Victor Orta was appointed as Leeds United sporting director in May 2017, just days after Andrea Radrizzani took full ownership of the English club.
The Whites were then in the Championship and returned to the top division in 2020, after being out of the Premier League for 16 years.
It was under the orders of Marcelo Bielsa that Leeds achieved promotion. The Argentine coach arrived at Elland Road in 2018, a year after Orta joined the club.
El País have published a detailed interview with the Spaniard. The first question posed to Orta was what changes he made in helping Leeds get back to the Premier League.
When responding to this, Orta revealed the support he received from Radrizzani, after he sent a clear message to the Whites chairman.
“In my first year I noticed the historical weight of promotion. The season ended pretty badly,” he said.
“When the season ended, I met with the owner, Andrea Radrizzani, and told him: ‘Either we change the club model, or you have to sell, or I have to leave because the historical weight that I notice in every corner is not going to let us work the model you intended’.
“Andrea, who was new to football but brave, told me: ‘And what do we do?’ We could not reduce the distance with other teams simply by buying players, because after 11 years in the second division we did not have the parachute payment [relegation insurance], which only lasts four years.
“I told him: ‘We have to look for a coach who can help us with good recruitment criteria for players with immediate performance, take away the historical weight, and we can base the project for promotion to the Premier League’.
“Then I thought of Marcelo Bielsa. It was a radical decision. I knew there would be no middle ground: front door or infirmary.
“When we signed him I received 50 messages: ‘You’re crazy, you’re crazy, you’re crazy… he’s going to take you ahead…’ I knew that the club needed a seizure. If you look at the history of Leeds, the coach has been very important here since Don Revie. We needed someone who was above the club to get close to that level.”
Leeds sacked Bielsa and Jesse Marsch was appointed as his successor in February. Orta has detailed the Whites’ goal for this season and in the near future.
“Nothing new. This club for potential is top 10 in England in every way,” the Leeds chief explained.
“Here there is a generation that is over 50 years old that has seen Leeds champion of England with some regularity, and there is a generation of 30-50 years that has seen Leeds in the Champions League semi-final and three years later in the third category, in League One; and then there are the younger ones who don’t recall seeing many Premier League matches.
“We are lucky to be a one club city. We are the third largest city in the Premier League by population and the largest with only one club. That is a social value and generates real ambition.”
“This year the goal is to establish ourselves between 14th and 10th place, and the following year between 12th and 9th, and then establish ourselves among the top ten. If you do things right, you can put Leeds in European competition.”
