Martin Ling: Leyton Orient director of football leaves after nine years

Martin Ling has left his role as Leyton Orient director of football.

The 59-year-old's association with the O's goes back 30 years when he first joined the club as a player.

He also spent five-and-a-half years as manager from May 2003 before returning as director of football in 2017 - in total helping the O's win promotion three times.

"Martin has achieved so much at Leyton Orient and, on behalf of the entire club, I want to thank him for his immense contributions to our successes," chairman Nigel Travis told the club website.

"When we took over in 2017, Martin was one of the first people we wanted to get on board and without him we may not have been able to accomplish what we have done."

He added: "This season has been a challenging one for us, we have had honest conversations with Martin about that and have taken the difficult decision to part ways. We believe this is required to help us move forward."

The O's currently occupy League One's final relegation place, having won only 10 of their 33 EFL matches this season.

In his time as director of football Orient were promoted twice - coming up from the National League to the third tier and came within one win of a place in the Championship last season, but were beaten in the League One play-off final.

"I'm incredibly proud of what we have all achieved together in the last nine seasons," he said.

"When I was asked to come back this club had nothing, not even a bank account and we had a real job on our hands.

"It hurt seeing Leyton Orient where it was at that time and it was an easy decision for me to step back in. Nigel and Kent had their plan to get us back into League One and I'm honoured to have played my part in us doing that.

"I can look myself in the mirror and say that I leave this role with the club in a much stronger position than when we started, and I am very proud of that.

"I am a fan for life and look forward to being back at Brisbane Road soon to cheer the team on."

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