Leeds United boss Farke weighs in on transfer anxiety and 'solutions' after work by key figures

The German is approaching his second season in charge at Elland Road but this time from a position of strength, compared with the chaos and uncertainty of last summer. The squad is relatively stable with 10 days to go before the season starts and Leeds are expected to bolster Farke's options in just a couple of positions. But there are still doubts that they can hold onto one or two of their best young players. No one, let alone Farke, is offering any guarantees that Crysencio Summerville and Willy Gnonto will still be at Leeds come the end of the transfer window. Summerville, who missed Saturday's win over Schalke 04 with a hamstring issue, has been the subject of interest from Brighton and West Ham United, among others. Gnonto remained on the radar of Everton after last summer's unsuccessful attempts to prise him from Elland Road.

One of the big fears for supporters is that either or both could depart in late-window moves without Leeds having the necessary time to react and replace them with adequate targets. Farke's ideal scenario is that his players remain when the window shuts, but he's not panicking either way.

"No if you are working with anxiety in this business then you are in the wrong position," he said. "We know that we're not PSG or Real Madrid who can afford each and every player but we spoke quite open and honest about it that also perhaps decisions in the past have forced us into situations right now where we have to think about the financial situation and being within the rules. Perhaps our hands are even a bit more tied than other clubs but for that we need to be there with some smart decisions and overall no anxiety because I get the feeling there are lots of players who want to play for this Leeds shirt, especially our group here. Even if one or two would leave I'm pretty sure we would also find some good solutions. But I hope that our best solutions stay."

Farke echoes the thoughts of the club hierarchy when he says the squad is in a good place and certainly a better place than it was at this time last year. There appears to be a confidence that they have a good number of very good players and having come so close to their goal last season, tweaks rather than full scale change was the order of the summer window. That near miss with promotion, though still a sore point, is part of the appeal when it comes to recruitment.

"I think it's a testament of the good work of our club because our key people have made sure that we have, again, a clear philosophy and a stability in what we're doing and clear values, clear principles, how we want to play," he said. "Last season of course was heartbreaking, to get 90 points and not be there with automatic promotion and also heartbreaking to lose the play-off final but overall we have to say it was a good advertisement for us, the way we played, the way the team behaved, the connection between the team and supporters, the atmosphere at Elland Road, it was a really great advertisement after two more difficult and challenging years. I think we're in a really good place also to have a really good side for next season and then let's see how far we can come."