There’s now a ‘tug of war’ inside Leeds United over their 20-year-old player’s future

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Leeds United are in an internal ‘tug of war’ over the future of Wilfried Gnonto in January.

Gnonto was the subject of intense interest from Everton in the summer with Leeds turning down four separate offers, the last of which was around £25 million.

San Francisco 49ers Enterprises made it clear from the start of the summer that Gnonto was someone they wanted to keep and stuck to their word, though the season has not quite gone as planned for the Italian.

Gnonto has started just six of Leeds’ 22 Championship matches so far, registering just one goal and one assist, with his only strike of the season coming all the way back in August at Ipswich Town.

And transfer insider Dean Jones has now told Give Me Sport that there appears to be some conflict inside the club as to how to approach Gnonto’s future in January.

Leeds need to be keeping Gnonto

Jones said: “Honestly, this is like a tug of war internally over whether Gnonto is staying or going. A few weeks ago, there was serious talk about him signing a new contract. So it seems quite a serious turnaround to now be willing to offload him when that really hasn’t ever been their stance before.

“Obviously there was the whole saga over the summer and he came back and he got back into things and now he’s out of the side again. The Leeds fans obviously forgave him initially and now they’re probably wondering what’s going on long term.”

There is no reason why Leeds should be rushing to get rid of Gnonto as he proved in the Premier League last season how good of a talent he can be.

It has even been reported this morning that Gnonto is giving serious consideration over changing his agent after the summer debacle – as per Phil Hay of the Athletic.

This would be a real step in the right direction of making it clear that he wants to stay at Leeds, given his agent was always at the front and centre of everything that happened in the summer.

Leeds need to be fending off any interest they may receive in the January window as there is no doubt Gnonto can play a huge role in the second half of the season.