Patrick Bamford outlines Leeds United dressing room feeling amid 'strange' summer and late arrivals — YEP 10/10/24

By Kyle Newbould

Leeds United got their business done late after losing more than £120m worth of talent.

Patrick Bamford felt the uncertainty surrounding Leeds United going into another summer of change but believes key exits have been replaced well enough to challenge for promotion again.

May’s play-off final defeat against Southampton consigned Leeds to another year of Championship football and left them vulnerable throughout the summer, with release clauses triggered for Crysencio Summerville and Georginio Rutter while Archie Gray departed for Tottenham Hotspur. The loss of last season’s three most exciting players was a major blow and fuelled concern regarding another chaotic transfer window going into a crucial campaign.

A month-long spell of silence after the arrival of Jayden Bogle did little to allay those concerns but Leeds moved to sign four first-team players in the window’s final week. And while they might have left it a little late in the eyes of some, recruitment chiefs filled the major gaps in Daniel Farke’s squad who, after nine games, are better-placed to fight for promotion than they were 12 months ago.

“It was a strange summer because at one point in the season, towards the end, we thought we were going to go up automatically,” Bamford told The BBC’s 72+ EFL podcast. “We had it in our hands but the QPR game away, when we lost 4-0, flipped it because if we’d have won, we'd have probably got into the top-two positions.

“We went down the play-off route and lost in the final, which kind of, at the time was a strange one. We knew next year, being this year, we have another great chance to do it again, but we also knew at that point it was more than likely we were going to lose a lot of our best players.

“Starting the season was a little bit uncertain, probably not as much as the season before, but still a little bit with who was going to be here and who wasn’t,” the Leeds striker added. “The squad got sorted out pretty early on and the players that we lost, we replaced. I think we’ve actually brought in some really good players.”

Speaking during his annual interview with The Square Ball, Leeds CEO Angus Kinnear gave the window a B+ grade, owing to their failure to land a top-level No.10 despite interest in Gustave Hamer, James McAtee and Emi Buendia, among others. That would be the only glaring hole in Farke’s squad, even if Brenden Aaronson is looking more than capable since returning from Union Berlin.

Of those who did come through the door, Largie Ramazani has staked an early claim as signing of the summer with a couple of excellent goals against Cardiff and Norwich, while Ao Tanaka and Joe Rothwell were brilliant in their first full game together at Sunderland last weekend. Joe Rodon has also picked up where he left off and Jayden Bogle is settling in after a shaky start.

The only major concerns at this point look to be fitness-related, with Manor Solomon and Isaac Schmidt both arriving in West Yorkshire with a sketchy injury history. Both have already missed games, with Solomon absent for the past month with back and hamstring problems.