Throughout Victor Orta’s tenure at Leeds United, the transfer chief always brought in young players from European clubs with the hope they would go on to shine at Elland Road.
That, or they would be sold for a massive profit. Crysencio Summerville is the perfect example, bought by Orta from Feyenoord as an 18-year-old for £1.3m. Summerville was sold by Leeds an initial £25m fee.
In Daniel Farke’s current side, Leeds boast Illan Meslier, Wilfried Gnonto, Pascal Struijk and Mateo Joseph. All bought as unknown teenagers for less than £5m, the quartet now represent a core part of Farke’s XI.
Orta has garnered plenty of criticism for the way his time at Leeds came to an end, but if he does deserve some praise, it is his work to spot young talent and get them in at Elland Road before they were valuable.
But it didn’t always work out as well as it could have done and one player, bought for a fee of £1m in 2023 is now struggling to start for Scott Gardner’s U21 side following last night’s 4-1 defeat to Wolves.
The curious case of Diogo Monteiro as he struggles for Leeds start
Bought in January 2023 from Swiss side Servette after seven senior appearances, Monteiro featured on the first-team bench four times straight away under both interim boss Michael Skubala and Javi Gracia.
But he has not had a sniff of first-team action under boss Farke. Even in Farke’s first pre-season friendly in 2023 against Manchester United in Oslo, Farke used Jeremiah Mullen and Kris Moore, not Monteiro.
Strange, Leeds talent Monteiro has captained Portugal at U19 level and has 12 caps. On Monday night, he was an unused sub again for Leeds U21’s in a 4-1 away defeat to Wolves in Premier League 2.
Monteiro overtaken by U21 teammates in Leeds pecking order
It is the third time in the 21’s five fixtures this season that Gardner has left Monteiro on the bench. A strange one, given the hype around Monteiro when he first signed and that Leeds paid £1m to sign him.
Leeds centre-back pecking order:
- Joe Rodon
- Pascal Struijk
- Max Wober
- Ethan Ampadu
- James Debayo
- Jeremiah Mullen
- Reuben Lopata-White
James Debayo has overtaken Monteiro after a super pre-season. Debayo was one of six youngsters to travel to Germany with the senior squad while Reuben Lopata-White was called up to senior training.
Scotland U21 star Mullen remains first choice in the U21’s under Gardner and even those trio seem to be above Monteiro in the pecking order right now. Time is on Monteiro’s side at 19, but he’s failing to start.
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