O’s talented academy graduate, who agreed two-year pro deal with the club in September, was one of the highlights from last season
Leyton Orient’s Steven Alzate is set for a massive future according to Michael Collins, who played with the teenager during the final two months of the season.
Ex-O’s boss Danny Webb handed academy graduate Alzate his debut on February 28 during a 4-1 defeat away to Stevenage.
Alzate, 18, went on to make a further 11 appearances for Orient, scoring once, but it wasn’t enough to help them avoid relegation.
Collins believes the talented midfielder can look forward to a promising career, however, though wants him to remain at Brisbane Road next season.
He said: “There are two or three youngsters who could have really big futures, but the one that stood out to us lads is probably Steven Alzate.
“I genuinely think he has got a massive future in the game. He has no fear, but to go with that he has real quality and if the club can keep hold of players like him and Sandro (Semedo), then that is going to bode well for the future.
“I do think, long-term, Steven will go and play higher up in the leagues and I think it will probably suit him even better.
“He will get a little bit more time and will be playing alongside top quality players, but I would never tell him the time is right to move on. I genuinely hope Leyton Orient keep hold of him and build the team around a player like him.”
The 31-year-old went on to discuss the O’s future and reiterated something Webb spoke about during his time at the club.
Webb, towards the end of his two-month spell as boss, discussed the need for Orient to start planning long-term.
Collins believes the Brisbane Road club needs to do just that and hoped eventually O’s can get back to where they were in 2015 – League One.
He added: “Building the team around people like Alzate will bode well for the future and allow the club to move up the leagues as quick as they can.
“There is no doubt in my mind that Orient is the sort of club which potentially wouldn’t look out of place in the Championship.
“You look at the fan base, the club itself, the reputation it has, the lovely ground it has and everything about it, so it just needs a little bit of stability now and a proper plan in place.
“Whoever the owner is, whether it is the current one or somebody new with a takeover, they just need to let the person in charge of the first-team, whether that is Omer (Riza) or somebody else, do there job and allow them to build something long-term.
“The important thing now is to look beyond the next year and look at the next three or four and use this negative to in time turn out to be a positive by putting the right foundations in place to rebuild, so this doesn’t happen again and so it also allows Orient to be successful and go back up the leagues.”
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