Victor Orta reveals Jean-Kevin Augustin was Leeds' second choice | OneFootball

The January transfer window can be really tricky business, but it seems Leeds struck absolute gold by getting Jean-Kevin Augustin to cut his Monaco spell early and come to Elland Road on loan from Red Bull Leipzig.

After Eddie Nketiah went back to Arsenal, Leeds director of football Victor Orta had to draw up a list of strikers and number two on that list was Augustin.

Though initially Orta had to dig deep, Augustin’s availability changed as January wore on and they ended up getting their man.

“Normally 10 per cent of the calls you make can hear a possibility, the rest, the other 90 per cent you hear no or impossible, or it’s not happening.

“We were making a list of strikers we consider high level without minutes. Then it is around 10 names. We call any agent or club, asking for availability.

“He was second on the list and the first yes came in the last two weeks of the market.

“Obviously we know the player from PSG Under 17s, we watched him in Euro Under 19s, we followed the player in RB Leipzig and in our following, we knew it would be difficult for Leeds United but this is the work of our department, trying to have all the information around players who have the quality to play here.

“We watched him live in the Under 20s World Cup three years ago and we have one report for each game.

“He was having a tough moment in his loan at Monaco.

“[But] if anyone is telling me I am signing this player because of his minutes in Monaco, they don’t know the work behind the scenes of a signing. Jean-Kevin is here because we analyse and we know the player since he was 17. We followed him.”