Victor Orta on his passionate directors box antics and why he chose Leeds United

The Spaniard’s antics – whether it be aggressively expressing affection towards chief executive Angus Kinnear, knocking owner Andrea Radrizzani’s glasses off his face after a Whites goal, smashing a television screen as he struggles to contain his passion or celebrating with fans in pubs – have chimed with a section of the Leeds support.

His emotional reaction to the club’s aborted Dan James signing on transfer deadline day last year, captured in the Amazon-screened documentary about United’s promotion push, appeared to do him a lot of favours with many supporters, who interpreted his tears as love for the club.

His passion did land him in bother with the FA earlier this season, when he earned a one-game stadium ban and a fine for a half-time confrontation with a referee at Elland Road.

The man himself admits he was better able to contain himself in previous employment.

But the situation Leeds’ director of football finds himself in, or the expectation upon his club, can dictate how he responds to events.

READ: 'You are messing with a lot of people's families, please be fair'The former journalist joined Seville as technical secretary in 2006, working for seven years under famed ‘transfer wizard’ Monchi.

In 2013 Orta moved to Zenit St Petersburg as their head of recruitment and then returned to Spain as technical director of La Liga outfit Elche.

Orta and his colleagues operated in extreme adversity at the relegation-threatened club yet still managed to avoid disaster at the end of the season.

“The passion is because I love the game,” he said. “It is true if you analyse my behaviour before Leeds I was more calm in another situation, perhaps because I was in other roles.

“My time in Elche saw the same level of passion, we suffered a lot, we didn’t get salaries during eight months and we were at the bottom of the league in December.

“We stayed in La Liga with four games to play, without calling one pound of our salary in six months, wow.

“It was a good test for evidence of my passion.

“I feel that we made the job in a really difficult situation.”

READ: Orta on 8,000 scouting reports and Jean-Kevin AugustinOrta’s next job was in England. He became director of football at Middlesbrough – ‘another style of club with a lot of good things’ in his own words. Here, the interview moves on at pace.

Orta does not linger on the subject of Boro and his spell there can best be summed up as a difficult time for both parties.

But in the summer of 2017 Radrizzani brought him to Elland Road and that is a subject that brings Orta back to his animated best.

What he found in West Yorkshire was something he could connect with on an emotional level.

It was something he had experienced before, but not in this country.

It was something he hoped he would find, because it formed part of his decision-making process when choosing his next move after the Riverside – Leeds were not the only club interested in employing Orta, but this is where he elected to make his new footballing home.

“When I arrive at Leeds, I felt a Latin club behind Leeds, fans who take this club like a religion,” he said. “But that was part of my decision, when I chose Leeds. I had two options to go back to Spain but I knew the weight of the history of football at Leeds United and I always said if I can, I want to work in clubs with history, with passion.

“For me, I chose Leeds for this reason.”

As Orta approaches three years with the Whites, the future could not be more uncertain. Before the EFL suspended the season owing to the coronavirus outbreak, United were in prime position in the Championship, leading it by a point from West Brom and sitting seven clear of the play-offf places, with nine games remaining. The hope for Leeds is that the 2019/20 season will be allowed to resume, pandemic pending, and Marcelo Bielsa’s revolution, aided by Orta’s recruitment, will end in the most glorious of fashions.

Regardless of how successful fans feel the recruiter has been in his role, regardless of the signings – who we must remember are all human and subject to any number of indeterminable and unpredictable factors that impact their effectiveness – that didn’t work out, what cannot be questioned is the fact that Orta is Leeds.

He gets Leeds. He cares.

The next time he erupts in the Elland Road directors’ box will be a sight for sore eyes.