Luke Ayling’s Leeds United career could come to an end during the January transfer window. Sky Sports reported this week that fellow Championship side Middlesbrough are interested in signing Ayling, who’s out of contract at the end of the season.
Ayling has started eight second-tier matches this season, but hasn’t featured at all in the competition since a brief substitute appearance in the 1-0 win at Leicester in early November. Indeed, he’s only made the bench four times since (Transfermarkt). If the Englishman does go, he might not be the only significant exit from Elland Road this month, with another player who’s been struggling for game time potentially on his way out too.
Everton deep in Gnonto talks
Leeds paid around £3.9m to sign Wilfried Gnonto from Swiss club FC Zurich just last year, and he played 28 games for the first-team in his debut campaign. This year, he’s racked up 21 outings, but only seven of those have been Championship starts (Transfermarkt).
All of this may have increased Everton’s confidence about being able to sign the forward. The Toffees have regarded him as a “main target” since November and, according to journalist Rudy Galetti, they’ve been in talks with Leeds over a transfer “for weeks”.
49ers Enterprises and their counterparts at Goodison Park are “working” towards finding an “agreement” on the transfer fee, and then it will come down to whether Gnonto can agree personal terms.
Gnonto deserves bigger chance at Leeds
Based on Gnonto’s limited opportunities under Daniel Farke this season, it wouldn’t be particularly suprising if he wanted out. But that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be a shame to see him leave Yorkshire.
While his numbers this season are nothing to write home about – he’s only notched two direct goal contributions – that can partly be put down to his relative lack of involvement, and at the age of 20, he still offers plenty of promise. Indeed, despite his youth, he’s already amassed 13 caps for the reigning European champions in Italy (Transfermarkt).
Gnonto holds the honour of being his country’s youngest-ever goalscorer after finding the net in a 5-2 Nations League defeat to Germany in 2022 (Reuters). If you’re Everton, he’s certainly worth a punt.
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During his time with Leeds, he’s also produced real moments of promise. Then-caretaker boss Michael Skubala dubbed him a “special player” after he scored in a 2-2 draw with Manchester United (Viaplay Football), while his scissor-kick volley in a 5-2 FA Cup win over Cardiff City drew comparisons to Paolo Di Canio’s iconic Premier League goal in West Ham’s 2-1 win over Wimbledon in 2000.
Di Canio himself sent a congratulatory message on the back of that strike, telling Gnonto that he had “fitted in very quickly” into the “most beautiful, most coveted, most spectacular [and] most difficult championship in the world” (Leeds Live).
On that basis, you could certainly argue that Leeds should give him more time, and more opportunities to show what he can do. However, it seems that discussions over a move to Merseyside are already well advanced, and so it remains to be seen if he lives up to the early hype elsewhere.
