'Some secrets' - Daniel Farke reveals Leeds United transfer close calls and latest situation as deadline looms

Leeds considered themselves well positioned to complete the signing of Daiki Hashioka from Belgian side Sint-Truiden until injury concern caused a change of heart at the weekend. Hashioka then secured a move to Premier League outfit Luton Town.

Farke's policy is not to talk about individuals who belong to other clubs but admits Leeds are being led by the need for potential signings to be able to make an instant impact.

"Yes if I'm allowed to speak about some secrets there were one or two that were pretty close, then there was an injury and we can't afford to bring them in when injured," he said on Wednesday. "I don't want to speak about names, I want to speak about other clubs and players under contract with class but it was one or two times very close."

Leeds' obvious need is in the full-back area and while Farke insists they will continue to try to bring someone in before Thursday's deadline, only the right kind of player will tempt them to move.

"We had a period during this window when we also had some injury concerns on the centre-back position, thank God this has eased a lot - Charlie [Cresswell] is back available, Liam [Cooper] is back training, some slight progress with Pascal [Struijk]," said Farke. "We felt we could do with one or two additions with the defence. We're playing a fantastic season so far and it's difficult to improve our squad. If we want to bring numbers in we have good Under 21s, Under 18s - it has to be the full package, good personality, quality and character and also improves us. In January it's not easy to find this package. We'll use the last 24 hours to work on it. If we find it, great. If not we go with what we've got, we've come so far exactly with this group, I wouldn't be too concerned."

Leeds' difficulties also include financial considerations, with the EFL's Profitability and Sustainability regulations leaving little head room. Farke says the market has been tricky to navigate in that regard.

"It's not about confidence, it's when we're really convinced when something is doable," he said. "We're also a bit restricted in financial terms, that's the biggest problem. We have had some targets that could be a good fit but sometimes in January the price is a bit crazy. We still have to pay the price a bit for what happened in the past. We have many loan players still on our books and we have the FFP rules. We're aware we would like to have one or two additions but we'll only do something we're 100 per cent convinced of."

Should Leeds fail to sign anyone before the window closes, Farke will be content to go into the rest of the season with the squad as it is. He highlighted that they are tracking ahead of the points total accrued at this point by Marcelo Bielsa's 2019/20 Championship title winners and any other second tier Leeds side.

"We play a fantastic season so far, at the moment we're playing the best season in the history of this club in the Championship,"he said. "I think we're two points ahead of the legendary 2019/20 team. In January our league games were win, win, win, win. It's so, so difficult to bring players in who could improve us. I wouldn't be concerned at all if we just go with these lads. We have lots of spirit, unity and togetherness, each and every player has a task. Sometimes unity and spirit and togetherness is better than individual quality. We won't bring a player who is desperate to play and ruins the spirit. I can't guarantee someone can come in but I can guarantee we're trying everything to make such a transfer happen in the final hours. There's no need to worry."