Chief executive Alessandro Angelieri insists Leyton Orient will not become an ‘Italian’ football team and has assured supporters the new board do not want to change the soul of the club.

The O’s announced three new Italian appointments to the backroom staff this week while head of sports science Lee Southernwood moved on. The League One side already have an Italian owner in Francesco Becchetti, sporting director Mauro Milanese and now manager following the appointment of Fabio Liverani last month.

Some fans fear this is the start of a transformation of the club, after former owner Barry Hearn’s departure last summer, with the team’s traditions and identity being eroded on and off the pitch.

But Angelieri is adamant the personnel changes are more to do with helping overcome the language barrier and insists there is no danger of the club losing its soul.

The chief executive, speaking with assistance from a translator, said: “We don’t want Leyton Orient to become an Italian football club. That is absolutely not our intention at all. We want to leave it as it is and are just trying to bring people in that will improve the club.

“Every day I’m asking about the habits and traditions of the club and trying to maintain that. I want to maintain a good relationship with the Supporters’ Club and sometimes I go down to have a drink and travel together with fans at away games. I want to maintain that. We don’t want to change the soul of Leyton Orient at all.”

Angelieri added: “We added Italian people to work but no-one from the office or technical staff is being made redundant or sacked. We don’t want to do that either.

“The choice of the manager, after Russell Slade’s decision to go, gave us an opportunity to find an Italian manager and this was the president’s decision. Fabio Liverani brought in a coach, assistant coach and physio.

“Now we have brought in a couple of people to help us improve and they are Italian and speak English. It is difficult to find English people that speak Italian but there is no reason to substitute all the people. We work with Italian people but the main reason is because of the language problem.”

Southernwood left by mutual consent having joined the club in 2011. Youth-team physio Joe Sharp has also moved on from the club, with Alessandro Marmorato coming in as assistant physio.

The O’s have created a new position with Vito Miceli becoming first-team liaison manager which will involve working with the admin staff, players and coaches.

Angelieri said: “He’s a team manager for supporting all the technical staff and also to improve the communication between the technical staff and the office. We need some new people to work better and it is important to have people that know both languages at this moment because some of our English at the moment isn’t the best.

“It is better to speak both languages and Vito is a good person coming from Italy and has worked in football before. He is a friend of Fabio Liverani and worked with him some years ago.”

Orient have named Gianluca Romano as their chief scout following last month’s departure of Kevin Dearden, who was also the goalkeeper coach.

“We want to improve the scouting of the players because there are some occasions where we can find good players with a low price,” he added.

“Scouting is another type of recruitment for getting good players but also positive for the business. If we find some players at a cheap price, after one or two years it is possible the value of the player is higher. Mauro and Fabio have recruited these people together so they are the best ones to speak to regarding their skills.”

Orient have signed Andrea Dossena and Gianvito Plasmati this season and the club are expected to add to this tally of experienced Italian players over the next year. But the O’s chief executive insists the nationality of their additions is irrelevant.

Angelieri, who expects the club to make two or three signings this month, said: “We are looking in Italy, England and other countries. We have no preference and have to find the players we need whether that’s in the middle or on the wing. It’s possible to come from Thailand, Russia, Ukraine or Brazil. The nationality is not important.”