Orta lays into transfer guru - Marching On Together 30/3/22

Orta lays into transfer guru

In a recent radio interview, Leeds Director of Football Victor Orta has hit out at Italian Sports Journalist Fabrizio Romano, for repeatedly tweeting false information to millions of Leeds fans relating to a release clause in Raphinha's contract. According to Ramano, the Brazilian ace has two clauses in his contract, one if Leeds were to be relegated, and a buyout provision. It is true, that if Leeds were to return to the Championship, Raphinha could leave ER for as little as 20m, but rumours of a 65m buy out clause have proved to be untrue. Speaking on Radio Marca, Orta was quoted as saying...

Raphinha doesn’t have a clause if we stay in the Premier League. I say this because a transfer guru said the other day that he had a clause for an amount and he doesn’t. Sometimes the transfer guru is wrong. He doesn’t have a clause if we stay in the Premier League. When the player knocked on the door of Leeds, the first thing I said to him was, ‘you’re going to invite me to the World Cup in Qatar’. And he looked stupid, he didn’t believe it.

We’ve been meeting our goals and the player knows that Leeds and his coaching staff, who have collaborated a lot, and the club has helped his figure grow and has responded with great quality, being a differential player in the league. He has to continue doing the same and in summer, when the time comes, I’m sure there’s time for everything.

Fortunately, Raphinha’s career management is carried out by a top-level player who knows how to handle this, which is Deco. I have had several conversations with Deco. Deco helps me and I can’t say that everyone helps. In this case, Deco knows that the current objective of the team that bet on his footballer has only one name: save himself and stay in the Premier League. Everything that is of the future will come.

David Villa convinced me to sign Jack Harrison

During his interview with Radio Marca, Victor Orta discussed the 2018 Summer (loan) signing of Jack Harrison. The former Manchester City youngster is fast approaching his 150th appearance for the Whites, but according to Orta, things could have been very different had the top two targets not turned him down.

Leeds first choice was Harvey Barnes. Everything was agreed with the winger, but at the 11th hour, he changed his mind, and opted to sign for the Baggies instead. Their second choice was Florian Jozefzoon, but astonishingly, the Suriname International chose Derby County instead. Leeds dodged a bullet there. His spell at Pride Park was unsuccessful, and he was moved on to Rotherham. He now plays his football at Ligue 2 outfit US Quevilly.

With Jack Harrison, for example. Luckily, it’s gone pretty well. We had Harvey Barnes locked down, he decided to go to West Bromwich on loan at the very last moment. We had Jozefzoon, but he took the wrong train and He went to Derby. And Jack was the third option. We believed in the method, in decision-making, it must be admitted, David Villa convinced me.

In 63 Premier League appearances, Harrison has netted 13 times, and laid on nine assists!

Leeds linked with Barca flop

Several media outlets have linked Leeds with Barcelona winger Trincao. The Portugese International winger, 22, joined the Catalan giants in 2020 for 25 m, but as yet, has not rediscovered the form he showed whilst at Braga. He has spent this season on loan at Wolves, and according to the stats on 'Who Scored', has an average rating of 6.60, ranking him 17th out of 24. His best performance for Bruno Lage's team was against Leeds several weeks ago, where he scored his only goal of the season. Wolves have made it clear that they are not interested in signing Trincao on a permanent basis.

Exciting stat shows Leeds are moving in the right direction

Leeds are averaging an xG (expected goals) tally of 2.07 per game in Marsch’s four matches in charge, the most of any side in the Premier League. xG is a metric that measures the quality of a goalscoring opportunity – the higher it is, the better the chance of scoring! Apart from the Villa game, Leeds are looking more like the team of last season. They have ridden their luck at times in the last few games, but with the way the season has gone, they are over due a lucky break!