Since the beginning of 2023, Leeds United have changed their owners, their manager, countless first-team players and much of their backroom staff.
Yet, while a lot is different at Elland Road these days, plenty more stays the same.
Leeds United finishing third in a three-horse race? Choking at the business end despite strolling into the Spring seemingly as promotion favourites? If this feels like a familiar story, then there’s a pretty good reason for that.
It was around this stage twelve months ago when Daniel Farke’s debut season in charge of the Yorkshire giants started to unravel.
One year later – and six weeks since Opta gave Leeds a 95 per cent chance of Premier League football in 2024/25 – an untimely run of one win in half-a-dozen, and three successive draws, has Burnley and Sheffield United now battling it out for a photo finish.
Leeds United fans losing patience with Daniel Farke after Luton Town draw
Now, plenty of a Leeds persuasion were willing to give Farke the benefit of the doubt after last season’s play-off final no-show against Southampton at Wembley.
This was, after all, a coach who had secured promotion twice before with Norwich City. And given the circumstances surrounding his arrival at Elland Road – uncertainty in the transfer market, the after-effects of relegation, and so many rumours surrounding numerous key players – the feeling was that he had performed admirably in the face of such pressure.
This time, however, the excuses are wearing thin.
Farke’s assessment that his team had just secured a ‘good point’ at a time when three felt like a must – Daniel James scored a stunning equaliser but so many Leeds players struggled – well, let’s just say that is not a view shared by a fanbase who will recall similar collapses in both 2024 and 2019.
“I’m getting sick of listening to Farke’s pretty excuses,” one fan fumes. “It will be the playoffs, to be sure, but I’m still not convinced Leeds get promoted. Bringing back players who weren’t good enough in the Premiership and didn’t want to play for the badge has never sat right with me.”
“Logging off for the night. Seeing loads of ‘Farke out’. This is gonna get toxic,” another says.
“One win in six, and Farke thinks it’s a ‘good point on the road’ against a club second from bottom of the Championship. Farke is truly deluded. That’s the kind of comment you expected to hear from Hockaday! It’s been a while since I’ve been this frustrated.”
“Farke is deluded!” one fan adds. That word again.
“We were terrible, played into Luton’s game plan! No urgency, no rhythm, couldn’t find passes, bullied all over the park! EFL trying their best to make it hard for us, midday away kick-offs every week!
“However, we’re bottling it again. Weak mentality!”
Leeds’ poor record against lowly Championship teams could cost them dear
Now, teams in the sort of predicament facing Luton are hardly ideal opponents in must-win encounters.
Yet, Leeds also slipped up at Portsmouth, Queens Park Rangers and Swansea City. A draw at Luton alone would probably have been forgivable.
But, on the back of failing to beat three more teams sitting 15th and downwards, Farke’s attempts to frame this as a valiant result in the circumstances has a howling at the void sort of feel about it.
“Did Farke seriously say it was a good point on the road? Does he know how many games we have left and how others [Sheffield United and Burnley] are playing?”
“Final straw stuff this.”
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