Leeds were a laughing stock for years but Daniel Farke has transformed them into serious European contenders

JUST nine months ago, manager Daniel Farke and his Leeds side were on the brink. They were in the process of losing to Aston Villa when a fan climbed out of the stands and walked into the technical area to confront the German. Daniel Farke and Leeds were on the brink of doom nine months ago Credit: Shutterstock Editorial But now they are flying high and in great spirits to start another Premier League season Credit: Getty The Whites were in the relegation zone and looked doomed to go straight back down, while boss Farke was odds-on to get the sack. Now look at them. Sign up for the Football newsletter Thank you! Back-to-back wins at Nottingham Forest to start the season, their fans serenading them with ‘oles’ at the City Ground as they put the hosts in their place for the second time in four days. After years of turbulence and a sense that, even when things were going well, a disaster was never far away, everything feels weirdly serene at Elland Road. Leeds are finally looking up and there cannot have been this much optimism around the club since the turn of the century. They aren’t even in the conversation for relegation this year, so where has this unlikely turnaround come from? For Farke, the dugout invader must have put a real rocket up his backside, so much so that in the next game he ripped up his usual gameplan at half-time at the Etihad on November 29. They were lucky to be just 2-0 down at the break but he changed tactics, went to a 5-3-2 and they came out like a side possessed, drawing level only to lose to a 90th-minute Phil Foden winner for Manchester City. Most read in Sport BEST ONLINE CASINOS – TOP SITES IN THE UK Farke supposedly had two games to save his job after the Villa defeat, but they lost just five of their remaining 25 matches in the league as they eased clear of trouble. Now it looks like the club, and Farke, are poised for a much-needed spell of stability. Because the Leeds gaffer’s previous couple of forays into the Prem were an absolute shower. Twice he guided Norwich to the Championship title, and in their two seasons back in the top flight they amassed a combined 43 points. That ain’t going to cut it. He was spared the chop first time round, when they finished bottom with a pathetic 21 points, but at the second attempt he only lasted until November. And Leeds haven’t been a whole lot better. After their swashbuckling first season back under Marcelo Bielsa, they survived by the skin of their teeth the following year before plummeting back down to the second tier in 2023. Things weren’t great, but it was still a far cry from the absolute nightmare that engulfed the club in 2002, when Peter Ridsdale spent lavishly and took out a huge loan that he was unable to repay. Top football travel deals They had to sell off the family silver to keep the club afloat and soon spiralled out of the Prem in 2004 and into a financial meltdown. For years they were a joke, a huge club which had been utterly run into the ground. But things look so promising right now that even the jailing for two days of their co-owner Jed York, 46, for soliciting prostitution over in the US can’t throw them off track. In years gone by, that sort of scandal might have caused chaos at a club whose ownership situation had long been volatile, but it’s a strange new world we are living in. The chances they will ever recapture some of their former glories are, in this day and age, next to zero. They fully earned their Dirty Leeds nickname back in the 60s and 70s, with Norman Hunter, Billy Bremner and Co kicking lumps out of teams, but they were the dominant force for a decade. Those days are long gone, but they have recruited shrewdly this summer and have every right to start dreaming about a push for Europe and a new era of glory in Yorkshire. For the club and their boss, that would be one hell of a turnaround. Comment now