Leeds United took a big step towards their second summer transfer on Tuesday.
Leeds United captain Ethan Ampadu insists it is ‘massively’ important last season’s team spirit is maintained as new faces arrive.
Both will raise the ceiling at Leeds after brilliant 2025/26 campaigns but Leeds had a good season too, their 14th-place Premier League finish thanks in part to an unwavering belief among the squad. Daniel Farke’s side struggled at times but stuck together through thick and thin.
Harry Wilson has joined Leeds United earlier this month.placeholder image
Harry Wilson has joined Leeds United earlier this month. | Leeds United
Asked how important it is to retain that team spirit through the summer, Ampadu told LUTV: "Massively. Through those tough times, you lean on each other. Everyone can be great during the good times when everything’s going well, but it's the Premier League so you're going to have some difficult results.
“You have to be open and honest about that so it’s good to have a great group behind you that you can rally behind and everyone’s going to work as hard as they can every day in training to achieve the same big goal. It’s massive.”
From the perspective of those new arrivals, it will be much easier to settle when the group you’re joining is as strong as Leeds. Ever-presents under Farke like Ampadu and Joe Rodon have set the standard for three years now, while newer faces including Dominic Calvert-Lewin have quickly taken on leadership roles.
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The benefits of that strong group could be seen last season, with those experiencing the Premier League for the first time - Gabriel Gudmundsson, Anton Stach and Jaka Bijol among them - growing as the campaign went on. The hope is they can keep progressing.
“You could see [confidence growing] as the season went on,” Ampadu added. “There was some time when some of the new faces getting adjusted to the Premier League, and that can take time, it’s the best league in the world.
“It takes time to adapt and I thought we got stronger as the season was finishing. We can take confidence from that. We have to be realistic and know its obviously going to be really hard again but take that confidence with us to try push on.”
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