The O’s head coach has got into greater detail about why he has let Freddy Moncur, Aron Pollock, Michael Clark and Henry Ochieng leave recently
Leyton Orient head coach Justin Edinburgh has explained in detail why he has let certain academy graduates leave the club this year and praised some of the younger players still at Brisbane Road like Josh Koroma, Myles Judd and Dan Happe.
Since January 31, Freddy Moncur, Jamie Sendles-White, Aron Pollock, Michael Clark and Henry Ochieng have all departing the O’s by mutual consent.
Many were sad to see Moncur, Pollock, Clark and Ochieng leave because all four had come through Orient’s academy set-up.
The next in line to exit E10 is third-year scholar and ex-youth-team captain Charley Barker, who is currently on trial with League Two side Cheltenham Town after he was told recently he would not be offered a professional contract.
Edinburgh said: “Charley has been made aware he will not be getting a pro deal at Leyton Orient, so what we are trying to do is give him and others an opportunity to get ahead of the game and try to secure themselves a contract elsewhere.
“What we need for next season is young players ready for the first-team and Myles Judd, Dan Happe and Josh Koroma are ready.
“I have to be about the here and now and we are not a Football League team anymore and we will lose a lot more of our funding (for the academy) next season.
“So I need to concentrate on the first-team and on getting back to the Football League and then we can have a group of under-23s who we can develop in the right environment.
“That’s my decision behind letting some of these young boys go, but nothing would please me more than to see them prove me wrong.”
Orient’s academy has been hugely successful over the last couple of years and many of the plaudits should go to Andy Edwards and Richard Thomas, who both left the club in January 2017.
Edwards is now working with the Football Association and was part of the coaching staff when England won the under-20 World Cup last summer.
Meanwhile Thomas is Kevin Nolan’s assistant at Notts County while Danny Webb, who worked closely with Edwards and Thomas at Brisbane Road, is Professional Development Phase Lead Coach at Orient again.
Webb, along with many others at O’s, is tasked with producing youngsters good enough for National League level and Edinburgh’s first-team.
The duo have a very good friendship and there are players currently in the academy who are pushing to earn a professional contract and to be part of the Orient senior set-up next season.
But Edinburgh has admitted he simply doesn’t think the likes of Moncur, Pollock, Clark and Ochieng are good enough for O’s right now where as Koroma, Judd and Happe are.
He added: “As I said previously, it is my decision along with Martin (Ling), Ross (Embleton) and everyone else in the coaching set-up, but please God prove me wrong.
“It is nothing personal and I am not getting rid of every youth player that has come through because Koroma, Judd and Happe are going to be a big part of my plans here, but I need the youth players to be good enough.
“In my view, the ones we have let go (Moncur, Pollock, Clark and Ochieng) were not good enough.”
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