The end of Orta's reign at Leeds - The Political Economy of Football 4/5/23

Recent times have seen a dramatic rise of football’s technocrats. Variations of directors of football, football directors, technical directors, sporting directors, heads of recruitment and sporting advisors have appeared across the sport, some of whom have developed highly inflated public profiles, often with ever-broadening mythologies surrounding their talents and achievements. Clubs with prominent sporting directors have often been venerated, credited with having a plan, a structure and a long-term mission that brings stability. Yet the evidence of the past couple of years complicates this theory.

Take, for example, Victor Orta at Leeds United, who became one of the most talked-about sporting directors in English football. He was credited as the man who persuaded Marcelo Bielsa to join Leeds United in the summer of 2018 and as Leeds pursued transfer targets in the Premier League.

Orta’s every flight and meeting became the source of breathless tracking on social media. His eye for young talent drew praise, most notably identifying Ben White as a young centre-half of huge potential, and he also recruited the Brazilian winger Raphinha from Rennes for £17million ($21.2m) — the player was sold for more than triple that sum to Barcelona two years later.

Yet by the end of his reign, confirmed by a club statement on Tuesday, his era and the club’s identity had disintegrated to the extent that Leeds were reaching for Sam Allardyce to rescue the campaign and supporters have regularly sung for his departure. Leeds fans express a multitude of reasons for discontent; most notably the failure to recruit a left-back to challenge Junior Firpo or a competent centre-forward, as well as the porous quality of centre-halves signed over several years, in addition to the hiring of and backing given to the American coach Jesse Marsch.

Supporters have also been left scratching their heads about the decision to spend £35.5million ($44.3m) in January on a then-20-year-old striker in Georginio Rutter from Hoffenheim, only for him to play under three head coaches since signing but make only one Premier League start.

Orta also thrust himself into the public consciousness with some unrestrained demonstrations of emotion in the club’s directors’ box, where he squabbled with opposing clubs and his own supporters, while he also made his way onto the pitch to celebrate with the players when the club stayed up by the skin of their teeth at Brentford on the final day of last season. As with all divisive characters, idiosyncrasies were lapped up in the good times and chastised in the bad.