New Leyton Orient owner Francesco Becchetti has confirmed the club are on the verge of appointing Mauro Milanese as their sporting director.

Former Inter and QPR defender Milanese was at Brisbane Road this morning and is close to agreeing a contract with the League 1 club.

Becchetti said: "This is very probable. It's a 99 per cent certainty. He was a great champion who played for Inter Milan and Napoli and in England. 

"He has his trainer and sports director licence as he was one in Italy [at Varese]. He has a great desire to work in London and England."

The O's new owner continued: "Many people involved in football in Italy wish to work in England but they are half way along their professional career and don't want to leave what they have already achieved. 

"But I see Mauro very excited about this challenge and we spent part of the night together as well. He will probably be the sporting director who will support us daily and Russell Slade.

"I believe the experience he can bring to us is enormous. He played with Ronaldo, Andrea Pirlo and Alvaro Recoba."

The Italian also confirmed his support for manager Slade and is already working with him on targets to strengthen their squad. 

Becchetti said: "Russell is not going to play with money. He's going to play with players. Money is for serious things like acquiring players. 

"He was told the following. Give me a list of players and in which position you need reinforcements. For every role where you need reinforcements give me a list of five players. This is what he did last night.

"We asked for a priority on each list and one minute later he was authorised to start negotiating with the first player on each list. Therefore he is authorised to bring home these priorities in order to acquire the players which are needed for the new season. 

"This happened last night and I think he is still hard at work now. As I am a little meticulous I also added the list will have to be signed by him and he didn't hesitate. At the end of the season we will go over that list again and assess whether those were the best priorities or not."