London’s second-oldest professional club are being led a merry dance by Francesco Becchetti, who in 30 months has steered Orient from the verge of the Championship to the brink of non-league football
This has been quite the season for crisis clubs. The Premier League title race may be a foregone conclusion but the battle for the “honour” of most mismanaged club in England could go right to the wire. Charlton, Coventry, Blackburn, Blackpool and Morecambe have endured campaigns pockmarked by protest and off-field chaos but surely none can match the meltdown at Leyton Orient, who look destined for relegation to the non-league ranks after 112 years of Football League membership. And it is looking less like a relegation through misjudgment or penury, but by an owner’s spite.
Orient have yet to pick up a point in 2017 and lost their sixth match in a row on Tuesday, 1-0 to Morecambe, under their fourth manager of the season, Danny Webb, in his second game in charge. Their starting XI included two teenage strikers, Sam Dalby and Victor Adeboyejo, with a combined total of four previous league starts behind them – and a youth-team goalkeeper, Sam Sargeant, promoted because the first choice, Alex Cisak, was strangely not selected.
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