Jesse Marsch makes '99.9 per cent' claim on Leeds United's Cody Gakpo transfer pursuit - YEP 2/12/22
Leeds United head coach Jesse Marsch insists the club were agonisingly close to signing Cody Gakpo from Dutch side PSV Eindhoven this summer
Joe Donnohue
The American says Leeds were ‘99.9 per cent’ of the way
towards signing Cody Gakpo from PSV this summer, revealing that he had spoken
to the player before a move failed to materialise on transfer deadline day.
Four months on, Gakpo has begun the Eredivisie season tremendously and has
managed to score in each of the Netherlands’ three group stage matches at the
FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
This has led Marsch to state that Gakpo is now out of Leeds’
transfer price range with less than a month to go until the January window, in
which club chairman Andrea Radrizzani stated the club would endeavour to revive
a deal for the Dutch international forward.
"We will continue to work on Gapko. Now it s [sic] time
to focus on the pitch and support our new project and the great job Jesse and
the staff are doing,” Radrizanni tweeted on September 1st.
"It's difficult for us at Leeds because I think Gakpo
has gotten out of our price range,” Marsch revealed. “We were so close to
securing a transfer for him in summer. I mean, it was so close and now
obviously it's disappointing for us,” the Leeds head coach told Men In Blazers
host Roger Bennett.
“Our sports director was in Holland and was meeting with the
family, had agreed on terms on everything, was talking with PSV. I mean, we
were 99.9 per cent [of the way there], so I felt bad for Victor Orta and all
the effort that he put into it,” Marsch added.
Leeds ended up signing Italy forward Willy Gnonto on deadline
day, but were keen to re-enter the market in January, eyeing a potential move
for the Netherlands man. However, Marsch’s admission now means that appears
somewhat unlikely as the 23-year-old courts interest from Europe’s cabal of
super-clubs.
"I talked to Cody in the process, and I'm happy for him
to have had so much success here at the World Cup and I think show everybody
how good he is,” Marsch said.