Football (Club) For a Fiver

Oh_Yoni_Boy

Has anyone watched that documentary about Leyton Orient in 1994-5 called "Sold for a Fiver"... it's when the club was in financial difficulty and centres around John Sitton as manager that season, the team talks in particular were pretty brutal. I only saw it this week and found it fascinating!

With all this talk of how the England team need a kick up the arse, I'd love to see a parallel universe where Sitton got his hands on this current crop of players. If you haven't seen it, it's easy to find on Youtube if you've got a spare 45mins, highly recommend.

Had a little look on Wikipedia, and coincidentally Sitton apparently didn't get a job at Charlton as a youth coach afterwards because of the damage that documentary did to his reputation, given that he was a pretty respected coach at the time. I thought he was a bit over the top to say the least, but came across as a fairly decent, passionate guy.

Generally, interested what others think and to recommend the documentary to anyone who hasn't seen it/heard of it. The references to "the circus upstairs" certainly ring true with us at the moment, even though there are more similarities with Jiminez/Slater and Orient than them and Duchatelet.

Oh_Yoni_Boy

Part One here...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPIILnbXmCE

MrLargo

He's a cabbie now, they interviewed him on Talksport a few months ago. Good documentary that was, as was the Graham Taylor one from around the same time.

Kenny Achampong

John Sitton is a good guy, whom I have seen and heard interviewed on several occasions.

Can't help thinking that he was more than a little naive giving the camera's the level of access that he gave them, but maybe that was out of his control?

Certainly the level of bollockings that he was giving out, would have been replicated up an down the country so it seems ridiculous that he was ostracised because of it.

What that documentary did show, was the level of frustration for managers, in dealing with players, who effectively didn't care as much as they did.

I have heard him say that he applied for the CAFC Youth Team job, and was told by Keith Peacock (I think), that the club couldn't employ him because of the documentary.

Callumcafc

MrLargo said:

He's a cabbie now, they interviewed him on Talksport a few months ago. Good documentary that was, as was the Graham Taylor one from around the same time.

Did they ask him what he thinks of Uber?

AFKABartram

Bring ya f***ing dinner lol

JohnnyH2

Callumcafc said:

MrLargo said:

He's a cabbie now, they interviewed him on Talksport a few months ago. Good documentary that was, as was the Graham Taylor one from around the same time.

Did they ask him what he thinks of Uber?

Read his Twitter account for about 5 seconds and it is clear

JohnnyH2

Kenny Achampong said:

John Sitton is a good guy, whom I have seen and heard interviewed on several occasions.

Can't help thinking that he was more than a little naive giving the camera's the level of access that he gave them, but maybe that was out of his control?

Certainly the level of bollockings that he was giving out, would have been replicated up an down the country so it seems ridiculous that he was ostracised because of it.

What that documentary did show, was the level of frustration for managers, in dealing with players, who effectively didn't care as much as they did.

I have heard him say that he applied for the CAFC Youth Team job, and was told by Keith Peacock (I think), that the club couldn't employ him because of the documentary.

I have seen an interview with him and it was Les Reed who told him he did not even get an acknowledgment of his application as they felt they could not impress kids parents if he was running the youth system. This amazed him as he worked with Les Reed at the FA and was Keith Peacock's captain at Gillingham.

Great documentary. My favourite bit is half time at Brentford 3 down. Throws his notes down "F*** the technical shit it about what's in that counts"