'Time to cash in' - Leeds United fans offer blunt Joe Gelhardt Hull City transfer verdict with £2-3m demand
The on-loan Leeds United forward has got off to an excellent start at Hull City.
Leeds United fans believe their club should ‘cash in’ on Joe Gelhardt with the aim of making a seven-figure profit on their summer 2020 signing.
Gelhardt joined Championship rivals Hull City on a six-month loan in January with the hope of finding regular football elsewhere. The 22-year-old was given just 10 minutes of league action during the first half of the campaign at Elland Road, with a wealth of attacking talent pushing him down the pecking order.
Regular football has most definitely come at Hull, with nine appearances producing two goals and plenty of impressive moments as Gelhardt twice did his parent club a favour in beating Sheffield United and Sunderland. A return to Farke’s first-team plans looks unlikely, especially if Leeds are a Premier League team come summer, but there is still bags of potential.
Gelhardt transfer verdict
Hull aren’t thought to have included a permanent purchase option into Gelhardt’s loan deal and so if they want to sign him, negotiations will have to take place. And so the YEP posed a question to Leeds fans on social media, asking how much the young forward would be worth if a permanent move was mooted.
The Welsh Leeds Fan said: “Time to cash in. We paid around £1m for him, and we can get about £2.5m back”. To which Rob Huntington replied: “The lad has bags of growth and development yet. 2.5m is nothing.”
Chris Gore wrote: “3 mil max, everyone bangs on about his potential, he’s 23 next, decent signing for a low or mid table championship club though”. And Rob Nay seemed to agree with the price-tag: “It's too early to say. He has very little experience and isn't an established Championship player. If he has a successful loan at Hull, he'll possibly be valued about £3M.”
Eric Varnado said: “2M seems fair. I think he could end up being a decent championship player.” While Paul Barnes wrote: “I’d say [he’s worth] around 6-7m considering his age, potential and versatility. We’ll likely sell for 3m though.”
Hull’s Gelhardt stance
It remains to be seen whether Hull will decide to enter negotiations over a permanent deal but Gelhardt is doing his chances of a long-term switch no harm. The former Wigan man, who Leeds signed for just £1million back in 2020, has played across the attacking unit and is flourishing under new manager Ruben Selles.
Gelhardt’s fast reactions saw him score the opener as Hull beat relegation rivals Plymouth Argyle 2-0 on Tuesday, taking a massive step towards safety as a result. And renewing Championship status at the MKM Stadium could be what earns the on-loan Leeds man a permanent move, as head coach Selles suggested back in January following his loan arrival.
"For the moment, it's a player that we want, and we believe he can be really good for us,” he told Hull Live. “Obviously, if we do things properly and we end up where we want to end up [still in the Championship], and he ends up playing the minutes that we want him to play and doing the things that we want him to do, I think it will definitely be something that we need to evaluate [in summer].”