Farke explains reason for player exit – and confirms he wants to keep duo at the club | OneFootball

Leeds United boss Daniel Farke has confirmed that duo Isaac Schmidt and Largie Ramazani are expected to leave the club.

Schmidt is set to join Bundesliga side Werder Bremen, while Valencia are expected to complete a deal to bring in Ramazani.

“It’s not confirmed yet but I can confirm we have allowed them to travel for talks with other clubs,” Farke said.

“It’s not confirmed yet but we expect that this will happen and again, for us, our main focus is to strengthen our offense.”

On how likely it is that the club will secure more attacking signings, he continued: “How realistic it is? I think it makes no sense right now that I give you a percentage or whatever but yes we’re looking to strengthen our offense a bit more and if this is one or two more signings, we will see whatever is possible.

“We want the best possible squad and for that I think everyone at the club is working very hard that we try to provide this in the upcoming days.”

Explaining the decision to allow winger Ramazani to leave, Farke said: “I won’t say one bad word about Largie, especially after he leaves, I think this would lack class in my honest opinion.

“I think he’s an unbelievable human being, he was always professional when he was here. He showed his talent and his potential, also in the last game days when we were celebrating he was such a great team-mate.

“He also delivered what we wanted. He has had some goals and some assists but perhaps not with the consistency that the competition in his position have done, like Manor Solomon or Daniel James or Willy Gnonto.

“But he also played an important part. He didn’t have a major amount of minutes compared to the competitors last season and we spoke about it that even in this position, we want to improve right now for the Premier League and on this level it’s even more difficult for him, if it was already difficult at Championship level to get more minutes.

“He’s a player that needs confidence and consistency to bring the best out of him.

“He can work his magic and his creativity and he always does unexpected (things) which is a big strength but I think also for newly promoted sides a few other attributes and skills are necessary.

“I feel pretty and honoured and blessed that I got to work with him for a whole year. I wish him the best from the bottom of my heart.”

Farke also confirmed that he would like to keep duo Jack Harrison and Brenden Aaronson at the club after the window shuts.

“We want competition right now,” he said. “Let’s see what will happen during this window, it’s too early to speak about and judge what happens.

“But as it stands they’re pretty much in my plans. If they weren’t in my plans I wouldn’t have started them in the last cup game. In the Everton game they came into the game and they inspired the game and played an important part to help us win the game.

“They are pretty important for our group and you need competition.

“Our group is not too big so I don’t expect there will be outgoings. Again, on this level when something crazy comes you can never rule anything out but as it stands we don’t plan for this.”

Leeds take on Newcastle on Saturday but will be without midfield duo Ethan Ampadu and Ao Tanaka through injury.