Victor Orta finally appears to be winning people over at Sevilla and bouncing back from the somewhat turbulent end to his time at Leeds United.
Marca cover the Sevilla director of football today and how he was key to stopping Isaac Romero from leaving in the summer, a decision which is now paying off.
They explain that the forward ‘continues to surprise everyone’ at Sevilla with his recent performances, which have been much higher than expected.
Sevilla have known about his qualities for a while but were unsure if he would be able to make the step up to the first team, something many youngsters struggle with.
Romero was on the verge of moving away in the summer for gametime as he believed Sevilla would not be handing him one this season but Orta, who had arrived as director of football following his time at Leeds, ‘stopped it all’.
Orta is currently enjoying himself in Spain despite having faced criticism for some of his decisions, particularly the hiring of Diego Alonso as manager.
He’s been carrying the weight of that decision and its failure since, but Romero is one of several good choices that are helping to lighten that load.
Convincing Boubakary Soumare to lower his salary to move to the club, signing Orjan Nyland on a free or talking Dodi Lukebakio into rejecting the Premier League for Sevilla have all earned the former Leeds director of football credit.
Romero is another of his success stories, with Orta having blocked a move to Albacete in the summer, telling the player he was in their plans and could go in January if he didn’t get the game time he wanted.
Without that effort from Orta, the player would not be at Sevilla today and the Spanish side would not be benefitting from his impressive performances.
It’s one of several key decisions he’s gotten right and means he is now getting the praise that was sorely absent in the latter days of his Leeds spell.
