According to The Athletic, Victor Orta had known about Robin Koch long before bringing the centre-back to Leeds, and even long before linking up with Marcelo Bielsa at Elland Road.
The Athletic reveal that more than 1,300 days have passed between Orta and his Middlesbrough staff scouting the German, to Leeds signing him for £13 million back in August.
When Orta checked on the centre-back in 2017, Koch was playing for Kaiserslautern, where he suffered a 1-0 defeat to Hannover in the Bundesliga 2 clash.
Funnily enough, the Leeds sporting director wasn’t even in Germany to watch the Leeds No.5, but instead was there to cast an eye over Martin Harnik, while also gaining additional information on Marcel Gaus.
However, Orta left with Koch’s name added to his list, and eventually teamed up with the Germany international over 1,300 days after becoming aware of him, as aforesaid.
Talk about extensively scouting a target!
Orta’s work in monitoring Koch has benefitted Leeds hugely this season.
After finding it difficult to re-sign Ben White in the summer, it was imperative that Leeds found a like-for-like replacement, which they seem to have done.
White was a ball-playing centre-back who loved an interception or two.
In 46 Championship appearances last term, the Englishman recorded 2.5 interceptions per game, and 56.2 passes every 90 minutes.
This season, Koch has registered 2.3 interceptions per game, and completed 69.6 passes every 90 minutes.
The similarities are there for all to see, and Orta has done a fine job in finding a replacement for the Brighton centre-back.
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