Familiarity, at Daniel Farke’s Premier League-bound Leeds United, appears to breed anything but contempt.
Together, the Welsh trio of Joe Rodon, Dan James and Ethan Ampadu – plus the late-season introduction of Karl Darlow – helped lay the foundations for Farke’s third promotion out of the second tier of English football.
Captain fantastic Ampadu, meanwhile, found himself reunited with a familiar face when Leeds angered Chris Wilder – not for the last time – and snapped up Jayden Bogle from Yorkshire neighbours Sheffield United in a £5 million deal last summer.
Wilder made no secret of the fact he was desperate to keep Bogle at Bramall Lane. If only his Blades bosses had listened.
Because, as Sheffield United gear themselves up for a play-off campaign they were so keen to avoid, Leeds United secured their place back in the Premier League with a 6-0 destruction of Stoke City.
Just to send Wilder’s face a deeper shade of puce, Bogle saved perhaps his best Leeds performance yet – and that is saying something – for Mark Robins’ helpless, hapless Potters.
Ethan Ampadu backs Jayden Bogle to improve further at Leeds United
Arguably nothing sums up Farke’s thrilling system better than the sight of Bogle crossing for fellow full-back Junior Firpo to put Leeds 4-0 up inside half an hour.
Bogle’s ‘wonderful’ assist set up Manor Solomon’s winner at Oxford just days earlier. And, as he added another to his ever-growing collection, the rampaging right-back has now reached double-figures for goals and assists with two matches remaining.
No wonder Ampadu – a Sheffield United loanee in the 2020/21 season – is delighted to have Bogle by his side once again.
“Jayden’s fantastic,” Ampadu tells the Yorkshire Post. “I knew of his ability before [Leeds signed him last year]. I played with him at Sheffield United.
“I’m happy for him and hopefully he can keep going.”
With his 25th birthday still a few months away, Ampadu believes the best is yet to come from a full-back who, alongside the similarly buccaneering Firpo, has EFL experts struggling to get to grips with Daniel Farke’s unique and highly-successful blueprint.
| Position | Team | Played MP | Won W | Drawn D | Lost L | For GF | Against GA | Diff GD | Points Pts |
| 1 |  LeedsLeeds | 44 | 27 | 13 | 4 | 89 | 29 | 60 | 94 |
| 2 |  BurnleyBurnley | 44 | 26 | 16 | 2 | 61 | 15 | 46 | 94 |
| 3 |  Sheff UtdSheffield Utd | 44 | 27 | 7 | 10 | 60 | 35 | 25 | 86 |
| 4 |  SunderlandSunderland | 44 | 21 | 13 | 10 | 58 | 41 | 17 | 76 |
“He’s got a lot more potential but he’s also doing very well at the minute. He was an outstanding signing for us with his consistency of performances and sadly also his consistency of yellow cards,” Ampadu quips, Bogle’s tally of 12 yellows bettered only by former Blades teammate Gus Hamer.
“He has a strength going forward, creating chances and scoring goals. To have these numbers as a full-back is outstanding but I think it was also important for him to develop his game in terms of more defensive steel.”
Daniel Farke’s ‘incredible’ tactics summed up by Bogle and Junior Firpo
Farke felt Bogle was Leeds’ stand-out performer either side of Christmas. The one-time Derby County youngster has ascended to an all-new plane of excellence in the months since, though, coming to epitomise the flow and the functionality of this exceptional Leeds side better than anyone else.
“Tactically, I will remember this team because of how dynamic they’ve been, how exciting their build-up is,” Ali Maxwell explains on the Not the Top 20 podcast. “I basically thing their formation in possession is a 2-2-6. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“The most notable thing has been the position of Firpo and Bogle. How rare it is to have two full-backs in a back four who are that attacking and [where] you don’t get caught out very often. It doesn’t make logical sense to me.
“The ability of the defenders – Rodon and [Pascal] Struijk, now Rodon and Ampadu – and the midfielders – [Ao] Tanaka and Ampadu, now Tanaka and [Ilia] Gruev – to both build-up without giving the ball away in scenarios that would be dangerous defensively, but they are also well positioned to snuff out counter attacks when they do happen
“It is absolutely, genuinely incredible. I really, really haven’t seen anything like it before.”
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