'I made mistakes - but I didn't want to miss out on promotion.' Victor Orta speaks about life at Leeds United

In an interview with Sky Bet, Orta reflected on the initial influx of transfers he oversaw at Elland Road and admitted the failure of some of them and the criticism he received tempted him to return to Spain last summer.

The Spaniard became Leeds’ director of football in 2017, shortly after Andrea Radrizzani’s takeover of the club, and negotiated a major flurry of deals in his first window in the job.

He was also involved in the appointment of former head coaches Thomas Christiansen and Paul Heckingbottom, both of whom were sacked after short reigns.

Orta, however, pushed at the end of last season for United to appoint Marcelo Bielsa as first-team boss and the success of that decision has put Leeds within seven games of automatic promotion.

Orta said: “Last season for me, the situation was ‘leave’ because things didn't really go well. Last season I made a lot of mistakes too but we are creating (something) which is difficult for the fans to understand - and I understand that because results are results.

“For example, Mateusz Klich was more than criticised but he is now perhaps in the top three of our players.

“I understand the fans and why they complained about me every time I made mistakes. I had offers to go back to Spain but I said no. I talked to my wife and she said 'Victor, don't be stupid. If you believe in what you are making, don't be in Spain watching Leeds United get promoted.'”

Orta revealed that he had tried on two previous occasions to recruit Bielsa, during spells on the recruitment teams at Sevilla in Spain and Zenit St Petersburg in Russia.

"I know the manager because in the process which changed the coach at Sevilla I prepared a report to recommend him but he decided to go to Athletic Bilbao,” Orta said. “In the process at Zenit I recommended to the board to hire him and we had a conversation after we finished with Andre Villas-Boas.

“People think about the results but even without the results it was an amazing appointment for this club because he increases the standards of the club in each minute.

“In football we're never happy and when you win, you start to think about the next result. In football we need to enjoy more of the journey and we never enjoy the journey. We're always nervous or worried about the situation. But I'm enjoying a lot of the journey this season.”