Incredible Fact.....

Heard this the other day but found it hard to believe so did a bit of digging   and as far as i can tell it's fact.

Since joining Leyton Orient in April 2010 manager Russell Slade has never bought a player, they've all been either free transfers or loans.

He was appointed Orient manager with just 6 games left of the 09/10 season remaining when they looked doomed to be relegated, he kept them up.

The next season 10/11 they finished 7th, 1 point outside of the playoffs and also reached the FA cup 5th round where they were knocked out by Arsenal after a replay.

11/12 they struggled and finished 20th but the next season 12/13 they finished 7th again.

This season they are on fire and are top of League One, see below.

Leyton Orient's record so far this season is : P17 W13 D2 L2 F39 A14 GD+25 Pts 41.

Now i know it's pretty common in League Two to rely on freebies and loans as we ourselves do but it is less common in League One and with some huge and big spending clubs like Peterborough, Sheffield United and Wolves you have to say that Russell Slade is doing an amazing job(his assistant is ex Argyle player Kevin Nugent).

I assume that Orient pay decent wages and being a London club also makes attracting players easier for them than it would us but i think this shows that at lower league level transfer fees are irrelevant if you've got a decent wage structure and a shrewd manager.

why isnt James Brent moving heaven and earth to bring him here he seems ideal for him.

Good manager in all seriousness though

seem to remember orient took a risk employing him.

It's all about the wages.

Sturrock didn't pay much in transfer fees in his first spell here,about £30k for Trigger and the same for Norris a bit later on.As stated above,it was all about the wages,Nik Warren's bankrolling and Sturrock's contacts enabled some players who were of a far higher standard than the fourth division to be signed.Slade has done very well at Orient though,definite surprise package this season,similar to Yeovil last year.He's one of the very few managers who never played football to any great level,was a teacher before he entered the pro game as a coach.

Nic Warren's bankrolling? He didnt invest anything into the team from memory, he was just a standard director.

I think last season, only one team paid a transfer fee in league 2. I'm sure it was Fleetwood. I might be wrong though.

Leyton Orient can't keep their form going surely. Wolves still have parachute payments and Peterborough seem to yo-yo every other year.

ejh wrote:

Nic Warren's bankrolling?  He didnt invest anything into the team from memory, he was just a standard director.

Don't think he was just a standard director.Someone else may be able to put some flesh on the bones [it was 12years ago now] but it seemed to be fairly common knowledge at the time that NW put considerably more into the coffers than the rest of the board,around about £700k was the mooted figure as i remember.Argyle signed players such as Coughlin,Evans,Worrell,Keith,Hodges,all of who were playing at a higher level,considerably so in some cases, and they wouldn't have been paid for via gate money or the stake that each director paid for their status. How much he took out when he sold his shares [possibly to Wrathall] i don't know but i also have a recollection that his resignation may have been caused by the direction the club was taking at the time.

hairy j wrote:

I think last season, only one team paid a transfer fee in league 2. I'm sure it was Fleetwood. I might be wrong though.

Leyton Orient can't keep their form going surely. Wolves still have parachute payments and Peterborough seem to yo-yo every other year.

Wouldn't have thought Orient were much different to Yeovil,Scunthorpe,Doncaster,Bournemouth and all the other relatively small clubs who have made it to the championship in the past few years.Wolves will inevitably go back up of course,clubs of their stature always do unless they get into shit street big time as regards money, but Peterborough have been on a very bad run recently,possibly they can use their apparent financial clout to strengthen in January.Could be some other danger teams as well but there's no real reason why Orient can't go up,unless their directors bottle it in a similar way to our "board" in 2007.

I believe Barry Hearn calls the shots at Orient and he doesn't strike me as a bottler. I'd love to see them promoted after all the stress of having West Ham move onto their 'manor' at the Olympic Stadium.

hairy j wrote:

I think last season, only one team paid a transfer fee in league 2. I'm sure it was Fleetwood. I might be wrong though.

If that incredible fact is true it ought to make us stop and think about Sheridan's (& Brent's) signing of players. Of course that's off topic.

Not sure if this is 100% accurate but I'm slightly wrong...
http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/en/league-two/transferuebersicht/wettbewerb_GB4.html
This season, nobody has bought a player.

Last season - Fleetwood, Torquay and Bradford bought players
http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/en/league-two/transferuebersicht/wettbewerb_GB4_2012_x.html

Bradford were the only team (according to this site) who were in the red in terms of ins and outs - Fleetwood and Torquay received transfer fees in excess of what they spent.

That's crazy. I'm sure that most people will be surprised at that! (If, as you say, that's accurately reported by that site.) It does put things into perspective.

John-Joe O'Toole signed a 3year contract with BRovers from Collie for an undisclosed fee. On that German website he had a ? beside his name so if that's the symbol they use for an undisclosed fee then there are quite a few others...........bleddy Germans.