O’s manager calls for change at Brisbane Road and wants to create a culture of hard work in E10 if given the chance
Danny Webb hopes Leyton Orient’s defeat at Crawley Town on Saturday will act as a wake-up call and see the League Two club oversee a complete revamp.
The O’s suffered a 3-0 loss at Broadfield Stadium with all three of the goals coming from free kicks.
It was another bad day for Orient and resulted in their 33-year-old manager calling for change at Brisbane Road.
Webb said: “It is hard because you can’t go into a job and say to everyone before you start; we are probably going to go down because the damage has been done, but thanks for coming.
“The fans would say ‘don’t give up the fight’ and I can assure you none of us have given up the fight, especially me, but I have been mindful.
“If you have been around the place and the stadium over the last couple of years then you would know it is a funny place to be.
“It is going to take a lot to suddenly turn it into a great place again and I am sure the punters understand that isn’t an overnight job.
“The whole place needs a complete revamp and for me hopefully this defeat at Crawley kicks people into gear, so on Monday morning we are saying ‘what are we doing and where are we going.’
“If you have to upset a few players and tell them they are not getting new contracts, lets tell them now because it will help them and they can go get another club.
“The ones we want to keep lets bend over backwards to try and keep them and when it goes public, hopefully we have kept the Gavin Massey’s and Liam Kelly’s.
“Whether we do or not is another matter, but if we do then people can look beyond the horizon because at the minute it is groundhog day.
“Even if we had nicked a 1-0 at Crawley, I know it would have given everybody hope, but then you lose 1-0 at home to Wycombe Wanderers and everybody is down again.
“Sooner or later you have to think past the next game and the next week and month and all I have been thinking about, even though I am out of contract, is the summer and what players can we get.
“We don’t need to go Italy for a pre-season tour, we will go to Bognor Regis and do something lower league basic, which gets a culture around the place of hard work and not everything on a plate.”
After O’s latest loss, Webb spent 20 minutes with the media and spoke passionately about what he would like to do at the club.
Orient have been in quicksand for a sustained period of time and look on the verge of a second relegation in three seasons.
Webb is desperate to be given the chance to rebuild the O’s, but was asked whether he had received offers from elsewhere.
He said: “I would be lying if I didn’t say I have had a couple of calls already about next season and that is the disappointing thing because people have supported this club a lot longer than me, but I do love the place.
“God forbid we go down, but I know I could put out a team, if I was left to do the recruiting, that would be the best they have seen for a while.
“But I have no assurances myself, so if people want to talk to me about taking over their club and putting my philosophy in place, I’ll listen now and I’ll listen again in the summer if I haven’t got a new contract.
“I am very confident in what I do and other chairman can see what I am doing, but I would hate to leave here. At the same time, if you keep singing the same thing and after a while you are the only one, you have to do what is right for yourself.”
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