Leeds United transfer news: Willy Gnonto interest 'blocked' says agent as Whites stand firm

With £24m from Bournemouth for Tyler Adams now swelling the kitty, manager Daniel Farke is much more interested in adding to a squad which has been badly exposed in the last two games.

Everton are the English club most interested in signing Gnonto, who was racially abused at the weekend after making himself unavailable for the last three matches.

Despite Gnonto’s attitude, the Whites maintain they do not want to sell.

Whether this will ultimately prove to be anything more than brinkmanship remains to be seen with Atalanta reportedly interested in spending some of the money Manchester United paid them for Rasmus Hojland on the forward on Gnonto, but for now Leeds appear to be standing firm.

“The situation is complicated,” said Gnonto’s agent, Claudio Vigorelli. “Leeds are blocking the requests we have in the Premier League.”

Although nine players left before Adams on Sunday seven went on loan. Ethan Ampadu, at £7m, is the only significant buy, with Sam Byram a free agent and Karl Darlow's price reflecting him being in the final 12 months of his contract.

But having not been able to name a full nine-man bench in either of the last two Championship games, even with two goalkeepers there, Farke is keen to beef out his squad with quantity as well as quality.

He has been helped by Chelsea's interest in Adams, which fell through when they instead signed Moises Caicedo and Roman Lavia. They triggered a £20m release clause but by the time Bournemouth came in it had expired, extracting a further £4m.

Jonjo Shelvey and Kenny McLean have been linked as possible midfield signings who know what it takes to get out of the division.

Shelvey only joined Nottingham Forest in January but it has not worked out. The 31-year-old deep-lying playmaker has made just six starts, and is yet to feature this season but was a key player when Rafael Benitez's Newcastle United won the 2016-17 Championship.

In signing Byram and coming close to Max Aarons, Farke has shown he is happy to go back to players he had so much Championship success with at Norwich City. McLean, also 31, was part of his title-winning sides in 2019 and 2021 but spent the second half of last season on loan at Aberdeen.

Ampadu and Archie Gray have formed a formidable midfield partnership but back-up Darko Gyabi has not featured yet and Lewis Bate only as a late League Cup substitute, leaving just Jamie Shackleton as an obvious, natural replacement.

Josh Sargent is another Farke signed for Norwich, in 2021, and the American striker scored 13 goals last season. Rangers are said to be rivalling Leeds for Millwall centre-back Jake Cooper.

More outgoings seem likely, with Brentford said to have enquired about Luis Sinisterra and Real Madrid and Bayern Munich have been linked with Illan Meslier, whose replacement appeared to arrive when Darlow joined.

Helder Costa has been told he can leave after two seasons on loan.