Leeds United striker Patrick Bamford has been told he is not in the plans of manager Daniel Farke ahead of the upcoming season as the Yorkshire club prepares for a return to the Premier League.
It appears Bamford’s seven-year stint at Elland Road will be coming to an end after the 31-year-old was absent from the squad for the 0-0 pre-season draw with Manchester United in Stockholm on Saturday.
Leeds were promoted from the Championship last term as title winners, however, the former England international, who has struggled with injuries over the last few years, failed to find the the net in 17 league appearances.
And Farke revealed the two had held frank talks about the player’s future.
“I had a really open and honest conversation with Patrick, which was important,” Farke said.
“He knows how much I rate him as a player and I would have preferred a fit Patrick Bamford for the last two seasons.
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“But he is a player who needs to be the main man. He needs an arm round the shoulder after some difficult seasons. I was not willing to tell him he was the main man at Premier League level.
“In the second day of pre-season, I got him into my office and told him he is not in my plans for the upcoming season.
“It would have been easy for me to hide behind the sporting director or wait until we got someone else in, but he has done so much for this club, he deserves respect and transparency.”
Bamford joined the club from Middlesbrough in 2018 for a fee of £7m. He went on to be part of two promotion-winning campaigns with Leeds, making 205 appearances and scoring 60 goals, including 17 during the the club’s first stint back in the Premier League under Marcelo Bielsa in 2020.
Farke added that the situation regarding Bamford would be treated “as respectfully as possible” but the German coach confirmed he would not be involved in Leeds’ pre-season camp in Germany next week and would be excluded from first-team training when his side return at the end of July.
“I will treat this situation as respectfully as possible, but there comes a moment when you can’t carry on with five or six strikers,” Farke said.
“Right now, we are talking about what we do to retain his fitness levels.
“The under-21s are going to Munich for a friendly but when they come back, he will probably join many sessions with them.
“He needs team training to stay fit. It would make no sense just to let him run around the lake [at the training ground].”
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2025-07-20 10:57:57
