Farke banishes Leeds trio amid transfer exit links as boss confirms forward has release clause

Leeds United manager Daniel Farke has sentenced Wilfried Gnonto, Helder Costa and Luis Sinisterra to individual training while they all explore departures from the club.

Farke confirmed his decision at a press conference on Wednesday to preview Leeds’ match against West Brom in the Championship on Friday, confirming Costa’s situation is the most relaxed after his loan spell with Al-Ittihad last season.

Gnonto and Sinisterra, in contrast, only joined Leeds last summer but could now follow in the footsteps of several other 2022 signings who have already left the club after their relegation.

Recently, Gnonto has asked not to be considered for selection by Leeds, who have insisted he is not for sale. However, Farke has confirmed that Sinisterra has a release clause, which leaves Leeds vulnerable.

Given the uncertainty around all three of them, Farke has sent them to train individually so as to separate them from the first team.

“They have individual training in order to stay fit,” explained Farke. “They’ve been moved out of the dressing room for different reasons.

“We’ve spoken at length about the situation with Willy. With Helder Costa everything is more relaxed. It’s his and our wish that there will be a solution and it’s professional.

“With Luis Sinisterra it’s a different situation. There is no exit clause and we’ve made it clear that we won’t sell Willy. With Luis it’s different, he has an exit clause and there were some open question marks.

“Until everything is sorted from a legal point of view, he won’t train with the group as he can’t focus on training. It seems it’ll be sorted quickly. All these three players were training separately.”

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Leeds squad being dismantled after relegation

Gnonto has only made one appearance for Leeds since the new season began, Sinisterra has played twice, and Costa is yet to feature.

Costa is into the final year of his contract at Elland Road, while Gnonto and Sinisterra are both tied until 2027. But all of them now seem to have a good chance of leaving in the next couple of weeks.

So far this summer, Leeds have shipped off Robin Koch, Diego Llorente, Brenden Aaronson, Rasmus Kristensen, Marc Roca, Maximilian Wober and Jack Harrison on loan deals.

From that group, Aaronson, Kristensen and Roca had only been at the club since last summer, and Wober since January.

If Gnonto and Sinisterra were to leave too – as well as Tyler Adams after Bournemouth activated his release clause – it would mean practically all their senior signings from last summer have moved on already.

In terms of permanent exits, Rodrigo Moreno has been the most high-profile departure, in addition to the releases of Adam Forshaw and Joel Robles.

Leeds have signed Ethan Ampadu, Karl Darlow, Sam Byram and Joe Rodon to reinforce their squad as they push for promotion straight back to the Premier League. But it has certainly been a summer of upheaval in preparation.