Leeds United head coach Jesse Marsch has insisted the decision to allow Daniel James to leave was down to footballing reasons. James made the season-long-loan switch to Fulham on deadline day despite having featured in four of Leeds ’ opening five games, missing only the opening day win over Wolves due to suspension.
Marsch had previously claimed that in order to bring someone in towards the end of the window, that someone had to be moved on. That player ended up being James, but the chaos of deadline day meant Leeds were unable to bring in either of their two first-team targets Cody Gakpo and Bamba Dieng.
Wilfried Gnonto was the man Leeds ended up signing, though Marsch has already confirmed he is more of a long-term project. Speaking in an interview with Sky Sports, Marsch claimed the decision to allow James to leave is one that he supports.
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“When it came to the Dan James situation, this was a collective decision and one that I totally support. From a technical perspective, the thought process was is Dan going to get enough minutes that he wanted to help him in his career, where we were at and what it was going to mean for him in his preparation for the World Cup.
“Then the decision was made to consider moving him and when we found the right situation for everybody we decided to move forward on it. In the end I think every decision we made in the process was made by the group and I was very supportive of every decision we made.
“It was a football decision and one that wasn’t easy to make because we really like Dan. We really value him as a person and a player. But in the end one that suits us best at the moment and certainly Dan as well.”
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