Daniel Farke has Leeds United on course to seal their return to the Premier League this season after falling at the final hurdle last term.
Leeds are top of the Championship summit with just eight regular-season matches left to play, as Sheffield United and Burnley both breathe down their necks in the race for automatic promotion.
However, it was the Whites who were in pursuit for much of last season, doing their best to hunt down and overtake Leicester and Ipswich Town in the top two, but ultimately having to settle for the play-offs.
Defeat to Southampton in last May’s Wembley final consigned Leeds to another season in the second tier and a series of high-profile departures, but that’s now stood them in good stead to get over the line.
Warnock makes Farke admission at Leeds
Leeds’ 1-0 loss at Wembley last May proved to be the last competitive appearances in white for Archie Gray, Glen Kamara and Crysencio Summerville, with Georginio Rutter also departing that August.
With United now top of the pile in the Premier League promotion race, Neil Warnock told talkSPORT (15 March, 10:38am) that he’d advised Farke that selling one player would be a long-term gain for Leeds.Warnock said: “Leeds have just so much in their locker up front… they don’t make elementary mistakes at the back – they’re a better team this year.
“I spoke to Daniel after, and I said to him; ‘I think if you get rid of two or three – the likes of [Crysencio] Summerville – you’ll get more bonding in the team’, and I think they’ve done that.”
Summerville exit admissions mount at Leeds United
It’s not the first time that Warnock has advocated Leeds being a more complete team this time around in Summerville’s absence, nor is he the first pundit or ex-manager to suggest a similar sentiment.
Summerville was the deserved winner of last season’s Championship Player of the Year award after 20 goals and nine assists in 46 appearances, but his style of play was often seen as too individualistic.
That attitude did appear to sometimes seep onto the training pitch at Thorp Arch, and while the sales of Gray and Rutter were bitter pills to swallow at Elland Road, Summerville’s exit was far less emotional.
Manor Solomon’s form on the left wing this season has helped Leeds fans to forget about losing the sheer number of goals and assists Summerville provided, and with eight games to go, United stand a strong chance of joining the Dutchman back in the top-flight next term.
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