Leyton Orient’s new owner Nigel Travis on his plans for the club, new manager search and more – full talkSPORT interview

Leyton Orient's new owner Nigel Travis outlined his plans for the club when he joined Jim White on talkSPORT on Friday afternoon.

The Boston-based millionaire, the chief executive of Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin Robbins, is a lifelong O's fans and has been hailed as their saviour after leading a consortium which bought out Francesco Becchetti.

Orient suffered two relegations under Becchetti's ownership and will start the new season in non-league for the first time since 1905.

Travis has already appointed former boss Martin Ling as director of football, brought in a string of coaching staff and secured their training ground, and plans to make an announcement on a new manager next week.

"I didn't really want to be the owner originally but sometimes you have to step up as a fan and do what is right for the club," he said.

"I am very optimistic, but I am also very realistic. I don't expect us to go up this year.

"There is a lot of building. We have done a lot in two weeks.

"If you go through all the coaches Martin has hired, that is a really good infrastructure. We nearly lost the training ground and got that back, we are recruiting players, and I think will have news on a head coach in a few days, so we are making fast progress.

"The bottom line is we are about three months behind where we need to be so if we have a reasonable start to the season that is success.

"Goal one was to get the club back. We have achieved that. The second goal is to get stability. Then two or three years down the road, we will think about what happens in the future.

"Think of the assets we have got. We have great young players, we have got the best ground in the National League and probably one of the best grounds if we were in League Two, an excellent coaching staff that will get better next week, so we have got a lot of things going for us. 

"The only thing that is really against us right now is the short-term but longer-term I feel really optimistic."