Victor Orta can't get no

It's the morning of April 1st, meaning great temptation to play all sorts of pranks. Would I? Nah. There's enough of that due this afternoon, 3pm, The Emirates Stadium.

It feels like some sort of joke that Leeds United should be travelling to Arsenal today with, according to most predictions and projections, effectively no chance of winning. You and I know football doesn't work like that — there is always a chance of winning, which is what keeps us coming to games like this. But we also know how rarely that chance turns into reality. It's a weird game like this, football, because it's not about chasing high after high. Instead it's like being addicted to something that hardly ever satisfies you.

The general dissatisfaction of Leeds United circa 2023 wasn't helped this week by Victor Orta giving an interview in Spain, in which he stands charged of basically being too realistic.

I have the challenge of putting Leeds back in their place: they got to the Champions League semi-finals, European competitions, they won a Cup. To put them in their place, which would be for example to get us into the Conference League one day. With all the Big Six in England that is impossible to unseat, with a competition like the Premiership, which for me is the NBA of football... You have to be realistic.
...
If we manage not to get relegated, I model myself a bit on Brighton. The first three years they struggled a lot to stay up and then they stabilised the process and stayed in the top 10. I think it's going to be difficult for us but we want to stabilise the club. Because of our name, our image, our brand, our history and our fans, we have to be between 9th and 13th every season. It is a very important challenge.

This sounds like a very unwelcome admission of defeat. The modern equivalent of reaching the Champions League semi-final in 2001, is qualifying for "the Conference League one day"? No. At Leeds United, the modern equivalent of reaching the Champions League semi-final should be reaching the Champions League semi-final. If not better. And not "one day". Soon. Now.

That's what pride tell us, anyway. For Leeds United, Brighton can not represent ambition. The proud club of Don Revie and Howard Wilkinson shouldn't be settling for "between 9th and 13th every season". When Revie got Leeds promoted to the First Division in 1964, in our first season up we only lost the title on goal average, only lost in the FA Cup final after extra-time. We didn't leave the top places for a decade. When Wilkinson took us up in 1990, we finished 4th then won the league. Even Marcelo Bielsa's 9th place, which Orta references in air-quotes as a 'problem' — "We gave everyone around us the feeling that this was easy and that we were here to stay" — can feel underwhelming compared to that history.