The Honeymoon Period

As the ink has started to dry on the transfer of ownership forms from Francesco Becchetti to Nigel Travis and Kent Teague it's got me thinking about what, as a fan, I would like to see happen at the O's once the honeymoon period is over.

The first two weeks have been nothing short of fantastic for an O's fan. In one swoop the new regime have seemingly sweeped away all the bad of the last three years and replaced it with nothing but good news.

But what would you like to see? How would you like them to perform? Here are my five things that I would love to see the new owners take on board (in no particular order) and then in a bit more detail further down the page.

1. Look forward, don't look back
2. Don't be reactionary, take time to get things right
3. Community, don't treat fans as customers
4. Honesty and integrity are important, we'll work with you
5. Be different

Our history is important, but not as important as the one we are currently creating. It does look like we've bypassed the last three years and cherry-picked what was good with the club and re-instated / welcomed them back to the club. Nothing wrong with that at all, but let's not try to re-create something that WAS good. Let's make something that IS brilliant.

Becchetti's downfall was ego. If the fans called for the manager, he'd sack the manager to try to appease the fans. This was a vicious circle. The fans knew that a good rant would wind the owner up and put the manager at risk. This can't go on and it worries me that certain factions of the crowd might continue this behaviour looking for reactions. I've seldom seen protests at Brisbane Road and i'd like it nipped in the bud quite early on that smoke-bombs and pitch-invasions (whilst justified previously) isn't the way forward. Barry managed this quite well with his managers by setting parameters in which they could work and would only really be called to task if they fell short of his standards (relegation zone).

One thing Barry never really got right was having the fans on board. He was always a bit marmite, love him or hate him type. He also called us morons and didn't quite mock us for not having as much money available to bail us out each year than he did, but didn't fall far short of it. I liked Barry and his honesty but if the Nigel & Kent can tap into more than half of the supporter base we would really be going places. Fan on the board is a step in the right direction.

A plan! We've heard talk of a three year plan already and this is music to my ears. Orient fans won't care if we're slipping behind on the plan a bit, but just keep us informed of developments! Albeit not in a weird dictator style video while wearing a leather jacket with a yellow collar.

Be different. We're Orient, we're in the National League and for the most part we're out the spotlight now. Let's be different, let's be creative, let us not conform to the usual football stuff, let's do things differently, let's get our own identity.

Up the O's.