West Ham United Crysencio Summerville delivered the best numbers and the best performances of his career under Daniel Farke at Leeds. Friday night’s Premier League opponents at Elland Road, of course.
The straight-talking German is not the sort of coach who places much importance in individual awards.
But as Crysencio Summerville was crowned the Championship Player of the Year during his final season in a white jersey, this was testament to just how much progress the mercurial Dutchman made on his watch, and the role Leeds’ head coach played in his journey to becoming a £30 million, top-flight forward.
While Leeds would finally earn promotion back in May, Summerville needed only one season alongside Farke to outgrow the second-tier. Friday’s reunion in South Yorkshire will see West Ham United’s number seven shake hands with the man for whom he provided 31 goals or assists in just 49 games.
Of course, it has not gone unnoticed by the more superstitious members of the Leeds fanbase that Summerville’s one and only West Ham goal came a year ago. Almost exactly a year ago.
Wouldn’t it be oh so typical if he was to end that 12-month barren spell under Farke’s nose?
The coach who, while hailing his development during that breakout 2023/24 campaign, also highlighted the one area of in which Summerville still needed to improve.
Flash forward to October 2025, as he prepares to revisit his old stomping ground, Farke’s advice feels just as pertinent now as it did back then.
Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty ImagesWhat Daniel Farke told Crysencio Summerville rings true at West Ham United
Nuno Espirito Santo is under no illusions about the importance of Crysencio Summerville to West Ham’s hopes of survival this term. Summerville’s pace and aggression in one-v-one situations is invaluable.
Not only invaluable, but rare too.
Six weeks after the Feyenoord academy graduate ‘guaranteed’ the Hammers fans that goals and assists were forthcoming, though, his numbers remain pretty underwhelming.
Not only has Summerville scored only once in 28 matches during an admittedly injury-interrupted spell, he has also provided only three assists.
Farke, back in 2023/24, said that Summerville’s progress would be measured by his ‘consistency’, rather than his form or his ever-improving work ethic.
That – consistency – is still something which eludes him, with Summerville yet to dispel the fears of some supporters that he is destined to fall somewhere in that footballing ‘no man’s land’. Between the Championship’s elite and the bottom of the Premier League.
See Anthony Knockaert, Dwight Gayle, Cameron Jerome, Tom Ince, Matej Vydra.
“He is playing an outstanding season in terms of performances, end product and also his willingness to work for the team,” Farke told Sky Sports in February 2024, 57 per cent of Summerville’s 33 career goals coming against clubs in England’s second tier.
“You have to be on it each and every day on the training pitch but also with good habits in nutrition, sleep and recovery. We don’t have to speak about the potential of Cry. The sky is the limit with his potential. But to show consistency, this is crucial.”
Summerville needs to find ‘consistency’ two years after Leeds exit
Even during that breakout, award-winning season at Elland Road, Summerville displayed a tendency for making the difficult look easy and the easy look difficult.
Curling finishes into the corner became his trademark. But, as well as adding greater consistency to his game, Summerville is still a footballer in need of adding some variety. Only the very best – Arjen Robben being the prime example – tend to reach the highest level without some semblance of unpredictability.
In a showcase of his finest finishes during that 2023/24 season, published by Sky Sports, all but three saw him finish off a move with his personal party piece. Bending his shot around the goalkeeper and into the far side-netting.
When up against big, burly defenders who do not allow him to cut inside from the left, can he still influence the game reliably enough in the final third? That is a question he still has to answer in a West Ham jersey, as the one-year anniversary of his last goal rapidly approaches.
“I think he was already playing on a top level, but it is necessary for a young player to develop so that he is getting goals and assists,” Farke said before Leeds suffered play-off final heartbreak against Southampton at Wembley.
“[In training] We are always bringing him into situations where he has to finish, where he has to find the finishing pass under pressure.
“It is about consistency.”