Lazio is planning to raid Leeds United for Italian Under 21 winger Wilfred Gnonto in a loan-to-buy deal, as per a report from Marching On Together.
Gnonto has recently found his game time limited due to a loss of consistency and has been replaced in Daniel Farke’s starting eleven by Crysencio Summerville and this has led to the Italian giants looking to secure a loan deal to buy deal. He has only featured in 10 Championship games so far this season having been something of a regular in the ultimately unsuccessful Premier League campaign last term.
The winger handed in a transfer request during the summer and was reportedly the subject of offers of around £25 million from Everton and it was reported that Leeds had already lined up his replacement. Reports are now emerging that Lazio are happy to offer Leeds a high loan fee to take the Italian to Rome and want a fixed future fee of £13.1 million to make the deal a permanent one. Even with the loan fee, this is likely to see The Peacocks receiving substantially less than what they had been offered particularly with the sell-on fee they will need to pay FC Zurich.
Gnonto has already featured 13 times for the Italian senior team and added another Under 21 cap last night when he scored twice and assisted another in his country’s 7-0 victory against San Marino in qualifying for the European Championships. These minutes were much needed for the former FC Zurich man as minutes since his ankle injury have been scarce.
Writer’s View
With the reported Premier League interest being added to by Italian heavyweights Lazio it would be hard to see Gnonto remaining at Elland Road. What is key for United it to get the maximum fee they can for a player who was attracting huge interest in the summer.
Fans will look at the Sam Greenwood move to Middlesbrough and hope that the club aren’t giving too much power to the buying club this time around. Daniel Farke will need to replace Gnonto if he does leave to make sure his side don’t get left short of option as they chase a return to the Premier League.
