We need to talk about Dean Cox

Dean Cox should leave Leyton Orient. Pains me to say it, but he doesn't deserve what we've turned into with our numerous managers and non-existent game plans.

When pint-sized Cox signed for the O's on the 2nd June 2010, nobody would've imagined the impact that he would have had on the club over the next 4 years.

Consistently rated as one of the best players outside the Championship, scoring 40-odd goals in 200-odd games from midfield and that's not to mention his phenomenal assist ratio. One season in particular creating more assists than any other player in Europe (including Messrs Ronaldo, Messi, et al).

From the moment he walked through the doors at Brisbane Road he has been the model-professional who has lived and breathed the club in everything he does. Committing himself to the community projects, befriending the youth players coming through and always being open and honest with the supporters on social media and in person.

The only place i haven't seen him at Brisbane Road is in the supporters club with the fans and i can forgive him that because why would you stick around your place of work after your job has been done?

It's also fair to say that the right-footed left-winger formed one of the most potent attacking forces that I've ever seen at Brisbane Road in my 30-odd years of supporting. I don't think we'll ever forget the 2013/2014 season. Cox, Mooney, Lisbie and Odubajo will still be on the tips of our tongues for years to come.

Dean Cox cared for the O's. And so did this group of players. Nobody in that stadium deserved promotion more than Dean Cox.

So why do I want Cox to leave? I want him to prove himself in the Championship. I want him to go to his boyhood club, or link up with Slade again at Cardiff, basically i want him to do better than what we can offer him. He deserves it.

He owes nothing to this club of ours. We've had more than our tuppence from him and he would go to any club with my blessing. And i believe all Orient supporters feel the same way.

I don't want him to stagnate in this stinking cess-pit of a TV show and Italian-reality contest that Orient have become.

Where would he go?

The rumour-mill is rife that Cox is leaving in January. Having moved 'home' to Haywards Heath, the smart money would be on Brighton, where he served his apprenticeship. Or potentially Crawley (who have bid for him previously) to link up with his mate Jimmy Smith. It'd be gutting to think that a move to Crawley would be more appealing than Orient, but when you're being messed around by no-mark Italians anything is a possibility.

Of course we also need to think about the special relationship he has with Russell Slade at Cardiff. Slade understood Cox, knew what made him tick and built a lot of our play around him. I'm not too sure what Cardiff need in terms of personnel at the moment but Cox is a class act and gives his all. That's worth a lot more than a bundle of talent and a shitty attitude (read Ravel Morrison).

What does he bring to the team?

What sets Cox apart from most at this level is his control of the ball. Smash a ball to him at point-blank range and he'll control it. In an instant. Fizz a ball out to him. Instant control. In my opinion he reads the flight of a ball as good as anyone in the game.

Throw in the ability to kick both footed and you'll find that that is what his game is based around. He might not have the pace to burn like Odubajo did, and will very rarely go round the outside of a full-back on a jinking run, but his control and both-footed ability gains him that extra yard needed to create the number of assists he does.

Add in the loyalty and the tenacious winning mentality that he has and you can see why he's been a big-hit at Brisbane Road.

Good luck to you Dean. If you stay, you stay. And we'll all think you're crazy. If you go.. Good luck to you. You've earned it. We'll never forget your efforts and above all else. We know you cared.

Why I can't support Fabio Liverani as manager of Leyton Orient

The revolving door of Leyton Orient has been spun and unfortunately for Fabio Liverani, it has landed at his door. Welcome to the club.

So why can't i support this fella? In a nutshell, it's Francesco Becchetti's fault. For being so needlessly selfish. Allow me to explain:

I don't believe that Liverani is the right person to lead us out of a League One relegation scrap, i don't feel that he has the knowledge of English League One football and I don't believe that he has the contacts that an experienced manager could bring.

I don't feel that managing Genoa for six games, winning one, drawing one and losing four, is the type of experience needed to manage Leyton Orient and I can't believe that we've replaced a manager who lacked experience with a manager of a similar ilk.

I feel that his lack of spoken English is going to be telling, i don't think that by bringing over his 'team' is the right move and i don't think that offering a two-year deal to him is wise.

Having to report to the person he just replaced as manager seems pretty odd too.

I can't see that he is going to be able to motivate the players without being able to communicate with them, nor being able to set his game-plans and tactics in action.

I also can't see how the remaining members of staff can be kept on after having their toes trod on.

Off the pitch he's not going to provide much in the way of community plans or inspire the youth players coming through.

But all that can be forgiven. Everyone has to start somewhere remember. And we've probably had worse over the years.

What really pisses me off about this appointment (and the reason why I don't endorse or will be supporting this appointment), is that it isn't a football related one. It's about a poxy TV show on a poxy TV Channel broadcast in Italy or Albania or somewhere.

If this was purely a football decision, then you'd go for an experienced manager with a wealth of knowledge of the lower-leagues, the country, the players and tactics in general.

Here's a list of out of work managers who we could've had:

• Terry Butcher
• Owen Coyle
• Dougie Freedman
• Tony Mowbray

Not to mention my personal favourite (Brian McDermott, who I'd have moved heaven and earth to get here).

And that's just the out of work managers.. not to mention the likes of John Still, Paul Tisdale, Micky Mellon and soon to be out of work Ian Holloway. Not to mention countless others working their way up from non-league or coaching Premiership youth teams.

No. We're lumbered with an Italian speaking coach with no experience of the league we're currently playing in. But he's gonna look great on the TV show, with his Italian assistants, coaches, players all assessing a game show.

To sum it all up, this appointment hasn't been made with the best interests of Leyton Orient at heart.

This is a selfish move by an owner who seems intent on trying to win an audience in a TV battle.

And that is why I can't support a move like this.

The Italian Job - Russell Slade's Pre-Season Signings - Part One

There's been a lot of criticism of Russell Slade's Pre-Season signings. Let's delve into what happened, why it happened and how it happened.

The takeover from Hearn to Becchetti is complete. If rumour is to be believed, Russell was asked to name five players for each position in the squad, funds not a problem, anyone you like. Mauro Milanese (of whom we'll discuss later) and Becchetti would do the rest.

Naturally Russell went shopping in the Championship as any sane fella would do.

Adam Legzdins - Signed a two-year contract on the 13.06.2014.
According to both Slade and Legzdins we'd been in for him the previous season when he was at Derby and we needed a keeper. Derby were reluctant to let him go, fortunately for us we got Jakupovic.

Slade obviously liked the sound of Legzdins and at 6' 4'' he certainly sounded like the dominant type of keeper that Jones wasn't.

Bradley Pritchard - Signed a two-year contract on the 10.07.2014.
On the face of it, nobody really knew what this signing was about. We'd lost Moses to Brentford, but Pritchard certainly didn't spring to mind as a direct replacement on the wing. Personally i put this signing down to adding a bit of depth in midfield, providing cover and competition for Vincelot and James.

Regardless of what Slade had in mind, we'd been picking from the Championship again so no complaints on that front, plus the few Charlton fans that piped up said that we had a livewire-workaholic type of player. That definitely fits the Slade mould.

Gary Woods - Signed a two-year contract on the 17.07.2014.
Wow.. We can afford two Championship quality keepers of our own! No loans for a change! Similar to Legzdins in that we as fans had no real idea of what we were getting.

We knew that he played a load of games for Doncaster when they were promoted from the Division Three though. Gotta be a good keeper.

Shane Lowry - Signed a two-year contract on the 21.07.2014.
A player that we've heard of! I think Russell brought Lowry to Brisbane Road to shore up the left-back position and add some more quality depth to one of the best defences in the league.

25 years old, over 100 games at Championship level, this was a top-notch signing.


The Lowry signing had me (and no doubt others) starting to realise that Slade's shopping list wasn't a fabrication at all. We had a new owner, we meant business, and the four signings so far had definitely improved on what we had the previous season.

The Italian Job - Francesco Becchetti

Who is this chap that spent £7m on taking Orient from third-tier challengers to relegation candidates within three months?

I'll try to shed some light on him. Mainly cut and pasted from old news articles.

Francesco Becchetti:

• 48 Years Old.
• Owns the Becchetti Energy Group (BEG). The core business is the design, construction and operation of hydroelectric plants and integrated centres for the treatment and exploitation of municipal solid waste, both in Italy and abroad.
• Comes from a family of waste disposal expertise. His uncle is Manlio Cerroni, the controversial owner of the Malagrotta landfill site and other sites across Europe.
• Also active on the wind energy sector across tha Balkans.
• Possibly resides in Albania.
• Took a lower-league handball team to the top of the competition in Italy.
• Just started the Agon TV Channel in Italy. It's been active in Albania for 18 months. Agon channel will specialise in Talent shows.
• Married to Armela Becchetti.
• Sounds like a Tony Soprano character. Waste management, Italian and all that..

The Italian Job - The Takeover

Things moved pretty swift in the summer at the O's. We only finished at Wembley towards the end of May, by mid-June things surrounding a takeover were moving swiftly.. a new company had been set up, registered in Covent Garden owned by three Italians and Barry was giving it the big 'un in the press.

Franceso Becchetti, yes him of the shit-shifting empire, had been at Wembley to witness us take Rotherham to the cleaners and snatch our rightful place in the Championship after pissing the league all season capitulate in the second-half. And again in the penalty shoot-out.

Regardless of the outcome he must've been impressed with what he see. An upwardly moving club, Manager of the year, no debts, crowds growing and three previous matches where the atmosphere was amongst the best we've seen at Brisbane Road ever. Plus a little Barry sitting on his shoulder '..Go on Franny lad, dare ya.., you can make things happen here...bring yer shit-shovelling here and work yer magic..'

Credit where it's due, Becchetti bought us on the 7th July 2014 for £7m. He didn't get the ground though. That stays with Matchroom. No need to worry on that front hey?!?!?

Let me clarify that for you. Generally speaking he paid £7m for 20-odd people that kick a ball around for a living in the third division. There was a lot of goodwill included in that £7m though. Aside from West Ham fans, we're everybody's second favourite team.

When you're a billionaire I suppose you have these impulse buys.

What we know now but didn't at the time:

• Francesco Becchetti had the right hump that Moses was sold to Brentford for a £1m. Still not sure why he had the hump about it though. Maybe he thought he was worth more (i certainly did), or because we sold them to a rival (at the time, they're so much better than us now though).
• We were going to be part of an Italian / Albanian TV show about football.

The Italian Job - Prologue

I've dusted off the old blog and decided to pen a few (a lot of) words about the current state of affairs at the O's.

I'm not going to talk about anything from the 2013/14 season as i prefer to keep that locked away in my brain. After all, when Coxy put us two-up just before half-time, there ain't too much more to mention apart from comfortably seeing the game out...

Moving on.. basically it's all gone to shit. I'm gonna attempt this by having chapters. First of i think I'll start out with what i believe happened over the close-season. Then move on to Russell Slade, then Nugent, now Milanese. Then maybe a bit on the players. Hopefully there'll be more logic behind what i type than a basic rant.

I'm pretty sure that nobody will agree with my views. And that's fine. I just feel that i have to get a few bits off my chest..

Why the O's will miss Ben Chorley

Like him or loathe him, Ben Chorley man has left Orient after three-and-a-half years to join Stevenage on a longer-term contract than the O's were seemingly willing to give.

First and foremost I'd like to wish him all the best for the future (after we sneaked a win there last week) and good luck for his time at Broadhall Way / Lamex Stadium.

Now we're free to discuss what Ben brought to the team and also what we'll be lacking in his absence.

2011/12 season wasn't great for Orient in the main as we've covered in previous posts, in particular it didn't seem to go well for Ben Chorley. Regularly left out of the team to make way for Terrell Forbes, Scott Cuthbert and Dean Leacock this didn't bode well for when he did factor into the team as very uncharacteristic-like sloppy mistakes and shirking his duties were apparent in his play. As O's fans these were quite mystifying as the previous two-years performances and regular appearances had been solid for Ben.

I feel the culmination of this angst was away to relegation candidates Wycombe on the 06.03.2012. A totally unbalanced and dire Orient team* struggled in spectacular fashion to cope with Wycombe.

Four-Nil down after 39 minutes isn't great shakes by anybodies standard but it was in the 33rd minute that I witnessed (with my own eyes, a few yards from me) an extremely frustrated Chorley lambast 21 year old debutant Syam Ben Youssef.
If that doesn't seem bad enough, Youssef had only entered the fray in the 31st minute as Dean Leacock didn't seem to like the idea of being two-nil down to the basement boys on a cold-evening in Buckinghamshire and went down injured after thirty minutes.

That's correct, two minutes into his senior debut (and yet to touch a ball) Youssef had Chorley eye-balling him and for want of a better word, totally bollocking him off. This isn't how a senior pro should've gone about his business.

For the record. O's went on to lose against Wycombe 4-2 that night. The French-Tunisian Syam Ben Youssef left at the end of the season after nine appearances and has re-surfaced playing for Astra Giurgiu in Romania. I though he was pretty decent.

 When Stephen Dawson left for Barnsley we needed a new captain and most assumed that would be Chorley. I think Ben thought it'd be him too. The captaincy was handed to Matthew Spring. I believe this was a mistake on the part of Russell Slade and it well and truly split the camp in two. Chorley heading up the south of the river contingent (Chorley, Forbes, Lisbie Moses, Porter & Mooney) whilst Spring looked after the Essex-Based and North of the river bunch (Spring, Leacock, Cuthbert, Smith, Cox, McSweeney). Whilst I've no conclusive proof of the above, there was a split-squad and this became quite apparent among the O's faithful as things were getting worse.

Ben's not all trouble though. Not at all. I was quite shocked when he left the O's as he's been back to his brilliant best this season. A real captain, leader and influential player on the pitch.

All rifts seemed to have been healed and Slade was quick to heap praise on Chorley quite recently. When talking about Moses Odubajo's performances and development Slade mentioned the encouragement that Chorley had shown to Moses and all the younger players.

So what can Steveange fans expect of Chorley? Strong in the air, pretty reliable with the ball at his feet, strong in the challenge and tactically aware. Above all a very good professional who looks after himself well. As I said above. I'm going to miss him.

I'm writing this blog entry before the Tranmere game and I must be honest, am quite worried about the leadership in our team. Nathan Clarke is the club captain, but he's injured, so Scott Cuthbert will be the captain for today alongside the excellent Matthieu Baudry.

Scott Cuthbert is a fine defender, one of the best i can remember at the O's, but against Southend he didn't strike me as a leader. In fact the whole team against Southend seemed to lack leadership and direction. This worries me as its a step back to how we were last season when we were in free-fall.

I suppose only time will tell but at the moment I'd have preferred Chorley to be standing with us and leading us, rather than one of our rivals.