Victor Orta & his transfer strategy

[isrodger]

Victor Orta joined Leeds united 2 years ago with somewhat of a mixed reputation. His appointment or rather the introduction of the role, probably led to the departure of Monk, the appointment & dismissal of Christiansson & Heckingbottom and the recruitment of Bielsa.

He’s embarked on a 2 prong transfer strategy. The long term strategy for want of a better description - recruit the best kids from UK and abroad, nurture them loan them out and sell them on at a profit, in the hope some actually progress to the first team. Players recruited include :- Kun Temenuzhkov (Barcelona B), Adrian Balboa (UD Unificacion Bellvitge), Ousana Siddiki (Real Madrid), Bryce Hosannah (Crystal Palace), Oriol Rey (Barcelona B), Hugo Diaz (Silva SD), Madger Gomes (Liverpool).Ryan Edmondson (York City), Sam Dalby (Leyton Orient), Oliver Sarkic (Benifica), Jordan Stevens (Forest Green), Pascal Struijk (Ajax), Aapo Halme (HJK Helsinki) Leif Davies (Morcambe) Xeka (Braga) Miazek (Feyenoord) Mateusz Bogusz (Ruch Chorzów). I guess a 25% success rate is acceptable, and with Davies & Stevens already coveted by other teams and Bogusz, Edmonson & Halme featuring in the first team squad the strategy looks set to pay dividends, particularly when you see the success the U23s have had.

The more immediate transfer strategy & his performance is a little more up for debate. A few DOF do seem to constantly hit the Jackpot - the fella @ Brentford and Webber @ Norwich (formerly Huddersfield) both spring to mind. Orta’s recruitment can only be described as mediocre at best.

Below I’ve crudely categorised the

Successes

Roberts for £2.5m probably worth double
Alioski £3m
Saiz £3m was worth double / treble
Klich £1.5m
Ekuban £500k sold for £1m plus

Failures

Wiedhold £500k
Anita free
Lonergan Free
Grott £750k
Bouy Free
Cibicki £1m
De Bock £1.5m
Ideguchi £500k

Jury is out - you’d probably drop a few quid on them.

Forshaw £4m
Douglas £3m
Bamford £7m
Cassila Free

In terms of loans whilst Lassoga & Harrson we’re moderate successes @ a high cost. Pennington, Baker, Blackman, Brown & Brothick Jackson can only be deemed as wastes of money.

All in all I think he’s about Par, with the financial restrictions hindering his performance, leading to recruitment of second choices after deals for Barnes, Wilson & James fell through.

Given the 7 players you’d probably build a side around next season Ayling, Jannson, Clarke, Shackleton, Philips, Hernandez & Roofe were all at the club prior to his arrival. This summer and season will be vital for him. In short - He needs to deliver a couple of top quality 1st team signings either permanently or on loan. Additionally it time for his longer term strategy to bear fruit, he needs to see one or two of his junior acquisitions push into the senior squad.

[Selby White]

Don't you think our player of the season Phillips should be one we build around.

[isrodger]

Don't you think our player of the season Phillips should be one we build around.

Bloody hell missed him out he’s been sensational and should be retained .... edited accordingly thanks.

[Deleted User 728]

I don't think any free transfers can be labelled failures at this level : it's not like any of them are on Ozil money so it's not much of a risk.

I actually really liked Anita and thought he looked good at right-back but really wanted him as an achorman but he never got the chance.

The loan market is where it's at this season. We've got enough of a squad with some great youngsters coming through.
Villa and Derby have shown the way - it's up to us to take advantage, preferably of Bielsa's friendships.
Harrison coming back should be a given so I'd like to see one or two of his City colleagues joining him - it would help them settle in too.

[saintjimmy]

It’s a crucial window for the club we need 3/4 top notch signings on top of none of our top players leaving, and with a limited budget Orta has got to hit the bullseye , we faffed about with James in January and missed out and we were chasing shadows in the summer and then decided to spend 7-10 million on third choice Bamford who is yet to show me he his a player to justify that price tag and reported wage .

My own view is mixed with Orta but is that because we have to go to the lucky dip bin more than the top shelf?
You’re right about some of the kids needing to be knocking on the first team door and I think some of them will be .

[ilkley62]

It’s a crucial window for the club we need 3/4 top notch signings on top of none of our top players leaving, and with a limited budget Orta has got to hit the bullseye , we faffed about with James in January and missed out and we were chasing shadows in the summer and then decided to spend 7-10 million on third choice Bamford who is yet to show me he his a player to justify that price tag and reported wage .

My own view is mixed with Orta but is that because we have to go to the lucky dip bin more than the top shelf?
You’re right about some of the kids needing to be knocking on the first team door and I think some of them will be .

Agree with this post & particularly the "lucky dip bin" comment - too many cheaper gambles due to our financial situation? keeping it sensible?

Read somewhere our 3 loans cost around 4m overall compared to the Abraham, Wilson loans for example which were around 3m each - On a different point I dont know how many players Chelsea loan out each season but it must be a pretty good income stream for them.

[isrodger]

I don't think any free transfers can be labelled failures at this level : it's not like any of them are on Ozil money so it's not much of a risk.

I actually really liked Anita and thought he looked good at right-back but really wanted him as an achorman but he never got the chance.

The loan market is where it's at this season. We've got enough of a squad with some great youngsters coming through.
Villa and Derby have shown the way - it's up to us to take advantage, preferably of Bielsa's friendships.
Harrison coming back should be a given so I'd like to see one or two of his City colleagues joining him - it would help them settle in too.

I beg to differ on the free transfers .... it is believed Casilla for instance had 7 figure ‘signing on fee’ to compensate him for his drop in wages. In terms of the loan market, £3m plus a season is a very short term strategy, great when it works but very costly when it doesn’t. Hitherto we have failed to pay for top dollar loans, baulking at the money required for both Wilson & Mings.

As regards Harrison maybe year 2 he will be better, I’m not sure he’d have been in the starting had It not been for injuries to Douglas, Clarke & latterly Alioski. If we are to pay multimillion pound loan fees I would hope the players are real game changers. Kent/Wilson spring to mind, James who’s probably of a similar calibre would have been a more cost effective option, as is the retention of Clarke if that’s how the loans are going to be funded.

Will be interesting to see if we get a real gem out of City... let’s hope so.

[isrodger]

It’s a crucial window for the club we need 3/4 top notch signings on top of none of our top players leaving, and with a limited budget Orta has got to hit the bullseye , we faffed about with James in January and missed out and we were chasing shadows in the summer and then decided to spend 7-10 million on third choice Bamford who is yet to show me he his a player to justify that price tag and reported wage .

My own view is mixed with Orta but is that because we have to go to the lucky dip bin more than the top shelf?
You’re right about some of the kids needing to be knocking on the first team door and I think some of them will be .

Agree with this post & particularly the "lucky dip bin" comment - too many cheaper gambles due to our financial situation? keeping it sensible?

Read somewhere our 3 loans cost around 4m overall compared to the Abraham, Wilson loans for example which were around 3m each - On a different point I dont know how many players Chelsea loan out each season but it must be a pretty good income stream for them.

Chelsea loan out around 70 players. Abraham & Mount were unattainable for us, and whilst it wasn’t a position Bielsa wanted to recruit Reece James was absolutely class.

[Nic]

We don't have the money for big signing - say spending £30M on 4-5 players, especially if we didn't go up, do we want to go the way of Bolton? Quality loans looks like to be the way and I think how Bielsa saw Villa etc field a team where half are loanees, probably realising its the way. You would think that such as City would be favourable to loaning to Bielsa over any other manager because they know the product they will get back will be far superior.

We still have to be careful as there is call for Villa to be penalised because they flounted FFP to go up, if we did it you can guarantee it would be different. We may see a FFP check on promotion winners next year anyway to stop it.

[saintjimmy]

We don't have the money for big signing - say spending £30M on 4-5 players, especially if we didn't go up, do we want to go the way of Bolton? Quality loans looks like to be the way and I think how Bielsa saw Villa etc field a team where half are loanees, probably realising its the way. You would think that such as City would be favourable to loaning to Bielsa over any other manager because they know the product they will get back will be far superior.

We still have to be careful as there is call for Villa to be penalised because they flounted FFP to go up, if we did it you can guarantee it would be different. We may see a FFP check on promotion winners next year anyway to stop it.

That’s the worry nic, we’d get punished as soon as we failed FFP, not sure who’s taking over from Harvey but they may want to set their own stall out at make an example of someone in the near future, be interesting to see what the outcome of Gibson’s beef with Morris over the stadium sale, if nothing then maybe Radz can sell the corner flags to a ‘friend ‘ for £5M a pop .