{"id":252482,"date":"2025-07-10T03:49:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-10T03:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/252482\/"},"modified":"2025-07-10T03:49:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T03:49:11","slug":"daniel-farke-got-lucky-as-ao-tanaka-almost-never-became-a-leeds-united-player","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/252482\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniel Farke got lucky as Ao Tanaka almost never became a Leeds United player"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ao Tanaka is one of Leeds United\u2019s best players and a favourite of Daniel Farke at Elland Road after last season\u2019s heroics.<\/strong><\/p>\n

He was often the tempo setter and engine of the Leeds United<\/a>\u00a0team under\u00a0Daniel Farke<\/a>, but\u00a0Ao Tanaka<\/a>\u00a0has left a lasting impression on many neutrals far and wide for his 2024\/25 season.<\/p>\n

Tanaka\u2019s agent thinks he\u2019s good enough for the Premier League.<\/a>\u00a0His quality last season was undeniable, so much so that Leeds icon Jermaine\u00a0Beckford picked Tanaka as his Player of the Season<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bought for a bargain \u00a33.4m from Fortuna Dusseldorf,\u00a0Tanaka<\/a>\u00a0has not only proved to be excellent value for money \u2014 but many would even argue he was the best midfielder in the\u00a0Championship<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"SVPhoto by Marco Steinbrenner\/DeFodi Images via Getty ImagesLeeds came close to signing Dejan Ljubicic instead of Ao Tanaka<\/p>\n

Tanaka was signed last summer alongside Joe Rothwell to bolster Leeds\u2019 midfield ranks after the losses of Glen Kamara and Archie Gray. <\/p>\n

Tanaka was a target in the summer of 2023<\/a>, but Leeds instead signed the Rangers midfielder. However, after recent developments, it could well have been neither, and that would have potentially meant no Tanaka.<\/p>\n

The reason is due to Leeds\u2019 protracted Dejan Ljubicic saga<\/a>. 1. FC Koln\u2019s Ljubicic was open to the Leeds move<\/a> as well.<\/p>\n

Leeds were priced out of a Ljubicic move<\/a>, even though Farke was desperate to sign Ljubicic<\/a>. He was the first-choice target before a late-window move for Tanaka. Ljubicic has since spoken about the deal that almost materialised.<\/p>\n

MORE LEEDS UNITED STORIES<\/p>\n

Per Kronen Zeitung<\/a> today, the player was close to an exit from the club on several occasions before Koln intervened and stopped him from departing. One such occasion saw Leeds come calling, according to Ljubicic.<\/p>\n

He explained in an interview with the outlet: \u201cI\u2019d already gone a long way with Wolfsburg and later Leeds. But they didn\u2019t want to let me go.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was particularly difficult to take for the 27-year-old, who found himself out of the picture at the club when Gerhard Struber was sacked. <\/p>\n

He then failed to play a single minute of football after that and had to watch from the sidelines as they celebrated promotion back to the Bundesliga. Leeds are lucky a deal fell through.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s fair to say Leeds dodged a Ljubicic-sized bullet given Tanaka\u2019s exploits<\/a> in West Yorkshire for a fraction of the potential price for the Austrian international. It\u2019s extremely likely he would have been signed instead of the Japanese midfielder.<\/p>\n

\"LeedsPhoto by Carl Recine\/Getty ImagesWhere does Ao Tanaka fit in the Leeds team next season?<\/p>\n

Despite the fact\u00a0some at Leeds have concerns over Tanaka\u2019s physicality<\/a>, his quality on the ball should still set him apart in moments next season, even if not as consistently.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s fair to say Jayden\u00a0Bogle and Tanaka were the signings of the season<\/a>\u00a0for Leeds but also two of the best in the Championship as a whole, which is why Leeds have to find ways to get the most out of them following promotion.<\/p>\n

Tanaka is a player Farke should build around<\/a>\u00a0but there are not many\u00a0Leeds players ready for Premier League football<\/a>\u00a0like he appears to be.<\/p>\n

Fitting the 26-year-old into a 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 should not be too difficult next year, even with added midfield competition expected to come through the door imminently.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ao Tanaka is one of Leeds United\u2019s best players and a favourite of Daniel Farke at Elland Road…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252483,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8814],"tags":[12409,748,97241,393,4884,1860,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-252482","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leeds","8":"tag-ao-tanaka","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-dejan-ljubicic","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-leeds","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114826901423288282","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252482"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252482\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}