The past summer has to go down as one of the most volatile in Leeds United’s history with new owners, a new manager and new players coming in.
A mass exodus was virtually forced upon the club thanks to relegation to the Championship, and the squad appeared to change on a weekly basis throughout the transfer window.
That pattern continued even once Daniel Farke had taken charge of first-team matters.
Only recently have things settled down, and the German now has three months in which to establish some sort of consistency to the first-team.
Currently in 15th position, Leeds are already nine points behind table-topping Leicester City, and Farke will want to see an upturn in results ahead of another transfer window in January.
One player that was expected to leave the club in the summer but didn’t is Illan Meslier, and the young goalkeeper has explained his reasons for staying at Elland Road.
“It was difficult to leave when the club is going down, because I feel guilty inside,” he said on the official Leeds United podcast.
“I played most of the games and the results weren’t good. It was not good for me to leave with the club in the second division. To go and play somewhere and see Leeds in the middle of the second division and think, ‘oh no’. For me, I had to stay and give my best to get Leeds in the top two places.”
Though Meslier has started most of the games this season for the Yorkshire-based club, summer signing Karl Darlow isn’t likely to be happy at being kept out of the first-team starting XI for too much longer.
Competition for places is the type of problem that managers profess to enjoying, but it’s one that Farke can deal with on another day.