Football Season Guide

The Leyton Orient soap opera is set to continue for another season under the reign of eccentric Italian owner Francesco Becchetti. It has largely been a story of woe for the O’s since he took over the club from Barry Hearn in July 2014. He lavished plenty of money on manager Russell Slade but a poor start led to a fall out and Slade resigned in October. A succession of managers and coaches have followed since but they were unable to prevent to the side from being relegated to League Two at the end of the 2014/15 season. Ian Hendon was handed the poisoned chalice last summer and won his opening five league matches of the season but was followed by just two wins from 12 games and he was sacked in January. He was replaced by Kevin Nolan, who started his player-manager reign with five wins from his first seven games. He then won just two of his next eight games and was stripped of his managerial duties in April. Hendon’s assistant Andy Hessenthaler finished the season in caretaker charge although Becchetti himself was part of a selection committee which picked the team and they eventually finished in 8th place in the table, six points adrift of the play-offs. Becchetti’s chaotic ownership is unlikely to change any time soon with Hessenthaler appointed on a permanent basis during the summer. Defender Mathieu Baudry and midfielder Lloyd James rejected new contract offers but the O’s will be pleased to have retained the services of goalkeeper Alex Cisak, and last season’s leading goalscorer Jay Simpson. Hessenthaler has added defender Tom Parkes, midfielders Liam Kelly and Robbie Weir, winger Gavin Massey and striker Jordan Bowery to his squad, whilst influential midfielder Dean Cox and striker Paul McCallum are both set to return from long-term knee injuries, but he will be lucky to still be in the job next summer if Becchetti doesn’t start to learn from his mistakes.