ANDY Hessenthaler’s replacement was announced on Sunday night after Vito Micelli confirmed, in an interview on BBC London, that it would be announced that day, writes Fan’s View correspondent Paul Levy. (It is worth listening to Vito and Ian Hendon’s interviews that are available online, with Vito saying that the manager picks the team, whilst Ian sees things slightly differently).

I think it’s fair to say that when Alberto Cavasin was announced, the Orient fandom went into meltdown on social media and to be fair for the first time in a while we were left stunned and speechless, which for hosts of a podcast is not a good thing. For those not familiar with the new manager (to be fair no-one was), his record is far from impressive. He hasn’t had a managerial role in the past five years and his last role was manager of Italian Serie A giants Sampdoria, who he got relegated to Serie B.

Most fans had hoped an experienced manager would be appointed with various names being linked to the role. Names like Paolo Di Canio, Steve Evans, and Kenny Jackett, managers who have experience in the Football League and of winning promotions. But all these names were overlooked (if they applied?) to appoint Cavasin.

Something that would have been of benefit would have been if Francesco Becchetti had made a statement or video to explain why Cavasin has been appointed and what he can bring to the role (and if legally possible tell us who else had applied for the job, Cavasin may have been the outstanding candidate for the job but we’ll never know). An issue raised with the president at his ‘meet me’ evening in July was that communication from the club is poor, but he doesn’t think there is an issue and communication from the board has disappointingly not improved. This explanation would have gone some way to helping us fans understand this appointment, as understandably a majority are probably uncomfortable with this appointment as Cavasin has no experience of managing in England.

Andy Edwards had done his chances no harm after masterminding an outstanding performance against table-toppers Plymouth when we went down to nine men with only 14 minutes gone. Our hope is now that Edwards and Danny Webb can work well with Cavasin and they can settle into a good working relationship on and off the pitch.

One obstacle to overcome will be the language barrier as Alberto speaks little to no English. Many fans are having flashbacks to the short-lived Fabio Liverani era, another ex-player with no English league experience or any grasp of the language, meaning a translator had to be used for instructions to the team and interviews.

It’s not all doom and gloom though. Cavasin is a very experienced manager and until we see the way he wants to play and his team selection (‘his’) we can’t really call this one. In his first interview with the club Cavasin said he had spent a lot of time studying the team and has been studying the league, so obviously he knew this move was coming. He has also praised the fans and used the word ‘passion’, which is something that has been missing from this club in the last few years.

So Mr Cavasin, give us passion on the pitch and we will sing our hearts out for you. That is all we ask. The O’s faithful support showed we could still make Brisbane Road rock with the fantastic performance against Plymouth and we as fans need to make sure we play our part.

Only time will tell if this appointment is a good one and being a results based business we will learn sooner rather than later starting with the EFL Cup v Southend and then Portsmouth at home on Saturday 6th October.

it will be a difficult start for Alberto Cavasin with some tough matches against good opposition to start his reign, so lets make sure we back the team and do our best as supporters of Leyton Orient by making as much noise and sing our hearts out from the stands and inspire those players.

Up the O’s!