FLUFFED IT AT FOREST
AFTER the descent into madness, it feels like the return of sanity.
Leyton Orient will return to the Football League mainstream this afternoon, if they take a point against Braintree, and their promotion will be celebrated far beyond their east London constituency.
Just five years after they came within a penalty shootout of the Championship, how on earth the O’s ended up in the muck and nettles is a salutary warning to every club.
History and communal identity can be corroded by careless ownership faster than chocolate in a microwave. When sports promoter Barry Hearn sold Orient to Francesco Becchetti, who made his fortune in waste management, little did the club’s loyal fans realise how much the Italian businessman would do precisely what it said on the tin.
Becchetti’s management was a spectacular exercise in laying a proud club to waste.
From X Factor-style auditions to win a playing contract, to the bizarre incarceration of his squad in a hotel as punishment for defeat, joined-up thinking became the first casualty of an unlamented regime.
It took a rescue package fronted by USbased, lifelong fan Nigel Travis, executive chairman of Dunkin’ Donuts, and Texas tycoon Kent Teague, as principal investor, to chart a course towards redemption. Travis found more holes in Becchetti’s business model than his entire doughnut empire, and it will be a near-miracle of proper governance if Orient take the chequered flag.
Captain Jobi McAnuff, 37, has seen both sides of the club’s fall and rise. He was part of the squad relegated to League Two, under the chaos of Becchetti, in 2016. By the time he returned to the Breyer Group Stadium at Brisbane Road, they had slipped below stairs into the non-league cellar.
After playing 677 games at every level, from the Premier League penthouse to the fifth tier, plus 32 international caps for Jamaica, few are better qualified than McAnuff to compare the disarray he left behind and the order restored by Travis and current manager Justin Edinburgh (below). “One thing I’ve learned from my two spells here is that instability behind the scenes will
always filter on to the pitch,” he said. “It’s hard to single out any one thing that happened during the years of mismanagement because it was almost happening on a daily basis.
“We went through four managers before Christmas the season before I left and had a director of football who had never been a manager.
“There were a couple of occasions, after away trips, when the players and staff didn’t know if we would be allowed to go home afterwards – or required to stay in a hotel for a week as punishment.
“The theory behind it was that, if we were kept away from our home environment, and not allowed to see our partners and children when we wanted, it might make us perform better on the pitch.
“When you’ve lived through such difficult times, it would be extra special to get the job done this weekend. I’ve played in the top five divisions of English football, but helping Orient back into the Football League, and getting the club going again, would be up there with the best moments of my career.” McAnuff describes his first spell at the club as an “absolute car crash”, but Edinburgh’s rule has been a welcome antidote.
He added: “Justin has been a massively positive influence. He’s instilled a winning mentality, which should serve the club well beyond this season.” St Andrew’s: 3pm
GARRY MONK celebrated survival after a controversial season with a half-eaten Easter egg and a red wine. Monk’s Birmingham side secured their Championship status with a 3-1 win at Rotherham on Monday. It was no mean feat after being docked nine points for breaching EFL financial rules.
Monk (left) smiled: “When I got home I put the kids to bed because the missus had just had enough of them. Then I got my Easter egg that the kids had half-eaten – that was part of the reason she went mad – and had one glass of red wine. The glamour of the job.” Loftus Road: 3pm KEEPER Costel Pantilimon admits Nottingham Forest have underachieved this season in finishing mid-table. Pantilimon expected better after a summer spending spree under Aitor Karanka, who was later replaced by Martin O’Neill.
The Romanian keeper said: “We are disappointed because we know that we have a group of good players. Players with experience, players with talent. “I think the play-offs were what we expected to achieve.”