Víctor Orta: "Brexit is the weak point of the Premier"

The Premier League is on its way to establishing itself as the most hegemonic league in the history of European football.

Few Spaniards have observed this process with more knowledge of the cause than Víctor Orta (Madrid, 1978), the sporting director who promoted Leeds United three seasons ago after 13 years of bankruptcy and relegation and who is now determined to return it to European competition amid the general enthusiasm of his fans.

Ask.

When Leeds was named in 2017, he had been out of the Premier for more than a decade, but the goal you set for yourself transcends promotion.

Why did you try to change the culture of the club?

Response.

In my first year I noticed the historical weight of promotion.

The season ended pretty badly.

When the season ended, I met with the owner, Andrea Radrizzani, and told him: “Either we change the club model, or you have to sell, or I have to leave because the historical weight that I notice in every corner is not going to let us work. the model he intended.

Andrea, who was new to football but brave, said to me: "And what do we do?"

We could not reduce the distance with other teams simply by buying players, because after 11 years in the Second Division we did not have the

[relegation insurance], which only lasts four years.

I told him: “We have to find a coach who can help us with good recruitment criteria for players with immediate performance, take away the historical weight, and be able to base the project for promotion to the Premier”.

Then I thought of Marcelo Bielsa.

It was a radical decision.

He knew there would be no middle ground: front door or infirmary.

When we signed him I received 50 messages: "You're crazy, you're crazy, you're crazy... he's going to take you ahead...".

I knew that the club needed a seizure.

If you look at the history of Leeds, the coach has been very important here since Don Revie.

We needed someone who was above the club to get close to that level.

P.

And now what is the goal?

A.

Nothing new.

This club for potential is top-10 in England in every way.

Here there is a generation that is over 50 years old that has seen Leeds champion of England with some regularity, and there is a generation of 30-50 years that has seen Leeds in the Champions League semi-finals and three years later in the third category, in League One;

and then there are the younger ones who don't recall seeing many Premier matches.

We are lucky to be a

We are the third largest city in the Premier by population and the largest with only one club.

That is a social value and generates real ambition.

This year the goal is to establish ourselves between 14th and 10th place, and the following year between 12th and 9th, and then establish ourselves among the top ten.

If you do things right you can put Leeds in European competition.

P.

Since 2020, Madrid has spent just over 100 million euros on transfers, Barça more than 200, and Leeds close to 200 in order to establish itself between 14th and 10th place in the Premier this season.

How do you explain it?

R.

Nottingham Forest [recently promoted] this summer has spent more than Madrid in two years.

We have sold for 100 million.

Our sale of audiovisual rights in the United States closed for 2,000 million euros over four years.

The Champions League sold its rights for 1,500 million and they were very happy.

What does Forest want?

Settling into Premier.

How much is it?

A television contract of 180 million?

Surely next summer they will not sign as much because they will already be established.

It happened to us.

You want to generate competitiveness to stay in the league and you do it because the

It allows you to take risks.

If you go down you can cover 100% of the losses and by selling a couple of players you can be very competitive in Second.

Then I assume the risk of investing.

This benefits the global model because they all have good players.

You watch a Premier match and from the beginning it's hard for you to anticipate who will win.

I asked Rasmus Kristensen: “what do you feel after your first match?”.

"I feel that my first play is a diagonal, I jump with Pedro Neto, he beats me, he throws a wonderful cross and Podence almost scored with a bicycle kick," he told me.

"In Austria an error is not penalized as much because there is not as much quality."

This makes the matches very showy and fans are generated.

Except in Argentina —where the Spanish League is the most watched competition— in all countries the most watched leagues are either the local one or the Premier.

It looks more than the NBA, more than the NFL and more than the Champions League.

That is why everyone assumes the risk of investing to stay.

The Premier is a snowball.

I think that closing the gap will be more difficult, even though things are being done well in Germany and Spain.

The players want to come here.

In the last European Championship there were more than 150 summoned from the Premier and the following country had 80

P.

Are we facing the greatest hegemony of a national league in the history of European football?

R.

At the tournament level, yes.

I think that closing the gap will be more difficult, even though things are being done well in Germany and Spain.

The players want to come here.

In the last European Championship there were more than 150 summoned from the Premier and the next country had 80. The quality of life is not better than in Spain, but for professional players this is like playing the Champions League every weekend.

P.

With such financial power, isn't there a risk that the English clubs that enter the Champions League circuit will multiply their income even more and this will trigger the gap until they become inaccessible to continental clubs?

R.

Yes. But this also has an internal consequence.

I have the feeling that the

six is ​​moving away from the rest of the Premier teams.

It is part of the snowball: if they receive income, if they sell shirts and bring in the top stars, they move away from our nucleus and the security they have of qualifying for the four Champions positions is almost 60%.

That security of being in this great elite makes them capture more players due to salary policy.

The difference is in the middle class: the middle class of these teams have salaries that are well above the middle class of Bayern, Barça or Madrid.

Q.

How can this economic power be counteracted?

R.

It is difficult for the

six of the Premier to sign players under 19 years of age.

If you are a continental club, or you produce high-level youth players, or you anticipate recruiting talent, as Bayern does with boys like Mathys Tel, or Madrid with Vinicius or Valverde.

The continent's teams have to take the risk of incorporating players from the 17 to 19 age range, taking advantage of the legislative uncertainties of Brexit in this regard.

As those players are free with 19, 20 or 22 years, they will end up in the Premier.

Q.

What does Brexit mean for the Premier?

R.

A weak point.

The people of football have tried to contribute all our ideas to reformulate the regulations.

We've told the Government that the best generation of English youngsters in recent history have grown up competitive in the youth ranks with talent exported from around the world: that's led to Foden, Saka, Alexander-Arnold... a lot of players from first level who have been champions of Europe and the world under 20 and under 17 and are now favorites in the World Cup in Qatar.

Now they restrict everything in a radical way.

Instead of protecting the English player, if they don't change the legislation, they will achieve the opposite.

After two years, the English themselves are realizing that this legislation is worse.

We have to open the borders

even more so if FIFA opens borders for players between 16 and 18 years old as long as it is shown that there is a professional contract.

England cannot be oblivious to that.

Under the current law, Haaland could not have jumped from Molde to English football.

He would have had to go through an exceptionality control panel.

That puts English football at a disadvantage, especially mid-sized clubs like Leeds who make a bigger investment in

than the big ones.

If I discover a talent in the Spanish Segunda B at 18, why am I not going to sign him if that way I avoid paying monstrous transfers in the future?

I'm not saying that the quarries are filled with 11 foreigners.

I say mix the best English with the best from abroad, and thus the best English progress.

This has been shown because England was world champion under 17 and under 20 thanks to the Europeanization of its youth academy.

The ball at the foot in modern football is over.

Here the referees allow more contact and the strikers cannot take advantage.

That is why this ecosystem suits Haaland well.

He is a colt riding

Q.

Has this influx of money changed the style of play in England and made League football more conservative?

R.

The Premier is transition.

Whoever dominates transitions in England wins more matches.

That makes it a lot of fun for the viewer.

There is a more offensive football because where you put the money is in those who score goals, dribble and are differential, with the permission of the obsession with central defenders, who have become very expensive.

For me this is not better. English football is not better.

Is different.

I saw Osasuna-Sevilla and there was intensity;

and I watched Tottenham-Wolves and I had to get up every ten minutes to drink water because I got tired of seeing those critters run.

Normally, in each Premier match, of the 22 starters there are seven or eight that exceed the kilometer of high intensity measured.

In some games up to 11 exceed the kilometer.

In Spain the average is four players.

Q.

How is intensity measured?

R.

accelerations are measured.

We create databases of all leagues.

We create patterns by position: full-backs, central defenders, midfielders, attackers... Before signing a player, we pass him through the physical filter.

Whether the player passes it or not, we can discuss football stuff later.

I admit that I am afraid of bringing in a high-level player who will see the match go by because the physical demand will not allow him to arrive.

And this problem is not only posed by the big rival Al Reverse.

Against the big ones you run less because you are more in a position to wait in your own field.

The ones that make you run are Wolves, Brighton, Brentford, Crystal Palace... Here, the moment you lower the intensity you receive a goal chance.

It has taken Rodrigo two years to realize that he first has to tie the game physically to be differential technically.

P.

Many strikers need to receive the ball at the foot to feel safe… Haaland does not.

R.

The ball at the foot in modern football is over.

Here the referees allow more contact.

The forwards cannot take advantage.

The one who receives the foot loses the duel.

He is defeated.

I did not expect the 14 goals that Haland has in seven games.

This ecosystem suits you very well.

It is a colt riding.

He says: "Here I am!, while everyone passes I finish".

And there are many opportunities here.

Q.

Has the fate of the City-Liverpool duel in the Premier been resolved in the summer market, with Haaland's success and Núñez's failure?

A.

You have to be fair and wait for Darwin.

He went through many.

He went through that time of Salah and De Bruyne at Chelsea, which seems like it didn't exist.

They say they didn't play much.

They played 1,800 minutes!

You have to give Darwin patience.

And then there are two elements that add competitiveness to this Premier: Conte's coaching touch at Tottenham;

and this renewed Arsenal.

I see the Premier a bit more open.

Even with the concurrence of United and Chelsea, which will grow.

No one will get 100 points.

Q.

How do you explain the crises at United and Arsenal?

R.

There were figures who structured a hierarchical pyramid: Ferguson and Wenger.

Those figures are over, power was atomized, many made many decisions and the owners, when they did not leave, attended from a distance.

United is still in this process and Arsenal has crystallized it with Edu in the sports management, Richard Garlick as general manager, a well-established coach and a consistent transfer policy.

Sometimes in clubs not one

is signed but three: the

of the coach, the

of the sports director and the

of the property.

Frankenstein templates are formed.

There is no synergy.

At Leeds I have a rule: the property, the general manager, the manager, the sporting director and the

have the power to veto a signing.

When the player walks through the gate there should be an overall line of wanting him to do well.

No micropolitics.

Then I know how this is: I look at the Raphinha queue and it's full;

and I look at the row of Cibicki, who is a Swede that I signed and it did not work, and I am alone.

Nothing happens.

It's one of the bitter things about my job.

But I can't love my job just for the good stuff.

P.

How do you explain the signing of Haaland for 60, Sterling for 50 and Raphiha for 70 million?

R.

Haaland had the 60 clause and there was nothing to negotiate.

In prices there is no truth.

Sterling for 50 million doesn't seem like a bad sale to me because his cycle at City was over.

And regarding Raphinha, after a month of competition I can say that Leeds, Barça and the player are happy.

Q.

What are you most proud of in the last market?

A.

To replace Kalvin Phillips with Marc Roca.

You can follow EL PAÍS Deportes on

Subscribe to continue reading

read without limits

Keep reading

I'm already a subscriber