Why Leeds United and Victor Orta signed a glut of foreign youngsters in the summer of 2017

The list of imports reporting for duty at Thorp Arch included Madger Gomes, Adrian Balboa, Hugo Diaz, Alejandro Machuca, Oriel Rey, Ousama Siddiki, Kun Temenuzhkov and Ouasim Bouy.

Gomes is now at Doncaster Rovers, Balboa was sent out on a number of loan spells, Diaz joined Getafe and was assigned to their B team, Machuca went to UD Ibiza, Siddiki to UD Legrones and Temenuzhkov is on loan at La Nucía.

As for Bouy, he’s still technically a Leeds United player but has no future and not even a present with the club, he trains elsewhere and is no part of anyone’s plans at Thorp Arch.

The lack of first team games for the aforementioned signings, and others who made Leeds their home in the summer of 2017, might be viewed at face value as a failure of recruitment.

Orta believes context is necessary when discussing the work that went on that summer and the art of signing players, which is not an exact science.

When he took charge of the football department at LS11, he found a lack of players to make up the Under-23 side and found difficulty in stocking up on young players from the domestic market.

“It’s two different situations we need to analyse,” he told the YEP.

“The first year we brought a lot of young players from Spain because when we arrived there were only six players registered in the Under-23s.

“When we started to analyse the English market, it was difficult to bring in lot of players with quality.

“We wanted to try to make a practical team, Carlos Coberan and me.

“We didn’t have a team when we arrived, this is important.”

Orta insists that bringing in young players is always done with an eye on the first team, but no club can guarantee a 100 per cent record of success.

And when a picture begins to emerge suggesting the player will not feature in the head coach’s plans, work begins on making another kind of success from the signing.

“The second part, obviously we are choosing players to try and have an impact in the first team,” he said.

“When you bring a young player to develop it’s because we think there’s a chance to play in the first team.

“But the development of a young player has a lot of situations to make this a challenge.

“Then we need to work, if the player is not ready, try to get something back to the club in terms of transfer etc.

“Obviously nobody in the history of football has 100 per cent in these things. No one.

“Normally the percentage is between 10 per cent and 25.

“One in four is making a debut in the first team. But it happens around the world, Real Madrid, Barcelona, the academies in England.”

Of the players previously mentioned only Diaz and Temenuzhkov ever made appearances for the first team.

But there were other arrivals in 2017 and the following January who are worthy of mention and may yet merit senior action.

Defender Bryce Hosannah is well thought of and would likely have got closer to competitive football than the one occasion he sat on the bench this season at Huddersfield, had it not been for the injuries that have hampered his progress at Elland Road.

Ryan Edmondson, signed in November 2017, has played twice for the first team and in his final training session before surgery took him out of the equation in February, the teen earned praise from Bielsa for his most impressive Thorp Arch display yet.

January 2018 saw Tyler Roberts – a key player when fully fit – arrive, along with Pascal Struijk and Jordan Stevens, who have both made the step up into Bielsa’s side in this campaign.

Orta remains a firm believer in scouting and signing young players who might just become the one out of four who makes it and steps out onto the pitch at Elland Road as a senior pro.

“If you make your calculation in your mind, if you get one of four in your line-up or squad it still is good.

“Trying to get quality into your first team, with a process that is within the integrity of your club, it is cheaper and better,” he said.

“He knows all the philosophy of the club from arriving at 16 or 17 years old.”