Daniel Farke has now earned his stripes as a Premier League manager at Leeds United.
Indeed, heading into this campaign, there were a lot of voices doubting the German’s credentials at such an unforgiving level, with only six top-flight victories collected when at the helm of Norwich City.
Now, anyone trying to knock his reputation has quietened down, with Farke deep in a six-game unbeaten run in the tough division, which has seen Leeds compete well with the likes of Liverpool and Chelsea.
Off the back of a near faultless end to 2025, and a battling point at Anfield to open the new Year, Leeds are seven points clear of West Ham United in that final relegation position, as some January signings here and there now come onto the revitalised manager’s agenda.
Leeds make contact to sign new winger
Farke will just have to ensure his troops don’t get too carried away with all the praise coming their way, with a large portion of the season still to be played, before May’s final few showdowns.
To help boost his ranks, the German could look to bring in some defensive reinforcements, even after such a valiant performance against Arne Slot’s men, with Axel Disasi a real possibility through the door from Chelsea.
While Disasi could join, it remains to be seen if Harry Wilson will depart Fulham mid-season for a fresh challenge at Elland Road, after a failed summer switch saw the Welshman nearly arrive in West Yorkshire.
A Wilson-type signing remains the ‘priority’, although Farke and Co. could pick up Sevilla star Ruben Vargas instead, with the Daily Mail reporting that Leeds have asked the La Liga club about the availability of the Swiss international.
Of course, Wilson would be the more ideal signature to win, considering his wealth of Premier League experience at Craven Cottage.
But Leeds could still pick up a very similar talent to the soon-to-be-out-of-contract winger by pursuing the 27-year-old, with Vargas also deep in a rich vein of form in Spain as an entertaining attacker in his own right.
Why Vargas is a perfect Wilson alternative
Unfortunately, since Wilson nearly walked away from West London in the summer, he has turned around his fortunes under Marco Silva’s wing in quite some style, with his audacious effort above the pick of the bunch from his nine league contributions for the season.
Vargas doesn’t lag behind too much in this regard, as he boasts three goals and four assists from 15 games this campaign, with the number 11 equally capable of a sweet strike, too, when excelling for Switzerland at international level.
Playing all across the forward positions for his nation, Vargas has notched up a mightily impressive 11 goals from 58 caps, with Farke eager to get him into the building to use as a winger down either flank, or a striker option if needs be, to secure more wins for his plucky team.
It’s not just their joint ability to fire home some memorable strikes for club and country, with Wilson 17 goals down himself for Wales from 67 caps, that makes them alike, with FBref even noting that Wrexham-born attacker is statistically similar across many different aspects of his attacking game over the last year, when compared to Vargas.
Wilson vs Vargas (last 365 days)
Stat – per 90 mins
Wilson
Vargas
Total shots
2.62
2.23
Shot-creating actions
3.03
3.52
Attempted passes
32.13
35.67
Pass completion %
73.3%
66.4%
Progressive passes
3.12
2.70
Progressive carries
1.38
3.52
Successful take-ons
0.55
1.23
Progressive passes received
6.79
6.81
Blocks
0.50
0.70
Aerials won
0.23
1.11
Stats by FBref
Away from matching Wilson in terms of shots averaged per 90 minutes and other areas, Vargas even betters his counterpart in certain areas of their respective games, with the La Liga menace mustering up more successful take-ons than the Premier League-proven winger over the last year, alongside also winning more aerial duels.
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This should hopefully stand Vargas in good stead to be an instant success, as he tries to acclimatise to the demands of a new league that can be physical near the bottom,
Indeed, Leeds will be hopeful he can be a “perfect winter signing”, which is what his former Sevilla manager, Xavier García Pimienta, labelled him when he immediately hit the ground running in Spain last year.
Leeds fans will still harbour some disappointment that they couldn’t land Wilson in the summer, but Vargas looks to be the next best thing, as they seek out a game-changing attacker who can help them stay afloat with even more ease in the top-flight.
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