Very close to Monchi, Leed United’s director of football Victor Orta sat down with members of the Spanish press to discuss the former Roma chief’s return to Sevilla.
After a difficult time in Italy, the 50-year-old left the country’s capital to sign once again with the club that made him famous across European football, much to Arsenal’s dismay, as the Gunners were hoping to snap him up to help Unai Emery going forward.
For Leeds’ transfer guru, who was speaking to Diario de Sevilla, Monchi’s return should be problem free, helped by the fact he already knows the La Liga outfit inside out from his previous time there.
He said: “For example, I had to learn many things at Leeds very quickly, but he’s already very advanced in all that work. No one knows Sevilla better than Monchi… It’s the best appointment Sevilla could have made, without a doubt.”
As well as praising Sevilla, the Leeds director of football expanded on how he and Monchi go about their job, a process he believes is very similar, relying on both good old hard work and the continuously improving technology at their disposal.
He said: “I know that he works with ‘big data’, and with a certain algorithm too, but, in the end, there’s few secrets in football. The ‘old style’ is important… and I’m one of those who says that 70-75% of the methods should be traditional, and the remaining 25-30% is to get rid of any doubts.
“Monchi is the same, but it’s also true that we can’t turn our backs on those types of searches to recruit players because they wipe out large spectrums of markets and are especially useful when comparing the output of your own players. When you lose a player, there are algorithms capable of deciphering which players with similar characteristics are in Europe, and they ‘nail’ it 80-90%, but you obviously can’t solely rely on technology.”
An interesting insight in the methods of a man who has managed, with the help of Marcelo Bielsa, to put together a team that has surprised many in the Championship.
Leeds United are currently third in the table, one point behind second placed Sheffield United.
