Key Leeds United player ‘won’t be available’ vs Leicester City as Marsch makes ‘totally ridiculous’ claim

Leeds United return to Premier League action on Thursday evening against Leicester City. The Whites currently lie 16th in the table, and have not won a top flight match since August 21st, when they beat Chelsea 3-0 at Elland Road.

Hopes will be high against the Foxes, however, with Brendan Rodgers’ side currently rooted to the bottom of the division having taken just five points from their first 10 outings of the campaign. But before tonight’s match, there is still plenty of United-related news to get through. Check out today’s main Leeds headlines below...

Marsch reveals injury news

Leeds United manager Jesse Marsch has addressed his side’s injury concerns ahead of Thursday evening’s Premier League clash with Leicester City. The two clubs head into the encounter at the King Power Stadium in urgent need of three points, with Marsch revealing that his team will be without a number of sidelined players.

He said: “Adam (Forshaw) is coming back from injury but feeling good. Stuart (Dallas) is still injured and Archie Gray. And then Pascal Struijk picked up a little bit of an injury and won’t be available for tomorrow. But we are hopeful that by Sunday he will be available.”

Junior Firpo recently returned from injury, however, and he will replace Struijk at the back. Marsch added: “Junior will start and he will be ready. I think he’s been patiently waiting and also trying to make sure that he’s sharp, fit and strong so that when he gets called upon, he’s ready to go. So I’m excited for him to have his opportunity now and to show that he’s ready.

“And then yes, Willy (Gnonto) will be with us and Joffy (Joe Gelhardt) and Sam (Greenwood) and some of the guys that we have talked about that have done a little bit of double duty will be with us. We knew that we had a three game week so we have use some of those 21s matches to keep them fit and strong and sharp and now we’re going to need them in this week to be ready for us.”

Check out the full story, as well as Leicester’s injury news, here.

Gakpo opens up on Man United interest

Reported Leeds United target Cody Gakpo has opened up on how “close” he came to joining Manchester United in the summer transfer window. The PSV Eindhoven attacker, who has been linked with Southampton among other Premier League sides, has admitted that he spoke to Red Devils boss Erik ten Hag, only for a potential deal to collapse.

Speaking to The Times, he said: “I was close to leaving, I spoke to Erik ten Hag a few times at Manchester United. In the end the deal didn’t go through, which was a shame, for me and my development, and because Manchester United is one of the biggest clubs in the world, but also for PSV, because to transfer a player to Manchester United is a good thing for the club.”

Check out the rest of today’s Premier League transfer speculation here.

Marsch slams European Super League

Jesse Marsch has branded the notion of a European Super League “totally ridiculous”. The upper echelons of the European game were thrown into disarray last April when it was announced that 12 of the continent’s biggest clubs were aiming to form the breakaway competition.

Despite plans being quashed initially, the likes of Barcelona, Real Madrid, and Juventus are understood to still be keen on the idea, while Bernd Reichart of A22 Sports Management - a company trying to resurrect the ESL - believes it could be possible to have a tournament in place for the 2024-25 campaign.

For his part, however, Marsch is not impressed by the prospect. He said: “I think already in our sport, the world is imbalanced, right? Okay, you can argue clubs like Manchester United and Real Madrid and you can go down the list that over the years they’ve had a built in success and that’s helped them accumulate more and more interest and more and more value and more and more riches. But I’m an American.

“I come from American sports where parity is the most important thing to us. At the start of the season, anyone can win. And then I was a coach in the Bundesliga where Bayern Munich had made 30.5 times or spent 30.5 times the amount of Arminia Bielefeld. And it’s a league where when you start you say Bielefeld has zero chance of winning the league and Bayern Munich has 75 per cent of winning the league.

“That’s not competition to me. And that’s what I want to see. I want to see fairness. I want to see people have to earn whatever they deserve, or deserve whatever they earn and I think that any idea of the Super League is frankly totally ridiculous. Is that strong enough?!”

Check out Marsch’s full quotes here.