Tales Of The Orient

Not only has there been a mass clear-out over the summer of playing staff following Orient’s exit out of the football league and proper and into the National League but also an influx of new staff in varying capacities including that of management.

Following the recent takeover in June 2017 former manager Martin Ling was welcomed back to Orient with loving arms as director of football, ex-CEO Matt Porter came back on board and onto the board and former owner Barry Hearn was named honorary president.

With all the changing and to-ing and fro-ing over a quite mad Leyton Orient football club summer we forgot one tiny detail. The O’s have a new manager or as new man Steve Davis is deemed the new ‘Head Coach’.

With snooker’s Barry Hearn being named as honorary president a few heads turned when Steve Davis was named as the replacement for Omer Riza the former Arsenal and West Ham player who himself had only taken on the role of manager on March 30^th 2017 before his contract concluded on 1^st June 2017.

Some fans mistakenly thought Orient had hired Steve Davis the ex snooker champion to lead the O’s so there were massive sighs of relief when the Steve Davis in question turned out to be the ex Crewe Alexandra boss. Davis had managed the Cheshire club from 2011 until January 2017 which is a long tenure in football. In fact it was the 4^th longest tenure in the whole of the four divisions of the football league at the time. In 272 games managing Crewe he had a win ratio of 30.9 per cent with 84 wins, 71 draws and 117 defeats. He did get Crewe promoted from Division 2 via the play offs in 2011-12 and won the Football League Trophy in the 2012-13 season so has seen some success.

Davis is a six foot Brummie who plied his trade as a defender with over 100 league games for three different teams, Burnley, Barnsley and Crewe. He’s 52 and also names Oxford United and Macclesfield on his CV but started as an apprentice at Stoke City although he never played a first team game for them.

A lot of weight is on his shoulders this season for Orient but following the catastrophe of last season these are buoyant times for both the club and the supporters.

Former Luton, Oldham and Inverness Caledonian Thistle goalkeeper Dean Brill has taken on the goalkeeping coaching duties.

Meanwhile Daniel Webb is the development coach. Webb was of course in charge of the O’s last year for a short time. On 29 January 2017, he was appointed manager after Andy Edwards resigned to take a role on the FA’s coaching staff which saw the England youngsters bring home the World Cup from South Korea. On 30 March 2017, after just 12 games in charge Webb resigned as manager of Leyton Orient. But barely 12 weeks went by when Webb returned to Leyton Orient as Development Coach known in old money as Youth Team Coach.

So these are the major shifts on the running of the club with two ex managers in Ling and Webb back at Brisbane Road and Davis taking the reigns.

Exciting times may lay ahead O’s fans.

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