Phil Hay says 49ers were willing to let Leeds ace leave on deadline day, £5m bid was made
Leeds United were open to letting Darko Gyabi leave on deadline day.
That is according to Phil Hay, who was speaking on the latest episode of the Square Ball Podcast, where he was discussing Leeds’ midfield depth after the close of the window.
Leeds were able to bring in two new central midfielders in the final 48 hours of the transfer window, with Ilia Gruev joining from Werder Bremen, and Glen Kamara following him from Rangers.
Both players cost around the £5 million mark and given their top-flight experience, will be looking to establish themselves as regulars at the heart of Daniel Farke’s engine room.
Those two additions now mean Gyabi is, at best, fifth choice in the pecking order at Leeds and as such, they were willing to let him go either on loan or permanently on Friday.
Leeds were open to deadline day Gyabi exit
During the early hours of the day, Fleetwood Town had looked the most likely destination on a season-long-loan, until Ligue 2 side Valenciennes made a second bid worth £5 million for Gyabi, which Leeds were giving serious consideration to, according to Hay.
Both of those moves ended up falling through and he had looked destined to stay until Swansea City made their move in the final few hours.
Again, though, Swansea had left it too late to get a deal done with Gyabi now set to stay at Leeds until the January window at the very least, despite their willingness to let him leave.
Hay said: “You now do have Kamara, you now do have Gruev. You do have ways of mixing this up to the extent there is now so much choice in the centre of midfield, they would have let Darko Gyabi go on deadline day had they been able to sort out any of the approaches made for him.”
It would’ve been a shame to lose Gyabi permanently so soon after his move from Manchester City, but Leeds should’ve ensured a loan move was done.
Gyabi is just not going to play in the next few months until January and ultimately, it is going to be four wasted months of his development which is poor considering his age.
