Leeds United will be active in the summer transfer market but new manager Thomas Christiansen will have the final word on who leaves or joins the club.
United’s recently appointed director of football Victor Orta revealed at Christiansen’s unveiling to the media on Monday that there will be new arrivals at Elland Road during the current window.
Orta explained, as quoted by the personal Twitter account of Yorkshire Evening Post correspondent Phil Hay, that he has been charged with recruiting the players to strengthen a team that finished seventh in last season’s Championship.
Orta says new players will be coming “but within our budget”. Says his task is to find players who want to be here, ” and not for money”.
— Phil Hay (@PhilHayYEP) June 19, 2017
However, the Spanish recruitment guru made it clear there will not be a huge transfer kitty as the new signings must be “within our budget” and the target is to find players who will buy into what the club are doing rather than chasing the money.
As part of the new management structure put in place by owner Andrea Radrizzani, ex-Middlesbrough man Orta will recommend the players and Christiansen will have the final say on whether the deals should go through.
Orta said the process has been extensively discussed and that it would be “stupid” if the manager was given players he did not want.
Orta: On transfers, the head coach will always have the last word. It’s stupid if he doesn’t. It’s one of the things we discussed.
— Phil Hay (@PhilHayYEP) June 19, 2017
Three men who are definitely leaving are the coaching team of former manager Garry Monk, assistant Pep Clotet, first-team coach James Beattie and goalkeeping coach Darryl Flahavan.
It has been widely reported that Beattie will link up with Monk for a third time at Middlesbrough after the former Leeds manager was appointed 10 days ago by the recently relegated Premier League club.
However, the plans of Clotet and Flahavan are not yet clear.