Club appears to have done shrewd transfer business, but they are still in the market for forwards as they try to avoid a quick Championship return
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
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.
