Leyton Orient head coach Ross Embleton revealed they are looking at bringing in a few new faces but says they must be in the right mould due to the financial implications of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The O’s released the likes of Matt Harrold, James Alabi, Arthur Janata, and Dale Gorman and have only made one addition in the form of midfielder Ouss Cisse, while George Marsh and Kaziah Sterling both returned to their parent clubs – not forgetting the departure of defender Marvin Ekpiteta to Blackpool.

Embleton knows he doesn’t have much scope to alter things, with the majority of the squad remaining in contract for the upcoming campaign.

“We are certainly looking, but I think what’s important for everybody to understand, and I know Martin (Ling) and Nigel (Travis) and probably Danny (Macklin) have mentioned it in interviews previously, is that there isn’t a huge amount of room to manoeuvre,” he said.

“We will be adding to the group, but we’ve got to be focused on what it is. There has been a real upheaval from a financial perspective alone to not just our club but football in general.

“We’ve got a lot of players in contract and we see that as a positive element to the group that we’ve got here, so we’ve got to be selective, we’ve got to do it right, and we’ve got to make sure we bring the right people in.

“We’ve got an understanding of the players we want. Are we going to be able to afford them all and are we going to be able to bring them all in? Obviously not.”

One player jokingly linked with the club after training alongside the group was world class midfielder Yaya Toure.

“I won’t go into too much detail, but he had some real personal issues with his family that meant he was missing for a week. We’re still in contact with his representatives on his circumstances personally,” Embleton said.

“He hasn’t been in with us for just over a week now, but we think we’ll see him again. People do have to remember though Yaya Toure came here, we helped him and he helped us immensely.

“He was great for the staff as he reiterated some of our points and really put some substance and meat on the bones when we were talking about what we wanted from the team.”

*Orient were handed a trip to Forest Green Rovers in the first round of the Carabao Cup on September 5 in Tuesday’s draw.