Gnonto advice on return, early Leeds United pelters and a transfer hill Farke won't die on

Goals and assists before the end of August will aid the process, but, until then, Brenden Aaronson need only speak to Wilfried Gnonto for tips on Leeds United redemption. The 23-year-old is one of nine players currently bound for Thorp Arch returns after loan spells away last season.

Aaronson was expected to be one of the nine to make his return brief, if, indeed, he ever made it through the training ground gates. Loan spells end and parent-club contracts go on, but summers are a strange time for players being told to indefinitely delay their returns or to train elsewhere.

Some managers do not want the neat chemistry of their dressing room or training complex soured by players outside their plans. While the wait goes on to see when, or if, Diego Llorente, Rasmus Kristensen or Max Wober return to West Yorkshire this summer, we now know Aaronson certainly will.

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As first reported by the Yorkshire Evening Post, the American has already got his foot in the door and spoken with Farke. After a mixed campaign away in the Bundesliga, where Union Berlin narrowly avoided relegation, Aaronson had the opportunity to stay in the German capital or pursue other avenues on the continent.

Instead, with three years still to run on the contract he signed last year, Aaronson wants to reintegrate himself with a squad that fell a whisker short of a top-flight return. A desire to return to Leeds in the Premier League would have made it virtually impossible for Aaronson to win over the cynics, but some fans will at least place a degree of stock in him returning for Championship football.

What Aaronson wants is fairly academic. Farke’s view on this situation is critical. His power inside the club, as manager rather than head coach, gives him the final say on anything involving the playing squad.

Farke does not owe anything to Aaronson. The attacker’s arrival predates the German and his loan exit was confirmed five days after Farke came in, waved through by one of those pesky loan clauses.

If Aaronson is reporting for training in pre-season and looking to return the Whites to the top flight, it’s because Farke believes there is potential to work with. The manager unflatteringly described returning loanees as appetising as microwaved leftovers in the past, but perhaps this is not a hill he wants to die on this summer.

Even before you get into the possible exits in the forthcoming transfer window, there is a clear need in this squad, as it is, for a central attacking midfielder. Whatever your thoughts on Aaronson’s quality, he can play behind a central striker and, in the second tier, there will be hopes he can have a far bigger impact than he did in the Premier League.

If Farke did want to make an example of Aaronson, to underline what is to come for the returners, he could create more work for himself and the recruitment department. Another loan would be needed, which covers a sizeable proportion of Aaronson’s wages, or a sale that almost certainly fails to break even on United’s initial outlay.

Once those bridges were crossed there would then be the small matter of going out to find another creative option in the final third. Toss in the potential sales of Crysencio Summerville and Gnonto, and there is even more work to be done in the transfer market for attackers.

Aaronson has evidently made the right noises, as Gnonto did late last August, to convince Farke there is something to work with from next month. Goals, assists, hard work, staying upright and taking a few early pelters should see everyone onto a new footing from September.