Willy Gnonto's stand-off and loan clauses for Jack Harrison and others is hampering Daniel Farke's Leeds United rebuild - Stuart Rayner - Yorkshire Post 17/8/23
Leeds United are making a bit of a mess of this transfer window.
By Stuart Rayner
Even the best-intentioned clubs can be caught cold at the
start of a new season, with a transfer window wide open but Leeds have taken it
to new extremes this season.
Beyond those released in the summer, nine players have left
at the time of writing with more still to come. Leeds are trying to take a
tough stance with Willy Gnonto, but in most other cases, they have had little
choice but to wish players the best and wave them goodbye.
Losing so many players - even good ones - is just a fact of
life after Premier League relegation but the fact that seven have gone on loan
is what is so damaging to them and their prospects of bouncing straight back.
Quite simply, the hierarchy of the last few years - which
the current owners were a big, if not a majority part of - tried to be too kind
to their players and now wish they had not.
The idea of loaning out one or two key players to come back
and strengthen the side when the club (it hopes) finishes its own one-season
loan to the Championship is attractive, because parachute payments and sales
elsewhere give you that leeway.
But so far, the only transfer fees Leeds have been able to
bring in this summer are relatively small ones for Rodrigo and Tyler Roberts.
The rest were able to negotiate release clauses in their contracts
which ensured that if Leeds were relegated, in return for the big pay cut
standard in modern Premier League contracts, they would be allowed to leave on
loan.
The agent of Gnonto who joined last summer without such a
clause, should be feeling a bit embarrassed now as his client tries to strop
his way out of the club.
With Daniel Farke's track record, you would back him to
build a Championship-challenging squad on a tight budget, but this is bordering
on shoestring with all the bodies needed to strengthen for a 46-game season.
Leeds were presumably banking on the stature of the club and
their own powers of persuasion keeping players in the second tier for a
12-month tilt at promotion.
That even Jack Harrison has joined the exodus - signing for
Everton on loan - showed what a delusion that is.
Having said that, those who signed contracts without these
clauses have to honour them.
Farke has been in this boat before with Norwich City, and
won.
Gnonto should take a leaf out of the book of Callum Styles,
who wants and deserves to be playing Championship football, but finds himself
in League One.
This August, as last, he has had honest discussions with his
club, reached sensible agreements and realised the best way to get a move is to
play high-quality football, not cause problems on the sidelines.
He left Barnsley of League One for Millwall of the
Championship a year ago and is now back at Oakwell, featuring in all three
games of the Reds’ start to the season.