Orta confirms Leeds failed to sign January target because of ‘nice assist against Leicester’
Leeds United failed to sign one of their January targets because of an impressive performance against Leicester, Victor Orta has confirmed.
Leeds were in a frantic race against time to sign a new striker in the winter transfer window after Arsenal recalled Eddie Nketiah from his loan spell at Elland Road.
Patrick Bamford was left as Leeds’ only striker up until Jean-Kevin Augustin arrived on loan from RB Leipzig but it seems that the Whites wanted someone from the Premier League before the Frenchman, as Orta explained to the Scouted Hub.
“When you are in a summer market the priority is quality or quantity. When you are in January, the priority is availability. And then you need to detect the availability, that is not easy; you cannot start in December to detect availability,” Orta said.
Leeds’ director of football added: “I have a player that the second week of December is really available for us, near to closing (the deal), and the second week of January he’s not available because he gave a nice assist against Leicester.”
January is a difficult month for managers and directors of football.
While there are some clubs who want to sign players and add new faces to their squads, there are a lot who are happy with what they have and refuse to disrupt a squad of players they put together in the summer before.
Leeds signed three players in January.
As well as Augustin, Elia Caprile and Ian Poveda were snapped up by the Whites but neither of them have made a single appearance, presumably as they’re seen as ones for the future.
In other Leeds United news, an image of building work taking place at Elland Road has been shared.