Jesse Marsch has revealed Diego Llorente requested to leave Leeds United in the closing days of the transfer window due to personal reasons. Llorente made the deadline day switch to Italian club AS Roma on an initial loan deal, but the move is expected to become permanent in the summer, bringing an end to his time in West Yorkshire.
The centre-back has played under Jose Mourinho before, during his Real Madrid days, and he’ll be hoping to reignite his career in Serie A after falling out of favour at United. He watched Wednesday night’s Cup defeat to bottom of the table Cremonese from the bench, but he’ll have his eyes on a debut in the Italian capital tonight as Roma host Empoli at the Stadio Olimpico.
Llorente only signed a new three-and-a-half year contract extension at Elland Road in December and as a result, the deal caught many people by surprise, but Marsch has moved to explain the reason behind his exit.
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“Quite honestly, Diego wasn't so easy because we know it leaves us a little bit thin in the back,” Marsch admitted during his pre-Nottingham Forest press conference on Friday afternoon. “But Diego felt that there were a couple of things happening in his personal life as well where he felt like he really needed to change.
“He and I had a good discussion and I said to him exactly that and in the end, Victor [Orta] and I gave the okay on it, based on the fact that Diego felt it was really important for him.”
Asked whether Leeds considered signing a Llorente replacement, Marsh added: “We talked a little bit about what our options would be and what we felt about our group that we had I think quite honestly one of the factors is that Junior [Firpo] is in a really good way and so he's fit, he’s healthy and he’s playing well.
“So it gives us like another option that maybe we haven't always had. Then bringing in Diogo [Monteiro] who we felt fit the profile of a young player that we can hopefully develop, in a couple months he'll be ready for challenges. So we discussed that but in the end I think we decided to stay with this group because we feel strongly about it.”
Monteiro, who made the move from Swiss club Servette, isn’t expected to challenge for a first-team spot at Elland Road right away and instead he will slot into Michael Skubala’s Under-21s set up for the time being. However, having seen Wilfried Gnonto make rapid progress since joining the club in summer, Marsch is optimistic that the 18-year-old Monteiro can follow in his footsteps.
“We had been working with Diogo for a while and we think he's a young and talented centre-back who fits the way we want to play football,” Marsch said. “Is he ready to take on the role of Diego? Probably not.
“But what we know is he has big potential, he could work within our 21s and still, we think, mature. Listen, we're hopeful just the way that Willy has come and developed quickly and proven himself that we can have found another gem like this, but the first days with Diogo have been very good.”
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