Presenter Conor McGilligan has slammed Leeds United manager Jesse Marsch after his recent comments about nearly signing Cody Gakpo.
During the summer, the Whites were understood to be close to landing the PSV star, and after his recent World Cup displays – he has three goals in four games – there has been even more discussion about his talent.
Indeed, it’s actually got to the point where the Leeds boss has discussed just how close his team were to bringing Gakpo to the Premier League. In a recent interview, Marsch explained: “We were so close to securing a transfer for him in the summer. It was so close. And now obviously it’s disappointing.
“Our sport director was in Holland. [We had a] meeting with the family, had agreed on terms, on everything, was talking with PSV. I mean, we were 99.9%.”
However, while speaking those quotes on the One Leeds Fan Channel, McGilligan didn’t seem to enjoy this failed transfer attempt has lingered on and called the chat ’embarrassing’.
He said: “With the whole Cody Gakpo thing… it was never a thing, was it?
“We’re still hearing Jesse come out and saying, ‘we were so close’. It’s embarrassing. Stop talking about it, stop talking about it. We didn’t get him, we didn’t get him over the line.”
TIF Thoughts on Jesse Marsch, Cody Gakpo and Leeds United…
Had Leeds managed to sign Gakpo, it certainly would have been an impressive coup. On top of his World Cup exploits, the forward has also shown his quality back at PSV earlier this season, with a combined 30 goal contributions in 24 games.
However, their transfer aim failed and so it is probably best to move on. It seems very unlikely that the Whites will land him this winter, with rumours suggesting the likes of Manchester United would have to pay around £50m if they want to sign him.
Taking it all into account, it doesn’t really seem as if it’s doing a great deal of harm to the club if Marsch wants to discuss past transfer dealings, but he certainly should and hopefully will now have turned his attention to the future with an important winter window coming up.
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