Jesse Marsch has claimed Leeds United had to move someone on in order to bring in a new striker on deadline day. The Whites agreed to send Daniel James on a season-long-loan move to Fulham, despite the Welshman having been involved in all of the last four matches.
Leeds endured an extremely chaotic deadline day in their pursuit of a striker, first being frustrated by PSV for Cody Gakpo, before Bamba Dieng opted against a move to Elland Road even though a fee had been agreed with Marseille. Wilfried Gnonto was instead the man Leeds brought in, with his arrival confirmed around 25 minutes after James’ departure to Fulham.
Despite Leeds already having sold both Raphinha and Kalvin Phillips earlier in the window for just shy of £100 million, Marsch insisted that someone had to leave in order to press ahead with their search for a new striker.
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Speaking after the 5-2 defeat at Brentford, he said: “Yeah, it was clear that if we needed to add something that we needed to move something. I hate speaking about it that way because I love Dan James, he's an incredible person and he gives everything to the group always.
“When we were trying to think about how to get the balance right in the team, this was the key was garnering the most interest and it was the only way that we could create flexibility to try and go out and add a striker position that we felt we needed. So I wish that we wouldn't have had to do it and even the way that it went down because it was kind of tough for Dan.
“We discussed it weeks before the transfer deadline about the possibility and then we had a lot of open conversations with Dan and it was tough at the end because I know he likes it here and his family likes it here.
“I wish him luck and I really liked him and I hope he has a good season and a good World Cup and hopefully then we'll see him again next time.”
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