Mat Roper, editor of Orient’s Pandemonium fanzine since 1991, and Paul Levy and Stephen Nussbaum from the Orient Outlook podcast, give us the lowdown on the comeback story developing in East London ahead of our trip to Brisbane Road on Wednesday night.
Orient went out of the league in a hell of a state but there's been a takeover and promotion back since - run us through that recovery story...
MR: The club was ripped to pieces by Francesco Becchetti. In the earlier part of 2017 a long standing O’s fan Nigel Travis (CEO of Dunkin Donuts) was working behind the scenes on a plan to buy the club. The fans trust of which I am a board member had done plenty of work on a recovery plan which encompassed several scenarios and one of our board met with Nigel in the US. Becchetti, right to the last, proved almost impossible to deal with leaving the club millions of pounds in debt, a wafer thin squad and no training ground to speak of having now been relegated to the Conference but thank God, Nigel along with principal investor Kent Teague managed to buy the club in June 2017.
PL: Yeah, the past four years have been a hell of a ride as an Orient fan. Thankfully, in June 2017, a consortium led by lifelong Orient fan Nigel Travis took control of the club. They had to start from scratch such was the state of the club. We ended up hiring Justin Edinburgh, it turned out to be a master stroke as he helped guide us to promotion back to the Football League. Sadly he passed away in the following summer, it had a devastating impact on the club and he will be forever remembered at our club. We had interim managers, a manager who lasted 29 days and more interim management but fast forward to the present day and we are in a new era as all but one of the original players have moved on and we have pulled off a major coup in the appointment of Kenny Jackett. It will be another interesting season for Orient.
SN: How much time have you got? What a few years it’s been with almost going out of existence, to having a takeover by a brilliant board, a slow start in the National League that led us into the Justin Edinburgh era which saw us win the National League and reach the FA Trophy final, which ended with the tragic passing of Justin and the club losing their way on the pitch over the last 2 years. But this season feels like a new era has begun with a vast turnover of players and the appointment of Kenny Jackett, that has excited O’s fans everywhere and has probably built our hopes up.
Eleventh last season but obviously behind closed doors, how was it on and off the pitch?
MR: On the pitch it was a very strange season. We started very well, but a mixture of Covid, probably not actually being as good as we thought we were and further upheaval regarding the management position meant it wasn’t to be. We actually remained on the coat tails of the play offs until about the end of March but in reality it was never going to happen. Off the pitch the club, like so many, suffered from a lack of income, and it was horrible watching streams of games that in my opinion just looked half the time like behind closed doors friendlies.
PL: It was a weird one for us as we are generally a hard core group of fans who attend home matches with many making the journey up and down the country every other Saturday. It’s not the same watching it on TV as it is being there. Arguably, we should have finished in the play offs with the squad stability we had, the quality of our playing staff and the inconsistencies of other teams around us. But for reasons known only to those players and management, we never reached our potential and missed out.
SN: A bonkers season and one of missed opportunities. Every time we took a forward step we’d take another one straight back. Up until mid January we were doing ok, but performances took a real dip, Danny Johnson had an injury and never recovered his early season form, the team looked lethargic, mistakes were made on the pitch and a poor run saw Ross Embleton given his matching orders. Despite a promising start his interim replacement Jobi McAnuff failed to take us into the play offs as the season really fizzled out after our loss to Southend.
Old QPR favourite Kenny Jackett now in charge, what have you made of him so far? Seem to have struggled manager wise since the tragic loss of Justin Edinburgh.
MR: The KJ love in has been immense. It’s not a Leyton Orient type of appointment so I think as well as being very happy, quite a few of us were amazed it happened. There can be no doubting his experience and record will be a big plus. Yes, unfortunately, the tragic loss of Justin Edinburgh has seen a very strange two years, which I think we can only now start to put behind us in terms of moving forward, whilst of course never forgetting what he did for us.
PL: It was always going to be difficult coming in after Justin Edinburgh, whoever it was. Ross Embleton was brave enough to step forward and ensure there was continuity for the club and he is to be commended for that, he will forever be an Orient man. We thought we’d got the right guy with the appointment of Carl Fletcher but that was a short lived disaster and Ross resumed the managerial role on an interim basis before taking the role permanently and he was replaced by the inexperienced Jobi McAnuff. As you say, we’ve now appointed an experienced manager who has promotion on his CV and is a winner.
SN: It’s hard to disagree with that. It’s been a difficult two years at the club who absolutely did the right thing with the appointment of Ross Embleton, and for whatever reason it never worked out. When Kenny Jackett’s name was mentioned lots of eyebrows were raised and personally I thought we couldn’t get him, so I was delighted when we appointed him. He brings and experience and composure to the club that has been missing over the last two years and you can see the progress on the pitch already and just as importantly the unity that his appointment has brought to the fanbase.
Tell us about your summer transfer business...
MR: The summer signings on the whole look pretty decent. Darren Pratley will make a massive difference and it was good to get Omar Beckles from the division above. A couple of other consistent types have come in along with some potentially exciting players. We have lost our two top goalscorers (Danny Johnson, 17 goals, Mansfield, free; Conor Wilkinson, 12 goals, Walsall, free) from last season so this will be the acid test going forward. Above all, we needed to sign some leaders which we were sadly lacking & in Pratley, Beckles, Thompson (joined shortly before the end of last season) and Smith we look like we have done that.
PL: Apart from Darren Pratley, we’ve signed players with something to prove. The new strikers don’t have many goals on their record, which is a concern amongst our fans and loan signing from Lincoln, Theo Archibald was a hugely promising talent that seems to have lost his way a bit. Omar Beckles dropped from league one to return to London and looks like a brilliant signing (he scored against Salford at the weekend too) and we still have Adam Thompson to return from injury to compete for a CB spot. It should not be under estimated how big a player Lawrence Vigoroux is for us. He’s easily a League One keeper and he will be a valuable asset for us.
SN: There has been lots of new faces such as Connor Wood at LB from Bradford whose looked good, Tom James RB from Hibs, Omar Beckles CB from Crewe looks decent, Darren Pratley from Charlton will be a massive player for us. Up front Paul Smyth from QPR, Harry Smith from Northampton and Aaron Drinan from Ipswich. Lots of forward talent but not many goals historically between them as it stands. It's very important that a few of the old faces have remained. Lawrence Vigoroux in goal being a prime example of this. The fact that he’s signed a new two-year deal at the club is huge.
Ins >>> Aaron Drinan, 23, CF, Ipswich, Undisclosed >>> Harry Smith, 26, CF, Northampton, Undisclosed >>> Connor Wood, 24, LB, Bradford, Free >>> Darren Pratley, 36, CM, Charlton, Free >>> Paul Smyth, 24, AT, QPR, Free >>> Omar Beckles, 29, CB, Crewe, Free >>> Tom James, 25, RB, Hibs, Free >>> Theo Archibald, 23, LW, Lincoln, Loan
Outs >>> Joe Widdowson, 32, LB, Barnet, Free >>> James Brophy, 26, LM, Cambridge, Free >>> Josh Coulson, 32, CB, Southend, Free >>> Sam Ling, 24, RB, Dagenham and Redbridge, Free >>> Jamie Turley, 31, CB, Barnet, Free >>> Conor Wilkinson, 26, CF, Walsall, Free >>> Lee Angol, 26, CF, Bradford, Free >>> Louis Dennis, 28, CF, Bromley, Free >>> Danny Johnson, 28, CF, Mansfield, Free >>> Jordan Maguire Drew, 23, RW, Released >>> James Dayton, 32, RM, Released >>> Brendon Shabani, 19, CM, Released >>> Myles Judd, 22, RB, Released >>> Ousseynou Cisse, 30, DM, Released
Any early thoughts on Paul Smyth - well liked by a lot of QPR fans?
MR: Unfortunately Smyth has hardly kicked a ball in anger due to injury, but the reports from fans of other clubs are sometimes a decent yardstick and there have been quite a good few encouraging comments. As I said, we need to replace the loss of 34 goals so players like Smyth will be key but I hope he will hit the ground running
PL: Looks like a hard working player who doesn’t let defenders rest for a moment in a game. Take your eye off him at your peril. We’re always impressed when we sign a player that fans from the club the player is leaving are disappointed. Fingers crossed.
SN: Looks a decent player and O’s fans love a player who can excite them. If we can keep him fit could be a big player for us this season. Hell of a goal celebration as well.
Where is the squad strong and weak? Who should QPR be looking out for?
MR: It’s likely we are going to be quite hard to beat. With our brand new set of front players it is quite hard to assess what we will be like as an attacking force. The GK from last year kept a fair amount of clean sheets and is very flamboyant whilst our new back four look solid. The one player I will highlight is Dan Kemp. Signed in the January window from WHU, he is a youngster with bags of passion and always wants to be on the ball. Certainly one to keep an eye on.
PL: Our starting XI is strong but the bench is a concern to us. We don’t seem to have game changing subs and are relying on younger inexperienced players. But, in Kenny we trust.
SN: Hard to say at the minute, looks strong for a L2 team but against a QPR team you’d expect us to struggle. Our spine of Lawrence Vigoroux in goal, Omar Beckles and Dan Happe in CB, Darren Pratley in CM is strong, and if we can get Dan Kemp, Theo Archibald and Paul Smyth on the ball around your area then we could be in for an exciting evening.
How do you see this season going?
MR: Typical Orient probably. Loads of brand new faces and a vastly experienced manager probably means it’ll either flop and we end up 21st or we’ll supercharge at the top of the league. If the strikers can hit the ground running and start to find the net then we are in for a decent season. Overall I can see us top ten definitely with one eye on the play offs, but knowing us and L2 being L2 anything could happen either way.
PL: When we signed KJ, I was adamant promotion is the key, possibly top three too. However, after all the hype and having seen our transfer business, I’m more realistic and feel somewhere between eighth and twelfth is plausible given the turnover of players we’ve had and the rebuild that’s gone on.
SN: I’m hopeful of a play off push. Even more so after this weekend’s result. With the board we have, with Kenny Jackett in place and a playing staff that looks to be more exciting, tactically aware and fitter than last season you’d have to say we must be pushing for top seven.
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