Paulo Fonseca and Victor Orta have revealed talks with the Portuguese to succeed Marcelo Bielsa at Leeds United back in 2022.

The Whites chose to bring in Jesse Marsch through the door but Fonseca was spoken to with Orta, but things did not materialise.

Currently, the 50-year-old is in charge of French club Lille.

"We didn't talk much about the project itself. It was a quick meeting. He talked a lot about the club, the infrastructure, the culture of the club and the city. It was more about that," said Fonseca, per the Record.

Orta backed up these claims and said: "I looked for Paulo Fonseca to replace Marcelo Bielsa at Leeds. As well as natural ability and leadership, there's also the emotional part. You have to believe that people have a positive emotional side.

"It was a productive conversation. Before, we were wondering how we were going to find someone who would work and this TransferRoom tool helps with that. It's useful to realise how a coach can work in a project."

Better than Marsch

Leeds certainly would've been in better shape had they convinced Fonseca to join instead of hiring Marsch.

Had it not been for Raphinha's final day exploits, Leeds would've been relegated at the American would not have been given the credit to keep them up.

Fonseca has managed Shakhtar Donetsk, Porto and Roma and he would not have found Leeds a challenge that was too big to handle.

He won the award for the best manager of the season back in 2016/17 in Ukraine and also has three league titles to his name.

He won three back-to-back titles with Donetsk and did so playing a brand of football that Leeds fans would've appreciated.

However, it was characteristic of the club to get these big decisions wrong and that's precisely what they did with multiple mistakes.

In other Leeds United news, sources reveal that the Whites want to sign an EFL 'Star' and his club may be forced to sell him in January.

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