Deep down, Patrick Bamford perhaps sensed that the writing was on the wall. When Leeds won promotion last season, the 31-year-old was at the heart of the celebrations. Bamford hadn’t started a league game all term but after all those years of going from club to club, Leeds is where he felt most at home.
The striker who plays the piano, violin, saxophone and guitar played Wagon Wheel on the guitar for his teammates, sang Unwritten alongside Ethan Ampadu and even ended up phoning Chris Wilder to apologise for singing that Wilder chant. Come the end of May, he was alongside the Kaiser Chiefs as they played ‘I Predict a Riot’ – a regular at Elland Road – at Temple Newsam in Leeds.
Even a season where Bamford failed to score wasn’t going to dampen the mood. After all, he’d scored 60 times for Leeds across his 205 appearances since signing from Middlesbrough for £7M in 2018. The passion for Leeds was genuine and this was a time for joy. ‘Leeds’ slogan is ‘Side Before Self’. That should be the mantra for every team,’ he told Mail Sport in 2021.
What now looks like his last Leeds appearance came at Plymouth when Manor Solomon’s last-gasp winner secured the Championship title. Bamford’s immediate reaction was to pick up the ball from the back of the net and boot it into the delirious away end. The choice of picture on his Instagram was telling too – an image of the full squad simply captioned with two trophy emojis to depict the two promotions he secured with Leeds and the hashtag ‘MOT’.
For Daniel Farke, the Leeds boss, the decision to cut Bamford may have been ‘tough’ to deliver face-to-face to a club hero but it was coming. With no goals last term and after three seasons plagued with injuries, the signings of Lukas Nmecha and the continued pursuit of Fulham’s Rodrigo Muniz indicated to Bamford where he stood in the pecking order. Add in Joel Piroe, who won the Championship Golden Boot, and 16-year–old Harry Gray too.
Farke said as much in Stockholm: ‘Patrick is a player who needs right now to be the main man. He needs the backing, the arm around the shoulder after some difficult years and confidence. If Patrick gets this, he will score goals. He will score at every level because he’s a top player. But after the last two seasons, I was not willing to say come on you are our main man. I don’t think that he should be a back-up option anymore, because this is not what you should be if you were the main man for so many years. That’s why we had this honest conversation.’
Patrick Bamford, who scored 60 goals for Leeds, knew that the writing was on the wall
A wonderful picture from 2019 of Leeds fans in the away end, celebrating his winner at Preston
Leeds manager Daniel Farke revealed that Bamford isn’t part of his plans at the club
The striker celebrates with his Leeds team-mates following promotion to the Premier League
The news that he wasn’t part of Farke’s plans was delivered to Bamford in the German’s office at Thorp Arch on the second day of pre-season. For Farke, it was a matter of honesty and transparency from the outset and he decided that he should deliver the news, rather than delegate it to Adam Underwood, the Sporting Director.
At Leeds Playhouse last week, I met Bamford where he was attending the production of Through it All Together – a play about a Yorkshire couple navigating dementia while supporting Leeds during the years of Marcelo Bielsa.
Bamford was with his wife Michaela, who he married last summer and told me that Kalvin Phillips – another Leeds hero of the Marcelo Bielsa era – had gone to watch it a couple of days before and recommended it to him.
It spoke volumes of his character that Bamford granted every photo request to the punters who weren’t expecting to see one of the subjects of the play actually there. And he gave time to all of the fans that came to speak to him. During the 20-minute interlude, he engaged with one and all. The numerous mentions of himself in the play must have touched him too. With hindsight, maybe he was just taking it all in. He knew then what the others did not.
Yet, this is by no means the end of Bamford nor an acceptance of his fate. He told us that he was physically feeling good and by all accounts, has continued to train professionally at Leeds. According to one source, his fitness across 2025 is his highest level for years and Bamford is undeterred. Before pre-season even started, he spent time at Leeds Beckett University working with Dane Mitchell, the strength and conditioning coach at the University. For now, the plan is to keep working hard and as specified by Farke, his response to the news was ‘top-class’. With the first-team now on tour, the club have allowed Bamford to train with coaches at Thorp Arch and he will be able to maintain his fitness work there while he awaits his future to be resolved.
Bamford is in the last year of his contract so any transfer fee would likely be small but his departure should create space for Leeds when it comes to wages. Meanwhile, clubs will be aware that a man who has proven it in the Premier League before is available. A move abroad isn’t out of the question either. He is conversational in French, Spanish and German.
Wherever that next move is, it was Leeds where he found his belonging and that is why it will be so hard to move on, for both the player and the fans. Even if there’s no official confirmation yet. The clip of Farke revealing his decision had just shy of two million views within 24 hours of going up on Mail Sport platforms and the replies overwhelmingly showed the gratitude towards Bamford.
There is a wonderful picture from 2019 of Leeds fans in the away end, celebrating his winner at Preston. In a nutshell, it sums up the joy he helped bring back to this club. And there is the famous Bielsa hug too when the former Leeds boss ran across the pitch in training after Bamford executed his drill to perfection.
Bamford was one of the main men for Leeds under the guidance of Marcelo Bielsa
During his time at Leeds Bamford made over 200 appearances and helped the club to win the Championship twice
Under Bielsa, Bamford was one of the main men, scoring 17 goals during the 2020-21 Premier League season when Leeds came ninth. He is one of the last remnants of that Bielsa side and when he does move on, will always be welcomed back to Elland Road.
‘I have tried to show since I arrived at Leeds that I am one of them,’ Bamford told Mail Sport in 2021, ‘That I’m a normal guy, that I’m not afraid to work hard and get my hands dirty. I’m not afraid to try to fit in and show I’m relatable and I’m not this guy who sees himself as above everyone else, I am willing to help out and be part of the community I live in.’
Patrick Bamford did all of that and more.
