Leeds United looking to possibly hire ex-Boro man for technical director

Now that the ownership situation at Leeds United has finally been resolved, look for a few changes to be happening at the club. The first of such changes appears to be the hiring of a technical director to assist the club in scouting and development of new talent for the club.

Phil Hay of the Yorkshire Evening Post is reporting that the club is looking to hire ex-Middlesbrough scout Victor Orta for the new role at Elland Road. While not a household name in England, Orta has a pretty good CV.

Before spending the last 18 months at Boro, Orta had worked in Russia for Russian league giants Zenit St. Petersburg. Before working in Russia, he worked at Elche and Sevilla in Spain. He was technical director at both Spanish clubs, and was a member of the staff that brought in the talent that carried Sevilla to multiple UEFA Cup championships and Champions League qualifications.

While hiring a scout from relegated Middlesbrough, who limped to a 19th place finish in the table while scoring less goals than Harry Kane of Tottenham Hotspur may seem odd, the talent he brought in has largely worked out and have been good players for the club. Yes, Brad Guzan was a questionable signing, but then again recruiting Alvaro Negredo on loan, a player who he worked with at Sevilla, was a decent signing that never got the chance to succeed as Boro parked the bus in a vain attempt to stay in the Premier League.

Along with the new hires of Ivan Bravo, late of Real Madrid, and West Ham United’s Angus Kinnear for a management roles at the club shows that this regime will be different than the previous set-up by Massimo Cellino. Time will tell if this approach will work out for Leeds, but at least the new owner is hiring football people to handle the football portion of the club. If Radrizzani will learn anything from studying unsuccessful ownership of football clubs in the UK, the most successful owners are usually the ones who make good hiring decisions and get out of the way of the football people.