Two years after watching Georginio Rutter walk out the door for £40 million, Leeds United think they’ve found his long-overdue successor — and this one won’t cost a transfer fee.
Saturday night’s 3-2 defeat to Wrexham won’t have made for fun viewing if you stayed up for it — Kieffer Moore punishing Leeds inside the first minute set the tone. But buried in the result was a genuine bright spot: Harry Wilson’s early assist for Joel Piroe, a reminder of exactly what this Leeds side has been missing.
The Creativity Problem Farke Can’t Ignore
The numbers from last season don’t lie. No Leeds player registered more than five assists or 4.51 expected assists (xA) in the Premier League — Brenden Aaronson topped the charts with five assists, while Anton Stach led for xA. For a club with ambitions of pushing toward Europe rather than fighting off the drop again, that’s simply not good enough.
It’s been two years since Leeds had a genuine number ten pulling the strings — not since Rutter was doing exactly that in the Championship, contributing six goals and 15 assists in 2023/24 before his move to Brighton. He barely got the chance to show it in the Premier League, making just a single top-flight start before his exit.
Enter Julian Brandt
According to journalist Luca Bendoni, Leeds have now offered a three-year contract to free agent Julian Brandt, with 49ers Enterprises reportedly ready to go head-to-head with Ajax to land the 48-cap Germany international. The good news for Whites fans: Brandt is said to favour a return to Premier League football, giving Leeds the early advantage — though Serie A interest could still complicate things late on.
Why Brandt Would Be a Genuine Upgrade
This isn’t a speculative punt — Brandt’s numbers back up the hype. Across seven seasons at Borussia Dortmund, he created 11+ big chances in six separate campaigns, a level no Leeds player got close to last season (nine was the club’s ceiling). Over just his last three seasons, he’s created 55 big chances, and in nine of his last ten seasons across all competitions, he’s hit double figures.
Bottom line: if Leeds can get this over the line, it wouldn’t just plug a gap — it would hand Farke the elite, proven creator this squad has lacked since Rutter left. For a free transfer, this might be one of the smartest — and most needed — pieces of business Leeds could do all summer.
