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Evans says Leeds and Farke are aligned over new contract

·By Paul Lindisfarne
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Evans says Leeds and Farke are aligned over new contract

Leeds/X.com

Leeds United managing director Robbie Evans says contract talks with head coach Daniel Farke are progressing smoothly, with no rush to get a new deal done.

Farke guided Leeds to promotion from the Championship in 2024-25 before overseeing a 14th-placed Premier League finish and an FA Cup semi-final last season, and is now entering the final year of his current deal at Elland Road.

With Leeds United on five points from three league games this campaign, Evans praised Farke's work and said talks over fresh terms have been ongoing for several months.

"As far as the contract discussions themselves, Daniel and his team and I have had really good chats for the past three months and they're all on the same page," Evans said.

"Unlike signing him back in 2023 or doing a deadline day deal kind of thing, the time pressure is far reduced and so we have time to get it right as far as what he wants and what we want.

"I don't feel it's taking a long time. It just means we're getting it right, and also we have time to get it right, and so as long as we're still operating together as a group, and we're doing great on that front, I'm not worried."

"The short answer is that he's done great, we want him to be here long-term and we're working on it," Evans added.

He also reflected on a summer window in which Leeds signed goalkeeper James Trafford from Manchester City for up to £45 million, alongside defenders Tarik Muharemovic and Nico Elvedi, Fulham winger Harry Wilson, and deadline-day arrivals Melvin Bard from Nice and Jean-Matteo Bahoya from Eintracht Frankfurt.

"I think last year the phrase was we had a good window and a bad deadline. I would say this summer was a good window and a good deadline," he said. "The key for us was we had a couple of top objectives to accomplish and those all got done early in terms of a left-footed centre-half, right winger and goalkeeper. Having signed our top targets in all three of those positions we were able to go and pursue roles around the pitch that gets better and stronger and have time to do so.

"So we're quite satisfied with the window."

That business was balanced by the £20 million sale of Netherlands international Pascal Struijk to Brighton on 30 June, the deadline for clubs to comply with profit and sustainability rules before the switch to squad-cost ratio regulations.

"I was pretty confident coming into the year we'd have to sell some guys in June. Frankly it was the FA Cup run and the minimal work in January that kept it being just one player," Evans said. "Pascal's appeal to other teams was clear before the year was over and then he was debating going or not and he was helpful in deciding pretty quickly so we could decide to sell him before 30 June.

"We were prepared for that possibility all season and so we did tonnes of work on a left centre-half last year. Having that news early was helpful, but we had, like always, various contingencies for Pascal."