Is Victor Orta the right man to bring in new players?

With Andrea Radrizzani appointing Victor Orta as our new Director of Football, surely the question comes around if he is the right man. Not only did he just recently leave Middlesbrough, but he left after only two seasons. In Orta's first season with the Smoggies, he made a few transfers in that ultimately helped Middlesbrough gain promotion into the Premier League. But, the following year Boro struggled in the Premier League, and their promotion campaign was overshadowed from the fact that Boro had just been relegated back to the Championship. Following this traumatic season for the Smoggies, Orta had left the club on the 24th of May, 2017.

With this appointment, many fans must wander if he has the ability to recruit and sign new players that have the ability and skill to take The Whites back into the Premier League. And, if history tells us anything, I think Orta is not the right man for the job. But before I let my personal views get in the way, let’s look at some of his signings while he was at Middlesbrough.

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1. Julien De Sart.

After making 75 appearances for Standard Liege between 2013-2016, he was Orta's very first signing as their director of recruitment. For an undisclosed fee, De Sart has not made a big impact for Boro, struggling to make only two appearances for the club so far, and was loaned out to Derby County during the last winter transfer window.

In my opinion, this signing is not a good one, and so it gets a rating of 4/10.

2. Jordan Rhodes.

Boro’s 2nd signing with Orta was made on the same day that they had signed De Sart. Middlesbrough announced the signing of Jordan Rhodes, a striker who played for Blackburn Rovers before making the move. While Rhodes was at Blackburn, he scored 83 times in 159 appearances. 83 goals in 159 appearances is a great record, scoring almost every two games. So it makes sense as to why Orta made this signing, but his goal to game ratio slipped while being at Middlesbrough. Up to date, Rhodes has made 24 appearances for Boro, and scoring only 6 times. Since he only scored once every four games on average, he was loaned out to Sheffield Wednesday and it was announced that after the 2016-2017 season, his transfer to Sheffield Wednesday would be permanent.

Was Rhodes a good signing? I personally think he was just average. His goal scoring rate slowed down tremendously since moving to Boro and now Sheffield Wednesday. My rating for this transfer? 5/10.

3. Bernardo Espinosa.

The first signing during Middlesbrough's poor Premier League Campaign, Bernardo Espinosa was captured via a free transfer from Sporting Gijon. Along with Boro’s poor season, he was poor as well, only making 11 league appearances and ultimately helped Boro get relegated. My rating for this transfer was 2/10 as he made no real impact throughout the season.

4. Viktor Fischer.

This was a huge risk for the club. Not only did Victor cost the club 3.8 million pounds, but he only made 9 total appearances and failed to score a single goal as a forward. But, Victor Fischer is a very young talent who in my opinion, should be playing for a bigger club, and a club that is still in the Premier League. Fischer signed a four year deal with the club, so I do expect him to make some noise this upcoming season in the Championship. My rating for Victor Fischer is 7/10 simply because of the player he can be.

5. Marten de Roon.

Probably one of Boro’s best signings to date, de Roon is a Dutch maestro. The most expensive signing Middlesbrough made last season, he cost the club a whopping 12 million pounds, which is a huge fee for such a player at such a club. Probably de Roon’s most exciting highlight so far for Boro was his 91st minute equalizer at the Etihad which was also his first goal for the club. de Roon made 33 appearances for Boro, which is a great number for a player in his first season, which showed how much Middlesbrough relied on him. He is a big player with a big future at the club. My rating for de Roon is a 9/10.

6. Gastón Ramirez.

Moddlesbrough’s fan favorite, Ramirez was loaned out to Boro and ultimately signed for them as well. At age 26, Ramirez is a full Uruguayan international, and a skillfull midfielder. He has tallied 9 goals in the two years he has been at the club, while making 40 total appearances. Not only was this a great signing, but he was signed on a free transfer since he was not attached to any club at the time of his signing. He will be a player that Boro fans will talk about for years and years to come. My rating for Gastón Ramirez is a 9/10.

Overall, you can see that Orta has made some good signings at his previous club, but the results did not show. He has also made some questionable signings, with the likes of Brad Guzan, and Patrick Bamford to name a few more. It just makes me worried because Orta is really hit or miss. He has signed the likes of Hulk, but there’s too many names of players that he has signed that just haven’t worked out. Not only is this not a good idea in my opinion, but he is someone we needs to be very cautious of.

But with that being said, Orta also has the ability to make crucial signings that can lift us into the Premier League. With a man like Andrea Radrizzani at the helm now, he will not be taking anything less than optimum performance and effort from Orta, so hopefully next season he will be making great signings for us as we will be back into the Premier League.