Leeds United head coach Jesse Marsch has told Leeds Live that the club did not plan on signing Wilfried Gnonto from Zurich in the summer transfer window.
Marsch has said that Leeds had initially planned to leave the 18-year-old forward atZurich for this season.
However, the Premier League club changed their mind on the final day of the summer transfer window when things did not go their way.
As it has been well documented, a deal to sign forward Bamba Dieng from Marseille fell through on deadline day.
The Daily Mail have reported that Leeds paid Zurich £3.8 million in transfer fees to sign Gnonto.
Jesse Marsch on Leeds United signing Wilfried Gnonto
Marsch said: “I think I told you guys that we kind of had A, B and C options in a lot of different ways and we were kind of sorting through how to get things done and trying to evaluate how to make moves.
“It was a very crazy last 48 hours, we had a plan and certain things got pulled out from under us based on decisions from players and agents and clubs that we didn’t anticipate that we thought we were on the same page with certain things and it turned out we weren’t.
“In the end, we had been following Willy Gnonto’s progress for some time and we were thinking that we leave them in Zurich with the idea that maybe we bring them in a transfer window or maybe two just give them time to continue to develop where he was at. But then we felt we needed to accelerate that decision based on what the window was panning out to be.”
One for the future
In our opinion, Wilfried Gnonto is a player for the future for Leeds United.
After all, the Italy international is only 18 now.
Yes, of course, the teenager has played four times for Italy already in his career, and he was a regular for Zurich.
However, playing in the Swiss domestic league is very different to playing in the Premier League.
Moreover, Gnonto moved to Leeds only on the final day of the summer transfer deal.
The teenager has not had any pre-season training with Leeds, which means that he could take a while to understand the tactics and systems of Marsch.
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