Role of the “49ers” crucial
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While the initial euphoria over the long-awaited promotion to the Premier League for Leeds is slowly but surely fading, and the team under record-breaking head coach Daniel Farke is focusing on surpassing the 100-point mark in the final two Championship matches against Bristol City and Plymouth, attention at Elland Road must now turn to the future. Whether the time advantage from the early promotion can be used effectively in terms of squad planning and transfers seems questionable when looking at the current structures at the Yorkshire side.
With CEO Angus Kinnear and squad planner Nick Hammond both leaving the club for Everton—two of the key decision-makers alongside Farke—there is now a gaping void. The enormous challenge of assembling a competitive squad for the English top flight as a newly promoted team has now been made much harder. The role of the American “49ers Enterprises,” majority owners of the club since 2023, in filling these crucial positions is being watched with both anticipation and scrutiny. Into this emotionally charged situation at the club came, surprisingly for many, a report from the Daily Mail during the week about a potential dismissal of the promotion-winning coach. Transfer market takes a look behind the scenes at Elland Road, where, despite the extraordinary sporting success, not everything seems as rosy as it might appear.
The English newspaper speculated on Wednesday that the Leeds owners might not trust Farke with the job in the top flight. No further details were given by the English publication, but the report quickly spread through news agencies, including in Germany. The gist of the claim: Farke has done well to take Leeds back to the English top-flight, but has never been able to establish a team in the Premier League. Aside from the newly set records by the German coach, even a glance at history quickly disproves this narrative.
Before his time at Leeds, Farke had already led Norwich to the Premier League twice. After the first promotion in 2019, the 48-year-old amassed 21 points—essentially with the Canaries’ Championship squad—despite minimal investment of just €8 million compared to the competition and today’s standards. A performance that, given the sporting gap between the Championship and the Premier League, can be considered pretty respectable. After the second promotion in 2021, Norwich invested €63m, allowing Farke to start the season with a reinforced squad, but he was let go already in November following a 2–1 win in Brentford. He was succeeded by Dean Smith, who ended the season with a significantly stronger squad but managed only one more point than Farke had two years earlier. To this day, the German tactician is one of the three most successful coaches in Norwich’s club history (with at least 50 games).
“He deserves great recognition, because as we all know, it’s not easy to be manager of Leeds,” Leeds senior player Stuart Dallas said of Farke to the BBC after the club’s promotion, adding: “You have to give him credit, because what he has achieved in the past two seasons is simply phenomenal.” On paper, no coach in Leeds’ history has achieved a higher points average (1.97), and never before had Leeds gained more points or scored more goals in a single season—with two games still to go. This, despite the fact that the club had to let go of many key players after missing out on promotion via the playoffs last summer. Even reinforcements requested by Farke in January were not made.
In the 2024/25 season, Leeds recorded an exceptional profit in the transfer market of around €130m—one of the highest in Europe. Dallas, who was promoted with Leeds under Marcelo Bielsa in 2020, added: “I think back to the team I played in, and it was an incredible team. Daniel’s team has more points than we did, that really says it all. I think people need to relax and show some respect for what he has achieved this season.”
Leeds United: Are the structures in place to be competitive?
Looking ahead to next season, the club once again faces major challenges in terms of squad planning. All three promoted teams from last season failed to stay up. Ipswich (€152m spent on new players), Southampton (€122m), and Leicester (around €91m) all spent significantly, but ultimately in vain. “The Premier League is a scary prospect when you see what happened to the promoted teams last season. Leeds must invest, and as fans, we shouldn’t expect too much for the upcoming season. Surviving the first season will be an extreme task,” summed up a Leeds fan after the promotion in a BBC report. Given the aforementioned club structures, successful and sustainable planning seems all the more difficult. “With Kinnear and now also Hammond expected to leave the club at the end of the season, it seems Leeds’ promotion celebrations are over before they really began,” assessed Stefan Bienkowski, lead editor of Transfermarkt UK regarding the current situation.
He added: “In the past, the club’s fortunes rose and fell especially with its transfer activities. This also included major flops, such as the €33 million signing of Brenden Aaronson, who contributed to the 2023 relegation. Now, the new squad – put together by Kinnear, Hammond, and Farke—with cheaper but more reliable players has brought the club back up. However, the loss of key decision-makers could again ruin the club’s chances of staying up in the 2025/26 season. That puts Farke in a very unfortunate position. Even during his last time in the Premier League with Norwich, he was overshadowed by a lack of investment and insufficient player quality, which made survival difficult. If Leeds doesn’t act quickly, they could find themselves in a similar position next season—regardless of whether Farke can work his magic on the sidelines.”
Leeds United: What role does “49ers Enterprises” play?
Crucial to filling the vacant leadership roles in sporting management will also be the role of majority owner “49ers Enterprises.” The investment arm of the NFL franchise San Francisco 49ers joined Leeds in 2023 and made headlines this week with the planned takeover of Scottish giants, Rangers, as well as pushing for the expansion of Elland Road stadium to 56,500 seats. Reportedly, there have already been disagreements in Leeds behind the scenes regarding the sporting leadership of the football club and the level of investor involvement.
The Americans are known to focus heavily on data collection and analysis in terms of squad planning – the so-called “Moneyball” approach. An approach that is not always met with approval at the top level in European football. According to TM information, the owners are currently driving the search for replacements for Kinnear and Hammond,intending to fill them with individuals aligned with the American philosophy. Although Farke remains, at least on paper, the final authority for transfer decisions as manager of the club, these personnel measures will likely significantly influence the work and future decisions of the German coach. As of now, Farke is heading into the new season in Leeds without a sporting director or squad planner – an almost unprecedented situation given the challenges ahead for Leeds United.
