"Perilous Financial Situation"

That was the description of the club's finances by the Leyton Orient Supporters Trust yesterday.

The Trust are calling on creditors to come forward so that an accurate picture on finances can be secured, with the Trust claiming that there is a 'significant level of unpaid bills to creditors' and also hinting that employees of the club are also owed money in a lengthy statement.

Former Orient owner Barry Hearn has taken to the press to slam current owner Francesco Becchetti, the man Hearn not only sold the club to but the man Hearn trusted to take the club on safely.

Former owners of football clubs should be just as guilty as the current owners when things go wrong so swiftly after the transfer of ownership. So many these days talk about being custodians rather than owners, responsible for a small part of the history of an institution rather than it being theirs to do with what they wish.

Yet so many former owners sell clubs to unsuitable people.

While the FA take flak for 'not doing anything' the man that pocketed £4million has to accept his share of the blame, whether he is a lifelong fan or not, of selecting the wrong person. It's the same at Morecambe, and was the same at Salisbury City, Hereford United, Notts County, and a host of other clubs that found themselves in inappropriate hands at some point in their past.

But... do owners sell out of necessity or greed?

Hearn is 68, suffered a heart attack in 2002, and probably should be retired than continuing to run a sporting conglomerate that has already seen parts hived off to his family.

However Hearn is a businessman, there's no doubt about that. He's built a successful empire. Twice. A flirtation with near bankruptcy in the early 1990s shows that not all his decisions are right. He pocketed the millions selling to Becchetti, a 'waste management magnate', but retained the land that is the Brisbane Road stadium site.

Hearn states clearly he knew who he was selling to:

“I knew exactly what I was selling to: big ego, sparkling personality, loads of money, and he wanted to make the club into a big club, which is everything I and the supporters wanted to hear at that time. 

“Had we all known how it was going to go, we wouldn’t have done the deal – no question.”

Hearn says he will help the Trust form a new club, presumably at the Brisbane Road ground that he admits he has transferred ownership of to a pension fund meaning, he says, he cannot interfere with the rent levels that a new club could be charged.

But he will have to have a long hard look in the mirror if the club does ultimately fail.