the Leeds boss has to say this afternoon. Press conference scheduled to begin at 1:30pm.

Farke on centre-back cover

DF: I was not sure before pre-season started because as I mentioned earlier with Max Wober, it was doubtful how he would present himself after he came back. We have allowed a few academy products to impress in pre-season. James Debayo has, I’m quite relaxed in the centre-back position. If Virgil van Dijk calls me tomorrow and says ‘Boss, I want to join you’, I would think about it. There could be a big injury, you never know. Keeping in mind, Ethan Ampadu can also play centre-back. It’s also important when a player like James uses a chance, he has caught my eye in pre-season. To tell you a secret, he’s probably the player I’m most strict with, I’m trying to correct him but it’s always a good sign when I moan at a player. He has earned a spot and rightly so.

Farke on whether any players are wantaways within the squad

DF: No, not one player was in my office to rule themselves out. Not at all. I’m not naive, we have good players and there are probably talks in the background, perhaps as a player it’s allowed to think about it [transfers to the Premier League] but not one player was in my office.

Farke on Wober future

DF: He was a bit longer involved in the tournament [Euros], it was more difficult and we had a good chat on the telephone when he was playing for Austria. Then I allowed him 2.5 weeks of holiday to clear his head and come back. The chat was I want to be there and prove my worth. It’s always the same, a player comes in and their last experience was relegation and their reputation is maybe not on the top level, like Georgi or Illan last year. Now everyone is fully convinced and singing their names. Max was a bit careful to be too loud within the group, wants to adapt, especially in the German training camp. We sit together after the first three weeks of training and he said straight away, knocked on my office, he said ‘boss sorry am I allowed to come in, I’m 100 per cent convinced, I want to be here.’ The same with Brenden, one good training session or game is not everything to win back supporters but he has my backing, he has been good in training, they will need a few weeks until they are back to 100 per cent. I get the feeling they can play a really important part. He is really desperate to prove his worth. Let’s not celebrate it too much, the actions are more important than the words.

Farke on transfers

DF: I don’t want us to overpay for players who are not worth it because one day you will pay the price. We are there with ambitious business, but realistic and smart business. I have total trust in our key people and leadership group. Financial rules are sometimes hard to accept.

Farke on budget and more

DF: You can never have enough. Every manager wants more. I would have loved to keep Summerville, Gray and to add even more quality but to be honest, that’s not the point. I know we’re in great talks, I totally believe in our owners, they are ambitious and back us. We have to stick to the rules, in the years before we had some tricky decisions in transfer sums and salaries. You have to pay for the sins of the past. I feel backed. You know what, I don’t have the feeling that the club and the board and owners are there to make my life easy, or to please or suit me. I understand my job the other way round. I don’t complain. When I think about last season, my aim was to bring stability to this club. I wanted to bring this club a group of players with great identification and the bond with supporters. It was tough last season. I never made a secret, once I take over, I want to be in the Premier League - I want to work with this club where it belongs in the Premier League. The only thing that works for me is hard work from my side and this is what I try to give, to give my knowledge, try to work on the values, within the group of staff and players, I try to bring principles. If you see us playing without the colours of the shirt, you can say ‘this is Leeds United’. I would have liked if we had promoted at the first time of asking but the reality is we have to accept there are financial rules and perhaps sometimes the player develops quicker than the club. Archie Gray, Cree Summerville, after such a season they should play in the PL and we should accept this. We have to spend the transfer sums sustainably and wisely.

Farke on Championship

DF: It’s always difficult to predict before the season starts. This league is definitely competitive. You couldn’t predict something like an Ipswich promotion happens again because it was an exceptional thing for them, but I’m full of respect for our new opponents, the teams who are relegated from the PL, they are there with a strong squad, strong competitors and the newly-promoted sides. For example, Portsmouth, I’m full of respect, if you’re able to win League One and be a possession side with 97 points, you have the quality to play a solid role in Championship level.

Farke on goalscoring

DF: If I’m honest, the gut feeling was we shared the goals last season. I think overall, the offense we have shared the goals a lot. We’re lacking a few goals out of midfield and in the second half of the season from set-pieces by our defensive players. We’ve tried to work on this topic, to chip in with more goals from midfield and set-pieces. It’s something we want to do and to be more effective. I think in Expected Goals, we were top in the league, but our conversion rate was not always top. In the offensive position we have a lot of young players, we want them to be more clinical in front of the goal. If we convert a bit more we’ll finish in a position where we want to finish.

Farke on being let down by potential signings

DF: We are not that much under pressure like last season when it was difficult to build a group. We have a good basement and we are not forced to do anything. Leeds United is still an unbelievably big name in English football and lots of players are tempted to come here. We do a lot of work in the background. We have a good group and want the right mentality. Players with this mentality and quality are not easy to find. When we went away from potential targets, it was our decision.

Farke on incoming signings difficulty

DF: I wouldn’t label it too much of a problem, but we are pretty picky. I stand for values, I want players who are desperate to defend this white shirt - and yellow shirt, by the way. We want to have great characters and great identification for the club. This is always a hurdle. On the other side they have to have the quality to improve this group. Normally when you want to have this great characters and quality players and who can play an important role for the future, it costs money. I’m in a pretty good and lucky position, we have supportive, ambitious owners. We all know where we want to end up sooner rather than later. What is clear, we also stand for values. We still have to pay for some sins of the past so this is why we need some transfer [outgoings]. In the past there were difficult decisions to be in line with the financial rules. We had great transfer sums this summer but we are only able to spend a fraction of it. You have to be a bit more patient. We have to be careful with what we can afford. We want to be sustainable and the club doesn’t pay for our sins right now.

Farke on team news

DF: Everyone is available. Good news. Everyone is fit and ready to go. There was a dead leg in the last game for Bogle but he’s ready to go.

Farke on Gray and Summerville

DF: It’s no secret Crysencio was the best player last season. You can’t replace him, it’s impossible in the Championship. It’s not like one-on-one replacement because it would put too much weight on the shoulders of the new incoming. Archie Gray, we know every top club in Europe was after him, there’s no doubt he’s a top, top player. I’d also say Glen Kamara was crucial for us, good business for him. We bought him when he was out of favour at Rangers and made money on him.

Farke on signings

DF: Two or three positions we have to strengthen a bit more. So far, so good, but we’re not the finished product yet.

Farke on squad

DF: Obviously we have done business, really good business so far, to bring Joe Rodon on a permanent basis, Bogle really good signing. Rothwell in on loan. Brenden Aaronson and Max Wober back from their loans. Difficult to compare the situations, we’ve lost the best player in the division but we’ve earned money this summer. The situation is better this summer, there was uncertainty over loan clauses and exit clauses. You need a bit of time to get your ideas across and values and the advantage we have right now is the players and staff members knows much more about our football, how we want to play, the principles and processes. We have a good basement to build on. And for the uncertainty, we’re in a much better situation than 12 months ago.

Farke on pre-season

DF: First of all it was a shorter break due to the play-off but as soon as pre-season started we are fully recharged and on it again. I’m never tempted to over-interpret pre-season too much but we’ve worked really hard, brilliant training camp in Germany, five games, five wins against good opponents. Good for rhythm, confidence, for us as a group. Also good in terms of integrating a few new faces. The business is not done yet. We will stay awake until the end of August. The feeling is we’re well prepared.

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