He has big boots to fill at Sevilla but if Victor Orta’s performance as the club’s sporting director matches his personality it will not be a problem.
The charismatic former Leeds United director of football replaced club legend Monchi in the summer – ‘It felt like arriving at Chicago Bulls to replace Michael Jordan,’ he says.
He has already sacked one coach and appointed another, but the man who famously took Marcelo Bielsa to Elland Road, is confident about the future ahead of Sevilla’s must-win visit to London to play Arsenal this week.
He starts strongly with some blue-sky thinking, proposing a Ryder Cup style tournament between Spanish and English teams, and never drops his level with dig at the Premier League‘s failure to clamp down on financial fair play irregularities, and a revelation about the one word he kept repeating in the season Leeds were promoted from the Championship.
If Sevilla don’t beat Arsenal at the Emirates then they can probably say goodbye to the Champions League for another season but he is clear about what remains the club’s target.
Victor Orta (right) arrived at Sevilla as their director of football in the summer, replacing the popular Monchi. He is seen welcoming new manager Diego Alonso (middle) in October
Sevilla are preparing to meet Arsenal for a second time in the Champions League this week, after the Gunners beat them 2-1 at home on October 24
‘We have the people and resources to break through our glass ceiling of the Champions League quarter-finals,’ he says.
‘Inter Milan was the finalist last season and they were more or less the same team that Sevilla beat a few years ago in the Europa League final.’
Sevilla have won the Europa League a record seven times. ‘If you are ambitious but not realistic,’ he says putting his hand high, ‘then it’s not good but if you are conservative (hand low) that’s not good either.’
Orta described the task of succeeding Monchi at Sevilla as like ‘replacing Michael Jordan at the Chicago Bulls’
On the analogy of replacing Monchi being like taking over from Jordan, Orta says: ‘No one remembers Brent Barry who was there only one year and was not really any good. I hope I do better.’
Monchi was his mentor at Sevilla for seven years from 2006 before Orta went it alone at FC Zenit.
‘He is a big influence on me but I have my own ideas too with my experience of English and Spanish football,’ he says recalling the times Monchi would seek his counsel over the idiosyncrasies of the English game.
‘We are friends, me from the side of admiration,’ he says. ‘Any Sevilla win he enjoys and I am happy when Aston Villa do well.’
What did he learn in England that he can now use back at Sevilla? ‘Football has evolved so much in terms of the physical side. It’s strange that English clubs have for some time tried to play with a more Spanish style.
‘Last season the first and second positions in the Premier League were with Spanish coaches. But what is interesting is that these coaches have combined the style of Spain with that predominance of physicality.
‘Now that I’m back in Spain I can see that the physical side is making the difference. Jude Bellingham is having a huge impact here because he has the talent but also that physicality.’
Monchi arrived at Aston Villa to work alongside Unai Emery as president of football operations
Orta brought Marcelo Bielsa to Leeds and he helped return them to the Premier League
His squad building now is being done alongside new coach Diego Alonso who Orta hired last month after Jose Luis Mendilibar was dismissed.
‘The first page of the Director of Football manual is when things are not going well sack the coach. Is it fair? No, it’s not fair. Are they the only guilty parties? No. But’s it’s sometimes the only way to try to change things.’
The appointment raised some eyebrows because Alonso failed to get Uruguay out of their World Cup group and had never coached in Europe.
Orta admits the decision to hire Bielsa was ‘crazy’ but the gamble paid off for Leeds
‘People say ‘World Cup failure’ but I look more at the success of getting them to qualify in the first place because they almost didn’t.
‘And maybe the fact that he has not trained in Europe does not matter. People said I was crazy to bring Bielsa to the Championship. But my crazy idea got results. Hopefully this will also bring us success.’
He only has words of praise for Bielsa and what he achieved at Leeds. ‘He raises your level. And I want people around me to do that.
‘He is someone who is going to make you give your best and that works also with the players, and the groundsman, and the chief executive and the chef. It’s a big challenge but it’s what I prefer.’
Leeds couldn’t stay up under Orta but he wonders whether the Premier League being tougher on financial fair play would have made a difference. It’s something he feels English football is yet to get right. In other areas he admits they have been years ahead of LaLiga.
‘The Premier League started to divide the money more fairly much sooner. LaLiga in the first four TV rights deal was really unfair. And Sevilla was one of the first clubs to point that out. In England they have had 30 years of fairer distribution.
‘But one thing I don’t like in England is the lack of consideration of the [financial fairplay] rules. LaLiga is trying to create sustainable clubs with break-even budgets.
‘Perhaps my future would have been different – for better or worse – if Everton’s points deduction was for last season.’
Everton could be deducted 12 points due to alleged breaches of financial rules in the 2021-22 season.
Orta doesn’t dwell on it though. He’s soon back to the excitement of now. ‘I have been in football for 19 seasons,’ he beams. ‘I look young I know! But I was 25 when I started a director of football at Valladolid.’
Gabriel Jesus scored Arsenal’s winner as they beat Sevilla in Spain a fortnight ago
On the life of a director of football he says: ‘Your future can be in somebody else’s hands at any moment. People ask my why I’m superstitious; sometimes it’s the only way you can feel like you are influencing things!
‘I don’t know if you know the word ‘Kiricocho’. It’s something you shout to curse the opposition. I kept saying ‘Kiricocho’ during the Championship promotion season and people said ‘what is that?’
A quick investigation (as recommended by Orta) throws up various origins of the word – the consensus pointing to ‘Kiricocho’ having been an employee of Carlos Bilardo’s Estudiantes de La Plata in Argentina.
His mere presence at training seemed to jinx players and get them injured, so they sent him to meet every visiting team that Estudiantes had to play, and they practically went an entire season without dropping points at home.
‘You have to enjoy the moment. We are privileged to be working in football. We are lucky people,’ says Orta.
Orta would like to see more match-ups between LaLiga and the Premier League – such as Manchester United against Barcelona in last season’s Europa League
Now back to that Ryder Cup in football idea. ‘The champions of England against the champions of Spain, second plays second, third plays third and so on. A win is three points, a win on penalties two points, a defeat on penalties, one point,’ he says.
It’s not the worst idea, and from a man who has plenty of them. If Orta’s energy and positivity are reliable indicators for Sevilla’s future, then despite their poor start to the season the horizon might not be so bleak.
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