Roughly, Wilfried Gnonto had two weeks in training with Leeds United to go from the teenager Jesse Marsch considered unready to ousting golden boy Joe Gelhardt. This is less about Gelhardt, whose own reputation as a future star remains intact, and more about the staggering rise of the Italian.
Marsch had gone some way to illustrating Gnonto’s progress in Friday’s press conference, but the impression the 18-year-old’s made only landed when it became clear he was preferred to a fully-fit Gelhardt. The Liverpudlian was seen working with fitness coach Pierre Barrieu on the pitch pre-match yesterday and the assumption had been it was some kind of late fitness test.
Once Marsch clarified it was simply training drills to keep his legs sharp, the penny dropped on a tentative pecking order. The head coach has never ducked a question since arriving and could not hide from the fact, while Gelhardt was still impressing, Gnonto’s selection did form a hierarchy of sorts.
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“I can tell you this, it's not based on performance because he's (Gelhardt) playing well, but we have a lot of guys performing well right now,” said Marsch “In that sense, maybe you could say it's a pecking order, but I don't look at it that way.”
When you look at Gnonto’s September itinerary you can piece together the two weeks, across two spells, he's had to turn heads in training. He arrived on the second, starred in that welcome video with Marsch, and was told to go home before reporting back for testing on the fifth and then actual training from the sixth.
Ten days later Gnonto would play for the under-21s before departing again for Italy duty across the 17th and 18th. The forward caught the eye for his country and would not be back at Thorp Arch until the 27th at the earliest.
He may be a full Italy international, but few had anticipated he would make that kind of impression within the first month. Marsch’s comments, his age and the last-minute nature of his deadline-day move all suggested he may competing with Mateo Joseph in the under-21s, not Gelhardt in the first team.
“I can say he has pleasantly surprised all of us in almost every way,” Marsch said last week. He added: “You can see, even in that [welcome] video, his humbleness and his maturity and then, on the pitch and training, he's been fantastic.
“He was very good in the 21s match against Southampton. He will be in the squad this weekend and we think he can play a big role for us now. I guess you can say I would revise my statement.
“That statement had more to do with the fact we had targeted him and we identified him, but more for future windows and not exactly this one. The fact we're able to start the process early is really advantageous for everyone.”
While many maintain Gnonto was not the senior, top-level striker Leeds needed on deadline day, his arrival has immediately bolstered the strength in depth at Elland Road. The Gelhardt exclusion was a one-off talking point yesterday and, ironically, he’ll probably be back in by this weekend with Luis Sinisterra’s suspension.
The Colombian’s absence will also push Gnonto that little closer to the first XI and make him a likely option from the bench at Crystal Palace. If he can nudge ahead of the club’s best young striker in half a month, his adaptation to Premier League football’s going to be fascinating.
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