Victor Orta arrived with ‘a weapons grade contacts book’ as the man who would add an extra gear to Boro’s Premier League recruitment.

He left under a cloud after some shocking transfer activity left Boro well short and deeply divided.

Because as well as shaping the summer shopping spree that ultimately failed on the pitch, he was also Aitor Karanka’s right hand man as a state within a state emerged.

He was a key actor in a sorry situation as fractures and cliques emerged, new Spanish staff were brought in with a personal loyalty to Orta and the manager rather than the club and the powerful team spirit that had helped Boro to promotion was eroded.

Orta developed an influence beyond his scouting remit, becoming Karanka’s de facto assistant manager, undermining the coaching structure.

He was allowed to recruit his own staff who - counter to the early rule of always speaking English at work - argued about tactics and selections in Spanish and who rarely talked to players or other staff.

He saw himself as having an influential role in team affairs and he became central to the unfolding destructive dynamic behind the scenes.

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In the erratic final few months under Karanka the club was simmering as the embattled manager picked fights with fans, his medical staff, the backroom boys, the recruitment department, the press office and the Hurworth heirarchy.

(Image: PA)

But Victor Orta, he insisted, had been "amazing" . That is not an opinion shared by many within the club.

It is no surprise that Orta’s machinery was quickly dismantled after Karanka’s exit.

Dressing room removal

Fans will have raised eyebrows in recent weeks as a string of players have made oblique references to trouble in the changies.

There is a code of Omerta within the dressing room in football and players are loathe to talk about the internal working and especially about any friction. They save that for the autobiography. But things have been leaking out.

“A lot of it is above my jurisdiction,” said George Friend. “I’ve been disappointed with certain things in the dressing room and I don’t really want to elaborate, that’s all I can say on the matter.”

Ben Gibson and Stewart Downing have pointed to players not pulling their weight or who do not want to be here.

“When you’re losing, players have opinions and I like that,” said Grant Leadbitter. “Maybe we haven’t had enough opinions this season, we’ve gone along with certain things.”

The dressing room is sacrosanct. Not even Steve Gibson goes down there after a game. It is for the team and matchday staff.

(Image: Katie Lunn)

(Image: Katie Lunn)

(Image: Katie Lunn)

Yet Orta had taken it upon himself to intrude.

He had to be physically removed - by Leo Percovich no less - after the Manchester United game, Steve Agnew’s first in charge following Karanka’s exit, after he barged in demanding to talk to “his” players.

That has been confirmed to The Gazette by a player and another key member of the matchday mix.

He has been in text communication with the former manager and been passing on instructions to “his” players.

System was sidelined as Orta became king-pin

So much for his pernicious role in behind the scenes politics. What about his day job?

You could argue that the friction caused by a maverick behind the scenes was worth it had he delivered a string of gems. But he didn’t.

“The recruitment policy was not what we thought,” said Steve Gibson sternly in his terse post-relegation state of the nation address .

That is self evident. Boro were thin in every department going into the season and failed to beef up in January. Relegation represents a massive missed opportunity for the club to establish themselves after seven long years.

Orta was brought to the club to add his extensive European knowledge to the flourishing scouting network developed under Tony Mowbray.

That fledgling system, headed by Gary Gill, had brought in most of the nucleus of the relatively cheap and largely domestically-sourced promotion side Karanka had inherited and was expanding its data-driven operation.

(Image: Katie Lunn)

But as the club geared up to promotion they were looking ahead to exploit the European market, to spot potential future stars and snap them up cheap then sell on at a premium, much as Southampton or Swansea had. The aim was to give Boro an edge in a market dominated by the financial muscle of the big boys.

Enter Orta. He was the man who knew agents and scouts and clubs and who could open doors.

As head of European recruitment he became king-pin. The existing system was sidelined and Orta was given the authority to draw up the shopping list.

He concentrated on players he knew, clubs he knew and, although there were questions raised internally about the quality of some targets, with Karanka’s support, most were pursued.

The signings

When signing players, the key criteria are their ability to do the job, being able to slot into the dressing room psychology and being better than the men you’ve already got. They have to strengthen the group technically and mentally.

Judging by those criteria the recruitment last season was woeful and left Boro a thin and fragile group and, perhaps more importantly, the strong bond within the squad was weakened.

Many of the new signings were not mentally tough enough for the relegation battle and disappeared when the pressure was on. Others were just not good enough and were less effective than those they replaced.

Victor Valdes has shown flashes of quality but a lack of commitment since Karanka’s exit.

Brad Guzan is an average bottom half top flight keeper who was just passing through.

Antonio Barragan started brightly but has tailed off badly and contributed little that Emilio Nsue wouldn’t have.

(Image: PA)

Bernardo Espinosa may well be a decent player but arrived injured and has struggled to adapt.

Gaston Ramirez arrived reluctantly, played in flashes then mentally checked out.

Adama Traore was an expensive project with enigmatic electric potential but was not as effective as Albert Adomah.

Viktor Fischer was a low cost gamble that has made no impact on the season.

Fabio started well and shows promise but has dropped off badly when the heat was on.

Marten De Roon has been solid and shows promise but has not really justified his pricetag.

Alvaro Negredo has been good and showed quality but the team hasn’t got the best out of him.

(Image: Getty Images)

And January wasn’t much better. The market moves then did little to add oomph to a struggling team at a time when a few shrewd signings could have sparked a survival bid.

A collective failure

Orta was the chief architect of the summer recruitment but let’s be clear though: scouts do not sign players.

They can recommend and assess them but ultimate bringing players in is a joint enterprise. The manager has to endorse it, the chief executive has to agree the financial package and the chairman has to sign it off. It has been a collective failure.

Listening to Gibson’s assessment of the "heart-breaking" season is telling.

“We made decisions and we thought at the time we were making the right ones, but we haven’t fulfilled our objective and that tells us we have made mistakes.”

Bad mistakes. Not just in terms of recruiting players but also in allowing the structure and dynamics behind the scenes to become distorted and dysfunctional. That shows a lack of effective leadership.

The scouting system needs reviewing and repairing, yes, but Boro shouldn’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Boro need a well tuned, highly professional network that is working for the long term and working for the club.

And more importantly, the relationships behind the scenes need to be repaired, the players who don’t want to be there removed and the club reunited, rewired, rebooted and ready to go.