Leeds United star Ethan Ampadu playing Elland Road salesman role ahead of transfer window

Leeds tied their skipper down to a new four-year deal last week as Daniel Farke continues to build the squad around his first ever Whites signing.

Ampadu has already played 126 times for Leeds and captained them to a Championship title and Premier League survival.

His performances last season earned him the Players' Player of the Year and Player of the Year awards at Elland Road and underlined the importance of securing his future.

Ampadu was just as keen to get it sorted as the club.

"I'm very appreciative and grateful for the trust that they put in me," he said.

"I feel like me and Leeds has been been a good fit so far. I feel like I can represent the people well, it's a very hardworking city, it's a fanbase that wants hard working players, and I'd like to think that I base my game off that - my first thing is to make sure I'm hard working. I want to always try and be the hardest worker on the pitch and give my all."

The awards he picked up at the end of the season were in recognition of something team-mate James Justin pointed out in a recent YEP interview - Ampadu's almost unerring consistency.

His level of performance rarely wavered regardless of opposition and there were standout games like Chelsea at home when he bossed the midfield. He's not prepared to say he settled back into the top flight, having played Premier League football before, but he was happy with a number of his displays.

“I've still got a lot to learn and give”

"There's been games I've been happy with my performance," he said.

"Not settled, because I'm probably my own biggest critic, so I'm never probably going to sit around and say that I've settled. There's been games I've been happy with, but then you'll get those games I've not been happy with. Probably tells me that I've not settled, and I've still got a lot to learn and give."

Farke has made it clear that ambition is key to ensure the club does not stand still and Ampadu also wants to kick on further now. His dream is to captain Leeds back to the level they once occupied as a regular European competition participant. But he concedes that next season will be every bit as difficult as their first back in the top flight.

"I think definitely it's a club, players, staff and a fan base that want to go on to greater things," he said.

"I think we also do understand that the second year in the Premier League is just as hard as a first, and we've got to make sure that we do well enough to stay in the Premier League, and then from that point on we want to kick on. That's going to be the goal of ours.

“Everyone wants to take the club on to great heights and get back to the places that Leeds United used to be in, and what a lot of the fans know Leeds United to be."

“Trying to sell it to everyone, to be honest”

Ampadu signed his new contract remotely while away on international duty with Wales and met with local media at Elland Road on Monday.

The 25-year-old was one of a five-strong Leeds contingent in Craig Bellamy's senior set-up for the games against Ghana and Romania, alongside Joe Rodon, Karl Darlow, Daniel James and teenage prospect Jayden Lienou.

When asked if he and the others had been trying to sell Leeds to international team-mate Harry Wilson, who came close to joining them at Elland Road late last summer and is a free agent in a couple of weeks, Ampadu said: "Trying to sell it to everyone, to be honest. I think it's a pretty easy sell.

“I think everyone knows how special a place Leeds is, but whenever anyone asks how our time is at Leeds, when we're in Wales, we obviously speak about it so glowingly."