Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Leyton Orient will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Leyton Orient can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rodrigo Bentancur was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leyton Orient this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Both clubs in the mire, one fixture between them, and a ground that will be louder and more frightened than at any point in the season. Leyton Orient know what is at stake and so does everybody in the away end.
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Interim Coach after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Burnley defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 136 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Leyton Orient have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Leyton Orient, and it is not being withdrawn.
Rodrigo Bentancur and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
It finished 1‑0, and it was Dom Ballard’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Leyton Orient.
Squad7 Apr 2031
Words at Leyton Orient training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mario Matković is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Something was said to Rodrigo Bentancur and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
In brief
BoardroomWages eat 96% of everything Leyton Orient earn
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Leyton Orient will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Leyton Orient, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Leyton Orient have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Rodrigo Bentancur was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mario Matković was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
11 clean sheets from 36 appearances at Sheffield Wednesday. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Leyton Orient has been clear about where Quilma stands, which is more than many ever get.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Position 22 and 31 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Pedro Cauã will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Leyton Orient the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Leyton Orient have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rodrigo Bentancur was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 90th minute. Bolton Wanderers will replay every second of the added time for a week.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Leyton Orient, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rodrigo Bentancur was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Leyton Orient can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
8 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
7.34, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Leyton Orient had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout17 Mar 2031
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Interim Coach kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Leyton Orient scored in the 91th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Leyton Orient can pretend not to have heard.
Will Dennis was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
In brief
BoardroomWages swallow 97% of the Leyton Orient income
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Dylan Levitt was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rodrigo Bentancur was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jonathan Leko and Leyton Orient agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Position 22 and 23 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Leyton Orient, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Leyton Orient is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Manchester United will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Will Murdock has pre-agreed a move to Leyton Orient, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Harry Lister has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leyton Orient this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Leyton Orient asked and Brighton said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Steve Seddon was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.19 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Interim Coach on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The deal that would have taken Will Dennis to Wycombe Wanderers has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Leyton Orient with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Leyton Orient, and it is not being withdrawn.
Isaac Hayden was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Stoke City have kept their man, and Leyton Orient go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Leyton Orient ran out of time with Chesterfield. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Accrington Stanley waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Leyton Orient is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Leyton Orient can pretend not to have heard.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 5 arrived, 5 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Maksym Barshak will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Leyton Orient the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Will Dennis has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Cheltenham Town moved on, Matthew Corran reports back to Leyton Orient, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
16 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Leyton Orient has to find a result from somewhere.
The terraces27 Jan 2031
The mood at Leyton Orient has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Leyton Orient, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Pedro Cauã will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Leyton Orient the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Aston Villa have kept their man, and Leyton Orient go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Leyton Orient will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Leyton Orient and Chesterfield have settled on $390.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Leyton Orient, and it is not being withdrawn.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pedro Cauã was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Leyton Orient has been clear about where Tommy Neale stands, which is more than many ever get.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Ervin Piric
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Leyton Orient will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Leyton Orient and Northampton Town have settled on $430.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Leyton Orient they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Leeds United keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Will Dennis was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Day 12 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
There is nobody left to promote and nobody left to run a session. The board have brought in a name the supporters do not know, and the question of how a club gets here will outlast whoever answers it.
The offer from Preston for Will Dennis was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 30 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Leyton Orient they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Isaac Hayden and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Leyton Orient is running low.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tom Nixon will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Leyton Orient the goodbyes have quietly begun.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Leyton Orient can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Igor Maliszewski will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Leyton Orient the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leyton Orient this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mario Matković was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout23 Dec 2030
The manager has not finished forgetting Idris El Mizouni's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout23 Dec 2030
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Interim Coach left the room before anybody could ask which.
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Leyton Orient is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Will Dennis was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mario Matković was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then West Bromwich Albion scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Leyton Orient, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Pedro Cauã will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Leyton Orient the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Isaac Hayden and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pedro Cauã was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugoutDom Ballard asks for a word with the manager
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
227Edition
The Leyton Orient Chronicle
2 Dec 2030
From our football correspondentCrisis
The terraces2 Dec 2030
The mood at Leyton Orient has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Leyton Orient is running low.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Leyton Orient can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tom Nixon will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Leyton Orient the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mario Matković was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Aston Villa go through and Leyton Orient go home, 0‑4 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
It finished 0-4. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Igor Maliszewski will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Leyton Orient the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leyton Orient this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Leyton Orient can tell you which week it ends in.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mario Matković was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Malte Persson will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Leyton Orient the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Isaac Hayden was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Squad18 Nov 2030
Pedro Cauã falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Leyton Orient, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at Leyton Orient will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Leyton Orient, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Pedro Cauã will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Leyton Orient the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Will Dennis and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Leyton Orient, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The mood at Leyton Orient has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Leyton Orient is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.40 beside his name.
A 2‑0 win over Northampton Town, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Marked 8.17 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mario Matković was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Leyton Orient they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leyton Orient this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Leyton Orient can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad28 Oct 2030
7 new faces, and Leyton Orient are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Leyton Orient is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Leyton Orient have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leyton Orient this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Leyton Orient can tell you which week it ends in.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mario Matković was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Kien Connolly has his answer from Leyton Orient; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Leyton Orient is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Will Dennis, and the manager let it.
Squad14 Oct 2030
Words at Leyton Orient training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mario Matković is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leyton Orient this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Reading in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Leyton Orient can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Leyton Orient is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Will Dennis and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Pedro Cauã was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Igor Maliszewski will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Leyton Orient the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Isaac Hayden was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
8 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
The dugout30 Sep 2030
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Interim Coach to a room that had heard them before.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Leyton Orient scored in the 96th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Leyton Orient is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leyton Orient this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Iljas Muminov has, at Leyton Orient, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mario Matković was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Leyton Orient is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Maksym Barshak has agreed terms with Notts County for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Leyton Orient know it.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager’s verdict
SquadPedro Cauã falls out with a teammate over standards
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tom Nixon will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Leyton Orient the goodbyes have quietly begun.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Igor Maliszewski has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Will Dennis and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mario Matković and Leyton Orient agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mario Matković was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Leyton Orient are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
0‑3 against Leicester City, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Leyton Orient can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Doncaster Rovers waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Leyton Orient is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $179.7K of what Leyton Orient paid for Denver Hume is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 19 arrived, 17 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The offer went to Portsmouth this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Leyton Orient have done the hard part with Norwich City, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Isaac Hayden was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The clubs have shaken hands with Chesterfield; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Leyton Orient is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Malte Persson has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leyton Orient this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
10 days since the seat came open, a list of names doing the rounds, and nobody has signed anything. Every week this drags on the shortlist gets shorter.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sheffield Wednesday have kept their man, and Leyton Orient go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The coaching staff has emptied out entirely and there was nobody internal to promote, so the club has appointed a name almost none of its supporters will recognise. Clubs recover from this; none of them enjoy explaining it.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Interim Coach recited it perfectly.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Leyton Orient, and it is not being withdrawn.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Leyton Orient can tell you which week it ends in.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Leicester City have kept their man, and Leyton Orient go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Leyton Orient, and it is not being withdrawn.
Leo Shahar has gone, the accounts have $4.2M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Crystal Palace paid $4.2M and Leyton Orient took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Leyton Orient and Queens Park Rangers have settled on $43.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Leyton Orient is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Isaac Hayden and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The shirt still fits. Florian Rombogouera is back at Leyton Orient, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Leyton Orient have lost him in all but the paperwork.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Leyton Orient can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Fabrizio Cavegn was one of the reasons people came, and $5.7M does not replace that by itself.
$1.2M on the table at Port Vale. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Will Dennis was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Shkelzen Veseli and Leyton Orient agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Leyton Orient asked and Tottenham said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
In brief
SquadWill Forrester falls out with a teammate over standards
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Leyton Orient, and it is not being withdrawn.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Samuel has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
$280.0K on the table at Wycombe Wanderers. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leyton Orient this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Leyton Orient can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Leyton Orient is running low.
Chesterfield have accepted the money. What Leyton Orient do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The deal with Bristol Rovers is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Leyton Orient asked and Arsenal said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Shkelzen Veseli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Leyton Orient people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Leyton Orient, and it is not being withdrawn.
Everything agreed with Southampton, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Isaac Hayden and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Tottenham have kept their man, and Leyton Orient go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Leo Shahar trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The words a physio says slowly. 18 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Timothy Stewart has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Leyton Orient have gone to Mansfield Town with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Isaac Hayden was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. West Ham United have kept their man, and Leyton Orient go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The words a physio says slowly. 25 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
$1.7M on the table at Cambridge United. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leyton Orient this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
$270.0K was the most the club would pay and Mansfield Town were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Arsenal have kept their man, and Leyton Orient go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The phone has started ringing about Samuel again, and this time the name on the line is Luton Town. Leyton Orient are listening politely and promising nothing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Shkelzen Veseli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 33 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Leyton Orient can pretend not to have heard.
The offer went to Mansfield Town this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Arseniy Gorbachev has, at Leyton Orient, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Newcastle United have kept their man, and Leyton Orient go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A loan enquiry to Manchester City: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
41 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Leyton Orient lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Leyton Orient offered $280.0K; Mansfield Town said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The name of Abraham Rodriguez has come up in conversations Leyton Orient were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad17 Jun 2030
Words at Leyton Orient training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Will Forrester is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Newcastle United have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Leyton Orient have made the call to Arsenal. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
48 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Leyton Orient lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The offer from Bristol City for Fabrizio Cavegn was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Leyton Orient, and it is not being withdrawn.
Leyton Orient have gone to Mansfield Town with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Isaac Hayden was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Leyton Orient asked and West Ham United said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Will Dennis has his answer from Leyton Orient; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Shkelzen Veseli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Leyton Orient are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Leyton Orient, and it is not being withdrawn.
Add another name to the list: Bristol City have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Fabrizio Cavegn. The answer from Leyton Orient has not changed — yet.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leyton Orient this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
42 appearances and 9 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Will Forrester was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Fabrizio Cavegn has his answer from Leyton Orient; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Squad27 May 2030
Words at Leyton Orient training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mario Matković is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody at Leyton Orient will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Leyton Orient, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Leyton Orient have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Isaac Hayden and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad20 May 2030
Words at Leyton Orient training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirsten Otchere is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
9 goals in 42 games at Wrexham — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Leyton Orient updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Leo Shahar trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Leyton Orient know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
What was a back-page link has become a chant, and the chant is not friendly. Leyton Orient would rather it were settled quietly, and it has stopped being quiet.
Will Dennis was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad13 May 2030
Words at Leyton Orient training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Will Forrester is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Will Dennis is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Will Dennis trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Leyton Orient know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Timothy Stewart has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Leyton Orient, and it is not being withdrawn.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Leyton Orient, another week without a signature from Isaac Hayden.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Leyton Orient can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Something was said to Leo Shahar and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mario Matković was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. James Morris is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager's exit leaves Will Dennis exposed
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 44 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Boardroom29 Apr 2030
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Leyton Orient
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leyton Orient this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Dylan Levitt. 1‑0 against Queens Park Rangers, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.36. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Leyton Orient.
Squad29 Apr 2030
Words at Leyton Orient training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirsten Otchere is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.85 for the rest of it.
Kellen Fisher was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Leyton Orient know it.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Kellen Fisher and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad15 Apr 2030
Words at Leyton Orient training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Will Forrester is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leyton Orient this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad8 Apr 2030
Words at Leyton Orient training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirsten Otchere is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Leyton Orient told Mario Matković something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
19 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Leyton Orient lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Leyton Orient is running low.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad1 Apr 2030
Words at Leyton Orient training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Will Forrester is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Leyton Orient, another week without a signature from Leo Shahar.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Daniel Batty has his answer from Leyton Orient; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Something was said to Kirsten Otchere and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
26 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Leyton Orient lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Will Dennis and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 34 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Leyton Orient is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Squad25 Mar 2030
Words at Leyton Orient training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mario Matković is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Will Dennis trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout25 Mar 2030
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Timothy Stewart chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
0‑3 against Cardiff City, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Leyton Orient have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Kellen Fisher and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad18 Mar 2030
Words at Leyton Orient training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirsten Otchere is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
10 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Timothy Stewart after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Leyton Orient, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Will Forrester was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Leyton Orient know it.
Marked 7.77 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Leyton Orient had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout11 Mar 2030
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Timothy Stewart, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leyton Orient this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Leyton Orient can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Kellen Fisher was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Mpho Manare is living that version at Leyton Orient, and it tends to show in the first month.
West Bromwich Albion will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Louis Brady has pre-agreed a move to Leyton Orient, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
50 goals in these colours now, every one of them somebody’s memory. There is a supporter in the stand who can tell you where he was for most of them.
Squad25 Feb 2030
Words at Leyton Orient training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Harry Lister is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout25 Feb 2030
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Timothy Stewart left the room before anybody could ask which.
In brief
The dugoutIsaac Hayden knocks on the manager’s door
6 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Isaac Hayden was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Nottingham Forest left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad18 Feb 2030
Words at Leyton Orient training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Will Forrester is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Leyton Orient know it.
Squad18 Feb 2030
9 new faces, and Leyton Orient are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Leyton Orient can pretend not to have heard.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Leyton Orient ran out of time with Bristol Rovers. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Leo Shahar has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
0‑1 to Preston, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad11 Feb 2030
Words at Leyton Orient training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Will Forrester is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
A goalkeeper's career is counted in the games nobody scored in, and Will Dennis now has 50 of them across 214 appearances. Nothing about that number was luck.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Will Forrester
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Leyton Orient they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Leyton Orient have done the hard part with Bristol Rovers, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Boardroom4 Feb 2030
Deadline passes with 8 signed and 4 gone
That is the business done at Leyton Orient until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leyton Orient this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and James Morris was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Millwall have kept their man, and Leyton Orient go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Malte Persson has, at Leyton Orient, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Bradford City paid $1.1M and Leyton Orient took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Kellen Fisher and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad28 Jan 2030
Words at Leyton Orient training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. James Morris is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Kellen Fisher was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
$490.0K was the most the club would pay and Oxford United were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dane Scarlett was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Arsenal have kept their man, and Leyton Orient go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Leyton Orient can pretend not to have heard.
Leyton Orient have gone to Oxford United with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leyton Orient this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Tom Nixon has, at Leyton Orient, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad14 Jan 2030
Dane Scarlett falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Leyton Orient can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Leyton Orient they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Igor Maliszewski has just signed for Leyton Orient, and for once the answer mattered.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Will Forrester was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Level with 85 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Leyton Orient had all but put away. Middlesbrough will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Isaac Hayden was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Will Forrester was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Leyton Orient is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 89. Plymouth Argyle had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Half the programme played, position 17, 27 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Isaac Hayden and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad24 Dec 2029
Words at Leyton Orient training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dane Scarlett is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout24 Dec 2029
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Timothy Stewart left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout24 Dec 2029
The manager has not finished forgetting Will Forrester's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Leyton Orient are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Braian Cuello was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Will Dennis is on it.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Leyton Orient is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Timothy Stewart on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Dane Scarlett falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Something was said to Will Dennis and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.26 on the card, and the Leyton Orient support went home talking about one name.
The dugout3 Dec 2029
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Timothy Stewart was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Leyton Orient dressing room was either.
West Bromwich Albion arrive as leaders. A side at the top is beaten roughly once a month, and the club that does it gets a week it remembers for a year.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Bristol City defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Kellen Fisher was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Reading will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Mirko Olavarría has pre-agreed a move to Leyton Orient, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Words at Leyton Orient training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Will Forrester is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
A point taken on 88 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
A 1‑1 draw with Cardiff City leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout26 Nov 2029
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Timothy Stewart chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout26 Nov 2029
Somebody else is better right now than Denver Hume
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Leyton Orient, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leyton Orient this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad19 Nov 2029
Words at Leyton Orient training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Will Forrester is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody at Leyton Orient will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
7 goals in 15 games at Wrexham — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Leyton Orient updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 14 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Leeds United go through and Leyton Orient go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Leyton Orient can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Leyton Orient they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
7.91, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leyton Orient this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Idris El Mizouni. 1‑0 against Derby County, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
In brief
SquadWords at Leyton Orient training over how hard people work
The mood at Leyton Orient has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Idris El Mizouni scored, was marked 6.71, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Isaac Hayden was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad5 Nov 2029
Words at Leyton Orient training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Will Forrester is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings5 Nov 2029
Dylan Levitt was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.22. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Will Forrester was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leyton Orient this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Leyton Orient know it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Leyton Orient, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Timothy Stewart after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leyton Orient this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad22 Oct 2029
Words at Leyton Orient training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dane Scarlett is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Leyton Orient can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout22 Oct 2029
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Timothy Stewart to a room that had heard them before.
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Leyton Orient, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mattia Tordini will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Leyton Orient the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Miguel Vilela has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Leyton Orient have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
Squad15 Oct 2029
Words at Leyton Orient training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Will Forrester is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
At 33, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Mattia Tordini has his answer from Leyton Orient; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Nobody at Leyton Orient will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dylan Levitt signs something — a contract at Leyton Orient or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The mood at Leyton Orient has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Kellen Fisher and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Leyton Orient, another week without a signature from Isaac Hayden.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Timothy Stewart after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad8 Oct 2029
5 new faces, and Leyton Orient are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Kellen Fisher was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Stoke City left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad1 Oct 2029
Words at Leyton Orient training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dane Scarlett is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
7.79, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Leyton Orient had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout1 Oct 2029
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Timothy Stewart, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Gianfranco Livia has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Marked 7.88 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Leyton Orient had the best player on the pitch.
The dugout24 Sep 2029
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Timothy Stewart left the room before anybody could ask which.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mattia Tordini will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Leyton Orient the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leyton Orient this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Aston Villa have kept their man, and Leyton Orient go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout17 Sep 2029
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Timothy Stewart chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Successful dribbles: 13. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Bolton Wanderers defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
The mood at Leyton Orient has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
The deal that would have taken Dane Scarlett to Blackburn Rovers has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Leyton Orient with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Everything was agreed with Nottingham Forest and then the doctor spoke. Leyton Orient have walked away from a signing on the advice of somebody who never saw him play, which is how it is supposed to work.
Leyton Orient asked and Brentford said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Words at Leyton Orient training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dane Scarlett is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Leyton Orient people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 28 arrived, 16 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Leyton Orient offered $1.5M; Oxford United said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Kellen Fisher was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Leyton Orient did not have in the autumn.
Squad27 Aug 2029
Words at Leyton Orient training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dane Scarlett is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Leyton Orient, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mattia Tordini will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Leyton Orient the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Mattia Tordini has agreed terms with Plymouth Argyle for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
The chase for Gianfranco Livia ended with $460.0K changing hands and Lincoln City out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Leyton Orient have gone to Plymouth Argyle with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Boardroom20 Aug 2029
6 academy players handed senior numbers at Leyton Orient
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad20 Aug 2029
Dane Scarlett falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Leyton Orient can pretend not to have heard.
Leyton Orient offered $3.3M; Newcastle United said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
The name of Dane Scarlett has come up in conversations Leyton Orient were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The offer went to Lincoln City this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Kellen Fisher and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Ervin Piric is a Leyton Orient player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Timothy Stewart has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Leyton Orient have gone to Newcastle United with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Isaac Hayden and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dane Scarlett was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
9 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Nottingham Forest have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Victor Adeboyejo is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
In brief
The dugoutWill Forrester asks for a word with the manager
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Leyton Orient can pretend not to have heard.
Isaac Hayden and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Jul 2029
Words at Leyton Orient training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dane Scarlett is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Leyton Orient asked and Manchester United said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Nottingham Forest have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Leyton Orient, and it is not being withdrawn.
Leyton Orient asked and Liverpool said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad23 Jul 2029
Words at Leyton Orient training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Will Forrester is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Braian Cuello and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Leyton Orient will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Manchester City have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
In brief
The dugoutIsaac Hayden knocks on the manager’s door
The mood at Leyton Orient has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Leyton Orient can pretend not to have heard.
The chase for Pedro Cauã ended with $1.1M changing hands and Port Vale out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Kellen Fisher and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Words at Leyton Orient training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dane Scarlett is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Leyton Orient know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The name of Dane Scarlett has come up in conversations Leyton Orient were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Leyton Orient offered $1.4M; Wolverhampton said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Dane Scarlett and Leyton Orient agree another 4 years.
Will Dennis and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
8 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Magnar Ødegaard was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Timothy Stewart has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Leyton Orient, and it is not being withdrawn.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Hamrun Spartans waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Leyton Orient is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer went to Wolverhampton this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $3.2M — a club that wants Andrew Fisher enough to be asked twice.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leyton Orient this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Burton Albion paid $740.0K and Leyton Orient took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Leyton Orient, and it is not being withdrawn.
$500.0K on the table at Swansea City. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Manchester United have kept their man, and Leyton Orient go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Abraham Rodriguez and Leyton Orient agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Dom Ballard had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Thun waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Leyton Orient is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Leyton Orient, and it is not being withdrawn.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $3.0M — a club that wants Filip Marschall enough to be asked twice.
The offer went to Watford this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Isaac Hayden was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Leyton Orient, and it is not being withdrawn.
Everything agreed with Peterborough United, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
The offer went to Wrexham this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Add another name to the list: Blackpool have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Dane Scarlett. The answer from Leyton Orient has not changed — yet.
Isaac Hayden and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad11 Jun 2029
Words at Leyton Orient training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Will Forrester is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Timothy Stewart has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Leyton Orient, and it is not being withdrawn.
Leyton Orient and Doncaster Rovers have settled on $260.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The offer went to Milton Keynes Dons this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Liverpool have kept their man, and Leyton Orient go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Matthew Corran has just signed for Leyton Orient, and for once the answer mattered.
38 appearances and 9 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Eric Melo has his answer from Leyton Orient; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Leyton Orient, and it is not being withdrawn.
38 games, 9 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Leyton Orient now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leyton Orient this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mario Matković was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Samuel trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Charles Vernam was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Two hours a week with a tutor, which is the least glamorous thing at Leyton Orient and the one that decides whether a foreign signing is still here in two years.