Even by the Championship’s topsy-turvy standards, the departure of Ryan Lowe from Preston North End with just one league game on the slate came as a considerable surprise.
Not the decision itself per se – Lowe was not exactly a popular presence at Deepdale and already appeared to be hanging on by a thread – but the timing of it certainly.
The former Plymouth Argyle boss said his goodbyes on Monday. Just three days after Preston opened their campaign with a 2-0 home defeat to likely promotion challengers Sheffield United.
And, as the boos rained down at Elland Road a further two days later, casual observers could be forgiven for wondering if Lowe will soon have some company in the recently-sacked club.
Daniel Farke may have taken Leeds United to the play-off final last term – while posting a points tally that would have been enough to secure Premier League football in the majority of seasons – but the German certainly does not enjoy the same universal support as, say, Marcelo Bielsa did.
Daniel Farke under pressure from Leeds United fans
A 3-3 draw with Portsmouth – a game Leeds would have lost but were also unlucky not to win – was hardly the ideal way to begin Farke’s second campaign at the helm.
And the sight of thousands flooding towards the exits as Middlesbrough made it 3-0 at Elland Road during the midweek clash said more than words ever could about how Leeds performed in their EFL Cup first-round tie.
Simon Jordan, the former Crystal Palace chairman, feels Farke can bounce back. He secured the Championship title twice, after all, with Norwich City.
But a daunting fixture list means that things could yet get worse before they get better.
“It doesn’t get any easier. They’ve got West Brom, Sheffield Wednesday which is a local Yorkshire derby, then they’ve got Hull and then they’ve got Burnley,” Jordan points out, via talkSPORT’s YouTube channel.
“The fact of the matter is that Leeds United are a very big football club. They missed an opportunity last season. Economically, they are probably not as stable as one would like them to be. Radrizzani spent a lot of money and obviously the new ownership model has picked up some of the consequences.
“Any club who loses 3-0 at home is going to have a segment of his fanbase who are not happy.
“They get 35,000 fans on a Wednesday evening for a League Cup game and they are going to air their views. If you can cheer something, the flipside is that you can boo something that you don’t like.
“If it continues then the noise will continue, won’t it?”
To make matters worse, Leeds could now lose Georginio Rutter after Brighton triggered his £40 million release clause, reports HITC.
Archie Gray, Glen Kamara and the 2023 Championship Player of the Year Crysencio Summerville have already gone. So while Farke will have plenty of cash to splash in the final two weeks of the window, he has not been helped by a flurry of important departures.
“He will be getting some money back, I would suspect,” Jordan adds. “We are one game into a season. We can’t all of a sudden having our mouths drop and start the ra-ra session about Leeds fans being dissatisfied with Farke.”
David Moyes tipped for Elland Road job
If Leeds were to run out of patience, where could the Yorkshire giants turn?
Jordan cannot help but wonder if the Elland Road job would appeal to one David Moyes, the vastly-experienced 61-year-old on the lookout for a fresh start after leaving West Ham in the summer.
“The sort of job I could see David Moyes doing. Oh, absolutely!” Jordan adds, albeit Moyes’ Manchester United past might not appeal too much to those with the Yorkshire rose on their chest.
“David Moyes wants to get back into football. There are only so many opportunities in the Premier League.
“But a club like Leeds, which is geared with the scale and size to being in the Premier League, is something that – if the conditions are right and Daniel Farke runs its course, which I hope it doesn’t – then someone like David would be a fit for Leeds.
“For David, you’ve got this huge football club that would meet the expectations and scale of football club he could see himself managing.
“I think that could be a reasonable shout.”
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