On Wednesday evening, Wilfried Gnonto’s low strike finding the back of the net within a minute of kick-off showed just why Leeds United were excited to have bought him from FC Zürich.
The young Italian arrived in a €4.5m transfer late in the summer transfer window after spending two years in Switzerland.
Prior to that, he had grown up in Inter’s youth teams, but the lack of first-team opportunities forced him to seek an exit as he let his contract run down; a decision that eventually led him to Leeds.
We have already seen that some in Italy are bemoaning the decision to let Gnonto go in such a manner, with some labelling him one of the biggest regrets of the Serie A side.
That’s just the view from Inter’s side, and yet few look at it from the player’s, but that’s something Marco Conterio does on Friday in an editorial column for TuttoMercatoWeb.
He explained that while it would have been nice to see Gnonto or the West Ham striker in Italy, but ‘if Leeds believed in him and the Italian teams didn’t’, then what the tabloids have to say about the latest Elland Road star ‘is welcome’.
In fact, he points out that ‘our boys often lack the courage to dare’, but points out and praises the Leeds forward, alongside Lorenzo Lucca and Casadei for being those who did.
That’s commendable, and whoever comes in to take over from Jesse Marsch will reap the benefits almost immediately.
