The recruitment team at Leeds United deserve immense credit for ensuring they remained in the hunt for automatic promotion this season following their playoff final heartbreak last season. Leeds lost three big players and it would have been easy for them to drop off this year. However, Daniel Farke and the men behind the scenes brought in players last summer who have made a big impact on making Leeds the biggest favourites to earn automatic promotion this season. The club needed to find bargains in the market last summer and they did exactly that when they signed a player who would turn out to be one of the signings of the season.
Leeds sit at the summit of the Championship table after 32 games and are looking like one of the more likelier teams to earn automatic promotion to the Premier League.
The level of consistency they have shown this season has allowed them some room for error but Leeds do not look like losing a game and have kept six clean sheets on the trot in the league.
Leeds have had many heroes this season – Joel Piroe, Daniel James, Manor Solomon, Pascal Strujk and Jayden Bogle – but one player has caught everyone by surprise.
No one was sure what to make of him when Leeds forked out a fee of £3m to snare Ao Tanaka away from German second-tier side Fortuna Dusseldorf last summer.
Leeds fans had no idea what to expect but it won’t be too much praise to suggest that he has been the best midfielder on show in the Championship this season.
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Anyone who has seen Tanaka play for Leeds this season has wondered how Premier League clubs missed out on identifying a player of his talent last summer.
The Japanese star seems tailor-made for Premier League football and has completely dominated the Championship in the defensive midfield role despite being a natural box-to-box player.
Jon Newsome is a regular pundit for Leeds games given his history with the club and the former Whites star has been left mesmerised by what Tanaka produces week-in-week-out for the Yorkshire giants.
He is not sure what the midfielder was doing in the second tier of German football while being this immensely talented and can’t believe the luck Leeds had that he ended up at Elland Road.
Newsome is almost certain that bigger clubs are definitely watching him, indicating that Leeds need to go up to ensure Tanaka stays at the club.
“Ao Tanaka, week in and week out, majestic the way he dictates the game”, the former White said on BBC Radio Leeds.
“Slows it down, quickens it up. We’ve said it all along, what a find.
“What was he doing playing in the second division of the Bundesliga? How has he fallen through the net to end up there? Beyond belief.
“Surely there are teams where he’s been on their radar. What a footballer.”
Ao Tanaka is an example of a recruitment gamble paying off
Tanaka was not brought in as a midfielder who would be playing week-in-week-out this season as Leeds already has several options for the double pivot Farke prefers.
However, Ilia Gruev and Ethan Ampadu’s injuries in October meant that Farke was forced to draft the Japan international into his midfield and he has never looked back.
Tanaka has been the best midfielder in the Championship this season and is now more or less the first-choice starter despite Gruev returning to fitness last month.
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He was worth £3m and is on a £25,000 per week contract, which means he is not even one of the highest earners in the Leeds squad but what a player he has been!
Signing a player from the German second tier last summer was a gamble as it is hard to gauge whether anyone coming from Europe would adapt to the Championship.
However, Tanaka has not only adapted to the Championship, he seems ready to take his game to the next level and play in the Premier League next season.
