the thing that’s different nowadays to revies day is the fact we look fir more of our players from further afield.

However all that needs is a better scouting network.

It should be the owner setting the goals ue points, promotion or even style of play.

The manager then saying ok if that’s the goal I need players XYZ or maybe more generically, a LB a striker who can work in his own and a winger who has good injury record and creates lots of opportunities etcetc.

Scouts then come back with viable options.

Orta role is the wrong way round. He had drawn up a list of players to get before TC gave any input, I seriously doubt any of the inbound players were TCs choice so your point about TC not having to shoulder all the blame are spot on.

One would hope Orta is saying to AR ‘Andrea I actually chose these players so blame me not Thomas’ but I rather doubt he’s doing that, more likely he’s saying ‘I’m a great DOF we have a great system it’s not my fault TC can’t make it work’.

I think a lot if aortas attitude/Support/lack of support for TC will be determined by whom it was who suggested TC for the role.

If it was AR who heard about him and wanted to interview him then Orta can blame TC, however if TC was Orta’s “find” then he will find it harder to propose that his choice, TC, is not up to it.

There are successful teams who run with this model. Chelsea don't have a director of football per say but have technical directors etc. who are heavily involved in recruitment of players. Watford are another where the head coach is just that. And there are other clubs like Arsenal where the manager has total control and the transfer work has been lacking.

Think it's about the quality of the players more than anything. TC has been given a poor squad.

The problem I have with what we're doing now is I don't think Orta is signing players to fit our squad or fit what Christiansen wants. But signing players that he has a link to or knew about already. Like Jonty says, it's got to be working with the manager to identify targets. I'm sure TC would have wanted a leftback

Trying to be familiar with all players everywhere is impossible task for a manager/coach so have no problem with some identifying players with a specific brief.

Just thank as Best says that our team aren’t in same wavelength.

I run a tennis club and recently appointed a director of tennis.

She’s the firmer Romanian Lexie’s number 1 abc has great experience in the training and attributes required to be a professional player. Her brief is to indentify players that fit our criteria for academy, to guide us in structure of our programme and even equipment we might need.

I have to ensure the other coaches are on board with this, and sometimes pass some of their customers over to her, and learn from her but also that she is sharing what she is doing so that if she leaves it doesn’t fall apart.

Communication and clarity so all expectations are the same, but I also am very conscious that I must have any bias towards our DOT or be seen to have any bias, and it works for us.

you don't do you? Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawn

Anyway, we do not need a director of football. The manager / coach should be responsible for all signings therefore responsible for results. I am not saying he should be the scout but should work with a team & he should have the final say. AR should then decide how much is paid for said players etc....

firmer Romanian Lexie’s number
-------------
former Romanian Lady's number 1

Grrrrr Apple!!!!

Jonty - You've hired Ilie Nastase haven't you? It explains a lot!!

great player, complete tw at as a person!

If orta can come out and tell us why he wants foreign ball players, that'd go some way to explain where we're going, if after all these signinings things aren't working....alarm bells should be ringing, if he's buying foreign because it's the cheaper option then we need to get things absolutely spot on

Elland White, you have a 5* vote from me for this article...Orta is all talk ! If we lose against Boro', big trouble ahead.

Good article

It's OK having a guy who you go to find a type of player you want, that's pretty normal in football and they sent out scouts to find these players.

The problem, as Jonty put, is that the manager should have input on all of these signings, because if he doesn't then it's never going to work even with the best coach.

If it's the case where TC has had no input, then Orta needs to go and we need to start again.

Someone, who knows how to run the playing side of a football club needs to come in and set it up properly.

I think the question shouldn't be why do we need a director of football but should be why do we need a director of football who has a proven record of failure elsewhere.
There is clearly a reason why, given the resources available to Middlesbrough that Orta isn't still there working his magic for them.
Case of right man wrong role or vice versa?

Yes I know he has a history of success elsewhere but he hardly set the world alight at Middlesbrough.

You have it exactly right & it's very curious decision from AR to even go down this route when he would have seen the debacle that ensued from Cellini/Salerno's similar approach.The roots of this mess were sown before Cellino sold out could it have been a condition of sale?? Who knows but it sure ain't working.

Sez I think it’s more likely that AR knows he doesn’t know enough about the running of a club and doesn’t have the time, and that’s where Bravo came in and then Orta.

I completely understand it and it’s not necessarily wrong as long as you have the right people and the Manager drives the player side of things.

Someone somewhere is making a pretty penny out of us taking on all these players and I doubt it’s AR or TC.

Yeah that's my suspicion also hence dragging up Cellino again 😎

Hi all
Dont know if any of you have seen the video called #ASKVICTOR | QnA thats on the Leeds United site under LUTV. Here he is ansering some of the questians you are asking.

I found it on page 27 of the LUTV videos.

Page 27??? Nowt like making it ultra easy to find then.

Jamie shows how long it was since Orta talked himself up.

It might help explain why our great start became a miserable fall from grace.

He was on his holiday wasn't he?
The Milwall game was on about page 20/21.
On page 27, this was Eddie's assessment of Alioski - https://www.leedsunited.com/video/89064/ezgjan-alioski-in-focus - where has that player gone?

The fact is that it was TC's analysis of existing weaknesses on the field which AR says impressed him enough to hire him; right now one wonders if such analysis needs to be replicated. Clearly TC is struggling to analyse his way out of this mess.

Bravo and Orta have unsurprisingly gone to ground hoping that the storm would blow over.

That is no way to run any football club.

I've been asking the same question at Q.P.R. for a few years now. Directors of football ave too broad a remit and simply just get in the way.

Estamos, you could imagine the situation going something like this:

AR: so TC, tell us why we should give you the job?
TC: well I looked at all your matches last season and will be depleted losing Taylor so getting an LB is a priority. I'm also concerned that all goes come from Wood so we need another striker, even more so in case Wood leaves. If we're losing Bartley we need to replace him as well and need more steel/experience in midfield.
AR: sounds great, glad to see you did your homework, Victor?
VO: we have lots of defenders, we can cover LB no problem and if I get you lots of cheap strikers then you'll have lots of options. We don't need steel we have Philips and he's not taking up much salary and my mates all over europe have been scouring youtube so we can have as many exotic sounding players as possible in the side as we're currently too yorkshire-centric with so many yorkshire players like philips, green and wood, in fact we should get rid of some of them to make us more attractive to european tv markets.
AR: you must be right as Ivan Bravo said you were, so we'll go with your plan, I'll tweet a lot to keep the fans happy.