'Freak' - Joe Rothwell hails 'huge' attraction to Leeds United move with 'unlucky' Whites view

Experienced midfielder Rothwell has become United’s third signing of the summer through a season-long loan move from Bournemouth to now join the club that he was battling against last term through his loan spell at Southampton.

The Saints ultimately pipped Leeds to promotion with victory in the Wembley play-off final after the Whites missed out on a top-two finish despite amassing 90 points. Rothwell, though, felt Leeds were unfortunate to miss out in a “freak” season and says the only aim is to now get the Whites back in the Premier League under the ‘huge’ attraction of boss Daniel Farke.

Speaking to LUTV, Rothwell was asked how much of an attraction Farke was to his move and declared: “Huge yeah. Obviously I had a good few conversations with him. Obviously he spoke really highly of the place and what brought him here and that made me want to come even more. There's only one aim this year.

"I don't think Leeds United needs selling to anyone to be honest, a huge football club. They are in this division again but they were a bit unlucky last year. The aim is one thing and that is to get to the Premier League and I want to come here and try and add a bit of experience and help the team do that.

"It was a bit of a freak season last year with the teams accumulating the points that they did. Any other season, 90 points usually gets you up. It was a weird season but watching them from afar they are a really exciting team to watch and it's something that I am really excited to be a part of."