Poached Leeds United target gets first chance at transfer committee, backing Farke’s claims

Muscles may finally be flexed by one of Leeds United’s latest signings in this summer transfer window. As manager, it has been explicitly made clear, Daniel Farke is hitting the club’s football department.

The German has the final say on anything involving the locker room or the playing side of the organization. As we saw with the arrival of Ilia Gruev last summer, Farke isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty with transfers either.

The 47-year-old does not involve himself with agents or sporting directors, but his knowledge as a player will strongly inform who is targeted in this upcoming transfer window. Farke is a vital part of what has developed into a transfer committee at Elland Road.

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With the NFL season still three months away and the recent Wembley debacle still fresh in his mind, chairman Paraag Marathe continues to play a prominent role, particularly with the agents of current and prospective players. Marathe has decades of contract negotiation experience in elite sport and is backing himself to bring those skills to football with Leeds.

Chief executive Angus Kinnear remains a key voice that Marathe can lean on given his vast experience as a football administrator. Kinnear runs the day-to-day operation in LS11, where Nick Hammond and Gretar Steinsson complete the recruitment axis.

There has been no word on Hammond’s position since confirming last season that he would be in the job until at least the end of this summer’s window. Interim football adviser is the only public title he has been given, but Hammond is believed to be the key fixer in many of the transfers Leeds are pursuing.

If technical director Steinsson and Farke mainly lead in identifying targets, it is Hammond who takes those names and brings the offers over the line. Kinnear remains on top of the financial details to keep Leeds in check, but Hammond’s talent is getting signatures on contracts.

Reporting to Steinsson, one of the club’s key hires in 2024 will finally get to prove his worth. Jordan Miles was poached from Aberdeen after just eight months at Pittodrie to be head of recruitment in February.

An advertisement was published for a new head of recruitment at the end of September, but Miles would not be confirmed in the post for another five months. Before replacing Southampton’s Darren Mowbray as Aberdeen’s head of recruitment, Miles was head of recruitment analysis at West Ham United.

He previously held senior management positions at Derby County and Ipswich Town and has experience in data analytics. This will be the first window he has been involved in at Leeds and he will be hoping to make a key impression with the targets he identifies that Steinsson, Farke, Hammond and Kinnear will be considering.