Proposal: Javi Gracia should tell us why Wilf Gnonto isn’t playing - Square Ball 26/4/23
PUT HIM ON!
Written by: Moxcowhite • Daniel Chapman
I suspected it would come to this, although I didn’t expect
this would be the reason. But when Javi Gracia took over from Jesse Marsch, one
of the first pleasant discoveries was that he was content to carry on like
Michael Skubala and tell the press, in their press conferences, basically
nothing. After ten months of oversharing from Jesse, it was easy to bless the
contrast. It was also easy to predict that Gracia’s stubborn silence would soon
become annoying in its own way.
Like this way: he won’t tell us why Wilf Gnonto isn’t
playing, and we all really want to know. There could be some very good reasons!
He played in four of Gracia’s first games in charge, starting two, and started
the FA Cup match at Fulham. Then he hurt his ankle playing for Italy, so he was
out of the squad at Arsenal, unused from the bench against Nottingham Forest,
and got half an hour against Crystal Palace, quarter of an hour against
Liverpool, ten minutes against Fulham. And nothing against Leicester. It’s
still only a month since he limped out of international duty, so it’s
reasonable to think the ankle injury could still be bothering him.
But if that’s the case, just tell us!
Gracia has a policy of not commenting on injuries to
individual players, and it’s fine in general, but Javi my pal rules are made to
be broken. And in this case, simply saying, ‘The advice from our medical staff
is that Wilf’s ankle can’t sustain more minutes’, makes the whole problem of
being asked about why Gnonto isn’t playing go away. And that’s win-win for
everyone!
Instead Gnonto remains wrapped up in the enigmatic shrugging
about overall injury news, apparently designed not to give information to the
next opponent but making Leeds’ own fans mutinous. In one recent presser Gracia
paused to clarify in case he’d said something about Gnonto being injured that
he shouldn’t have. Did that mean Gnonto was fit? It still wasn’t clear. My
favourite answer was actually about Adam Forshaw. Gracia was asked if he was
fit enough to come into midfield. He answered that he’d come off the bench in
the last game. That’s not an answer, man!
While the ideal outcome of all this rancour is for Gnonto to
be on the pitch, Leeds fans will settle at this stage simply for being trusted
with a clear explanation of why he isn’t. That, while not as good as watching
Wilf himself dribbling around bewildered defenders, scoring great goals and laughing
his head off, would at least lift the air of unhappy conspiracy from the stands
whenever the subs board goes up without signalling him on. Why isn’t Gnonto
coming on? He’s not fit. Fine. Or Gracia hates him. Also a valid if bizarre
explanation, at least we’d know. Maybe he just doesn’t rate him — unlikely, but
stranger things have etc — or there’s some tactical aspect that doesn’t work
for Javi. That’s okay. We could receive those messages and, even if not
agreeing with them, at least have a clue what is going on.
Nature abhors a vacuum, and it’s joined in 2023 by the
vacuity of social media, which will quickly fill any knowledge gap with
plausible nonsense. That means Gracia is in a worse position with this stuff
than Howard Wilkinson in 1996, when he blithely allowed the fans to shout ‘Why
is Brolin on the bench?’ at him, never explaining what was up with his
superstar signing from Serie A while all the goodwill was spat out and soon he
was sacked. It took George Graham, ardently narrating every fresh way that
Tomas Brolin was pissing him off daily, to make clear what Wilko had seen but
wouldn’t say.
Javi, take my advice, and don’t let this contretemps define
you. We could all do with feeling a little better about things right now, and
we want to know why Wilf Gnonto isn’t playing because we care. I suggest a
strong clear answer at your next press conference, Javi!
Or perhaps Gnonto himself could tell us, if Premier League
clubs had the bravery of American sports and allowed journalists to speak to players
for more than three minutes per week under controlled conditions. Wilf, if
you’re reading this, blink once for ‘ankle still hurts’, blink twice for ‘this
weirdo hates me’.
Better yet, Javi, just put him in the team! He’s really good
at football and that feels like it might be helpful!
