Leeds United and their players are focused on securing automatic promotion to the Premier League in the remaining eleven games of the season while Joe Gelhardt is trying to ensure Hull City do not get relegated. The forward left Leeds on loan to join the Tigers after receiving very few opportunities at Elland Road in the first half of the season. The attacker is excelling at Hull, where he has the trust of manager Ruben Selles, who has used him in different roles since his arrival. The attacker scored last weekend and has netted twice since joining the Tigers. There are now serious conversations going on at Hull about signing him on a permanent deal.
Gelhardt was not given an opportunity to impress in the first half of the season even when Mateo Joseph was struggling to score and Leeds’ attacking options were limited to Joel Piroe.
The forward seemingly struggled to win the favour of Daniel Farke who religiously stuck to Joseph and kept him in the squad even when he was forced to drop him from the starting eleven.
Leeds United agreed to loan out the attacker to Hull in the winter transfer window, and in Ruben Selles, the forward has found a manager who is prepared to trust him with regular starting eleven berths.
The Hull boss has used him in a variety of roles and the forward has never looked more comfortable in his career since his early days at Wigan.
Hull fans want the club to sign the attacker on a permanent deal in the summer transfer window, and something could happen in the summer transfer window.
The Hull City boss shares his thoughts on potentially holding on to the Leeds United attacker
Hull seem to have been impressed with what they have seen from Gelhardt and are considering signing him on a permanent deal from Leeds in the summer.
However, Selles stressed that he cannot think about it at this stage of the season as Hull look to keep themselves alive in the Championship at the business end of the season.
He admitted that conversations over keeping Gelhardt at Hull can only start once the campaign is over and Hull are secure to play in the league next season.
However, the Hull boss has been pleased with the way the forward has responded to playing in different roles since his arrival and believes the forward is happy that he is getting to play regular football.
“I cannot even think about the next couple of months. He’s doing well for us but first we need to finish the job, and then we can talk about it”, the attacker said in a press conference.
“Joe can play multiple positions, even in the same game, across the front. Some games we needed him as a winger to come in from the right, sometimes on the left, just to hold the ball because we detected this was how we could relieve the pressure.
“Sometimes we used him to press a player. He invests fully in the way we play. He’s intense, he’s energetic, dynamic. He has two components you would like in any player: he wants to play and he loves football.”
Leeds could lose the forward in the summer
Gelhardt has impressed since joining Hull City and has kind of proved the decision makers at Leeds a bit wrong given his lack of opportunities at Elland Road.
Daniel Farke never really felt convinced about the attacker and his decision to stick with Joseph showed that he didn’t trust Gelhardt enough to play him.
At Hull, Selles is getting a tune out of him and his penchant for using the forward in different roles is making sure that he is playing regularly this season.
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Leeds are expected to invest in forward and Gelhardt will further drop down the pecking order if he returns to Elland Road at the end of the season.
With Farke trusting Joseph over Gelhardt and the latter doing well at Hull, it seems the 22-year-old would not want to return to Leeds in the summer.
If Hull are still a Championship club and they want to sign him on a permanent deal, it would see the forward want to stay put at MKM Stadium.
