YEP 6/7/21 Leeds United dressing room and Barry Douglas react to 'crazy' Gjanni Alioski departure

Gjanni Alioski is moving on from Leeds United after four years with the club - and the left back's former teammates have been paying tribute to the North Macedonian international.

By Lee Sobot

Alioski's existing Whites contract expired last week and whilst Leeds made offers for the 29-year-old to stay, the two parties were unable to reach an agreement.

Alioski departs the club having made 171 appearances, scoring 22 goals, during a four year stay in which there was never a dull moment due to his colorful character.

Whites captain Liam Cooper led the tributes with a post on his Instagram page of Alioski with the Championship trophy, accompanied with the message "Gonna miss you Gjanni Alioski You've been amazing on and off the field, you've driven us all crazy but we wouldn't change a thing. We made history together and you'll always be part of our family. Keep smiling mate, we love you."

In reply to a video of some of Alioski's most memorable moments posted by Leeds United's official Twitter account, Cooper added: "What a pleasure you lunatic. A beautiful human. All the best for the future brother."

Polish international midfielder Mateusz Klich replied to the post with an emoji shedding a tear, also used by Pascal Struijk on his Instagram story.

Stuart Dallas also replied to the Tweet with "1 of the best. Good luck on your next adventure brother."

Instagram was awash with tributes, including from right back Luke Ayling also posted a picture of Alioski with the Championship trophy accompanied by the words: "Miss you buddy. Maddest man ever but we love you."

Goalkeeper Illan Meslier took to his Instagram story to post a photograph of himself and Alioski together accompanied with a message in French of "Tu vas me manquer mon frerot, bonne chance pour la suite de t'as carriere" which translates as: "I will miss you my brother, good luck for the rest of your career."

The international theme continued with Brazilian winger Raphinha who used his story to post a picture of Alioski together with "Me vas extranar mucho bambino", translated as "I'm going to miss you a lot baby."

England international midfielder Kalvin Phillips was another to update his Instagram story with a picture of Alioski with the Championship trophy, together with the words: "Good luck brate! You will be missed."

'Brate' or 'brother' was also referred to in farewells from Helder Costa and Robin Koch in their Instagram stories.

Adam Forshaw posted "you will be missed mate Gjanni Alioski, best of luck" whilst United's record signing Rodrigo posted a photograph of the two together accompanied with the message "we'll miss you bro! All the best! Love u!"

Tyler Roberts put "thank you brother, you'll be missed" and a similar message came from Jamie Shackleton who posted "All the best Gjanni Alioski. You will be missed brother."

Leif Davis used his story for a picture of Alioski giving the thumbs up accompanied with "good luck my brother. Will miss you."

And the messages even extended to those who had moved on from Elland Road even before Alioski's departure.

Barry Douglas was effectively in competition with Alioski at left back and Douglas last played for Leeds in September 2020, after which he departed for Blackburn Rovers on loan.

Douglas has now signed for Lech Poznan but took to his Instagram story to share the picture of Alioski with the Championship trophy accompanied with the words "what a boy Gjanni Alioski"