George Overhill

Sun 23 April 2023 9:10, UK

Willy Gnonto may have been the unlikely star of the Leeds United season but it looks almost certain that his stay at Elland Road will be a short one.

Far from the finished article he may be, but he is one of the few bright spots from the Jesse Marsch section of the current campaign, and has quickly gone from £3.8million [Daily Mail, 1 September] emergency signing to transfer target for European giants [Gazzetta dello Sport, 26 March].

Despite this, current boss Javi Gracia has gone out of his way to prioritise other players, to the point now where all logical explanations have been exhausted, and one way or another it has surely pushed Gnonto towards a summer exit.

If Leeds United are relegated to the Championship at the end of the season then there is every chance neither the manager or the teenage attacker remain past the summer, and following the 2-1 defeat at Craven Cottage on Saturday (22 April) that is looking ever-more likely.

More than the result itself though was the fact the Spaniard reacted to a 5-1 home defeat to Crystal Palace (9 April), followed by a 6-1 home defeat to Liverpool (17 April), neither of which Gnonto started, by again leaving him out of the starting XI against Fulham.

That he again made two attacking substitutions and waited until the Whites were chasing the game to throw the Italian on for the final 10 minutes made the snub all the more glaring, giving him a total of 53 minutes off the bench in the three-straight losses.

No player has a divine right to play, and it is true that at different points Jack Harrison, Luis Sinisterra and Crysencio Summerville have performed well under Gracia.

But Brenden Aaronson arguably hasn’t, and it is difficult to argue that Gnonto is definitely behind any, let alone all, of his four teammates, after providing an attacking spark often throughout the campaign.

Increasingly quizzed about overlooking the Italy international, Gracia has only given non-committal answers [Phil Hay via Twitter, 22 April], so it is impossible to tell if there is an issue at the heart of it or not.

But whatever the explanation, the Leeds United boss is surely cutting off his nose to spite his face now that results have dropped off a cliff, where he could previously point to his methods working when he surprisingly demoted Gnonto.

Is the 19-year-old the secret to top flight survival? Who knows, but based on the season as a whole the club would certainly seem to have a better shot at it if he was on the pitch more often.

And if Gracia somehow does manage to keep them up from here, one of the pair is surely going to leave anyway, with Gnonto’s bleak reaction to the same situation at Elland Road on Monday suggesting he’s had enough, and who could blame him if he has the likes of Juventus, Chelsea or Manchester City sniffing around [Gazzetta dello Sport, 21 March].

In other Leeds United news, another Whites ace was slammed live on BT Sport for failing to do something he wasn’t good enough for.