Leeds United: Ilia Gruev offers honest Daniel Farke transfer insight | OneFootball

Highlights

Ilia Gruev wasn't given an easy start to life at Elland Road, but the Leeds United midfielder has said that the process to get him to join the club was a fairly straight forward one.

How Daniel Farke convinced Ilia Gruev to join Leeds United

The Bulgarian midfielder arrived in Yorkshire from German side Werder Bremen late in the 2023 summer transfer window.

The German boss was already aware of the talents of Gruev. The two had crossed paths last season when Farke was the manager of Borussia Mönchengladbach. The 47-year-old kept his cards close to his chest though, as Gruev told Leeds Live that he didn't hear much about any interest from Farke until the summer.

"I heard from my agent he likes how I play, but that's it, nothing special. After the two games, we had handshakes like normal, nothing special, but I know how Gladbach was playing and I liked the style.

"Then suddenly, it was so quick, everything. He called me [in the summer] and he said ‘I want you’ and then it was so quick because there were only two or three days left."

Gruev added that he couldn't turn down the opportunity to move to the club, as: "You don't know if you will get again this kind of chance."

The Bulgarian midfielder had been with Bremen since he was 15-years-old, and he'd been in Germany for most of his life. He said that this immediate link and connection with his boss-to-be made the transition to Leeds much easier.

"Of course it suits me he's German because we speak German. I grew up in Germany and this was a big part of the decision why I came here."

It hasn't all been easy for the 23-year-old though. Throughout the first half of the season, he struggled to get into the starting XI, and he let his frustrations about that be known.

Ilia Gruev's struggles with lack of game time

"I knew, sooner or later, I would get my chance and when I get my chance I have to be there, I have to be prepared, I have to be fit and strong,"said the midfielder. That's the type of attitude you want from all your players. He had to wait a while for his first real chance. His first league start for the club came in late October, nearly two months after he'd joined Leeds. The whole squad wasn't up to it on the night, and he wouldn't be on the pitch for the first kick of a game until the club's final game of 2023.

That patience has now been rewarded. He's solidified himself as one of the two starting centre midfielders in Farke's system, and the patience shown by both of them has paid off, even if it did come with a lot of frustration for the 23-year-old.

"I have some good performances and I knew I had to be patient, but it wasn't so easy," said the midfielder to Leeds Live. "Sometimes you are at home and you are thinking ‘Why am I not playing? I want to play more, I want to show myself,’ but this is the profession, the job of a footballer.

"It can't be always like great, great, great. There are periods where you don’t play or you don't play so good, but you have to keep moving, you have to work hard and when your chance comes you have to use it."

Daniel Farke's man-management has been one of his best attributes

The start to Leeds' season is a massive contrast to what is the case now. They are top of the league, and will be until the end of the current, and final, international break.

The signing of Gruev seemed a bit of a head-scratcher around the start of the campaign. They had already brought in Ethan Ampadu, Glen Kamara, and Archie Gray had emerged as a top young talent. There were also well documented issues with Wilfried Gnonto and Charlie Cresswell, who have both wanted to leave the club at one point or another during this season.

But now they are all bought in and well-integrated into the squad, and Farke has got to receive credit for that. Gruev and Gnonto, in particular, have been key towards the latter stages of this season, and that wouldn't have been the case had the 47-year-old not been able to coax them round and get them back to the levels that they had previously shown.