Leeds United chairman Paraag Marathe's verdict on Daniel Farke job and new team behind squad build
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The German guided the Whites to a Wembley play-off final on Sunday, before their attempt to escape the Championship at the first time of asking was shot down by Southampton. Leeds finished Farke's first season in charge with 90 points, which was only enough for third place in the table behind champions Leicester City and back-to-back promotion winners Ipswich Town.
Farke faced criticism from a section of the club's support around Christmas time following defeats to Sunderland, Preston North End and West Bromwich Albion but a three-month unbeaten run that included 13 league victories silenced his critics. Another mini-slump, at the tail end of the season, cost Leeds their automatic promotion hopes and Sunday's Wembley loss put Farke's future under the spotlight again.
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Hide AdThe man himself has consistently said that a 90-point haul and a play-off final place would have sounded like an impossibility during the transfer exit riddled start to the season, and Marathe is also keen for what was achieved this season to be viewed in that context.
"Daniel has been fantastic," said the Whites chairman. "I'm excited about working with him again this season. We set out to do this, we had a long-term plan, a long-term commitment, not just me to him but him to me. And you know we have a lot of work to do and we have to see our plan through. He has been tremendous, with a steady hand, the right temperament. If you think about the circumstances that he first came in, I can't remember exactly how many days we had between his official hiring and the first day of training, but it wasn't many and you saw that how our start to the season was with just so many ins and outs and different difficult, challenging player situations. And I thought he did a tremendous job. And so I'm excited about getting back at it with him as my partner and with our leadership team. I just think I really feel confident about the season particularly because we have at least a four or five week head start on what we had last year."
Marathe has also given his backing to the decision makers at Elland Road in charge of the club's entire football operation. Their work on a squad build has already begun according to Marathe and he believes they have the right people in place to find the right players for a second promotion bid.
"It's a little early to say [what the team needs in terms of additions], I can't speak to specific positions or things like that but we have a great football leadership team from the jump," he said. "After we brought in Daniel then we went through the process of bringing in our technical director Gretar Steinsson, then we went through the process of bringing Nick Hammond on board. Then combined with Angus [Kinnear, CEO], who's spending a bit more time on football, our team was formed as we were going forward.
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Hide Ad"Now I'm really excited about the group we have and together with Gretar and Nick and Daniel, Robbie Evans, our chief strategy officer, Angus and Adam Underwood [head of football operations]. Together, this will be a team effort this year. No stone will be unturned as we look through what are the best players and the best mentalities to fit our squad. In some cases the sum of the parts might be greater than the individual pieces, meaning what is the right player group to bring us the right chemistry to play together, to play for each other, to recognise what it means to wear that Leeds United badge and wear it with pride. We're going to find the right group of men that will go out and do that for us."
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