Leeds United boss Daniel Farke rules out transfer panic and preaches calm in wake of major exit decision

To paraphrase the old bomb disposal expert joke, if you ever see Daniel Farke running away then try to keep up.

The Leeds United boss does not give the impression of a man prone to panic. He was the coolest in the room during an explosive summer, as wantaway players chucked their transfer grenades into what was already a scene of post-relegation devastation, bringing a steady hand to the situation.

Even when Leeds thought the dust had settled, Farke was hit by the Willy Gnonto situation, before the Luis Sinisterra and Tyler Adams saga, and none of it seemed to ruffle him.

A new transfer window is upon Leeds, one that the manager predicted would be quiet, and yet it began with a bang in the form of Djed Spence's premature exit. While Farke was in no mood to chuck a young player under any buses, you can be absolutely certain that someone who demanded the title manager instead of head coach would have the final and ultimate say in who gets on and off the Leeds United bus during this window. This was a Farke call, and a big one really considering the injury issues Leeds have had and are currently having in the full-back areas this season. Sam Byram is currently out, Jamie Shackleton has trained this week but has recently and regularly been injured and Junior Firpo is just back from his latest spell out of action.

After the initial collective gasp from onlookers on Thursday night when the Spence statement landed, and the instinctive need to know why, the next stop for most was not to question if he would be replaced, but to question who would be coming in to replace him. When a 17-year-old has had to hold down the fort at right-back, admittedly with impressive panache and maturity beyond his years, and the left-back slot has been manned mainly by a pair of players with alarming injury histories, a left-sided full-back was already on the wishlist of almost any Leeds fans you spoke to in December. So it was only natural to cry out for a right-sided one too in the wake of Spence's departure.

Where others see potential disaster, Farke apparently sees no emergency. "Not immediately," he said when asked if a replacement was en route. "We were able to be pretty successful with the first 18 game days when we didn't have Djed. He had this long-term injury that kept him out for eight weeks. There is no emergency case. We won't fall asleep. We brought him in because we knew about the situation with Junior Firpo, the injury CV of Sam Byram. We have Archie Gray who has played a lot, Jamie Shackleton, Luke Ayling, several options. If there is an opportunity we will analyse and assess. We're just doing things we're 100 per cent convinced of."

Farke did admit that the idea of being left light at full-back due to injury problems that would come as no surprise given the profiles of some of those in the squad was a slight worry. But there does not appear to be a bead of sweat on his brow just yet.

"We more or less have four weeks to make a decision and if there is an emergency case or a really good solution in these positions, we will try to make it happen," he said. "This is our responsibility, to make sure we create the best possible squad, but we won’t do anything stupid or out of panic, we will stay awake."

Don't Panic Mr. Mainwaring! As reassuring as Farke might be - and he does a good job of making worst case scenarios feel like far fetched fiction - it could be said, with the evidence of this week's course of action and the implication that Spence has not quite met the exacting standards now in place at Leeds, that signing the Spurs man on loan was as a mistake. Equally, it might come to be said in time that letting him go back and not persisting with him was a mistake. Not taking action to replace him and strengthen areas that look vulnerable to the injury-susceptibility of Byram, Firpo and even Shackleton, already has the feel of a mistake Leeds can ill afford.

Sufficient very clever and highly qualified people have said it that the rest of us should probably by now accept that January is a difficult market in which to find ideal solutions for your mid-season problems. Even so, others are taking action to bolster with clever bits of business. Ipswich have somehow signed Blackburn Rovers captain Lewis Travis on loan for the rest of the Championship season. Middlesbrough have snapped up creative menace Finn Azaz from Aston Villa. Farke insists that if the right player is available, then Leeds will explore the situation and well they should because failing to strengthen in key periods was one of the failings of the old regime and an overpowering ingredient in the relegation soup.

A greedy manager might like to see the arrival of a right-back, a left-back and a 10, not to mention replacements for any further exits. Farke preaches greed to his players when it comes to their hunt for the ball and their desire to keep it out of one net and stick it in the other, but when it comes to the resources available to him he preaches contentment and prioritises the protection of the atmosphere and culture within his existing squad. This, he still feels, will be a calm and quiet window. If it does not suitably protect Leeds from the damage injuries could do in the second half of the season, however, he and the other recruitment decision makers at Leeds will quickly discover that this club can be calm like a bomb.