‘Bit of relief’ - Leeds United boss breaks silence on Willy Gnonto transfer request amid Everton bids

Daniel Farke insisted he did not know that Willy Gnonto had handed in a transfer request to Leeds United - but will now deal with the situation.

Gnonto has formally asked the Whites to depart the club following their relegation from the Premier League, per Sky Sports. Everton are keen to sign the 19-year-old forward and are said to have recently had a £25 million bid rejected. The Toffees are reportedly prepare a fresh offer as they aim to bolster their attacking options.

Gnonto is training away from the Leeds first team and was omitted for a third match in a row in the Yorkshire outfit’s 1-1 draw against West Bromwich Albion on Friday night.

Farke insisted that his only focus throughout the day was the clash against the Baggies and asked to not be informed about any transfer news throughout. Now he expects the Elland Road hierarchy to brief him on the details - with the Whites determined not to sell Gnonto.

Via Leeds Live, Farke said: “It's a topic I’ve not realised what's happened over the day. This topic is in terms of incomings, outgoings. From tomorrow morning I will concentrate also on this topic at work a lot but today I was just concentrated to put all my attention and all my support, my help, my technical knowledge just into these players who were available. So my only focus today was just the game and I told everyone before: ‘Listen, till after the game I don't want to hear anything about any transfers, incomings, possibly outgoings’. It was so complicated today to play against such a side and didn't want to be distracted.

“So from tomorrow morning on or perhaps later on in half an hour we'll concentrate also on the bigger topics in terms of transfers, but I can't comment right now so far on what happened in the last hours because I literally don't know what happened. I think our key people will brief me in half an hour so it will still a long night and from tomorrow and we will also work quite hard on this but today just football. I'm happy when I just can concentrate on football. So that was a bit of relief and yeah, Elland Road was again unbelievable and electric. I enjoyed the atmosphere tonight.”