Leeds United chief on 'good season', five-year project, fans' 'demand' and Aston Villa admission

Leeds stormed to a ninth-placed finish under Marcelo Bielsa upon their top-flight return after a 17-year absence in 2020-21 but only avoided relegation on the final day of last season under new boss Jesse Marsch who replaced Bielsa after the Argentine was sacked.

Marsch’s Whites currently sit 15th ahead of the season’s restart but also have games in hand and Orta says finishing one place higher would mark a very good achievement given the competitive nature of the division. Longer term, the Whites director of football says there is a “demand” from fans for European football and that his dream is to achieve it despite the obstacles of sides like Newcastle United and Aston Villa being a “step above”.

"You have to establish yourself first,” said Orta, speaking to Spanish publication Diario AS and asked what would be a good season for Leeds and how he saw the project five years from now.

"Anything between 10th and 13th, 10th and 14th is a very good season. Getting three consecutive years in the Premier after 17 years out of it, stabilising the structure, the ideas and perhaps, little by little, moving on to more ambitious projects.

"It is very difficult and very competitive, even outside the top-six there are rivals like Newcastle and Aston Villa that seem like a step above. Personally, I have the dream of returning this team to its place, which is to play in European competition because it has already done so, because it has done so successfully. It's not easy, but the fans demand it, I don't know if through a cup classification, hopefully through a league classification. But I think that immobility in football is one of the worst defects."