George Overhill

Wed 26 April 2023 17:40, UK

Leeds United need to come out and provide a real reason why Willy Gnonto is being left out before it’s too late, according to John Richardson.

The Italian teenager has regularly been left out of the starting XI since Javi Gracia came in, and didn’t even get off the bench with the Whites needing a spark in the second half of the 1-1 draw with Leicester on Tuesday night.

The manager only made two substitutions across the 90 minutes, one enforced by injury to Luis Sinisterra after half an hour, in his most confusing in-game decision-making yet, and Leeds-supporting stand-up Richardson wants answers so responsibility for a miserable campaign can be aportioned.

Posting on Twitter after the final whistle on Tuesday night (26 April) the comedian wrote: “If there’s a genuine reason Gnonto isn’t being used then now is the time to hear it, because after we’ve dropped many more points the blame for this horrific season will all have been meted out.”

Behind closed doors

If something has happened at Leeds United that has caused the attacker go from breakout star to virtual afterthought in the mind of the manager then it would be astonishing for nothing to have come out about it.

Fans, journalists and pundits are all as bemused as each other as to why the 19-year-old isn’t being used when the Whites are teetering on the brink of dropping out of the top flight.

And yet Gracia continues to give generalised answers to the repeated lines of questioning, sounding gradually more irritable over the situation.

That would be fine if he was putting together a long unbeaten run and the club was about to secure Premier League survival.

Up to and including the comeback win over Nottingham Forest on 4 April most would have been happy to leave it up to the man who had finally delivered a few wins after months without under Jesse Marsch.

He is the manager so he decides, but after one point from 12 and danger engulfing the Whites his decisions appear to be sending the club down, him out of a job, and Gnonto to the transfer market.

If there is a disciplinary problem then it wouldn’t make sense for the forward to be on the bench at all let alone given relatively insulting late substitute appearances after all his attacking teammates have been used.

So if it is just a baffling view from Gracia that he is the worst of all the attacking options, which appears to go against all the evidence from this season, then his suitability for the job must be called into question.

But unfortunately at this late stage, and given the saga it took to get him, he is the only option the club have.

In other Leeds United news, Laura Woods tries to get pundit in trouble over “hate all Leeds fans” claim.