As winter arrived, Daniel Farke was braced for the axe to fall at Leeds United. After a fifth defeat in six matches, inflicted by Aston Villa at Elland Road, the manager’s post-match march around the pitch was punctuated by dissent on the terraces.
During the game, supporters had called for him to make a substitution. One fan made it as far as Farke’s technical area, to make the same point, before security bundled him away. After the game, amid muted applause, chants of, ‘You don’t know what you’re doing’ could be heard.
That remains the low point of Farke’s tenure in West Yorkshire. A decisive week lay ahead, with Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool to follow across seven days, which could conceivably have taken the club to eight defeats in nine games.
Sources close to Farke and the squad — who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect relationships, like all of those spoken to for this article — told The Athletic a heavy defeat in any of those matches would have sealed his fate. Sources on the club side, with an understanding of the situation, have intimated it was less cut-and-dried.
Naturally, at a point where the team was struggling for results, talks were held on a daily basis between board members about Farke’s position. Options were assessed and opinions were sought. But, crucially, the team was still playing for Farke, even if results were not going their way.
Those high up at United could see it would be difficult to replace their manager with so little time from game to game and be confident about the outcome. They had enough reasons to stick with him, but chairman Paraag Marathe was ready to act if the team collapsed during that decisive week.
As we now know, everything changed at half-time during their visit to Etihad Stadium on November 29. Farke has proven the doubters wrong and turned the season around.
Five months on, the club’s faith has been vindicated. While every club in the bottom five has made a managerial change, in some cases more than once, the Elland Road powder was kept dry. With West Ham United beaten by Arsenal at the London Stadium on Sunday afternoon, Leeds are guaranteed to play in the Premier League next season.
After six of the previous six promoted clubs were immediately relegated back to the Championship, this is how Leeds bucked the trend.
There was a clear profile Leeds went after in last summer’s transfer window. They wanted height, physicality, experience and level heads.
All 10 additions were aged between 25 and 28. No other club in the top flight focused such a high percentage of their incomings on that age bracket. Arsenal were the closest with 70 per cent of their business in that age band.
Captain Ethan Ampadu, the agenda-setter in the dressing room, had stressed, in informal conversations, the need to reinforce after promotion. He wanted to ensure, from the players’ side, nobody was to rest on any laurels.
Securing height and physicality, as well as competent set-piece deliverers, has borne fruit. Sean Longstaff and Joe Rodon struck up a useful connection in the autumn, when the latter twice converted corners from the former in September and October.
Ethan Ampadu sets the standards for Leeds (Stu Forster/Getty Images)
Rodon’s second goal, in a home win over West Ham, had come just hours after club executives met with senior investors at 49ers Enterprises. During their presentation, there was a focus on the physical players signed and the need to maximise set pieces. Plenty of pointing and smiling in the directors’ box ensued as the centre-back buried his header.
There were late decisions to make and live with in the summer window. An offer arrived for Pascal Struijk in late August. Sources at the top of the club say it was the kind of sum which may have been entertained in June, but, at the 11th hour, Struijk was too important to lose.
Harry Wilson was the target on deadline day, but Fulham ultimately killed that deal. It was tough for Leeds to swallow, but even they could not have predicted just how much he would rub their noses in it.
At the time of writing, only six players in the Premier League have been directly involved in more goals this term. United’s recruitment team has been hurt by every goal, but they have taken heart in the fact that they were pursuing the right player.
Failing to land Wilson was one of the late-window disappointments. Farke had been on the record with saying he felt one or two more attackers, after Noah Okafor’s August 21 arrival, would be beneficial. Nobody new came in and, privately, Farke felt the squad was short of what it needed after the window.
One source close to Farke said the manager saw it as one season-long gamble on keeping Dominic Calvert-Lewin fit, if Leeds were to survive.
The first signs of concern about where the season may be going for Leeds came at Brighton & Hove Albion. On November 1, they sank without a trace on the south coast.
The defeats by Fulham, Tottenham Hotspur and Burnley, or the draw with Bournemouth, could be put down to bad luck or one-off moments being punished, but it was more worrying at Brighton. The response at Nottingham Forest one week later was no less insipid.
There had been pockets of belief, like the home win over West Ham. Not for the last time this season, Marathe would be seen leading a line of investors through the bowels of Elland Road, beaming smiles on their faces and margaritas in their hands, after that victory.
This was fleeting, however. Anxiety grows quickly at a club like Leeds, where supporters have learned to experience disappointment more frequently than happiness over the past 20 years.
Paraag Marathe, centre right, watching Leeds earlier this month (Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images)
Before the trip to Nottingham, one club employee told The Athletic they felt Farke was proving too stubborn with his tactics. They hoped he would employ a deeper block at the City Ground, waste more game time and stop the slump which was emerging, though they knew he wouldn’t.
Farke continued with the 4-3-3 at Forest and a fortnight later, after an international break, at home to Villa. By this point, Brenden Aaronson’s poor form was a hot topic. He started a ninth game on the bounce in that Villa match.
At the time, a different member of staff told The Athletic that Farke was not helping himself with such a decision. It seemed an easy way to get Elland Road back on side, before kick-off, was to take the American out of the spotlight, but Farke persisted.
Then came the decisive match at City.
In an exclusive interview with The Athletic a few weeks ago, Ilia Gruev tried to sum up what went on in the dressing room at half-time in that match. Players have talked about the impact Calvert-Lewin had with the message he gave.
“Not only Dom, but also Ampa (Ampadu) and other players,” said Gruev. “We spoke (about how) we have to step up now.
“The boss was the main guy, who said some things, also tactically, which were really important, ‘It doesn’t matter in which formation you play’, and motivated us.”
Farke replaced Daniel James and Wilfried Gnonto, the wingers in his 4-3-3, with centre-back Jaka Bijol and Calvert-Lewin. The 5-3-2 was born, and Leeds have never looked back.
Even in defeat, there was something to cling to, a reason to believe Farke could yet turn this around. At the time, one club executive told The Athletic it was a “tough one”, but the team was clearly “playing with total belief” and just needed “the dam to break”.
Daniel Farke looks on during the defeat by City (Oli Scarff/AFP via Getty Images)
Multiple sources close to the players have said there was never any doubting Farke in the dressing room. They had faith in him and the personal and professional pride to dig themselves out of the rut they were in.
The losses they had experienced were tight scorelines, which ensured heads never dropped too low. Farke’s demeanour behind the scenes never changed, but the system change unlocked confidence.
The subsequent resounding home win over Chelsea reassured fans and players that this system had legs. There have been just four defeats in the 22 matches since the trip to the Etihad. In a league table since December 1, Leeds are seventh.
It has not been easy. Leeds have not been able to turn up to matches and watch the opposition roll over.
As hard as Leeds had been to beat, wins were also hard to come by. They went to Selhurst Park with two wins from 12 games, consecutive blanks at home against City and Sunderland, as well as a stinging late Villa equaliser on the road.
Seeing out a 0-0 draw at Palace, with 10 men for more than half the match, showed fortitude. The significance of that result was seen in managing director Robbie Evans taking the unusual step of going on to the players’ bus post-match. Sources close to the squad said he went on to stress how impressed the club’s chiefs had been with their resolve.
In the conversations The Athletic has had with sources throughout the club about why this team has been so successful, the character of the squad has been consistently mentioned.
A source close to one senior player said, “It’s not a spectacular team, if you look at the quality of the players. It’s a very good team.
“They have good chemistry with each other. There are no big egos anymore. If you look towards all the players, it’s not like there is one massive player who will have Champions League-winning quality in his feet.”
Another source close to a player said it’s a group which manages itself with guidance from Farke. They said: “The one thing they’ve got is an open forum for everyone to be able to speak.
“The voices there are strong, their characters are strong, and if something’s not right, they will say it. But equally, if someone needs help, there are people around.”
Team spirit has been crucial this season (Stu Forster/Getty Images)
As captain, Ampadu is pivotal to what goes on behind the scenes. As he did during the summer of 2024, the 25-year-old made it clear he wanted the squad’s end-of-season bonus to be split equally among every player, rather than weighted in favour of those who play more minutes.
While he puts a lot of responsibility on his own shoulders — he is described by one source as his own biggest critic — he has had the support of senior figures such as Calvert-Lewin. If Ampadu wants to lean on someone, Rodon is that pillar.
The defender helps Ampadu to keep standards high. For example, they both trained together in Los Angeles last summer, immediately after their promotion party in Las Vegas.
There are many key moments Ampadu has been responsible for on the pitch, too. In the aforementioned home win over Chelsea, the No 4 was a dominant presence in a midfield battle with Enzo Fernandez.
A source close to Ampadu, who joined from Chelsea in 2023 after making only one Premier League appearance for the club, said: “He won’t say it, because he’s not that sort of person, but I think he had a personal mission to go out and play well and put his stamp on the game, almost to show Chelsea what he is doing now.”
Gabriel Gudmundsson, one of the contenders for the club’s player of the year, suffered the ignominy of scoring an unfortunate own goal at Fulham. One week later, after beating Wolverhampton Wanderers, one club employee asked him how it felt after the own goal, and he was heard to say: “What f***ing own goal?”
Most recently, in the win over Burnley, sources close to Bijol say he played with hip pain to ensure he was available. It’s a squad which now has the freedom to finish this season with a flourish.
There are significant squad bonuses on the line for the higher Leeds can finish. In 17th or 16th, a bonus of £2.5million would be shared equally. In 15th, the players will receive £3m, and in 14th, this rises to £3.5m.
The money is secondary to what’s been achieved on the pitch. It’s been a remarkable turnaround, and the next steps for consolidating their position must now be taken.
