News that the Hollywood actor Will Ferrell has become the latest in a series of celebrities to purchase a minority stake in Leeds United made headlines on Sunday but most Leeds fans are much more interested in a very different type of leading man.
Their team’s hopes of winning promotion via the playoffs could well hinge on whether the injections Patrick Bamford is receiving in a damaged knee enable Daniel Farke’s centre-forward to return to action in the semi-final first leg at Norwich next Sunday.
Bamford divides opinion among Elland Road regulars but although, ostensibly, his tally of eight Championship goals in 33 appearances this season looks relatively modest the 30-year-old’s outstanding movement and ability to press from the front improves Leeds immeasurably.
Without Bamford to serve as a decoy, dragging defenders all over the place, Farke’s outstanding left-winger Crysencio Summerville was all too easily subdued by Kyle Walker-Peters as his side lost 2-1 at home to Southampton on Saturday.
Summerville has already been crowned the Championship’s player of the season but, along with several teammates – most notably Georginio Rutter, Wilfried Gnonto, Junior Firpo, Glen Kamara and Ilia Gruev – he looked shattered, mentally as well as physically, as the visitors showcased a highly effective counterattacking 3-5-2 formation.
The sheer effort, and immense disappointment, involved in accruing an impressive 90 points yet still finishing behind the automatically promoted Leicester and Ipswich seems to have taken its toll on a Leeds side that has won only one of the last six games.
They could conceivably end up meeting Southampton again in the Wembley final but must first navigate a two-legged playoff against Norwich, the club Farke led into the Premier League on two previous occasions.
“It will be really difficult against Norwich,” said the German manager, who is hoping Summerville recovers from an ankle injury in time for Sunday. “They’ve been in a really good spell with lots of good results lately. It will be tight. Norwich have a very experienced squad with many players who have won promotion before and can play pragmatically.
“Going back (to Carrow Road) is a bit special for me but there won’t be time to be overly emotional because my only focus is Leeds. It feels like this team is the third best in the division; the players, the supporters, this club, deserve promotion.”
Yet as Will Smallbone, the influential scorer of Southampton’s second goal, sashayed, repeatedly, through Farke’s central midfield on Saturday it did not look that way. Maybe a Leeds team that recovered admirably from a slow start to the campaign and hit the top of the table in mid-March peaked too soon? Or perhaps the previously excellent Rutter’s failure to recover properly from the minor hernia surgery he underwent two months ago is at the root of Farke’s problems?
Whatever the precise reason, Russell Martin, Southampton’s manager is sympathetic as he prepares for his own two-legged semi-final against West Brom. “No, I don’t think Leeds have collapsed,” he said. “The Championship has been such a difficult division this season. We went 25 games unbeaten at one stage and still finished fourth.”
Like Farke, Martin hopes his team have three more matches ahead of them but the former Leeds manager, Simon Grayson, believes that the West Yorkshire club’s hopes of a Wembley appearance may depend on Bamford’s fitness and his potential influence off, as well as on, the ball.
“I hope we get Patrick back,” Grayson told BBC Radio Leeds. “People sometimes don’t see what Patrick does for the team. They see the scoring opportunities he sometimes misses but they don’t see the runs he makes in the channels, his hold-up play or his closing down of opponents.”
Perhaps of equal importance is Bamford’s experience and poise under pressure. “We have a really young side and some of my players have lost a bit of their confidence, their momentum,” conceded Farke. “It’s important now to give them some good moments on the training pitch, to get their rhythm back.”
