Leeds are scrapping for their Premier League lives just a year after finishing in the top half of the table under Marcelo Bielsa as their swashbuckling style won plaudits.
Increasingly the transfer dealings of director of football Victor Orta are coming under the microscope, along with the club’s refusal to dip into the January transfer market despite being plagued by injuries to a host of players.
Ex-Leeds midfielder Walton believes that the players brought in last summer have not been up to the mark and stressed that the stars signed with the club in the Premier League should now be their best players.
Instead he feels the backbone of Leeds’ best side remains packed full of players who got the team out of the Championship.
“The players that have been brought in, probably with the exception of Raphinha though he is not performed to his full capabilities for a couple of months now, I am not sure they have strengthened”, Walton said on BBC Radio Leeds following the Whites’ loss at Arsenal.
“We did ever so well last season to do what we did, but I don’t think the players we brought in have got any better in terms of, OK they may have added a couple of bodies.
“You look at losing [Ezgjan] Alioski and [Pablo] Hernandez, have we really gone any better than that? I’m not sure we have and we haven’t added in depth.
“We had opportunities to do something in January and did nothing, but it’s not that the investment has not been there; it has not necessarily been enough, especially in terms of January.
“Yes, the players who have come in have shown little bits that they can be good players, but they should be the best players in our team, we shouldn’t still be relying on the same players we were when we were in the Championship.
“Yes, we’ve tried, but the quality, consistency and character of the players that have been brought in has not taken us to where we want to be.”
Leeds face the prospect of losing key stars including Raphinha and Kalvin Phillips if they are relegated back down to the Championship.
