Victor Orta has long been a polarising figure at Leeds United.
Some fans love him because he seems genuinely passionate about the club, while others don’t seem to like him very much because he’s continuously got things wrong in the transfer market.
We can understand the frustration with Orta as it does seem that more often than not he’s making the wrong signings.
Eddie Nketiah’s loan spell was a bit of a disaster as he was recalled in swift fashion by Arsenal, while Jean-Kevin Augustin has had next to no impact since he arrived in January playing just 49 minutes.
Watch Leeds United Videos With StreamFootball.tv Below
It’s a similar story for Ian Poveda, who is yet to make his debut, while Jack Clarke is another loanee who was recalled at the earliest possible opportunity.
So, what’s the problem? Orta has previously been dubbed as a ‘scouting guru’ by TeessideLive, but he doesn’t seem to be all that savvy.
The fact of the matter is that a Director of Football can only ever be as good as the scouting network he possesses, and at Leeds it seems as though he’s quite limited.
The former Boro man has recently gone on record about United’s issues in the scouting department saying:
“Not being a big club, we cannot have a scout in every country and we have to prioritize some leagues rather than others. I’m never going to assign a player to one of my scouts just because he has good stats. I need to evaluate him because stats are not enough to judge if he can be a good fit for us.”
While some may want to dispute the claim that Leeds aren’t a big club, it can’t be argued that they’re not as financially sound as some of the other teams in the EFL, as their worrying FFP situation suggests.
However, this could all change upon promotion.
With just nine league games to go, Leeds look to be on their way to the Premier League, and if they go up they will land the huge windfall that comes with it.
That’ll mean a bigger scouting budget for Orta and hopefully some better signings alongside that.
An obvious bi-product of promotion is the ability to spend big, but what is often overlooked is the ability to sniff out better players with a larger scouting budget, and that’s something United could definitely benefit from next term. This will certainly help Orta improve at his job.
In other news, Leeds’ chances of landing this loanee may have just taken a hit.
