Leeds United are set to lose star forward Rodrigo Moreno for pennies on the dollar as former Sporting Director Victor Orta looks to bring him to Sevilla.

Leeds United transfer news – Rodrigo Moreno

Since Leeds were officially relegated from the Premier League, there have been rumblings of a player exodus.

A lower level of competition and huge wage cuts make it hard for relegated sides to keep a hold of their star players, and that certainly looks to be the case for striker Rodrigo.

According to Spanish outlet El Paritdazo de COPE, the Spaniard is set to join Sevilla on a free as the Yorkshire club looks to free up their wage bill going into next season.

The fact that the current sporting director of the Spanish giants, Victor Orta, is also Leeds' former Sporting Director probably helped, despite Orta denying it, saying: "With this rumour, maybe from there, things have got a bit exaggerated."

What has Conor McGilligan said bout the situation?

McGilligan was quick to point out that the idea of losing a player for such a small amount of money was a painful one, especially as it's their former sporting director that has seemingly got him.

Speaking on the One Leeds podcast, he said: "It hurts the fact that we've spent £31m on a player and our recruitment director is going to go back to Seville and then pinch him for €3.5m."

However, McGilligan was eager to point out that the problem could be much bigger than just Rodrigo and that Orta could know a lot more about the inner workings of the club than the fans realise, adding: "Now I think my worry with all this is that Victor Orta was top of Leeds United transfers because Andre Radrizzani didn't have a clue about football and Orta was running everything especially when it came to player contracts, release clauses, everything.

"I am massively worried that he knows the release clauses, he knows the players, and he knows what moves they may favour. Victor Orta has got a lot of our future in his hands now he's part a system at Sevilla which is a winning system when it comes to European trophies, and it's massively attractive it will be attractive for any of our players to go to Sevilla."

How good was Rodrigo last season?

The departure of the Rio-born forward will certainly be a blow to the Peacocks, as he scored a respectable 13 goals in the Premier League last season and produced one assist.

According to WhoScored, he also averaged a decent match rating of 6.81 across his 31 games last season, which considering the dysfunctional nature of Leeds last year, looks quite good.

His underlying numbers look strong as well. According to FBref, who compare players in a similar position across Europe's top five leagues, Rodrigo is in the top 12% of players for non-penalty goals and, surprisingly, the top 11% for tackles per 90, showing that he isn't afraid to do the defensive work.

The club will miss him for his off-the-pitch influence as well.

Following a game with the Leeds development squad in 2021, Mark Jackson, the team's coach, hailed the Spaniard as "a fantastic influence on the young players."

With Rodrigo looking as good as gone, only time will tell if Orta plans on taking any more of his ex-players.