Leeds United ‘will win the Championship’ under Daniel Farke with Patrick Bamford, Cody Drameh to be key – BBC pundit

Carlton Palmer has backed Leeds United to win the Championship title in their first season back thanks to the arrival of Daniel Farke.

The German has previously won the division twice in charge at Norwich, which was a central consideration when he triumphed over Patrick Vieira for the Elland Road job.

Palmer is full of confidence despite the current difficulties around possible transfer exits and has tipped the likes of Patrick Bamford, Jack Harrison and Cody Drameh as proven second-tier performers who will be key to success.

Palmer is full of confidence despite the current difficulties around possible transfer exits and has tipped the likes of Patrick Bamford, Jack Harrison and Cody Drameh as proven second-tier performers who will be key to success.

“I think that Leeds United will win the Championship next season,” the BBC pundit told Football League World.

“My reasons are the appointment of Daniel Farke. Daniel’s proven at Norwich, he knows the formula to get out of the Championship. He got Norwich promoted twice at a canter with less resources than will be available to him this season at Leeds United.

“Players like Liam Cooper, Cody Drameh, Stuart Dallas, [Ethan] Ampadu, Jack Harrison, Patrick Bamford gives them a nucleus of players who know the Championship very well. Elland Road will be a fortress. It will be a very difficult place to go to to get a result.

“If they get off to a good start, and like Daniel said, it will be very difficult for him right now until the transfer window’s shut to know which players he will or will not have for the coming season.

“Then January will be the window that he can address the positions he needs to and get them over the line.”

Bold prediction

There is arguably no more suitable manager to choose as likely to end up on top of the table than Farke after his history at Carrow Road.

But he has arrived at Elland Road late in the window and is trying to pick up the pieces of a fragmented transfer policy that is still receiving the knock-on effects from the previous regime.

If he, along with the “influential” Gretar Steinsson and Nick Hammond, can successfully bring in multiple new signings before the window shuts, while keeping some of the aforementioned players, he has a decent shot to replicate his previous success.

But the sudden Max Wober exit proves that the squad remains a moveable feast right up until deadline day, with the Austrian defender thought to be staying until Saturday when Farke revealed he was absent from the squad for a “transfer situation” [Phil Hay, 22 July].

Drameh, Bamford and Harrison have all been linked with exits themselves, so a positive answer on those questions will be key going forward.

The jury is very much still out on whether Palmer’s prediction has a chance of being accurate, with the future of so many current players hanging in the balance, and it as yet unknown who else will be brought in.

A few names one way or the other can make the difference between Leeds United heading into the campaign with a squad to be feared or one that the supporters will fear being picked apart.

Farke will have known he was walking into a major job, and the next few weeks will be some of the most important.

In other Leeds United news, a replacement for Wober is already being looked at in the current transfer window.