SWISS BIG MISS FOR BOSS BIELSA
WHEN the game was won, several players pulled on their army uniforms and marched around the pitch to the acclaim of 20,000 fans.
Clapton Orient had just beaten Leicester Fosse 2-0, but now were off to war after making a stand against the bitterly controversial decision to carry on with the 1914-15 football season.
For three of them, the final whistle would be the shrill call to arms on the Somme battlefield, ordering them out of the trenches and into the impenetrable firing line.
Richard McFadden, Willie Jonas and George Scott were among the 41 players and staff at the club we now know as Leyton Orient who enlisted – but they never came home.
A century later, Orient will remember the fallen by wearing a special one-off kit, as worn by McFadden, Jonas and Scott, at a home game with Bromley this month to commemorate their fallen comrades and the Great War armistice.
It’s a classy touch from a club which lost its way, amid the turbulence of a frenzied regime’s nine managers and two relegations.
The Os, just a point off the National League summit, have been back on the path towards stability since lifelong fan Nigel Travis led a US-based consortium to chart course for redemption.
Travis, 68, found more holes in Orient’s business model than the Dunkin’ Donuts empire of which he is now executive chairman.
Since he joined forces with vice-chairman and former Microsoft executive Kent Teague, Travis – who has lived in the States for nearly 30 years – has presided over a gratifying revival, with Justin Edinburgh proving a sound appointment as manager.
And best of all, unlike more ‘fashionable’ clubs not a a million miles away, Leyton Orient have not lost the common touch.
Travis said: “A hundred years ago, dozens of players and staff from our club decided they shouldn’t be playing football but fighting with their colleagues in the trenches. Those guys are an inspiration to us all. The least we can do is to honour their sacrifice.
“This is the people’s club, we are going to do things the right way and we want to spread the word: Leyton Orient are back.
“I’ve been a supporter for 59 years and saw us go up to the top flight with Bill Shankly’s Liverpool in 1962 – they stayed up and went on to conquer Europe, and we’ve been all over the place ever since.
“Despite what many people have said, it was never my lifelong dream to own the club.
“But I felt someone had to take responsibility, turn it around and clear up the mess we inherited.”
As recently as 2014 when sporting promoter Barry Hearn – who went to school with Travis – was propping them up, the Os were within touching distance of the league’s upper slopes.
But Hearn sold them to waste management tycoon Francesco Becchetti within two months of a defeat on penalties against Rotherham in the play-offs.
“Wembley? That was such a frustrating day, and not just because we were 2-0 up at half-time and then leading the shootout,” said Travis, whose book The Challenge Culture was published earlier this year.
“We were so close to the Championship – but only three years later, we were relegated out of the Football League, which was obviously the lowest point.
“That’s history now – but as we’ve shown with the commemorative kit, we know that some history matters.” LEEDS have been rocked by the news that defender Gaetano Berardi faces a lengthy spell on the sidelines.
The Swiss defender (above) was forced off in the Championship match against Ipswich – only two games into his return from a knee injury that had ruled him out since August.
And, ahead of tomorrow’s fixture with Wigan, Leeds boss Marcelo Bielsa (below) confirmed that his 30-year-old star will be missing for a long time.
“It will be a lot of time,” the Argentine said. “It’s not a simple injury.
“I don’t know how to explain it – the level of the tendon, the muscle, went to the other way, as if the muscle had turned around the tendon.”
Berardi suffered a nasty knee injury against Middlesbrough in August and missed all of September and the first half of October.