Daniel Farke on power of Elland Road in Leeds United's recruitment drive — Yorkshire Post 29/5/26
By Stuart Rayner
Daniel Farke used the pulling power of Elland Road in last
summer's transfer window and plans to do the same again as Leeds United look to
upgrade their squad for a second season in the Premier League.
The historic ground has a reputation as something of a bear
pit, and it served Leeds well last season.
Only bottom of the table Wolverhampton Wanderers won a
higher percentage of their points at home in 2025-26.
Work is now underway on expanding capacity from the current
37,645 capacity to what will ultimately be 53,000, and it is vital the matchday
atmosphere is not diluted by it.
Manager Farke, inset, will certainly be unafraid to trade
off the fanbase with his next batch of transfer targets.
“In my first conversations with Anton Stach and Seb Bornauw,
I told them, 'Listen, if you want to have a feeling how Elland Road is, go on
YouTube and all the channels, and have a look.’
“I think this impressed them a lot.
“Of course there are many more points to talk about (with
potential new signings), but everyone wants to play for a club with a big
tradition where it really matters, not a sterile club where you hardly have
supporters around or you have no atmosphere.
“Everyone who wants to play football is desperate also to
play for a club where it really matters and where you have a second-to-none
atmosphere.
“This is what we have at Elland Road.
“It's definitely one of the values that you can work with –
not the only important thing for the players of course – but it's definitely an
advantage.”
Meanwhile, World Cup-bound midfielder Ao Tanaka admits he
was too hard on himself during his debut Premier League season.
“Until now, I was always aiming higher and being too hard on
myself,” he told Sports Hochi.
“But even players at the so-called 'Big Six' clubs in the
Premier League have bad games. If you could perform brilliantly every single
match at this level, everyone would be a Ballon d’Or winner.
“There are days when you can produce a 90 or 100-point (per
cent) performance, and days when you’re only at 30 points.
“I started thinking I should be a little kinder to myself
for competing here in the first place. I’ve worked hard enough.
“Because I make difficult things look easy, maybe my value
is harder to notice, but now I’m okay with that.
“My standards are pretty different from other people’s.
Sometimes others say I played well but I think I was terrible, and other times
people say I was bad when I actually thought I was excellent.
“My best game this season was the away match against
Bournemouth on April 22, where I lost the ball in the 60th minute and it led to
a goal. That one moment was bad, but apart from that I was perfect.
“Even the manager told me: 'Nice game.’ If I hadn’t played,
we probably would’ve suffered much more.”
Tanaka is in Japan's squad for the World Cup, where they
will be in a group with Gabriel Gudmundsson's Sweden, amongst others.
