Credit: Tung Manh Phan, Breaking Media

James Barker

Tue 12 May 2026 8:13, UK

Daniel Farke has labelled Leeds United‘s deals to sign Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Lukas Nmecha as “outstanding” bits of transfer work.

A pair of free transfers in this season’s summer transfer window, Leeds’ respective signings of Calvert-Lewin and Nmecha were initially met with significant Elland Road scepticism.

Calvert-Lewin struggled considerably with injuries during his nine years with Everton, and was coming off a season where he’d bagged just three goals from 26 appearances in all competitions.

Indeed, the 29-year-old had scored just 18 goals in all competitions in his previous four seasons prior to joining Leeds, whilst Nmecha had similar struggles in Germany too.

The 27-year-old netted only nine times for Wolfsburg over the last three seasons before 2025-26, and so many were of the opinion that they weren’t going to provide value despite being financially-friendly deals for Leeds.

What Daniel Farke said on Calvert-Lewin & Nmecha deals

Calvert-Lewin and Nmecha have struggled at times for Leeds this season, but overall, they’ve both silenced any of their transfer sceptics.

The former in particular, with the England international now sitting on 13 Premier League goals from 33 appearances this term, whilst also bagging one in the FA Cup too.

Meanwhile, Nmecha has been more of a rotational squad player at Elland Road this year, but has still found the net six times from 29 league outings, and has a goals per 90 rate of 0.57.

For free transfers, both forwards have provided extremely good value for Leeds this season, and shows that newly-promoted sides don’t have to throw crazy money around to find quality contributors and to survive in the division.

Speaking in his post-Tottenham press conference via LeedsLive on Monday night, Farke was asked about the pair now scoring 21 goals between them in all competitions this season, and he explained the Club’s thinking behind their signings.

“Outstanding piece of business. We didn’t want to risk the future of the club, so we didn’t have as much to spend,” the Whites boss said of the two strikers.

Nmecha doesn’t need Leeds stardom to be a success

Out of the two, it has been Calvert-Lewin who has really impressed this season, as he’s now well into double figures for goals and is back in the England fold as well.

As such, Nmecha’s impact can get lost and overlooked at times, but whilst the German may not get as many headlines nor goals as Calvert-Lewin, that doesn’t mean he’s not providing a similar level of value.

Farke’s striking options behind Nmecha are limited, with Noah Okafor more routinely deployed as an attacking midfielder, leaving Joel Piroe as the only other natural senior striker.

So, had Nmecha not been able to seamlessly rotate in and out of the team and provide solid performances when called upon, Leeds’ could’ve had major issues in their forward line this term.

Nmecha has quietly played a big role in Leeds’ Premier League survival this season, and is a testament to the importance of having quality strength in depth.