OPINION
There is no doubting that the success of former Leeds United manager Paul Heckingbottom and current boss Marcelo Bielsa has been like chalk and cheese – but their philosophies might not have been too different.
The ex-Barnsley boss found himself sacked from his short Elland Road reign in the summer and replaced by the Argentine, the top brass failing to give him a shot at recruiting his own players in the summer transfer window, having arrived just after the January market.
It seems as though recruitment was where Heckingbottom and the club – primarily director of football Victor Orta – were at loggerheads, with the former revealing conflict behind the scenes at Elland Road.
Speaking to the Not The Top 20 podcast, he said: “The recruitment needed to be focused on players who were capable of playing in the Championship, not potentially capable.
“Looking back now, that was more the financial director, director of football’s ideas. They’d got Andrea (Radrizzani) to buy along with. The conflict came in how I saw the game and how I wanted the game to be played.
“How you recruit, the environment you try and create, the behaviours you want your players to demonstrate, your staff to demonstrate, every interaction, every decision then is borne off that model of performance. There was a lot of work needed doing before we could get to that.”
With that in mind, it appears as though Orta himself was lucky to escape with his head after last season’s failings, for there was plenty of blame which could and perhaps should have been laid at his door.
There are very few successes among his transfer business from last season and while he appears to have redeemed himself during the summer – a case of lessons learned – the question might be asked as to why he was not under the cosh when Heckingbottom, who had no input in the squad, was facing the axe.
It was a battle that the manager ended up losing and it does not seem to have been a bad decision for the Whites – how different things could have been had Orta taken the blame he probably deserved.