Wilfried Gnonto

[whiteswan]

Likewise, born and raised in Wakefield. Not quite as many games though, and since i haven't lived in Wakey since 1997, there haven't been too many games since.

Love that you mention Wakey Lumi

As an aside.....Wakey have survived Superleague for another year and ground improvements are under way

[weasel]

They had a deal lined up in January for Gnonto, Phil said so in his piece this morning.

Likely that Zurich wanted him for their Europa League campaign and we thought we were signing another striker so it made sense for both clubs to have him stay there, obviously when our other signing fell through it made far more sense to do the deal now.

They brought it forward purely because they had literally no other options.

When 2 signings that looked like they were going to happen fall through on deadline day how many alternatives do you think the club should have that can be done in a few hours. If the January deal being agreed stuff is true then it makes sense to bring the deal forward as we know the player was keen to come and we presumably had a good relationship with Zurich haven't agreed a deal for January - as such far more sense to bring the deal forward than scramble around for someone who may or may not be available.

They had tried people like Joel Piroe, Ben Brereton-Diaz and Kelechi Iheanacho.

Had we or is that just clickbait journalism. We have been linked to loads of players doesn't mean we actually want them

Gnonto was a last resort, we have to do something deal.

No Gnonto was a deal we had been working on for a good while. He may not have been the first choice starting striker we had been after since Rodrigo got injured on Tuesday night but far from a last resort. Probably on a different list to if we got Bamba and were going to throw him straight into the starting line-up but hardly a last resort given we have been trying to sign him for a while and had supposedly agreed terms with the player a few weeks ago.

They increased the fee to keep FC Zurich happy but it was a deal for January they had to bring forward as a last resort.

You're repeating yourself. Yes we were probably happy to have him come in January given that until Tuesday evening we had Rodrigo fuly fit and scoring goals. Even on Thursday we were probably happy to have him just come in January as we expected at least 1 of 2 deals to go through (Bamba and the dutch guy with strange name). Given that those deals fell through surely you can see that it made sense to bring the deal forward rather than just waiting till January. Not a last resort but a sensible decision as we may need him before January

He certainly wasn't someone they aimed for as our first team striker option now.

Yes we agree but only in the sense that I can't see them looking to use him as our primary starter. However if he gets a few starts because Rodrigo, PB and JG aren't fully fit then it is definitely better that he is here now rather than in January. No guarantees that Bamba would have been fit enough to be the first team striker option now given he failed a medical.

Understand what you are saying about Marsch but he has been put in a poor situation by an arrogant and unprepared board.
Put in a poor situation by a board who didn't see the urgency to bring in a 4th striker to compete for 1 place that up until Tuesday night saw a striker averaging a goal per game playing and fully fit. Considering how close we came to signing 2 other strikers given short notice I would say they were prepared

Gnonto is now the attacker Marsch said the other day he has wanted all summer.
Unfortunately it's about 12-18months to early.

Maybe it's too early but maybe he takes his chance and does well. Did Mancini deem it too early to play him against Germany twice?

[weasel]

Hope you're not including me in that. Born and bred in Doncaster. 26 years. Been to about 200 Leeds games.

As for the other Americans on here. There are 3 that I pay attention to all the time. They add quality content.

Don't get me started on South Yorkshire folk......

[weasel]

Hey.....I resemble that comment. Happy to talk shite with you anytime Weasel.

It is my speciality

[weasel]

Gnonto goals and assists

https://www.youtube.com/embed/0oST9d-ddvc

Excellent video. Definitely enough there to get excited about. If he's not good enough to get some minutes for us this season then I will eat the cotton sock of a one legged duck.

[whiteswan]

Don't get me started on South Yorkshire folk......

You'd better not have a issue with us West Yorkshire folk

[Cjay]

Likely that Zurich wanted him for their Europa League campaign and we thought we were signing another striker so it made sense for both clubs to have him stay there, obviously when our other signing fell through it made far more sense to do the deal now.

. . .They had agreed to sell him in January, we asked them to move the deal forward when we got desperate and realised we had sold James with no replacement and so offered them more money than we had agreed for January to sweeten it(this is what Phil said incidentally, not my opinion) . . .

When 2 signings that looked like they were going to happen fall through on deadline day how many alternatives do you think the club should have that can be done in a few hours. If the January deal being agreed stuff is true then it makes sense to bring the deal forward as we know the player was keen to come and we presumably had a good relationship with Zurich haven't agreed a deal for January - as such far more sense to bring the deal forward than scramble around for someone who may or may not be available.

. . .Don't leave deals that late seems the obvious answer. Not sure why you are defending this tbh.

The Piroe, Brereton Diaz and Iheanacho stuff was from Phil Hay/ David Ornstein incidentally, they were literally scrambling around until they had no choice but to either do nothing or bring Gnonto forward.

It was never planned in any way to bring him here now.


You're repeating yourself. Yes we were probably happy to have him come in January given that until Tuesday evening we had Rodrigo fuly fit and scoring goals. Even on Thursday we were probably happy to have him just come in January as we expected at least 1 of 2 deals to go through (Bamba and the dutch guy with strange name). Given that those deals fell through surely you can see that it made sense to bring the deal forward rather than just waiting till January. Not a last resort but a sensible decision as we may need him before January

No I am repeating Phil Hay, he has said what I am saying, it isn't mu opinion, it has come from Phil. It was literally a last resort.

They had painted themselves into a corner and exhausted all other alternatives.


Yes we agree but only in the sense that I can't see them looking to use him as our primary starter. However if he gets a few starts because Rodrigo, PB and JG aren't fully fit then it is definitely better that he is here now rather than in January. No guarantees that Bamba would have been fit enough to be the first team striker option now given he failed a medical.

Alioski had better attacking stats in Switzerland when we signed him.
He is absolutely not ready to play a significant part in a Premier league squad yet, certainly not to conceivably end up our main striker which given the extensive injury issue our 3 main strikers have had in there time here is 100% possible.

Its even up for debate about whether he should be in the u23s which was the tone Marsch gave just weeks ago.

Now we just have to hope he can adapt far far faster than he should have been expected.


Put in a poor situation by a board who didn't see the urgency to bring in a 4th striker to compete for 1 place that up until Tuesday night saw a striker averaging a goal per game playing and fully fit. Considering how close we came to signing 2 other strikers given short notice I would say they were prepared

A striker Marsch said had been on the agenda all summer.

It was on his list of targets.

This wasn't something sprung on the board at the last minute unless you are saying Marsch tells lies?

The manager is on record as saying he has wanted a striker all summer.

Not an opinion, not a theory, he literally said it last week.

The board didn't want to but then panicked when Rodrigo got injured.

It was poor planning and an arrogance and overestimation of the quality of our attacking options as shown by Angus Kinnear talking out of his arse in his notes.

Absolutely baffled you are defending them tbh.

It was an absolute farce of a deadline day.

Anyway don't want to clutter up Willy thread anymore.

Will move on to him.

Do you like little Willy?

Despite everything i do have hope. Clearly has talent and Mancini rates him and he is no fool so definitely has something about him.

Just not sure he is what we need now and think its unfair the position he has been put in.

Zola was tiny and was absolutely awesome so hopefully Willy will be like Zola

[The Subhuman]

Think this is the key vid....all his touches on his Italy debut.

[Aussieleeds]

Think this is the key vid....all his touches on his Italy debut.

Based on that vid I reckon he’ll be ready for the PL any year now.

[Jaydog]

Actually he looks pretty good. V Germany so not Mickey Mouse opposition. Very strong, holds the ball up well. Quick. Interesting.

[CHAPELALLMAN]

Hope you're not including me in that. Born and bred in Doncaster. 26 years. Been to about 200 Leeds games.

As for the other Americans on here. There are 3 that I pay attention to all the time. They add quality content.

Ignore the anti-American racism.

[Chilli D]

Interesting one this.
I can't see how a full Italy international has been signed to spend a season in the U23's but he is still very young.
Everything I've seen so far, he looks good.

[weasel]

You'd better not have a issue with us West Yorkshire folk

Well for every Whiteswan there is a ChapelAllman.......

[weasel]

. . .They had agreed to sell him in January, we asked them to move the deal forward when we got desperate and realised we had sold James with no replacement and so offered them more money than we had agreed for January to sweeten it(this is what Phil said incidentally, not my opinion) . . .

Yes but the situation changed if Bamba or Gkepo had signed then it makes sense to not bring Gnonto over till January. Not desperate just sensible to change the plan - would you rather we have a striker crisis and had left Gnonto in Zurich?

. . .Don't leave deals that late seems the obvious answer. Not sure why you are defending this tbh.

Tell Rodrigo not to get injured on Tuesday night. If Rodrigo doesn't get injured I don't think we would have looked to sign Bamba. Gkepo maybe but it seems that with Gkepo he was holding out all summer to go to MU so it seems like we weren't ever going to get him until he realised MU weren't going to be signing him - he probably only realised that after MU signed Antony. As such the chance of us signing him only became a possibility on Wednesday/Thursday when MU secured Antony.

The Piroe, Brereton Diaz and Iheanacho stuff was from Phil Hay/ David Ornstein incidentally, they were literally scrambling around until they had no choice but to either do nothing or bring Gnonto forward.
It was never planned in any way to bring him here now.

Yes we wanted a striker who could slot in immediately as a first choice starting striker. No harm in seeing who is available - all it means is that they may have been further down our list than Gkepo and Bamba, so once the higher choices become unavailable you move down the list - you don't target the 10th option if the 1st option may be available.
We then had the choice to leave Gnonto in Zurich till January or see if we could bring him in straightaway - like I said earlier bringing him in straightaway makes sense given that Rodrigo is injured now, Bamford is unlikely to be starting ang Gelhardt has injury issues. Gnonto may not be seen as ready to start every match as first choice striker but is likely to be more ready than the U21 options. Circumstances change and the club moved quickly to ensure we have a fit striker available.

Alioski had better attacking stats in Switzerland when we signed him.
He is absolutely not ready to play a significant part in a Premier league squad yet, certainly not to conceivably end up our main striker which given the extensive injury issue our 3 main strikers have had in there time here is 100% possible.
Its even up for debate about whether he should be in the u23s which was the tone Marsch gave just weeks ago.
Now we just have to hope he can adapt far far faster than he should have been expected.

Yes and he hasn't been signed to be our starting striker yet - but better to have him as an option than not and if he has to become our main striker it gives him the opportunity to show whether he can do it and if he can't then we can plan for January. The options were carry on down our list and sign someone that we maybe weren't totally convinced with or bring in a striker that we were going to be signing in 4 months anyway and have high hopes for.

A striker Marsch said had been on the agenda all summer.

It was on his list of targets.

This wasn't something sprung on the board at the last minute unless you are saying Marsch tells lies?

The manager is on record as saying he has wanted a striker all summer.

Not an opinion, not a theory, he literally said it last week.

The board didn't want to but then panicked when Rodrigo got injured.

It was poor planning and an arrogance and overestimation of the quality of our attacking options as shown by Angus Kinnear talking out of his arse in his notes.

Absolutely baffled you are defending them tbh.

It was an absolute farce of a deadline day.

Anyway don't want to clutter up Willy thread anymore.

Will move on to him.

Do you like little Willy?

Despite everything i do have hope. Clearly has talent and Mancini rates him and he is no fool so definitely has something about him.

Just not sure he is what we need now and think its unfair the position he has been put in.

Zola was tiny and was absolutely awesome so hopefully Willy will be like Zola

Who knows exactly what the plans were. Marsch wanted a striker but maybe the plan was to sell Rodrigo to fund that signing. Maybe it was going to be a 1 out 1 in situation. I think if a striker was top of the list then we would have signed someone given that we signed so many players early on. I think we wanted a striker rather than beign desperate for one (hence pursuing CDK as he was someone we wanted and it wasn't like going for him was risking us not getting someone else). The situation changed on Tuesday night when Rodrigo got injured and we went from wanting someone to needing someone.

[weasel]

Do you like little Willy?

I was delighted when the news came in that we had actually signed him. I didn't care for the likes of Hwang or Bamba. Gnonto was the one I wanted us to sign. Pace, power, good age, good fee, knows how to score, looks like he can also put in dangerous crosses too. If we'd paid £20m for him people would be going great signing.

[weasel]

Think this is the key vid....all his touches on his Italy debut.

What's not to get excited about there? Pace, power, strength, quick feet, intelligent passes, works back, draws fouls, creates space and gets the cross in etc

Nurtured correctly he could be an amazing player.

[Madron]

Very strong looking physique for an 18 yo. Looks like he'll be hard to knock over. Resembles a young Mike Tyson.

[1964white]

Very strong looking physique for an 18 yo. Looks like he'll be hard to knock over. Resembles a young Mike Tyson.

Or a young Yeboah

[Kennyb41]

I was delighted when the news came in that we had actually signed him. I didn't care for the likes of Hwang or Bamba. Gnonto was the one I wanted us to sign. Pace, power, good age, good fee, knows how to score, looks like he can also put in dangerous crosses too. If we'd paid £20m for him people would be going great signing.

Right, you've now got me in your camp re our signings, i think we're wingin and chancin it a bit but i think we'll be ok (says me with my fingers crossed)

Our resident clown has been buying players now to be bloodied for the first team for 4 years, at some point we've got to see if they're good enough, ya Dramehs, Joffys etc or what's the point.

We might scrape the barrel a couple of times but i think we'll be reet up front and at LB.

[Cjay]

FC Zurich President on Wilfried Gnonto deal.


“These people are clueless,” Canepa bristles, responding to those who criticised Zurich’s decision to let their most exciting young talent go for a fraction of his initial market value. 

“(They) don’t know the contract details. The transfer took place under the conditions we had imagined. We negotiated well and didn’t let ourselves be disturbed; even if the transfer was only registered five minutes before the end of the window.” 

“Everything in the contract remains confidential. But yes, there is a very good chance that the transfer fee will eventually exceed ten million.”

FC Zurich also have a sell on clause.