“I can only thank Leeds” – Player grateful for Whites experience, talks about ‘very special’ Bielsa
We already featured some words from Rodrigo, a former Leeds United player, who discussed his decision to quit the Whites with A Bola earlier today.
The Elland Road team sold the forward to Al-Rayyan for €3.5 million last summer, citing a “very personal matter” as the reason for the move.
It appears that more lines from this interview—in which Rodrigo genuinely expresses his affections for Leeds United—can be found in the printed edition of A Bola.
When asked if he enjoyed his time as an English player, the 32-year-old replied that he was grateful the Whites gave him the opportunity to compete in the Premier League.”Yeah, those three seasons were great for me. I had a great time playing in the Premier League. We didn’t make it there last year, but it was still a really worthwhile experience on both a personal and professional level,” Rodrigo stated.
When asked about Marcelo Bielsa, Rodrigo replied that the manager had a significant impact on his career.
“I’ve tried to learn as much as I can and logically evolve according to what each coach demands of his teams, but he’s undoubtedly a very special coach in the way he works and in the way he is.”
In 2020, Leeds signed Rodrigo after he left Valencia for €30 million.
He made 97 appearances throughout his three seasons at Elland Road, tallying five assists and 28 goals. He left the team immediately following their relegation to the Championship the previous season.
In his 10 games with Al-Rayyan thus far, he has five goals and four assists.
In other related news:
West Ham have made a Wilfried Gnonto enquiry
Due to injuries to Michael Antonio, Lucas Paqueta, and Jarrod Bowen, Hammers manager David Moyes will undoubtedly need to add some forward reinforcements this month.
We’re also severely short on manpower up front because Mohammed Kudus is now overseas with Ghana at the AFCON.
Dean Jones revealed to Sportslens that West Ham might now try to sign Leeds star Gnonto. Interestingly, Moyes was hoping to get the 13-cap Italy international from FC Zurich prior to his summer 2022 move to Leeds.
The Scot may well make a second attempt to bring the 20-year-old forward to the London Stadium…
West Ham make Wilfried Gnonto enquiry
According to Dean Jones, the Hammers are keeping tabs on the Italian and are “primed” to make a bid for the quick attacker this month.
The Mirror reports that Leeds may ask for as much as £30 million for the quick-witted left winger. That seems like decent value to me for West Ham.
With five goals and five assists in 50 games played thus far for Leeds, his stats aren’t very remarkable (Transfermarkt).
But don’t let those stats deceive you—he’s a true talent. If he wasn’t, he wouldn’t now have 13 caps for Italy.
It’s important to keep in mind that he is still only 20 years old and has many years to grow and develop as
a player.
Wilfried Gnonto’s lightning-fast speed would provide West Ham an entirely new dimension to our attacking style.
And I’ll be ecstatic if we can sign him this month. But given our current financial circumstances, I believe Moyes will need to sell Said Benrahma or Pablo Fornals before signing Gnonto.
But there’s no denying that adding the Italian to replace one of those two players would be a significant improvement.
