Leeds United transfer guru's job status confirmed as Whites take step to avoid Elland Road pitfall

The early post-Victor Orta era of Elland Road recruitment will be judged on the outcome of this season's promotion push and if it undoes the damage done by the poor decisions of the previous regime then it will only be seen in a glowing light. Just a few months into the campaign, however, and in the light of the inherited contractual mess and a summer mass exodus, it can already be said that the choices made in the summer window were sensible ones. Ethan Ampadu, Joel Piroe, Joe Rodon and Sam Byram have steadily built themselves reputations as solid signings and Glen Kamara is well on his way to joining them. Perhaps the biggest no-brainer of the entire summer was Daniel Farke, however, as low-risk a manager as you could hope to find among those likely to mastermind a credible promotion charge. Leeds did not look too far afield when it came to their recruitment and they ignored the left field entirely. Even the lesser-known Ilia Gruev was a well-known entity to Farke, who embodied his job title with a definitive say-so in who arrived at Elland Road.

Beyond Farke, though, was a body of work and all the decisions that went into it, taken largely by persons unknown. Not entirely, of course, because CEO Angus Kinnear's involvement was obvious, Leeds announced Gretar Steinsson as their new technical director and put out a statement confirming the appointment of Nick Hammond as an interim football advisor. Quite how the trio divvied up the work and the judgement calls has remained an untold story, however. In fact much of the goings on behind closed doors at Elland Road since 49ers Enterprises took over has remained just that, behind closed doors. Club chairman Paraag Marathe recently popped along to a meeting of the Leeds United Supporters Trust for an informal chat about his background, experience and topics of general interest to the audience. It was requested that notes were not taken. The 49ers position appears to be that when there is something of significance to say then they will say it, but until then the football and Farke can do the talking.

Whether intentional or not, although the former feels likely, the low profile keeping has thus far removed the danger of any one individual becoming a lightning rod. If signings cannot be attributed to the work, decision-making or footballing knowledge of one club employee in particular, then their success or failure becomes a club responsibility. How many of the new arrivals came through the doors accompanied by a declaration of just how long Orta had been admiring them? Ultimately, as the figurehead and Spanish-media quoted mouthpiece of Leeds' transfer work Orta was then inextricably linked to all of its ups and downs. The criticism of him was, at times, as ludicrously over the top as some of his directors box antics. In some cases criticism was warranted and in others it was not because he, like almost every other director of football, had periods in which he had to work with constraints, financial and otherwise. His way of doing things meant that he got and gets the credit for Crysencio Summerville, Pascal Struijk and Illan Meslier, but he then also had and has to take the rap for the ones that didn't work. The summer of 22 was not, in retrospect and in the wake of a deserved relegation, one that earned him much in the way of credit.

Hammond, one of the faces of the new era, could wander freely around Elland Road on a Saturday afternoon before kick-off and do so unnoticed by the vast majority of ticket-holding punters. Steinsson is admittedly a more recognisable figure - he was a Premier League footballer after all - but his public footprint has been faint since joining the club.

In the latter days of Orta's time at Leeds his figure of fun character - think binoculars at Derby County - was replaced by a figure of division. Not so much everyone's cup of tea as the bitter taste of a relegation battle soured things all around Elland Road. It remains early days but Leeds appear to have learned a lesson from that, or at least they're attempting to. How long the main players can do their work in the shadows, undistracted by public praise or grumbles, remains to be seen. Hammond, it has been confirmed, will still be here for the January transfer window and the summer one to follow. No matter who it is that unearths the signings to come, be it Hammond, Steinsson or one of their various scouts or analysts, if they are signings made for a Premier League team then everyone wins.