Even though they’ve dropped down into the Championship, Leeds United are seemingly going to play hard ball over one of their players, should they accede to selling him this summer.
Daniel Farke doesn’t have long in the hot-seat to work out what he has to play with in a first-team sense, so the quicker he’s able to understand which players are surplus to requirements – for whatever reason – the better.
That will also be of benefit for the wider squad as a whole, as the new man in charge can well do without a toxic atmosphere in the dressing room.
One player who didn’t appear to fit into the plans of Javi Gracia or Sam Allardyce last season was the talented young Italian, Wilfried Gnonto.
For a player of such evident qualities, it was a bit of a head scratcher why he was only used sparingly. Although he made 24 Premier League appearances according to WhoScored, 10 of those were as a substitute.
Signed from FC Zurich for just £4m, Football Insider note that the Elland Road hierarchy won’t accept less than £40m if clubs want to buy him this summer.
Whether others would baulk at having to stump up what amounts to a £36m profit for the all whites is unclear at this stage, though even at that price it could prove to be a bargain in the longer term.