Daniel Farke has already given his verdict on Adam Armstrong as Leeds United eye Southampton star

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If you can’t beat them, Leeds United, then the next best thing may just be signing them.

Southampton not only did the double over Daniel Farke’s team in the 2024/25 Championship campaign, they also shattered West Yorkshire hearts into smithereens in that play-off final at Wembley.

Forget ‘doing a double’, this was ‘doing a triple’. One of those rare occasions where a team found themselves on the losing side against the same opposition three times in the space of one season.

And Leeds United fans would have been sick of the sight of Adam Armstrong.

After one of the modern era’s most lethal second-tier hitman netted a brace against Leeds in Southampton’s 3-1 home win on matchday nine, he would then open the scoring at Elland Road as The Saints triumphed again on the final league match of the campaign.

Worse – or better, depending if you are looking at it from a Leeds or Southampton perspective – was still to come a few days later. As Farke’s backline made a mess of their offside trap, Armstrong raced onto a clever Will Smallbone pass and drove a Wembley winner past Illan Meslier like a dagger into Leeds hearts.

Daniel Farke labelled Adam Armstrong ‘clinical’ after Leeds United lost to Southampton

That was not only his fifth goal, and third win, against Leeds in 2023/24 alone, it also ensured that it would be Southampton returning to the promised land of the Premier League at their rivals’ expense.

As far as Daniel Farke was concerned, that play-off final might have gone very differently had Leeds possessed a striker of Armstrong’s instincts and experience.

“When you look at how young my team is in the offensive positions, and then a player like Armstrong who more or less knows this league,” Farke sighed. “He has one [chance] and was clinical. That was the difference.”

Armstrong has so often proved to be ‘the difference’ in second-tier encounters. In his last three seasons at this level, for Blackburn Rovers and Southampton respectively, the Newcastle academy graduate has plundered no fewer than 65 goals.

An average of nearly 22 per every campaign.

Leeds turn to Armstrong as Southampton reject Cameron Archer bid

Armstrong may not have been the St Mary’s striker Farke planned to bring in at the start of the window – Southampton rejected Leeds United’s bid for Cameron Archer – but, if the league leaders want a proven Championship hitman capable of dragging his teammates over the line, then Adam Armstrong is about as close to a guarantee as you can realistically get.

Football correspondent  Graeme Bailey exclusively told LeedsUnited.News that Leeds have joined Middlesbrough and Sunderland in the race for Armstrong. A player Farke also described as ‘top quality’ when in the Norwich City dugout.

A loan deal is on the cards, and that too is something which should appeal.

Armstrong’s Premier League record is far less impressive than his Championship tally. Leeds would ideally like to avoid lumbering themselves with a permanent move for a striker who is yet to prove he can make the step up from the second-division to the first.

For now, presuming a short-term deal can be agreed before the 11pm deadline, a Leeds side adding a 20-goal-a-season centre-forward to their already fearsome frontline would take Farke one big step closer to exercising the ghosts of 2024.