FULL STEAM AHEAD!
Orient boss Edinburgh tells players to embrace National League challenge
WEDNESDAY lunchtime at Leyton Orient’s training ground and the sweet birthday treats brought in by striker Matt Harrold are going down very well with boss Justin Edinburgh. James Brophy, 11 years younger than 34year-old Harrold, is also celebrating his birthday. Edinburgh, jokingly, ponders why he hasn’t been asked to the meal out that evening and then declines the exciting attacker’s belated, and probably half-hearted, invitation. Music pumps out of the gym, laughter drifts through from the changing room, the sun is out and the mood is good. The foundations for the positivity were set towards the end of last season. When Edinburgh arrived through the door last November to replace Steve Davis, the O’s hadn’t won for 14 games and were going only one way fast. Maybe the club that had nearly gone out of business the year before had yet to hit its rock bottom. But Edinburgh knows the National League well. He nearly got Rushden & Diamonds promoted from the division before going all the way through the play-offs with Newport County, a club he also took over who were in a slump. He soon saw he had a good group at Orient and credits owners Nigel Travis and Kent Teague for their enthusiasm and willingness to stick by Davis. But the rot had to stop and Edinburgh was in. Cracks on the pitch could be worked on – they adopted a norisk 4-4-2 formation – while off it there was a good bond. His first early call was to take young stoppers Sam Sargeant and Charlie Grainger, who Edinburgh says have promising potential, out of the firing line and put goalie coach Dean Brill between the sticks. It’s a decision Edinburgh admits could have backfired, but he sees it as a big reaso why the slide was halted and with safety secured, the plan ning for the new season coul begin. In his own words: it’s big year.
“This year is so differen because of what’s expected, Edinburgh says, in his office “What we have to be mindful o is, I always hear this thing: W should be in the League.
Big Guns Clash
“I’ve been in this leagu before with the likes of Luton Wrexham, Bristol Rovers Grimsby – ‘We are a Leagu club, we should be’. It’s not, ‘W should be’, it’s ‘Where we wan to be’. We want to be a Footba League team again.”
That quest will begin with a opening day away trip to earl title favourites Salford City an Edinburgh wants his players t
embrace the expectations of their big fanbase. They’ve sold 3,700 season tickets and Edinburgh recalls his first game at Solihull Moors and emerging from the tunnel to see O’s fans on three sides of the ground.
Edinburgh said from the beginning that Orient were the only club he’d drop back down to Non-League for and that only reaffirmed it.
Not that the former Tottenham defender had ever turned his back on his management roots. He started out as playerboss with Billericay Town in 2003 before spells in charge of Fisher Athletic and Grays, then Rushden and Newport. Since leaving the Exiles he’s been in League One with Gillingham and Northampton Town.
It’s been a strong education over 15 years of management and the 48-year-old’s style has naturally developed with time.
“You have to,” he says. “Possibly back in that time (Billericay) I might have been a bit more forceful. But I think you have to learn all the time.
“It’s not about where I’d been and what I’d done as a player. That was irrelevant, I was manager of Billericay now. I was their manager, managing in the Ryman Premier. They didn’t want to hear, ‘When I was at Spurs we did this and when I was at Portsmouth we did that’. It was, ‘Well, you’re at Billericay, what are you going to do now?’ So you have to learn quickly.
“You learn about yourself too. Probably people will disagree, I think I’ve calmed a bit but people will probably say I’m animated. I just get involved, I want the players to be successful. You care for them. There’s a lot of talent here, you want that talent to flourish and become what it’s capable of. That’s my job. To be successful for Leyton Orient and guide these young players to be regulars.”
In a short space of time, young players have changed too. The world is different, now at everyone’s fingertips.
“I’ve got children myself, they’ve grown-up now,” Edinburgh says. “Everything is instant, isn’t it? They don’t have to wait for anything anymore. They go on their phone, order it, it’s there when they get home. There’s no saving up, no going to the shop to make a decision. I think everything is just so instant.
“What you find with a player now is, if they’re not straightaway in the team or it’s not going right for him, he doesn’t always want to fight for that or he doesn’t want to take the challenge. He wants to go on loan or he wants to change.
Facing Reality
“People come in when you’ve been in charge two games and say, ‘Well, if I’m not in your plans I want to go on loan’. You’re like, ‘Well, hold on a minute. How about showing me what you can do, proving me wrong and working into the team?’ “Everything is so instant now, so it’s a big change. You have to move with the times. With the instant success they want, there’s still a lot of challenges out there in the world. They see so much so soon. They see that goal. “Sometimes it’s not about the career, it’s about the finance. I think we’ve lost sight of that. Listen, everyone goes to work to get paid, I know that, and you want to earn the best wage you can. But you’re in a very, I believe, privileged industry and you’re doing a privileged job. “You will sit away in 30 years’ time and no one can take those memories or moments you have by playing. I think we lose sight of that too quickly for, ‘What can I earn? Where can I be in one year’s time? What can I do?’”
It loops back to an earlier part of our conversation where Edinburgh enthuses about midfielder Jobi McAnuff.
“I speak about the senior professionals here and a stand-out figure for me is Jobi McAnuff,” he says. “For someone at 36 to be playing at this level, he’s top drawer. Not only in the games but what he is around the football club. He’s an incredible example because we have got some potentially fantastic young players here.
“His example is just first class. I don’t think they will get any better teacher or role model than him.”
With Edinburgh largely happy with his squad there’s been just two summer arrivals so far. Dale Gorman joins from Stevenage and James Alabi has a chance to kick-start his career after a move to Tranmere last season ended on loan at Dover.
Support for top-scorer Macauley Bonne, who is staying unless something “extraordinary” happens, is seen as key for a promotion push.
While sounding a mindful note of caution that 13th place to winning the league doesn’t just happen by magic, Edinburgh acknowledges the club has to do better than last season’s mid-table finish.
How does he see pressure in football – myth or reality?
“It’s changed,” he says. “Not so much pressure, I think it’s about opinions – social media. Back in the day, people used to leave the stadium and they might go to the pub or stay at the ground in the bar. Have a few beers, chew over the fat and then go away.
“They probably didn’t see their mates or their group until the following game. Or they might only go to home games so there would be an away game, have a week and then come back. Everything is gone and (claps) they want their team to do well again.
“They leave now, they’re writing comments on social media, they’re experts, have opinions. Players, I know they don’t have to be, are contactable. They live through social media. I’m not on it myself. I’ve got children in their 20s and most people communicate through it. It’s alright when it’s good, but it can be vicious when it isn’t. It can get personal.
“There’s greater pressure because the rewards are bigger as you go along. The money involved for the club if you have success. But pressure…you’ve got to embrace it. If you fear it then you’ll fail.”