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.

Eagle Investments 2017 Limited - What we know so far

On the 11th May 2017 'Eagle Investments 2017 Limited' was incorporated on the Companies House register for UK Businesses.

What makes this company particularly interesting is that there are a lot of coincidences, rumour and hearsay that this is the company that has been incorporated to takeover from Francesco Becchetti's nightmare tenure at Leyton Orient.

So what do we know? What are the facts?

• Eagle Investments Limited 2017 is a registered UK company that has been formed for 'Other Sporting Activites' (SIC Code: 93199 - Other Sports Activites) - Link
• It's sole director is Nigel Travis - Link
• The correspondence address is 'Oakwood Corporate' in Altrincham, Cheshire - Link
• There is one other person named within the Incorporation Document with 'Significant Control' of the newly formed company, Rodney Kent Teague II' - Link
• On page 13 of the Incorporation document, the 'Articles of Association' are drawn up by 'Walker Morris LLP' a legal practice based in Leeds - Link

Still with me? I'll go and elaborate on each point of the above now:

The nature of Eagle Investments business is 'Other Sports Activities', the exact same as the new company formed to take over Nottingham Forest, the exact same as Charlton Athletic Football Club Limited and the exact same to describe two of Becchetti's current companies registered at Brisbane Road, E10 5NF. It's fair to say that having had a quick google glance around Football Club companies, most of their nature of business are described as 'SIC CODE: 93199 - Other Sports Activities'.

The sole director of 'Eagle Investments 2017' is Nigel Travis, current CEO of Dunkin Brands in the US, lifelong O's fan having been born in Woodford. I won't go on too much about Nigel as i'm sure that if you've read this far you'll be up to speed with who he is, what he does and seemingly what LOFC means to him.

"Our family have been Orient fans for generations and regularly come to watch the team play. What better way to celebrate my father's 90th birthday than by watching the match and sharing free Baskin-Robbins ice cream with our fellow fans!"

The other person with 'significant control' of the newly formed Eagle Investments is Kent Teague / Rodney Kent Teague. Rodney isn't a prolific tweeter at all, let alone about UK football. Or to put an even finer point on it, lower league English Football. However since news of Eagle Investments and Kent's involvement broke last Sunday evening, Kent has enlightened us with a tweet a day about being a leader, how not to run a company and more recently the Championship and League One playoffs. Odd behaviour for someone who has never mentioned UK sports before.

Being a leader is not being a controller. More of a balance between a King & a servant. Directing when needed. Clearing paths for others.

— Kent Teague (@KentTeague) 15 May 2017

Short term some overspend & win in a year, but ours will be an example of winning consistently over long periods of time. Commitment is key

— Kent Teague (@KentTeague) 17 May 2017

Walker Morris LLP who drew up the legal documents for Eagle Investments have a lot of previous when it comes to handling the buying and selling of Football Clubs. So much so that they have an entire section on their website about it. In particular with the recent US investment in Crystal Palace. By chance I was looking at the Nottingham Forest takeover and noticed that they advised on the legals for that too. Click here if you'd like to read more about the services that Walker Morris provide.

Ok.. They are the facts so far. Purely coincidental? Who knows. As fans we just hope that something happens sooner rather than later.

Now the stuff below is more speculation than the facts above but worth mentioning.

Kent Teague operates out of Texas. Dallas, Fort Worth I believe. He has a company, Gold Creek Capital that is a private equity firm that invests in well-managed, entrepreneurial, emerging growth companies. When you've stopped laughing at Orient's current plight, that could be us. London club, can't really fall any lower (please God..), not going to cost the Earth and really there's only upside to come.

Link to Gold Creek Capital

Kent has a friend called Jeffrey Duclow. I've read they're related but can't verify that. Doesn't really matter. Mr Duclow also operates out of the Dallas / Fort Worth area as a Senior Vice President for Wells Fargo bank and seems to have knowledge of Asset Based Lending. Since the 8th May Jeffrey Duclow has started following the Orient Outlook podcast guys on Twitter and since then a few more O's fans too.

Link to Jeffrey Duclow

If any of the above is wrong, please get in touch. It's all been pulled from data that is out there and available to the public but regardless if something is incorrect i'd like to make amends.

Likewise if any of the parties mentioned above want to get in touch, don't hesitate.