I hard that there was a pretty good weekend debate thread posted last week, so thought I would look at the good old days and drop one in for you. Due to the suicidal tendencies of some us in every transfer window, me included. Last week we were shyt and had no real recruitment department, this week if Muniz, Pixoa and Stach come off I will be buying Adam Underwoods used underpants. We all like to have a go at Victor Orta and thats understandable as he oversaw the complete capitulation of our premier league side and watched it sink into the championship. We then saw his player contracts start to unravel due to relegation clauses. Recently we learn that all promoted teams need to do similar relegation clauses as no really good player will come without some guarantees, but the more sensible ones insert a buy out clause which is easy for other clubs to fund. In that way at least the club pick up transfer cash rather than the pain of loaning out players but still having to pay for them. However other painful lessons should be learned by the 49ers over the Jack Harrison fiasco, as Jack was being sold for £20m plus bonuses to Leicester and was at the foxes training ground awaiting his medical. Parag Marathe then ordered Orta to bring him back and not only did we bring him back but we gave him a new long term contract to 2028 and a huge pay rise. He never played another minute for Leeds after that and spent 2 seasons out on loan at Everton. So maybe the 49ers are not all that after all. Orta came in to back Radrizanni and a buoyant Radz said to Orta let’s make a splash, here’s £50 go do a supermarket sweep and and see how many players you can get …… we saw what a disaster that was and some never forgave Victor for that, but he did what he was asked to do by his boss. We all know the failures of Orta and we should also give credit where credits due and there was some notable achievements. Building a world class academy from the ashes left by the first Italian buffoon. Our academy reached Cat A standard. The academy was bolstered by huge investment in kids who went on to win the league, got promoted to Prem Div 2, won Prem Div 2, won the cup, won the national league. Orta did this because he managed to convince Marcelo Bielsa to come and do whatever he wanted to do. The academy was restructured and every academy age group played Bielsaball.. Money at the club was tight and Bielsa knew that, but he wouldn’t compromise on the player quality he wanted. Lets have a look at some of the unknown players that Orta and Bielsa went after. Erling Haaland, Mataeus Cunha, Noa Lang, Rooney Bardghi, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, , Raphinha, Emiliano Martinez, Nahitan Nandez, Ben White, Josco Gvardiol, Milos Kerkez, Rodrigo De Paul, Tuen Koopmeiners, Cody Gakpo, Victor Gyokeres, Ollie Watkins, Juan Foyth, Facundo Medina, and quite a few more. All these players were unknowns and all fairly cheap and very achievable at the time, but all now are in the stratospheric price range now. Victor Orta couldn't raise the right money for these unknowns, but just imagine if he had been given enough cash and could present a real top future plan/project for these players. The South Americans all wanted to come for Bielsa but as money was lacking the project wasn’t as appealing. Haaland born in Leeds was watched countless times in Norway by Orta and he even spoke to the lad who said he wanted to play for Leeds one day but thought the cheeky bid Orta was going to present to his club wouldn’t cut it as he was in the process of being sold to Dortmund. Orta was offering £5m plus bonuses and that was for a kid who had just scored all nine goals for his country in a 9-0 win. Gvardiol was another who wanted to come and the transfer fee was enough, but Gvardiol said he wasn’t yet good enough to play for Leeds and Bielsa and needed another season or two, but Pep went in with silly money and he chose them as by now Bielsa was sacked and gone. So we can all have a downer on Victor Orta but in many many ways he did his job to the best of his budget. Injuries decimated a small squad and that was the reason we were relegated. If Orta had been allowed to spend a few more quid I have no doubt Leeds would still be in the premier league and looking at some of the unknown players Orta found maybe actually punching above our weight. Remember it was also Orta that wanted and demanded Iraola to come to Leeds instead of the pre Big Sam Spaniard. Orta had Iraola who said yes but Radz and Kinnear were refusing to pay compensation. In the end Iraola said he would finish the season where he was and talk in the summer. We saw what happened and then the pub team on the south coast lucky to get 7,000 fans in got a new American owner. This owner flew Bielsa into London for a meeting but Bielsa turned down the offer but said he should get Iraola and guess what that pub team are now holding their own playing attacking attractive football, using and selling top players including 2 Leeds players. Radz and Kinnear hung out Orta but the truth was in fact a joint shytshow because the Yank Plank changed the way he worked because he was now at a top club. This plank sold off lots of quality kids (Leif Davies) and ended tactically out of his depth. Yes it was Orta who brought him in but it wasn’t Orta who set the team up in a new system that was useless in the prem. so poor old Vic took the can for everything, yet if he had been backed a bit better…….. Let the argument commence.
Welcome back Doc. Im struggling with the Orta love in tbh. Missed you last season. What a fantastic season. Hope you enjoyed.
Welcome back Doc. I’m long past bothering about radz or orta. Time will tell if this lot are getting it right. Promising so far
Good to see you back Doc My post did the trick then Hope you are keeping well It’s been a long day, I’ll digest the op and comment tomorrow
Good to see you back doc. A nice juicy worm on that cast! I'm long past the orta debate, I just thank him for bring in Bielsa. I hope you keep these up every weekend as I always enjoyed them in the past. MOT.
I was hoping someone else would bite but for the sake of discussion here we go. Ortas signings also included... JKA - £40 million for about 40 minutes. Weston McKennie - wanted to spend £30 million on him. Kiko Casilla - not sure I've seen worse in a Leeds shirt other than Felix Wiedwald Lauren De Bock. Ouasim Buoy - collected wages for nothing. Jay Roy Grot. Izzy Brown. Lewis Baker. Rasmus Kristensen Brendan Aaronson Llorente Roca Helder Costa Joffy Greenwood
Ortas signings - Disguised how poor they were by the excellence of Bielsa, replacing Bielsa with Jesse was a monumental failure and alarm bells should have rung when Jesse started complaining about players not buying into his methods. He had some successes but generally they were poor and topped off with those loan clause signings. My new Leeds shirt arrived yesterday, we have Longstaff, and Stach on the way, think we’re lining up with what looks like 4-3-3 today, which will explain our signings, Ampadu, Stach, Longstaff is a tasty midfield
As I said there are a lot of pros and cons with old Victor, lots of crap named but many were part of the original supermarket sweep, but also some shockers later too. Aaronson was very poor but you cannot fault his commitment in the championship and scored some goals too and some were important goals, but I also think he missed quite a few too. Would loved to have seen him giving the funds to actually bring the CDKs, Gakpo’s and tripple Ks to the club
