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Willy Gnonto will have his reasons but no one in the away end at St Andrew’s was interested in hearing them. Refusing to play is football’s cardinal sin, albeit up against some stiff competition, and the chants got going in the first minute at Birmingham City: “Refuse to play, you don’t come back.” And other things less printable.

The game diverted attention soon enough, dreadful though it was, but Leeds United are in one of those fixes where what is on the pitch is occupying the mind less than what isn’t. Max Aarons ditching a move to Elland Road to sign for Bournemouth on Wednesday was a hard knock but, however you cut it, his prerogative too. Gnonto declining to turn out at Birmingham was Leeds being stiffed by one of their own, a red rag to a crowd who have hardly been enjoying this summer anyway.

Gnonto risked burning the bridges built by the panache he showed last season and if, somehow, he did not anticipate the way the court of opinion would rail against him, the songbook at St Andrew’s said it all. Leeds had tried to protect him after his non-appearance in the Carabao Cup last week, saying as little as possible for as long as they could, but their straight admission on Friday night that Gnonto had asked not to travel to Birmingham was indicative of a loss of patience, if not a willingness to lose Gnonto himself.

So there goes another love affair, a player-crowd relationship which now looks like a fumble in the bushes which meant nothing and means nothing. What does mean anything in football? A club’s aura resonates when times are good but this summer at Leeds has shown that no shortage of characters will sidle away when the music stops, whatever there was to smile about previously.

Business supersedes football and romance, for the time being, is dead; not that Leeds’ recruitment to this point is encouraging anyone to think that the Championship is theirs to rout.