Daniel Farke asked for improvements to his squad during this window, and overall he should be satisfied with the business the club has transacted on his behalf, with the seven players signed during the summer all being a step up from those they replaced.

Yesterday we completed the signing of winger Jean-Mattéo Bahoya from Eintracht Frankfurt on a season-long loan, with the option to convert this deal to a permanent transfer in 12 months time.

According to The Athletic the initial loan fee will be €2m, and any permanent transfer will set us back an additional €23million (£19.7m), with €5m (£4.3m) for unspecified ‘add-ons’. The 21-year-old is right-footed but operates mostly on the left, though he can fill in anywhere across the front line if need be, and even as an attacking midfield player.

And he’s said to be extremely rapid, having set the record for the fastest ever sprint speed recorded in Bundesliga history at 37.16 km/h, just 0.42 km/h slower than the average pace of Usain Bolt’s World Record for the 100 meters! It would be fun to see him running down the left wing with Dan James on the right, and opposing defences getting thoroughly worn out!

Bahoya began his career with Angers in his native France, but was sufficiently impressive to catch the eye of Eintracht Frankfurt when he was still only 18, and he made eight times in the Bundesliga in the second half of the 2023/4 season. During the last campaign the played for Frankfurt 37 times, with eight of those appearances being in the Champions League.

He has also played for France’s Under-21 side five times, scoring two goals in the process. Earlier in the week Bahoya turned down the possibility of a move to Hull City, which is quite understandable, naturally thinking that Leeds had much better prospects. Hopefully he will score against the Tigers to really rub their noses in it.

Last week Mykhailo Mudryk was the player Leeds wanted to fulfil the same role, but couldn’t agree the terms of the deal with Chelsea, who wanted guarantees about his playing time that we couldn’t agree to. Nobody should be granted a first team place if their form isn’t good enough, and while this discussion was continuing Spurs nipped in and grabbed the opportunity to sign the player.

Mudryk had been provisionally suspended for two years for an alleged doping offence, but this has now been dropped by the FA after further investigations. It would have been something of a risk for Leeds to have to rehabilitate a player who has been out for so long, so maybe we shouldn’t be that sorry that we’ve ended up with Bahoya instead.

Earlier in the day Leeds gave the go ahead for Willy Gnonto’s loan move to Fiorentina to be completed in time for Italy’s earlier 7pm transfer deadline, as by then we were confident that we would get the Bahoya deal over the line. This is another deal that could be made permanent next summer, and we wish Willy all the best on his return to his native land.

Late in the day there was a cheeky bid from Sunderland for the services of Noah Okafor, once they’d noticed that he will now be competing for a starting spot with Bahoya. But Leeds refused to discuss any possibility of the Swiss international leaving the club, as we need to maintain the number of attacking options that we now have in the squad.

And one final piece of news is that Sam Chambers has gone out to Northampton Town on loan. One criticism of the Daniel Farke era is that none of our academy products have made a breakthrough into his first team squads on a regular basis, apart from Archie Gray, though they would have to reach a higher standard now we are back in the Premier League.

Chambers has just turned 19, so if he is going to establish himself as a first team player at Leeds he will have to do so next season, before time starts to run out for him.

Overall it’s been a very good window for Leeds, with some promising players brought in to strengthen the positions where recruits were most needed. We could have done with another quality striker, but we couldn’t find one available at the right price, and more than a few fans will be relieved that Liam Delap ended up at Forest instead of us.

Now that we’ve got increased competition in several positions, it will be interesting to see which of the new signings get a start on a regular basis, and who is content to wait for their opportunity on the bench. But it looks like we’re well placed for a decent season ahead.

Reuters