Daniel Farke must wonder how he never won promotion with the Leeds United team he inherited heading into the 2023/24 season as the West Yorkshire outfit’s new manager.
Thankfully, the EFL promotion expert did guide Leeds back up to the Premier League at the second time of asking, with a Championship title even being secured along the way, but his previous side disastrously slipped up in the playoff final, even with the likes of both Georginio Rutter and Archie Gray starring week in week out.
Crysencio Summerville, despite his unbelievable display, was another unfortunate member of that team, leaving for West Ham United after the season’s conclusion.
The attacker is still held in high esteem at Elland Road, despite his celebrated stay at the club ultimately ending in disappointment.
What made Summerville so magic
Summerville eventually got a chance to shine again in the top-flight with the Hammers, having initially burst onto the scene as a promising talent in the tough division when Leeds routinely battled against the drop.
An encouraging four goals and three assists came the tricky winger’s way across 28 Premier League outings during the 2022/23 season, with the Rotterdam-born attacker certainly sticking out as a bright spark in an otherwise depressing period for the Whites, as relegation was confirmed.
He was only getting started when looking back, however, with the former Whites number 10 striking fear into Championship defences all season long during the following campaign.
Summerville had the goals and assists to back up his immense footwork and trickery on the left channel, with 20 goals and 19 assists in regular action crowning him as the second tier’s Player of the Season.
Journalist Jake Winderman would even go all out to declare the 5-foot-9 ace as “world-class” for those sublime heroics, while Farke himself stated that the “sky is the limit” for what his star asset could go on to achieve.
Summerville has since shown flashes of his excellence with West Ham, despite injury issues threatening to stop him in his tracks.
After an injury-disrupted 2024/25 season saw just 19 Premier League appearances fall into his lap, the 23-year-old is now up to a quickfire two assists for this campaign, from just five clashes.
While the former fan favourite at Leeds underwent a testing first term away from West Yorkshire, Farke was scrambling for his new Summerville-like star to latch onto, with Manor Solomon stepping into the role effortlessly as another unpredictable talent on the left wing.
Now out on loan with Villarreal, away from parent side Tottenham Hotspur, Solomon was once viewed as a fitting replacement for the immense magic served up by Summerville and Rutter, with a devastating ten goals and 13 assists notched up last campaign by the diminutive 26-year-old helping Leeds to achieve a promotion feat not even their revered Dutchman could clinch.
Solomon would even score Leeds’ title-clinching goal when bursting forward with his usual Elland Road exuberance versus Plymouth Argyle on the final day, with the former Shakhtar Donetsk attacker also receiving similar glowing praise to that of Summerville, lauded as “unplayable” by former Whites boss Neil Redfearn.
The hope was surely to tie down the entertaining forward to a long-term deal past his loan stint, but nothing would come to fruition despite speculative talk suggesting Solomon was up for a reunion, as Leeds looked at other top-flight-ready recruits instead.
So, with Solomon now gone, who has become Leeds’ new Summerville?
Leeds' new Summerville-type figure at Elland Road
Leeds could well have been hesitant to dive in and secure Solomon permanently based on his sketchy track record in the Premier League.
The new Villarreal man is, unfortunately, more known for being ravaged with injuries at that level than being a rip-roaring success, with just four goals and two assists picked up, missing 61 games through injury for both Spurs and Fulham.
Staggeringly, he has already been absent from five games this season through more injury-related difficulties, as Leeds sense they have dodged a bullet somewhat.
In stark contrast, new signing Noah Okafor has been there and done that in some challenging top-flight environments, with a 25-goal haul for RB Salzburg in the Austrian Bundesliga even seeing scout Jacek Kulig refer to the Swiss international as “prolific” force.
On top of that, he was also previously on the roster of AC Milan for 57 matches, culminating in seven goals being put away with confidence.
Therefore, the powers that be at Leeds would have felt assured that dropping £18m on his services this summer was money well spent, and they have already been vindicated, with two strikes picked up in the Premier League by the direct number 19.
While his calmness in front of goal stands him in good stead to be a Summerville-type figure for Farke’s men moving forward, it’s his ardent manner to always bomb forward and try and create an opening out of nothing that also makes the similarity stick, with Summerville finding that he was constantly fouled in the Championship for also being a brash attacking presence.
Touches
40
27
34
Unsuccessful touches
4
2
6
Goals
1
0
1
Key passes
0
1
2
Successful dribbles
6/14
3/4
1/2
Okafor has come into his own in this regard across Leeds’ last three matches in the league, with the pacey 25-year-old managing an absurd six successful dribbles against Wolverhampton Wanderers, despite only accumulating 40 touches.
Yet, much like in Summerville’s case, it isn’t showboating for showboating’s sake, with two goals picked up across his last three Premier League outings making him a firm starting figure for Farke, which is only reinforced by him amassing three key passes in his attempts to assist teammates around him.
Dubbed as an “explosive” presence by scout Antonio Mango when first securing a move to England, it now appears as if Okafor was the Summerville-like ace Leeds had been crying out for all along.
After all, even an opposition defender for Coventry City in Milan van Ewijk had to hold his hands up at Summerville being an “exceptionally good” dribbler when the Sky Blues clashed with Farke’s men in the second tier.
Okafor will hope, in time, that he’s also remembered as a feared force for defenders to wrestle with, with the early signs of his Leeds career pointing in the direction that he will be a fan favourite for many years to come, particularly if he can be one driving factor behind the Whites becoming top-flight regulars again.
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