Emotional, fiery, passionate, a trigger-happy tendency to shoot from the hip, but underpinned by a deep-seated, entrenched love of football. Victor Orta’s temperament and character produced the best of times and the worst of times at Leeds United.
Marcelo Bielsa’s appointment, Orta’s finest achievement, would not have happened without the director of football’s desire to take unorthodox paths, less trodden and outside the box of conventional thinking. As he sat in the back of that taxi with Andrea Radrizzani, it might have been easier to look at a Slavisa Jokanovic or an Aitor Karanka, but he went big and landed United’s biggest fish in decades.
Yet, that same wish to be different would take Orta to some dark places in the transfer market. Regardless of the mechanics behind the deal before and after his arrival, Jean-Kevin Augustin and Orta will be forever entwined as one of the worst transfers in football history.
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Between October 7, 2018 and January 27, 2020, when Augustin arrived, the French striker had scored twice in 30 appearances for RB Leipzig and Monaco. Injuries had already begun to become a factor, but Orta saw a project, a fallen idol once mentioned in the same breath as Kylian Mbappe.
Orta’s impulsive personality would deliver moments like the binoculars at Pride Park, raucous support which needled opposition suits during lockdown, the hand to the ear on the Elland Road promotion bus. Yet it also frustrated and disrespected supporters.
Amid the pre-match anger of last season’s trip to Brentford, Orta failed to keep his cool under the verbal bombardment of some fans calling for his head. Rather than walk away and maintain a dignified silence, he would tell supporters they could have expected a 17-year top-flight absence if it had not been for him.
Then in November of this season, there was the sarcastic chanting of ‘sack the board’ in fans’ faces at Elland Road after the 4-3 win over Bournemouth. Orta would later apologise and talk of the stress he was under amid personal abuse he was receiving in writing and phone calls.
Orta leaves far later than he should have done for many supporters. Last year’s slide to 17th was enough evidence for some to pull the plug on his tenure, but as he leaves now, partly down to his support of Javi Gracia against board members, his legacy has undeniably been knocked back from where it was going into the summer of 2021.
More than just hiring Bielsa, managing that relationship behind the scenes was a major challenge for Orta. The Argentine was exacting in his standards across the club and where past employers failed to rise to the challenge, Orta kept him satisfied for nearly four years.
While Orta will always deserve praise for his role in the Bielsa years, there can be no ignoring his fingerprints in the factors which have taken Leeds to a point where they risk losing all progress made by the Argentine. Jesse Marsch was a calamitous error in judgement.
The American was undeniably Orta’s man in every regard. The vision had been laid out for years in advance of Bielsa’s exit. Orta had courted Marsch, scouted him, examined his tactical outlook, the players he would need to succeed and decided he was the natural successor.
Orta’s colours were pinned to Marsch’s mast and that ship barely ever found the buoyancy it needed to feel like a good idea. The slide in results had begun under Bielsa, but there was nothing in Marsch’s first 12 games to cling to.
Giving Marsch a pre-season and summer transfer window was an at least vaguely understandable idea, but keeping faith with him for so long is what put Leeds where they are now. Two victories, scraped with late winners, from 11 league games were considered enough for Orta and the board to ignore the biggest open goal of the season.
FIFA had hand-wrapped a six-week gift in the middle of the campaign for clubs to sack their under-performing bosses and give their successors time to reset their desks accordingly. Marsch would get another six matches without winning before Orta and the board acted, damage already done and prospective replacements finding their reasons to avoid a sinking ship.
February is not a good time to go looking for a new head coach. Gracia, it’s clear to everyone by now, was far from Orta’s first choice. Leeds needed a quick appointment, but Orta conspired to pursue targets who were far from readily available.
He visited Andoni Iraola, who was understood to be open to moving, but blocked by an immovable president you wonder if Orta should have seen coming. Then there was a flight to the Netherlands for talks with Arne Slot, but again days proved to be wasted on a head coach heading for a Dutch title with no appetite for uprooting his family to a relegation dogfight.
For all of the shortlists and preparation done in advance of transfers or coaching appointments, Orta’s was unable to find a better option than under-21 boss Michael Skubala. Shortlists and wasted flights would hurt Orta with players too.
The visits to Charles De Ketelaere and Cody Gakpo would end in misery. Orta would have to face the embarrassing realisation his emergency back-up, Bamba Dieng, did not get on a flight at all.
There have been Mateusz Klichs, Ezgjan Alioskis, Ben Whites and Raphinhas, but there have been Augustins, Helder Costas, Diego Llorentes, Daniel Jameses, Junior Firpos and black holes in central midfield. The jury remains tentatively out on big-money investments like Brenden Aaronson, Rodrigo and Georginio Rutter.
Perhaps Orta’s legacy will improve in time if some of those on the maybe list come good and some of those recruited to the under-21 ranks flourish. Without working inside Elland Road it is hard to get a real handle on what he was like as a colleague, but Angus Kinnear considered him the chief morale officer for the entire operation.
However time treats Orta’s small part in United’s history, there is no doubt Bielsa remains his greatest contribution. Just look around the city’s painted walls.
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