Craig Scott

Fri 25 March 2022 12:10, UK

Victor Orta hints Leeds United will not spend big again this summer and may only look to sign one or two established senior players.

Leeds fans have been left frustrated by the club’s transfer activity in the last year with the squad’s depth worryingly thing as well as a lack of quality central midfield options.

Director of football Orta admits the club won’t be able to spend £150million on transfers year after year and instead insists that developing young talents is a better long-term plan at Elland Road than signing more experienced players.

“If you believe in youth development, you need to prove (it),” Orta told Training Ground Guru’s Scouting and Recruitment Webinar. “Our idea is to believe in youth development and to give belief to the Academy. It’s true that it’s risky, that if you have these four players… that if you have more experienced players perhaps the results in the short term can be better.

“But it’s true that on the other side you create a lot of pathways. The other day we win in a difficult pitch like Wolves with Charlie Cresswell, Kristoffer Klaesson and Sam Greenwood on the pitch.

“And obviously another time, score with Joey Gelhardt. Or when we win at West Ham with Leo Hjelde (in January). For the medium to long term of the club, to build the players is really important.

“Leeds United is not a team that can be in the market for £150m each summer. To reduce the gap we need to build careers. We can buy one or two careers per summer, but the rest, we need to build careers.

“And the only way to build careers is to make our project anticipate talent. With the 14s, 16s, 17s… that can be future Premier League players and create this pathway there.”

Right decision?

Leeds are going to face a big transition in the summer.

In the worst-case scenario, we could see Illan Meslier, Raphinha and Kalvin Phillips all leave while there may be some other senior players who could also move on.

If that happens, can the club afford to not reinvest the money into the squad, potentially splashing around £150million on multiple replacements?

If Raphinha goes for, let’s say, £50million. Does that £50million get spent on one replacement or does it get spent on numerous players?

Either way, Orta’s ethos that Leeds can “buy one or two careers per summer” – by that, we assume he means experienced, established players – isn’t right and should be way more flexible.

Based on summers gone by, that has been the Leeds way with Marcelo Bielsa focusing on keeping a tightly-knit bunch backed up by promising youngsters, rather than a senior squad decked with a quality starting 11 and a quality bench.

But look at how that’s worked out. Injuries have led to Bielsa being sacked and have also led to our woeful position in the Premier League standings compared to last season.

We need one summer where we go big, roll the dice and seriously improve the squad.

One massive summer and then you can go back to focusing on youth development.

In other Leeds United news, this £16.6million player has less than two months left to save his career at Elland Road.