Leeds United chief makes declaration on Jack Harrison future and explains Leicester City u-turn

Harrison has just 18 months left on his current deal and had been holding talks with Leeds about a new contract but the 26-year-old looked set to seal a deadline day move to Leicester City with the two clubs having reportedly agreed a deal for around £20m. Harrison, though, stayed with Leeds after a change in mind from the Elland Road club who pulled the plug on the transfer and Marsch says he is now confident that the midfielder will sign a new deal with the Whites.

"It’s time to talk about transfers, I guess,” said Marsch, asked to tell the story of the bizarre Harrison turnaround. "How I would describe it is in the 11th hour something came from Leicester. We've been talking with Jack for a while about renegotiating his contract and it's kind of gone well, but then stalled at different moments. We've spent a lot of money in the last couple of transfer windows, I think very wisely and I think we've invested very wisely. “But before I think all the powers that be could get together from all the different angles, then in the 11th hour there's some internal discussion in a lot of different ways on what's best for everyone. But once it all came together, it was clear that we want to Jack to stay, Jack wanted to stay and that's why he's still here.

"So I think we are visiting getting that contract extension finalised because I think Jack has earned it, that he's an important guy in our squad, but it created some complication because he only has 18 months left on his contract, this comes in, but in the end I think we all came together very intelligently to say Jack needs to stay and Jack felt the same.”

Quizzed on how Harrison’s head was and if he could see him signing a new deal knowing he could have been sold, Marsch insisted: “Yeah, no, I think his head is really clear because I think it was a chance for everybody to express exactly how important it is. I wish my wife would show a vote of confidence to me the way we did Jack in the last 48 hours.

"When it came so late and when you looked at how we had spent money that then we were trying to contemplate ‘Okay, is it the right moment’ and Jack was also trying to. I almost think it was a little bit in the moment, a chance for us to really now solidify exactly how we feel about Jack and Jack feels about us and how it's all coming together. And I would say that I don't know that there have been many opportunities where a player has learned how invested a club is in him than this one. So I think when big offers come in players have to consider what that might be and what that might look like. I don't fault anyone for visiting the possibility of what it can be, but in the end, once we got all the decision makers to align themselves and we all realised Jack has to stay.”

Asked if Harrison had actually gone down to Leicester – amid reports that he was having a medical – Marsch said: “I’m not sure about the actual details of that, but I was in constant contact with him and so was Victor and everyone else and his agent was also I think helpful in the process to get Jack to stay.”