The parting signal from the Leeds United players to Daniel Farke was clear as they left Wembley

The upbeat messages were not wanted by the Leeds United players who were staring into the abyss of the dressing room floor at Wembley on Sunday. The Whites were beaten 1-0 by Southampton in the Championship play-off final, which ultimately let their efforts over 49 games count for nothing.

A long season is finally over, but the next one will start in less than 11 weeks. The fixtures for the new campaign will land in just over four weeks and it will be the second tier for Leeds again. While the pain remained raw at the national stadium, it was not the time for Daniel Farke to start beating the drum to bring home three points from the Kassam Stadium.

The German said his players had no reason to dwell on a season that produced 90 points, a number that would have secured automatic promotion in 15 of the last 20 years at this level.

READ MORE: Leeds United’s first exit since their play-off defeat is confirmed with a reunion on the agenda

“After you lose a final and you’re just a day, more or less, away from everyone going into the summer break, it would be too early to be out there with optimistic messages because at the moment nobody wants to hear that,” he said. “Everybody is hurting and disappointed and (there were) a lot of tears on the field and in the locker room.

“You have to allow them to drop, but generally when you, in the next few days, you look at the big picture, what I mentioned, 90 points, the way we played the play-offs, the way that I played the final, there is no reason to sit under it. It’s more important to take this disappointment, this experience, to take it as an extra motivation to make sure that these fans, who were amazing again today, not only in this league but even in this country, have a day when they deserve to celebrate and enjoy such a day.

“For that, we feel the pain today and are deeply disappointed that we can’t send our supporters home with something to cheer about. We’re not back to the Promised Land where we want to be in the Premier League, but one thing’s for sure, these boys have no reason to stop and we’ll take that as extra motivation to come back even stronger. .

“It’s going to be hard to come back stronger because I was there with 90 points in the season. Overall, (it’s) a great achievement, but to be there with a perfect result, to be allowed to call yourself a Premier League team again, that’s definitely something we want to celebrate one day. “