Guardian writers’ predicted position: 17th (NB: this is not necessarily Louise Taylor’s prediction but the average of our writers’ tips)
Last season: 1st in the Championship
Prospects
Can Leeds resist the increasingly powerful gravitational pull of the Championship? Could they defy the growing expectation that, these days, promoted teams will be restricted to one-season top-tier stays? Daniel Farke is certainly behaving like a man on a mission to avoid immediate relegation and seven summer signings have added much-needed height and aggression to last term’s technical but slightly diminutive squad. Yet while the arrivals of Lucas Perri, Jaka Bijol, Sebastiaan Bornouw, Gabriel Gudmundsson, Sean Longstaff and Anton Stach have fortified the goalkeeping, defensive and midfield departments, Lukas Nmecha remains the sole attacking signing. Given Patrick Bamford has been told he will be sold and Mateo Joseph and Joe Gelhardt have left on season-long loans Leeds are racing against time to rebuild the front end of the team.
“We are not naive,” Farke said after the 1-1 friendly against Villarreal. “We know that in the offence we are not ready for Premier League level. We know that even in comparison to our Championship offence you could say that we are not much improved.
“I can’t guarantee that for the first game everything will be ready and we are fully equipped but we definitely have to make sure that, latest, after the first international break in September, we have a really competitive squad for the Premier League. We’re not anxious but we are fully aware we need to do something.”
In the interim, Joël Piroe, last season’s Championship golden boot winner, has a chance to show he is a top-tier striker.
If the imports look sound – and the Slovenia centre-half Bijol, a £15m buy from Udinese, seems a particularly shrewd purchase – an awful lot hinges on how swiftly they adapt. Leeds fans must hope the team’s framework is sufficiently robust to showcase the talents of last season’s stars, most notably the Wales winger Dan James and the Japan midfielder Ao Tanaka.
The manager
Too many managerial media addresses are anodyne, but the amiable Farke, almost always interesting and evidently emotionally intelligent, is a welcome exception to the rule. The one-time economics student with the look of a former heavy metal star has achieved three promotions to the Premier League, the first two with financially challenged Norwich sides. The 48-year-old German remained dignified in the face of intense speculation regarding his Elland Road future last May. The Leeds chair, Paraag Marathe, ended it by declaring “he’s my man, but the task is undeniably formidable. As Farke says: “In the past 21 years, Leeds have spent three seasons in the Premier League but that’s where this club belongs. My job is to keep us here.”
Off-field…
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