Marcelo Bielsa's excitement over Jean-Kevin Augustin coup spurred Victor Orta on to land Leeds United target

Victor Orta says Marcelo Bielsa's excitement over the potential signing of Jean-Kevin Augustin made him "work harder" to land the striker's signature this month.

The 22-year-old forward put pen to paper on a loan deal until the end of the season at Elland Road, with the Whites holding an option to buy upon promotion to the Premier League.

Augustin has joined Leeds from Bundesliga outfit RB Leipzig, having spent the first half of the campaign on loan at Ligue 1 side Monaco.

His capture has brought to an end a month-long search for a new front man in LS11 following Eddie Nketiah's departure back to parent club Arsenal.

United's backroom staff gave an in-depth presentation to the former France Under-21s starlet in his native language to ensure he was sold on Bielsa's project, and it was was enough to seal the deal for one of Europe's brightest young talents.

Director of football Orta revealed that Augustin turned down late interest from elsewhere - including Manchester United - to make the move to West Yorkshire, with the Paris Saint-Germain academy product readying himself for a potential debut against Wigan on Saturday afternoon.

"Obviously Marcelo Bielsa has a massive knowledge of French football and as he’s said in press conferences, I always propose players and we discuss our skills," Orta said.

"He knows the players I recommend to him need to fit any requirement of our style of play.

"When I gave the name of Augustin, Marcelo and his staff had a lot of information and data from France and Marcelo was really excited and believed he would be a good fit for us.

"We then started to work harder to get this player for the head coach.”

Asked about the transfer and the scouting of Augustin, he added: "We always monitor lots of leagues and we knew Jean-Kevin following his appearances with Paris Saint Germain in the youth league and in the Under-19 European Championship when he was amazing.

"He reached a high level, he was a player we highlighted and we followed him during his period with other teams.

"This winter, we had a meeting with the scouting department to determine any players who perhaps for some reason weren’t playing enough minutes or might be available.

"When I spoke to the agent of Augustin to see if he was available, he told me ‘there may be a small possibility’.

"From then we began working, but at the start of January it was difficult following the change of coach at AS Monaco.

"After a couple of weeks we received a call from the agent to say that the possibility was now open. With the efforts of many people, we tried to act really quickly to secure the player.”

Following the arrival of Augustin, Bielsa all but confirmed that the club's transfer dealings were complete ahead of Friday's deadline.

United have added three new faces to their ranks during the winter window, with 18-year-old Italian goalkeeper Elia Caprile and England Under-20s winger Ian Poveda completing Bielsa's business.

“We had three goals and the main goals we have managed to get," Orta reflected.

"In this market it is not easy to bring in this quality. We’ve got an exciting young goalkeeper and young winger and a striker who can help us to fight and achieve our goal, which everyone knows about.”