The dust has settled on deadline day and the Leeds United fan verdict on the summer is emphatic. Seven signings, a reported £86million outlay and a seventh arrival confirmed well after 1am on Wednesday have left the Yorkshire Evening Post’s supporter jury handing Daniel Farke’s recruitment an “A+”. For a club that spent years being told to temper its ambitions, that is quite the shift in mood around Elland Road.
The Leeds United fan verdict on a night worth staying up for
Melvin Bard and Jean-Matteo Bahoya were signings six and seven, both arriving on deadline day and both, per the YEP, on loan deals carrying an option to buy. Bahoya’s switch from Eintracht Frankfurt was rubber-stamped after the 11pm cut-off, which is where jury member David Watkins picks up the story.
“Wow! For once, the ‘Don’t go to bed yet!’ instruction was worth noting,” Watkins wrote. He described Bard, a 25-year-old left-back with almost 200 Ligue 1 appearances across five seasons at Nice, as “experienced cover”, and Bahoya as “the exciting young winger” with 69 Bundesliga games behind him over the last two campaigns.
That context matters. With Willy Gnonto leaving for Fiorentina and Largie Ramazani joining Burnley in the closing days of the window, Leeds ended the summer short of pace out wide. Watkins’ conclusion was that “a pacey new winger was essential” — and the Whites got one, just about, with minutes to spare.
Why the jury is grading the window so highly
The praise is not only about the late drama. Watkins pointed to “the positive, immediate impact already made by James Trafford, Tarik Muharemović, Harry Wilson and Nico Elvedi”, calling it “one of the most exciting transfer windows of recent seasons” before signing off: “Transfer window grade: It’s an A+ from me.”
Fellow juror Mike Gill was no less generous. “Even the most negative Leeds fans would have to admit that this has been one of the most successful transfer windows in recent years,” he wrote.
The early evidence backs the sentiment up. Leeds have taken four points from their opening two Premier League games — a 1-0 win at Nottingham Forest through Anton Stach’s free-kick, then a 1-1 draw with Brentford at Elland Road in which Dominic Calvert-Lewin opened his account — and added a 2-0 EFL Cup win at the City Ground in between. Unbeaten in three, with a Carabao Cup tie against Chelsea to come.
The one caveat the supporters still raise
Not everything is unqualified. Watkins conceded that “a central striker would have been the icing” on the window, before arguing that Noah Okafor and now Bahoya give Farke enough attacking cover. It is a fair flag: Calvert-Lewin and Lukas Nmecha carry the No.9 burden between them, and the window is now shut until January whatever happens over the next four months. Our own rating of all seven summer signings reached a similar conclusion.
The other unknown is how quickly the newcomers are ready. Bard started twice for Nice before his move, but Bahoya is yet to feature competitively this season, and the YEP notes both are eligible for Saturday’s trip to Brighton. Farke faces the media this afternoon, when Joe Rodon’s hamstring problem — picked up against Brentford, with no club timescale yet confirmed — will be the first question asked.
An A+ is a grade awarded on paper in early September. The Amex on Saturday is where the marking properly begins.
