Chelsea make decision on pursuit of Leeds United sporting director Victor Orta after talks
Victor Orta is no longer “under active consideration” for a role at Chelsea despite talks being held with the Leeds United director previously, Ben Jacobs reports.
The Spanish sporting director was on the shortlist for the Stamford Bridge club, who are continuing to speak to candidates for the role after settling on Christopher Vivell as technical director.
Discussions have been held between the Blues and the Whites’ chief [90min, 10 October], but as Todd Boehly looks ahead with plans to add more clubs to his portfolio Orta is now out of the running, along with Paris Saint-Germain’s Luis Campos.
Writing on his personal Twitter account on Wednesday (12 October) CBS journalist Jacobs said: “Norwich’s Stuart Webber is in the running to become Chelsea’s sporting director.
“One of several candidates spoken to last week. Chelsea impressed by the diversity of his CV, which includes a three-year spell at Liverpool as recruitment director.
“Lots of candidates spoken to with various options explored. There may even be a ‘group’ recruitment head as/when Chelsea add other clubs to their portfolio allowing for a longer-term senior appointment.
“Luis Campos and Victor Orta are not under active consideration.”
Unimpressed
PSG’s Campos was thought to not be interested in the move, so it appears that the Chelsea hierarchy must not have seen what they were looking for from their meeting with Orta.
That will be great news for Jesse Marsch who made very plain that he didn’t want him to go when the question was put to him before the Aston Villa game on 30 September.
What it says about Orta’s credentials is hard to discern, as for all the talk of clear strategy at Stamford Bridge, their approach has been pretty scattergun in actually pursuing it.
It saves Andrea Radrizzani from needing to find a replacement ahead of the January transfer window, where it appears that the United man has been active already, although fruitlessly it has turned out in the Cody Gakpo chase.
He divides opinion with some but Orta pulled off a pretty strong summer transfer window in securing the majority of the required targets early on and with minimal fuss.
The elusive final attacking piece was another matter, and with the Gakpo route also now hitting the skids he has a job on his hands to find an answer in the coming months if the kind of frustrating January that was seen last season can be avoided.
He will likely also need to be making some plans to work on the defence, which remains the weakest area of the squad, so with a potential move to London now off his mind he can focus fully on strengthening the Whites.
In other Leeds United news, a major outgoing concern for Orta may have been removed from his workload in the last week.