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John Sitton
John Edmund Sitton (born 21 October 1959) is an English former professional footballer and former coach and manager of Leyton Orient.
He is considered a cult hero for many fans of 90s football, particularly noted for key phrases such as "all I'm sayin' to ya" and "it's come off Brooksy's shins".
Sitton's playing career began at youth level at Arsenal and Chelsea. He turned down an approach from Crystal Palace before signing professional terms with Chelsea in 1977. After making several appearances, Sitton fell out of favour with then-manager Geoff Hurst, and, after turning down an approach from Wimbledon, transferred to Third Division Millwall for £10,000 in February 1980 under George Petchey. Sitton enjoyed his time at Millwall but new manager Peter Anderson took an instant dislike to Sitton and sold him to Third Division side Gillingham in September 1981 and spent four seasons there under manager Keith Peacock before being signed by Frank Clark for Fourth Division side Leyton Orient on a free transfer in July 1985 where he was made club captain.
Sitton started to work on his coaching badges in 1988, staffing coaching courses via the London FA at the FA training centre at Lilleshall under the FA Coaching Education Scheme until 1997, alongside such future managers as Alan Pardew and Kenny Jackett. At Lilleshall, Sitton coached youth players such as future Tottenham Hotspur and England player Ledley King.
In the 1988–89 season, Sitton captained Leyton Orient to promotion to the Third Division through the play-offs, and in all made over 200 appearances for Orient in all competitions. After his release in May 1991, he started working for Orient's School of Excellence Academy as a youth coach whilst making a few appearances for Slough Town in the Conference. By the end of his playing career, Sitton played in all of the top five divisions of English football.
Sitton was appointed joint caretaker manager at Leyton Orient with Chris Turner in April 1994, following the departure of Peter Eustace, and helped the team avoid relegation from the Second Division by earning four points from their last two matches. The co-managership was Sitton's idea, as he did not know many of the first team players since he moved into coaching in Orient's youth setup, and knew that Turner had more knowledge about them. The duo were given the job permanently that summer after the board received positive feedback from the players, and continued throughout the difficult 1994–95 season in which Sitton had to work in six different roles within the club whilst on a youth coach salary. The squad size was cut in half and the club was on the verge of liquidation, with the PFA paying the players wages for several months whilst chairman Tony Wood tried to sell the club.
During this time, he became one of the few football managers to feature in a Channel 4 documentary, Orient: Club for a Fiver (sometimes known as Leyton Orient: Yours for a Fiver), made in 1995 by Open Media and chosen in 2020 by Forbes magazine as one of its "Top Five Sports Documentaries": "the highlight of a golden era of fly-on-the-wall football documentaries from the 1990s, when it appears anyone who was anyone in English football was willing to let the cameras in to capture their incompetence for posterity". The programme highlighted Sitton's well-known passionate language and managerial style, and featured a half-time team talk given by Sitton on 7 February 1995, after Orient had fallen 1–0 down in a league match at home to Blackpool. After sacking defender and fan favourite Terry Howard on camera in the dressing room, Sitton addressed two other players and offered to fight them, saying:
Speaking about the event later, Sitton said, "Terry's an ex-teammate of mine who I like very, very much. He's good company when you go for a night out – but as a manager and a coach, he's not what I'm looking for. I may have lost a friend, but by tomorrow I would have recovered."
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John Sitton
John Edmund Sitton (born 21 October 1959) is an English former professional footballer and former coach and manager of Leyton Orient.
He is considered a cult hero for many fans of 90s football, particularly noted for key phrases such as "all I'm sayin' to ya" and "it's come off Brooksy's shins".
Sitton's playing career began at youth level at Arsenal and Chelsea. He turned down an approach from Crystal Palace before signing professional terms with Chelsea in 1977. After making several appearances, Sitton fell out of favour with then-manager Geoff Hurst, and, after turning down an approach from Wimbledon, transferred to Third Division Millwall for £10,000 in February 1980 under George Petchey. Sitton enjoyed his time at Millwall but new manager Peter Anderson took an instant dislike to Sitton and sold him to Third Division side Gillingham in September 1981 and spent four seasons there under manager Keith Peacock before being signed by Frank Clark for Fourth Division side Leyton Orient on a free transfer in July 1985 where he was made club captain.
Sitton started to work on his coaching badges in 1988, staffing coaching courses via the London FA at the FA training centre at Lilleshall under the FA Coaching Education Scheme until 1997, alongside such future managers as Alan Pardew and Kenny Jackett. At Lilleshall, Sitton coached youth players such as future Tottenham Hotspur and England player Ledley King.
In the 1988–89 season, Sitton captained Leyton Orient to promotion to the Third Division through the play-offs, and in all made over 200 appearances for Orient in all competitions. After his release in May 1991, he started working for Orient's School of Excellence Academy as a youth coach whilst making a few appearances for Slough Town in the Conference. By the end of his playing career, Sitton played in all of the top five divisions of English football.
Sitton was appointed joint caretaker manager at Leyton Orient with Chris Turner in April 1994, following the departure of Peter Eustace, and helped the team avoid relegation from the Second Division by earning four points from their last two matches. The co-managership was Sitton's idea, as he did not know many of the first team players since he moved into coaching in Orient's youth setup, and knew that Turner had more knowledge about them. The duo were given the job permanently that summer after the board received positive feedback from the players, and continued throughout the difficult 1994–95 season in which Sitton had to work in six different roles within the club whilst on a youth coach salary. The squad size was cut in half and the club was on the verge of liquidation, with the PFA paying the players wages for several months whilst chairman Tony Wood tried to sell the club.
During this time, he became one of the few football managers to feature in a Channel 4 documentary, Orient: Club for a Fiver (sometimes known as Leyton Orient: Yours for a Fiver), made in 1995 by Open Media and chosen in 2020 by Forbes magazine as one of its "Top Five Sports Documentaries": "the highlight of a golden era of fly-on-the-wall football documentaries from the 1990s, when it appears anyone who was anyone in English football was willing to let the cameras in to capture their incompetence for posterity". The programme highlighted Sitton's well-known passionate language and managerial style, and featured a half-time team talk given by Sitton on 7 February 1995, after Orient had fallen 1–0 down in a league match at home to Blackpool. After sacking defender and fan favourite Terry Howard on camera in the dressing room, Sitton addressed two other players and offered to fight them, saying:
Speaking about the event later, Sitton said, "Terry's an ex-teammate of mine who I like very, very much. He's good company when you go for a night out – but as a manager and a coach, he's not what I'm looking for. I may have lost a friend, but by tomorrow I would have recovered."
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