George Overhill

Mon 29 January 2024 11:10, UK

Phil Hay has suggested that stand-off at Leeds United between Daniel Farke and Charlie Cresswell coming to an end is a result of both sides realising the alternative will be worse for them since a transfer exit isn’t happening.

Speaking on the Square Ball Podcast (29 January) the Athletic journalist said that the manager’s decision to bring his young defender back into contention is a result of an exit looking impossible for the 21-year-old and cover at centre-back being thin with Pascal Struijk out injured and January signings proving difficult, was a matter of “convenience”.

While it looks like the manager has asserted his authority in much the same way he did with Willy Gnonto earlier this season, Hay believes that the German is using a high-risk strategy in doing so because if he gets such situations wrong it will damage the dressing room severely.

Gnonto wanted to leave for Everton in the summer and was refused, while Cresswell was happy to leave this month but equally appears not to be happening.

Hay said of the Cresswell development (18m 30s): “There’s part of me that wonders if there isn’t a little bit of convenience in this, in the sense that Cresswell doesn’t want to be doing nothing for the next four months and it doesn’t look like there’s a transfer peering through the mist.

“Farke obviously still has a question mark over Struijk, which, although they play different sides, makes spare centre-backs more important again, so to that extent it works.

“But even so he’s kind of challenged Cresswell to get back involved if he’s going to, to show that he wants to, and Cresswell has, so in the same way that Gnonto came back into the camp it’s repeated itself.

“He seems to know which fights to pick, Farke, which ones he can win. It’s a risky business, that, because if you get it wrong it can really upset the dressing room. If you get it right I think it helps to hold the dressing room together.”

Risk-reward

Farke clearly wants total commitment to the cause and isn’t going to tolerate any players wavering, but he does need to play his own part in that.

He is the manager and has to have authority over the squad, so when Gnonto instigated his push to leave as a result of outside factors such as the advice he was getting from his representatives and transfer bids from Everton it seemed fair enough for the ex-Norwich boss to leave the Italian out and have him training alone until they cleared the air.

Cresswell’s issue appears to be have been down to a dissatisfaction with the extremely low level of involvement on the pitch he was getting, which doesn’t seem surprising when he was given a grand total of two minutes after the end of August [Transfermarkt], so the decision to freeze him out looked harsher.

In the midst of what is proven to be a difficult January transfer window it makes sense that the centre-back is brought back in because he is likely to be needed, and the youngster himself would surely be on board if he thinks he will now get an opportunity.

But the manager surely needs to get Cresswell some more opportunities now though as his development is likely suffering, just as Gnonto’s form hasn’t been great while featuring only sparingly even if his commitment has apparently not wavered at all.

On one hand Leeds United have been strong and Farke has picked up results for the most part, while Joe Rodon and Struijk, plus Crysencio Summerville and Dan James, have restricted opportunities for Cresswell and Gnonto respectively.

But there have been opportunities for rotation that weren’t taken, and if the promotion push falters such decisions might come in for heavier scrutiny.

Just as with the ruthless choice to end Djed Spence’s loan early this month there is surely some logic to Farke’s view, but if it ends up having negative consequences, which the difficulty in signing a full-back suggests it might, then he could end up second-guessed by the players, and ultimately the owners.

In other Leeds United news, a pundit has suggested the Whites are close to swooping in to hijack a new signing ahead of a rival club.

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