Daniel Farke’s Leeds United future: What we’re hearing

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Promoted Leeds United still have two games to play this season. They have a Championship trophy to win. They are going for 100 points from their 46 games. No Leeds team can match their 2.14 points per game average since 1981-82, when three points were awarded for a win for the first time.

Manager Daniel Farke has overseen one of the most dominant campaigns any Leeds team has achieved in its history. It may have taken 12 months longer than Farke, supporters and shareholders would have liked, but, ultimately, he’s achieved the primary objective given in July 2023.

Despite all of that success and the joy of Easter Monday around Elland Road, Farke’s future as Leeds manager has already been weighed up in the UK’s national newspapers this week. A report in the Daily Mail said owner 49ers Enterprises was considering replacing Farke at the end of the season, but the report added that no final decision had yet been taken.

With promotion secured and the title to chase, the right manager is clearly key to Leeds’ upcoming Premier League survival bid. According to sources The Athletic has spoken to, who all spoke under the condition of anonymity to protect relationships, the current direction of travel would suggest Farke will remain as manager next season.

This is what The Athletic is hearing about Farke’s future.

It may seem odd to simply reiterate that a successful employee will continue doing the job they are contracted for until 2027, but at most football clubs, they conduct a review of the performance of all staff and players when a season finishes.

Success in the Championship will never be a guarantee of success in the top flight, which is why Leeds will need to analyse every part of the first-team operation going into this summer. Players’ futures will be considered and those who won promotion to the Premier League might not necessarily take to the pitch on the opening day of next season.

It seems harsh, especially in any other industry, to remove someone from their post after achieving what you asked them to. However, key decision-makers in professional sport do not allow room for sentiment in their decisions. If, as sources on either side of the Atlantic are suggesting, Farke does get his shot at the top flight, it’s because the ownership thinks he can keep the club up.

Farke during the win over Stoke City on Monday (Michael Regan/Getty Images)

Farke’s critics would argue that most managers worth their salt could have got this set of Leeds players promoted. Key figures at the top of the club and within 49ers Enterprises do not, according to sources, see it that way. The German is on course to rack up 190 points across two seasons and that has impressed his superiors.

Leeds, as Farke has been only too happy to point out, is an enormous, emotional beast of an organisation. There are passionate fans, desperate for success, outside and inside the club, working at Thorp Arch and Elland Road. It is a one-club city and the spotlight is searing. Farke wants that scrutiny. He knows that if you cannot stand the heat of this job, you need to get out of the kitchen.

How the former Norwich City boss has handled the exposure, criticism, blips, fans’ demands, wantaway players and being the biggest fish in the Championship pond has been praised by his paymasters. One senior source said Farke is as calm behind the scenes as he is in press conferences. He has broad shoulders to take the weight of expectation.

As The Athletic reported after Leeds won promotion, players and ownership alike have appreciated his level-headed attitude, the way he sticks to his principles, even when external criticism has grown louder.

Sources say board member Peter Lowy has become one of Farke’s biggest supporters. In conversations earlier this season, chairman Paraag Marathe also expressed how impressed he was with the way Farke had handled the opening weeks of his reign. The American suggested two or three of the candidates they interviewed for the job would have quit within a month because of the number of loan clauses being activated.

In those same conversations, Marathe expressed how he liked his relationship with Farke, how the manager earned the right to be trusted on squad decisions, how hard it was to argue with the results he was getting, even if the odd defeat hurt.

Crucially, Farke’s record in the Premier League with Norwich is not being held against him, according to sources close to 49ers Enterprises. The ownership feels he was dealt a rough hand at Carrow Road and he will now be better equipped for that experience.

When Farke was hired in 2023, all parties agreed to make him the club’s manager rather than its head coach. That allows him greater control over some decisions being made on the football side of the organisation. For example, he has the final sign-off on all transfers in and out of the club.

Should Farke be retained, the way that power plays out over what will almost certainly be a summer of heavy recruitment will be pivotal to the club’s success next season. Marathe, chief strategy officer Robbie Evans, and head of football operations Adam Underwood will also be key voices when it comes to ins and outs this summer. Data has always been a crutch the 49ers model has leaned on when it comes to recruitment, too.

Farke’s time at Norwich in the Premier League will not be held against him (Alex Morton/Getty Images)

That trio will ultimately decide if Farke is the manager to bring success to Leeds in the top flight, as he has done in the Championship.

Sources have told The Athletic that Gretar Steinsson has been having conversations with managerial candidates from across the continent. Steinsson shifted from his role as technical director at Leeds to the same role across 49ers Enterprises. 49ers Enterprises are aiming to purchase a stake in Rangers and Leeds insisted that Steinsson’s conversations were in relation to hiring a new manager at Rangers.

While Farke is not guaranteed to be in charge next season, all the noises out of Elland Road suggest it is far more likely than not.

(Top photo: George Wood/Getty Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

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