Leeds United’s players are not scheduled to return to pre-season training until the start of July but many have posted pictures and videos on social media, showing they are already putting the work in.
The likes of Mateo Joseph, Sam Greenwood and Charlie Crew have all been working hard in the off-season ahead of a return to Thorp Arch in a week’s time, ahead of the club’s opener against Portsmouth.
Daniel Farke will at least have the entire summer to get on the training pitch with the squad and try to improve what such a brilliant season last term, right up until the last few weeks and the trip to Wembley.
Leeds are expected to welcome back a few new faces, with Brenden Aaronson definitely returning after a loan at Union Berlin. Greenwood looks as though he could return this summer, with nothing yet revealed.
Rutter putting in graft ahead of pre-season with West Ham man
Farke will have a number of decisions to make the Leeds squad that returns early next month will look a whole lot different to the one that prepares to play against Portsmouth at the end of the summer’s work.
While Leeds need to sell and the likes of Willy Gnonto, Crysencio Summerville and Archie Gray continue to get looked at by bigger clubs, it may come as a little bit of a surprise that Rutter is not linked to exit.
The Frenchman is clearly looking to put last season’s failure to get promoted behind him by starting training early this week, posting a video on Instagram alongside £17.5m West Ham man Maxwell Cornet.
Why no clubs are showing interest in Leeds star Rutter, yet
Crysencio Summerville pretty much has half the Premier League eying a move for him while Nottingham Forest have tabled a bid worth £16.9m for Willy Gnonto, while Inter Milan are also said to want Gnonto.
But the reason they have attracted interest is because they cost Leeds pennies. Summerville, a fee of £1.3m while he was a teenager and Gnonto slightly more at £3.8m, given clubs a lot of profit to work with.
They can convince Leeds that they would still be achieving huge profit on the likes of Gnonto and Dutch star Summerville but still manage to knock the price down, but for Rutter it is a completely different story.
The club-record signing, costing a fee of £35m, is not going to be sold at a discount by the club and who will realistically pay £40m or more for a player that was excellent last term, albeit in the Championship?