Victor Orta Leeds United era begins and ends with two words as Andrea Radrizzani makes fated call - YEP 2/5/23

Marcelo Bielsa is where any analysis of Victor Orta's time at Leeds United has to start and end.

By Graham Smyth

The newly-departed director of football brought Bielsa to the club in June 2018, pulling off a remarkable and unlikely coup for what was, at the time, a midtable Championship outfit.

Keeping Bielsa at the club as long as he did represented just as big an achievement for Orta, given the short-lived nature of the Argentine's spells with previous employers and the sudden, dramatic way in which some of his tenures came to an end.

But in failing to get the succession plan right when owner Andrea Radrizzani decided to sack Bielsa, Orta doomed himself to an exit that took 14 months to catch up with its own inevitability.

Jesse Marsch kept Leeds in the Premier League, just, but even in those first few months of his tenure it became clear that his football was not a natural progression from Bielsa's. The two eras did not dovetail. And before a full year was through but months after fans had started to lose their patience with the American, Marsch got the sack.

Everything since Bielsa has been at odds with the impression Leeds have tried to give with all of their work. Being prepared, having plans A, B and C, thinking differently, boxing clever and foxing the market were the hallmarks they would liked to have had attached to recruitment and big decisions, but a squad built for the wrong man has left them to chase after their mistakes and all-but removed their capacity to rectify them.

The problem for Orta is that when it is made known that your admiration of a player is long-held, then you tie yourself directly to the suitability of that player for the job at hand. As night follows day, each signing would be heralded as one Orta had been following for years. That message was hammered home over players signed to play for Marsch, particularly those who had previously worked under the manager, perhaps in an attempt to shield the club from accusations of recruiting Marsch players, rather than simply good players who could outlast the head coach if the need arose.

The need did arise, not just because Marsch was not the right man for the job, but because the squad is so ill-equipped to do their own. A midfield that went criminally understaffed in Bielsa's time is so far off what it has needed to be for both Marsch and Gracia. An attack that was crying out for a number nine last summer, let alone in January, was instead given a project player who is yet to find a place in the team or a single goal, never mind his best position.

In the midst of a second successive season going awry, the Jean-Kevin Augustin saga has become the gift that keeps on giving to Orta's critics. Forced to pay for a player they sent back to Leipzig and tried to disassociate themselves from because he wasn't up to it, Leeds are now having to appeal a court ruling that Augustin himself must now be paid millions.

Orta, like Bielsa, was an employee who reported to others and he operated in the last summer window with a circa £5m net spend, but there was much to lay at his door even before supporter wrath was taken into account. Consistent outbreaks of protest songs, home and away, that targeted the director of football by name made him a divisive character for an ownership seeking to right a listing, sinking ship.

There is a school of thought that club officials should do their utmost to avoid becoming the story, yet Orta's directors box antics walked a tightrope between entertainment and controversy. Yelling 'sack the board' at fans after a scraped win over Bournemouth and the subsequent apology he had to issue saw him topple into dangerous territory.

The final game of last season was followed by a confrontation outside Brentford's ground, between unhappy supporters and Orta, who responded to their jibes by thrice shouting '17 years without Premier League without me.'

It is true that Leeds have Orta to thank for landing Bielsa, who masterminded that promotion, and some very good business - Mateusz Klich, Jack Harrison, Raphinha, Patrick Bamford and Illan Meslier are among his best signings - along with a focus on youth recruitment that will likely give the club more reasons to thank the Spaniard in the years to come. Radrizzani and his boardroom partners have evidently also come to the conclusion that they have Orta to thank for at least some of the mess they now find themselves in.

His exit, hastened by a move for Sam Allardyce to replace Orta's latest appointment, represents the death of the project he led at Elland Road. It will not be a salve for burning anger in the fanbase, it will not fix this season but it was inevitable, if not now then in the summer.

Orta will be remembered for Bielsa and everything good that meant. Getting that appointment so right led to the very best of times, lives changed in and around Elland Road and a rekindling of a club’s passion. Orta will also be remembered for everything bad that followed. Getting the post-Bielsa decision wrong has led directly to this.