I had the pleasure of putting a few questions to Orients Chief Exec and the club, the manager, what happens behind the scenes and Orients future. He started the role in March 2006, becoming the youngest CEO in football league history. He worked his way up from Press Officer at the club after covering Orient in the local media and worked on several projects for Matchroom including launching PokerMillions and working on Professional Darts Corporation events before landing his current role.
SLADE
After Orients awful start to the year, gaining just 3 points from a possible 30, some fans were calling for Slade’s head. Indeed, in today’s culture of hiring and firing at a rapid pace, had been at a lot of other clubs he would possibly have been queuing at the job centre by October, but according to Matt, Slade’s job was never in doubt.
“Our start was far from ideal, however at no point did we as a board or backroom team question whether Russ was the right man to do the job. For us, he is here long-term and he is happy with that!”
With a new 18 month contract signed and Orients continued push up the League One table, after possible bad feeling between chairman and manager regarding the former rejecting the later permission to talk to Barnsley in the summer, was that faith shown the reason Slade signed the new deal? Well, “Yes, plus he feels he can take this Club forward.”
SELLING
A big issue amongst fans has been regarding the clubs ambition in regards to keeping players at the club. With the January transfer window looming a lot of what happens in the next few days could impact significantly on the club. After the departure of last seasons leading scorer, and fan favourite Scott McGleish, many were surprised when his strike partner and second top scorer, Alex Revell, also left. Matt sheds some light on how the club goes about these decisions.
“The buying club will contact us with an offer. We either refuse the offer saying we don’t want to sell the player, or invite the buying club to revise their offer to a level that is acceptable. No player is sold without the manager’s blessing. Once a fee is agreed, the player is given permission to discuss personal terms, but in reality, the buying club has probably already made contact with the player’s agent and discussed figures. It’s surprising how quickly personal terms are agreed once a fee is set!”
One obvious stand out move this year was the sale of star left back, Charlie Daniels. The fee was a reported (unconfirmed) £175,000 but many Orient fans were saddened and angry to see one of the main forces behind the success of last season leave the club. What would Matt say to these fans?
“Fans need to understand the cold reality of football – most do, I think.”
While at the time the move hurt, in retrospect the move made sense bearing in mind Charlie was out of contract at the end of the season, a cold reality that the club had to accept.
“Charlie would have left this Club on a free transfer in the summer, of that there is no doubt. His agent told us he had his heart set on Championship football, but money talks and I defy anyone to say they would have turned down what he is being paid now. Good luck to him – he was a great player for us and a fantastic bloke and I wish him every success.”
Does this type of sale impact players looking to sign new contracts and come across as a lack of ambition? In Matts view, “Not at all,” and with the recent extended contract of Orients star Player, Dean Cox, it does go a way to prove the theory correct.
FUTURE
The debate surrounding the Olympic stadium and Olympic legacy has gone on and on. Orients view has been well documented and a number of club statements are clear on where we stand and Matt’s view clearly follows this.
“Personally, like most people, I am extremely disappointed and feel let down by the various authorities that no thought has been given to us when shaping the Olympic legacy – particularly when in my office I have a folder of notes from 2007 meetings where Steve Dawson and I sat down with people in office and told them the problems that would arise if they continued to do exactly what they have done!”
Where Orient goes from here is probably dependant on decisions made that are out of their hands. However, the club hasn't been sitting idle, with a proposal for a new stadium and hotel/casino complex on one of the Olympic sites which Matt felt was a good one.
“Our proposals made commercial sense, the current ones will leave an annual deficit which we do not think is desirable for anyone.” However, the proposal was rejected, putting Orient back to square one.
“We feel our proposal was rejected because the LVRPA (who have ownership of the land post-Games) did not have the appetite to re-visit their existing legacy proposals.”
With this in mind there is a feeling among the fan base that a possible move out of Leyton might be on the cards or a possible ground share with another club as Matt confirms.
“We have never ruled out leaving the area, but it is not our preferred option.” However, “Ground sharing with another football club isn’t something that has come on our radar.”
Hearn has been quoted several times stating that, to the right buyer and in the interest of the football club, he would sell the club. Is this posturing due to Orient having hardly any assets after Barry sold the ground to himself?
“No of course not. He has the option to sell the stadium along with the Club to a new investor. That would not suit every investor, but at least this way he ensures that the stadium won’t fall in to the hands of someone who would kick the football club out of it.”
And what of Hearn charging us rent in a few years, after we are losing money year on year. Would it really put us out of business?
“I have no idea how you think paying rent on our stadium would put us out of business! The rent has been clearly defined in advance and is an affordable amount –Clubs who get in to trouble on this front generally have an obscene rent amount to pay, which isn’t the case with us.” Personally I think it's a problem that will have real repercussions on the team going forward but from the Matt’s point of view it is not a problem they foresee affecting us.
PERFORMANCE ON THE PITCH
Porter was quoted as saying that we have a top ten budget in league one. With that in mind, it seems as though we have underachieved in previous years but that is not the case.
“We have a top ten budget this season – I didn’t say we had one in previous seasons.”
It is clear that this is a step in the right direction for the club, with the likes of Kevin Lisbie and Dean Leacock signing, on presumably fairly high wages and with Dean Cox signing long term on presumably better terms it is fairly easy to see where the money has gone, and in my view, it has gone to the right people.
Even though Orient are no high flyers, it cannot be argued that we have come a long way from just ten years ago. Since promotion into league one things have been a bit up and down. On the pitch it is clear we have progressed but what about behind the scenes?
“The Club has progressed immeasurably off the field in terms of our infrastructure and operation. It’s easy for fans to criticise, and of course we don’t get everything right, but I am proud of the way we operate and would confidently stand us up against any Club with similar resources in that respect.”
It does seem like the ambition we see on the pitch and especially from Slade has transferred to the board room. Without setting unrealistic goals the club seem to all be pushing in the right direction.
“We are now an established League One club and so our next aim is to be in a position each year to have a genuine chance of making the play-offs. We’re not saying it’s a failure if we don’t, but we aspire to being part of that leading group.”
And if Orient were to get to the dizzy heights of Championship football, would there be room to manoeuvre budget wise?
“Yes of course, we couldn’t possibly maintain our current budget in the Championship!”
FAVOURITES
Finally I asked Matt a couple of generic questions about the O's.
Favourite Orient moment?
“Oxford away is undoubtedly the top of the list although I actually missed the goal that got us promoted as I was checking on the TV to see if it was true that Northampton had equalised at Grimsby. It’s the only goal I’ve missed in 19 years of going to Orient matches!
Aside from that either Jonathan’s goal against Arsenal or the penalty shoot-out at Rotherham back in 1998/99. I thought we’d win that play-off final, whereas two years later against Blackpool we were always going to struggle.”
Favourite current Orient player?
“I don’t like to single any of our current players out, but I like players like Scott Cuthbert and Stephen Dawson because of their attitude and their will to win every ball they compete for.”
Favourite all time Orient player?
“In terms of all-time favourite, it’s hard to pick between who you like most as a person and who was the best player you saw for the Club so I have gone for a combination of the two and predictably picked Matt Lockwood”
I would like to extend massive thanks to Matt for taking time out of his busy day to answer questions for me.
AS
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