Jesse Marsch urges Leeds fans to be ‘more respectful’ after complaints about Willy Gnonto chant

Jesse Marsch has called on Leeds fans to be “more respectful” and amend his controversial chant to striker Willy Gnonto.

sports mail revealed last week that complaints have been filed about the song for “perpetuating a racial stereotype” as it includes a reference to the size of the Italian’s penis.

Leeds are understood to be currently consulting with fan groups about the chant and want supporters to change the last line from ‘his massive c*** ‘sf***ing’ to ‘he plays for United’.

Jesse Marsch has urged Leeds fans to tweak their chant about striker Willy Gnonto (above)

Before Friday night’s game with Aston Villa, Whites boss Marsch said: “We always want to be respectful. In our sport, it is very important to maintain high levels of respect.

‘I think our fans are great. They show passion, they want the team to succeed, they can be hard on the team at times and hard on me about what we’re doing, and we understand that.

‘I love how much they love Willy. I’ll be walking around my house whistling the tune in my head sometimes. But is there a way to tweak it to be just as passionate but more respectful? That’s what I would say.

The song has been championed by some of the club’s fans and Clarke Carlisle, the former Leeds defender and former PFA president, is sympathetic.

Leeds are consulting with groups of fans on the song with the lyrics ‘his c***sf***ing massive’

“We have to understand that lyrics that talk about the size of a man’s penis, the social norm here in the UK is that it’s actually a compliment,” he said. sports mail.

‘But that’s something we have to educate about and against. We’re trying to fight those lazy stereotypes about race. Whether it’s intended as a compliment or not, it’s feeding a standard stereotype that perpetuates the narrative.”

Gnonto, 19, is set to play at Villa Park but young striker Crysencio Summerville has been ruled out for a month with an ankle injury sustained by a nasty tackle from Cardiff defender Tom Sang at the weekend. past.

Marsch is furious that the Dutchman and Gnonto, statistically one of the most fouled players in the Premier League, have not been better protected by referees.

The 19-year-old Italian star scored his first goal for the club against West Ham last week.

“The opponents have tried to intimidate them,” said Marsch, who welcomes striker Patrick Bamford back to his squad to face Villa.

“Frankly, I don’t think the refs have protected those two players well enough and made them susceptible to injury and hard tackles.”

“I would like referees to protect attacking players more. It’s about managing it in the game to make sure the players that most fans come to see have the best chance of being on the pitch.”

Meanwhile, Leeds are known to have agreed a club-record deal worth up to £35.5m to sign French striker Georginio Rutter from Hoffenheim.