Daniel Farke has been here before. Three weeks into the 2020/21 season, Norwich had won only once and had already been knocked out of the League Cup. Late goals had salvaged a win at Huddersfield and a draw with Preston. But following a defeat at Bournemouth, Farke was being asked about why two of his star players, Emi Buendia and Todd Cantwell, had been left out of the squad:

“After this last week I just picked these eighteen players because I got the feeling that they are really burning, fully focused, disciplined and switched on to wear this yellow shirt and this is the reason they were not involved.
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“If there is a player not willing to work this way, I will go without him. Even if it means we have less quality and risk losing the game. Even if I have to play our kit man. I’d rather play our kit man than players who are not disciplined or don’t know their responsibility to our supporters.”

Buendia had missed the opening two games of the season through suspension, after being sent off in Norwich’s penultimate match of their relegation campaign. He had scored only once as his team went down, but was linked with a move to Atletico Madrid or Valencia that summer. Cantwell was angling for a return to the Premier League, with his agent desperately trying to engineer a transfer to Leeds, whether Leeds were interested or not. In training ahead of the fixture with Bournemouth, Cantwell was pulling out of challenges and not engaging with his teammates, while Buendia was petulantly arguing with every refereeing decision from Farke’s assistant Eddie Riemer.

Farke has a three-step plan when dealing with these situations. First he criticises the player individually, then in front of the squad. “If there is no reaction then perhaps you have to go public,” he said. Buendia and Cantwell had evidently run out of strikes:

“I tell you what, in world football there is just one player who I would allow to stay in cotton wool and on the sofa the whole week then to play on the weekend, who can do whatever he wants, and it’s Lionel Messi, but no other player.

“Especially with these two players, I think it’s also important they have to show me something and when I judge Emi Buendia’s last weeks, because he had an unbelievably undisciplined red card, three competitive games, he missed the start of the season and missed two weeks because of injury.

“He missed the last game also because of a late injury and trouble on the game day, and I expect that he shows in the next week that he is ready and fully switched on, really disciplined and concentrated and ready to go.

“The same with Todd Cantwell, I love this player, I have supported this player perhaps like no other in this club but the truth is also that his last goal in a league game is pretty long ago and his last assist was exactly forty games ago, against Newcastle in August 2019.

“With all respect, with these statistics, let’s be honest I could have played Grant Hanley or Christoph Zimmermann up front and they wouldn’t assist less situations.”

There was still a paternal feeling to his criticism. He wasn’t angry, he was just disappointed. He could still empathise with his players:

“I don’t blame them, I’m not angry with them, I know we are all human beings but I hope this bloody transfer window will close soon. I think some players are capable to deal with it, Max Aarons is a role model in how to deal with it (ouch!) but some players are affected.

“Of course you would wish that they put this to the side and know their responsibility but obviously some players can’t do this, I do not blame them, they are human beings and this is perhaps natural.

“I am not letting my level drop and for this I don’t mind if there are rumours or speculation or whatever.
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“We need their quality, I got the feeling that Emi Buendia should be the outstanding offensive player in this league and Todd Cantwell should be the outstanding midfield player in this league. I made it clear several times that I would not even sell them for £50 million, not even £100 million, because we need their quality in order to reach our claims. When there is a crazy offer then it is up to the key people in our club to make a decision, without any doubt I am not naive, we are a self-funded club, we have to deal with this.

“But all I know so far is no offer is in, and for that I expect as long as nothing happens that they are fully switched on and know their responsibilities to pay back — this is what I expect and not one percent less.”

Which brings us to Wilf Gnonto, and how he’s backed himself into the wrong corner with the wrong guy. Gnonto has unwittingly made himself a test case in Farke’s desire for Leeds to be in “the driving seat” with player contracts. Gnonto doesn’t have a release clause in his deal so his options are limited. He can sulk, refuse to play, and train on his own in the Championship, or he can ask his agent to find him a willing buyer that actually has some money, rather than a skint Everton. Nobody should be this desperate to play for Everton, unless they’re Tony Hibbert.

Given his agent didn’t have the nous to negotiate a release clause when Leeds were seemingly inserting them as standard, if I was him I’d be trying to find a new agent rather than a new club. If I was him I’d pay less attention to Cree Summerville and more to Jackie Harrison. Harrison has devoted his five years at Leeds to committed professionalism, even when Leeds were sending him for a medical at Leicester then calling him back to the club. He’s never caused problems, he’s grafted to get the best out of himself and improve as a footballer, he’s got Leeds promoted and finished 9th in the Premier League, and he’s quietly got his move to Everton without upsetting anyone.

Amid calls from fans to ‘let him rot’ it might be as unpopular with supporters as it is with Gnonto, but there is a third option. Willy could stop being silly. He could stop listening to the idiots around him who say they are acting in his best interests but are actually acting in their own interest for a juicy cut of commission. He could apologise to Farke, take the deserved stick from the terraces, and prove to his manager that he doesn’t have to consider picking the kit man.

Like Farke with Buendia and Cantwell, I have a degree of empathy for Gnonto. He’s a teenager acting like an idiot, absolutely, but for the last twelve months he’s been at a club and in an industry surrounded by grown-ups who should know better than acting like idiots too. Even the way he joined Leeds was farcical, told to pack his bags and move across Europe at an hour’s notice on deadline day after a botched move for Cody Gakpo and half a dozen other forwards, a few weeks after being described by Jesse Marsch as not ready for the Premier League, and a few days after Angus Kinnear was crowing in his programme notes about the depth of talent in Leeds’ attack.

It hasn’t made any more sense since. For a few months either side of Christmas, Wilf was the most exciting part of Leeds United — his volley against Cardiff and shove-it-up-yer celebration at Old Trafford were two of the downright coolest things I’ve ever seen a Leeds player do — yet by the end of the season he was standing on the pitch at Elland Road while Andrea Radrizzani was busy trying to buy another club, listening to fans sing ‘you’re not fit to wear the shirt’. I don’t have any sympathy for a highly-paid athlete refusing to do his job, but I’m not surprised a badly-advised kid is questioning whether this is the dream he was sold either. There’s just no need for him to be a dickhead about it.

Farke didn’t have to worry about Buendia and Cantwell for much longer. “Ultimately, it was a case of FIFO: fit in or fuck off,” a source told The Athletic. Buendia returned for the next game, but couldn’t stop Teemu Pukki missing a penalty and Wayne Rooney scoring a late free-kick as Norwich lost to Derby. Cantwell sulked for another couple of weeks before returning to the squad. By the end of the season, Norwich had won the league with 97 points. Cantwell contributed six goals and six assists from midfield, Buendia provided fifteen goals and sixteen assists and was named the league’s best player. Gnonto faces the same choice of fitting in or fucking off under Farke. For all the noise right now telling him there’s only one option, there’s still time for him to choose the right one. ⬢