Stuart Dallas has issued his verdict on Daniel Farke after the Leeds United player announced that he will be retiring due to injury.
It has been a pretty miserable week if you are a Leeds United fan. The Whites put a further dent in their automatic-promotion hopes by drawing with Sunderland on Tuesday night.
And it was followed by the news on Wednesday that Stuart Dallas has had to retire. The Northern Irishman has not played since April 2022 after sustaining a serious injury in a challenge with Jack Grealish.
Of course, the longer Dallas was sidelined for, the more likely it seemed that he would potentially depart without playing for the Whites again. However, it is devastating to hear that he has had to call time on his career.
Dallas never got the chance to play under a number of Leeds managers, including the current boss, Daniel Farke.
Farke has had a promising first year at Elland Road, with Leeds still in with a very good chance of securing an immediate return to the Premier League.
Stuart Dallas praises Daniel Farke
And speaking to the club’s media team following his announcement today, Dallas outlined just how impressed he has been by the German since his arrival last summer.
“I’ll still call him boss until the end of the season. He’s been brilliant, and the club couldn’t be in better hands going forward, and I genuinely mean that,” he said.
“We’re on a good run at the minute and the way he deals with things is pretty special. The way he has dealt with me, made me feel part of the group still, it’s been good.
“I’ve only good words to say about him, and I thank him for that as well because it’s not an easy situation for him to have a player like me that’s not available to him for so long. And then obviously having to speak to him and break the news to him, he’s taken it so well. And he’s helped me a lot as well to be honest.”
The end of an era at Leeds
This summer always had the potential to be the end of an era. Luke Ayling and Liam Cooper are out of contract in the summer.
Ayling has said his goodbyes after joining Middlesbrough on loan in January. Meanwhile, Cooper has made one league appearance since the start of February. So the club captain may well be on the move in the coming months.
With Dallas retiring, another of Leeds’ promotion heroes has moved on.
The likes of Illan Meslier, Pascal Struijk and Patrick Bamford obviously remain. But it will not escape fans’ attention that that number is getting smaller.
Dallas however, is confident that Farke is the right man to give Leeds their next crop of promotion heroes.
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