Joe Gelhardt left Leeds United in the summer to rejoin Hull City, and the striker pinpointed exactly when his spell at Elland Road started to fall by the wayside – under Jesse Marsch.

Leeds bought Gelhardt, now 24, from Wigan in the summer of 2020. The Whites had just won promotion under Marcelo Bielsa, and Leeds took advantage of Wigan’s financial situation to land the young striker.

His first season started well, scoring 11 goals in 16 Premier League 2 games. The next season saw him break into the Leeds side under Bielsa; 10 goals and assists in 11 for the U21s, playing 22 senior games.

He scored against Chelsea in a 3-2 loss, and continued to make an impact after Jesse Marsch replaced Bielsa. It was his goal against Norwich that sparked a rare moment of jubilation under the Canada boss.

Gelhardt pinpoints where his Leeds career started to go wrong

While Leeds had narrowly avoided relegation in Gelhardt’s second season, his career was going in the opposite direction. Broken in under Bielsa as a teenager, Marsch had continued to give him minutes.

Then it all changed. Gelhardt got 200 minutes of Premier League football during the first half of the 2022-23 season, Marsch’s first full season. The American then sent him out on loan to Sunderland in January.

He returned after relegation in 2023. Daniel Farke got a player who lacked confidence after Marsch’s betrayal. He was not the same player when Farke arrived, eventually leaving on loan in January 2025.

BARGAIN: Leeds should have got at least £10m for Joe Gelhardt 🤔

Have Leeds sold Gelhardt on the cheap?

He would spend the next 18 months on loan at Hull before completing a permanent £6.5m move in the summer just gone. Gelhardt tells Hull Live that his first two years were good, but after that, it changed.

“At the start, I think I was 18, very young, going to a club – I didn’t know how big Leeds were when I first joined,” he confessed. “I’d say it was a successful first two years, then not so much at the end,” he said.

“I didn’t play much, but that’s football, that happens. I went on loan a few times; here twice, Sunderland once. I think it was the right decision for both parties to cut off early,” Gelhardt explained this week.

Should Leeds have regrets regarding the sale of Gelhardt?

Leeds cashed in, with Gelhardt failing to make an impact in the summer after picking up an ankle injury in the first week of pre-season. Many Leeds fans, at the time, felt Gelhardt had been ostracised by Farke.

But actually – even if a Leeds exit was inevitable – it was an injury keeping him sidelined. Even after joining Hull permanently, the striker had to wait on the sidelines to recover from the injury before playing again.

Leeds should regret Gelhardt’s sale, even if it was the right move to sell him. The first reason is that this was a player showing enormous potential under Bielsa, only for that to be ruined by Marsch in 2022-23.

Marsch posted a sarcastic message about Bielsa this week, and yet Leeds fans’ dislike for Marsch was all his own doing. Leeds should also regret Gelhardt’s sale because they accepted a £6.5m fee for the star.

But having scored a Premier League goal already since his return from injury, and having a hand in 21 goals last season for the Tigers, Leeds should have charged a whole lot more than £6.5m for Gelhardt.