Town Called Malice

So, in the meaningless football parlance of the time, we go again on 12 June. Orient’s future on and off the pitch remains in the hands of others, with the odds stacked against us in both cases. Becchetti’s decision to pay the tax bill and promise a further £1 million ‘investment’ generates new questions about his motivations.

The revelation that club photographer Simon O’Connor is owed £6,000 by the club has confirmed a the commonly held view that Becchetti’s ownership has been characterised by petty malice and spite. However, I’ve never actually believed that. Maybe it is because I realised years ago that paranoia makes us feel important but the sad reality is that most people just don’t care enough to pursue a feud against you. And that is my point. At this point Becchetti cares about Leyton Orient as one of his business assets but has no greater personal feelings towards us then he does the average waste management plant.

His decision to pay the tax bill without telling anyone, particularly the staff at the club, hasn’t been done to mess with the minds and emotions of anyone who cares about the club. It is simply a continuation of the autocratic way that he has run the club over the last 2 and a half years. No one has been consulted about it, it hasn’t been announced and it hasn’t been explained. Becchetti and Becchetti alone runs the club and he doesn’t believe he needs advice or approval from anyone else. You only have to look at his refusal to even seek assistance from an interpreter when issuing rare announcements to ensure that they make sense and convey the meaning that he wants. That is pretty low level stuff when it comes to accepting the advice from others.

In his mind he knows best and will run the club his way. Barry Hearn was no different when he first came into the club, although fortunately he never thought the way to succeed was to throw money down the drain. Just as importantly he learned from his mistakes. He worked out where he knew best and where he should take advice from others. And when he asked the wrong people, he worked out who the right people were. Becchetti on the other hand has made expensive errors one after the other, never appearing to have a long term plan and never acknowledging mistakes. Each impatient decision he has made out of increasing frustration that he hasn’t been able to get what he wants immediately –success and the respect and kudos that follows.

As was inevitable he eventually lost patience and admitted defeat (to himself rather than to others and a long time before the famous Blackpool protest). Did he finally decide to bring someone on board who could help him deliver the success he craved? No because in his mind it wasn’t him that was the problem, it was the club and its unappreciative fans. The solution? To take his money to another team where his methods will lead to success. Ternana Calcio in Italy are the new lucky benefactors. To him now Leyton Orient is just a business, an asset. The only interest he has in it is how much money he can recoup from it. The only reason invest any more money into it is to make sure he protects whatever small return he may get back from it.

The counter argument to that is that if he really cared about maximising what he can recoup he wouldn’t have condemned us to non-league football. For a start that presumes that just because he wants to do something he goes about it in a competent and logical way. And secondly, by cutting his costs by releasing senior players and withdrawing all but the bare minimum essential financial support for the club he is simply cutting his losses. He believes that the relegation will cost him less than continuing to pay their wages. It is a business decision, not a football one. He has done it before on an individual basis, as high earning players have been released with mutually agreed pay offs rather than continuing to pay their wages for the duration of their contracts.

The staff and creditors who have showed loyalty and patience to the club and community have deserved to be treated much better than they have been.  When viewed by fans who love the club and care about the people, vindictiveness seems to be the only explanation for such behaviour towards the. However, a businessman and entrepreneur’s first loyalty is to himself, his business interests and his financial backers. His decisions will be based on that alone, albeit clouded by emotion and impatience.

What Orient fans need to fear and has remained unchanged today, is that at some point Becchetti will feel as though he has no other options than to make one final and fatal cutting of his losses.  He may do just that if he thinks that what he has to put into the club for it to remain viable will be more than he is ever likely to get back at this point. Administration may seem like a positive thing, a convenient way of relieving Becchetti of his ownership. But it will plunge the club and its staff into even greater uncertainty. And if, as I believe to be the case, Becchetti will remain as the club’s largest creditor, it may be no more appealing to a new owner than it is right now. Armed with hindsight Os fans pre-2014 could give Os fans post-2016 some good advice – be careful what you wish for.  Sadly the club we love will continue to be kicked around like the proverbial football for quite a while longer.