Obituary: Kenny Jackett

The core of the team that got promoted from League 2 in 22/23 were players brought in by Jackett and inherited by Richie Wellens. It’s fair to say that we didn’t really get to see the best of him at the Os and it may have been one managerial job too far. But Kenny was a footballing man, with a great career behind him, and we were lucky to have him, albeit for a limited time.

Jackett was brought in with great fanfare in the summer of 2021 because the Club was keen to placate supporters frustrated with two years of stasis under inexperienced managers, and the fanbase was clamouring for someone with a good track record. Jackett certainly had that, with multiple promotions already on his CV, and was induced to drop into the basement for the first time since the very beginning of his managerial career by a lucrative offer at the Os.

Jackett was a very decent left-footed defensive midfielder who spent his entire 428-game playing career at Watford and received 31 caps for Wales. Over his 922 games in the dug-out he managed seven clubs – Watford, Swansea City, Millwall, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Rotherham United (only five games – he was their Carl Fletcher), Portsmouth and Leyton Orient. He also assisted Ian Holloway at QPR and coached Manchester City reserves. After leaving Orient, his last job in football was as Director of Football at Gillingham.

The League Managers Association had this to say about Kenny:

"Kenny stands as one of the most respected managers to have plied their trade in the EFL, a hugely capable leader whose work across four decades has left a lasting influence on the many players, coaches and colleagues who benefitted from his guidance. He embodied everything we like to see in a manager, humility, professionalism and a deep care for his players and staff. He improved every club he served and did so with quiet dignity throughout his career" (LMA CEO Richard Bevan)

Jackett had a very good eye for a player and gave countless young footballers their start in the professional game, most of whom went on to have long careers. Omar Beckles and Jordan Graham have both spoken of their gratitude to Kenny for kickstarting their careers (Omar at Millwall and Jordan G at Wolves). He did the same for Jordan Brown, who told me that Jackett always kept in touch with him, offering the same encouragement he showed when Jordan first joined Orient as an inexperienced 20-year-old.

Omar posted this tribute on Instagram, indicating that the bond remained strong:

Jackett became something of a specialist at getting clubs ‘back where they belong’ -- securing Swansea a L2 promotion and a L1 play off final, and guiding Wolves back to the Championship at the first time of asking, followed by a seventh place finish in their first season back in the second tier.

Under him, Millwall had two L1 play off finals (losing the first to Scunthorpe, before redemption the following year against Swindon) and an FA cup semi-final. My Wolves mate gushed about Kenny: “He rescued us at our nadir after consecutive relegations and not only turned it around on the pitch but reached out to and galvanised the supporters to fall back in love with the club. We are an exacting bunch and there was much noisy unrest at our predicament, but he asked us to knuckle down for the L1 ride and as a result we stormed it. RIP Kenny. Absolute gent”.

Kenny joined the Os at the end of our first season back in L2 when we were drifting in the aftermath of Justin Edinburgh’s death and struggling to get re-established in the EFL. After the underwhelming appointments of Ross Embleton (x2), Carl Fletcher and rookie Jobi McAnuff, there was a sense of us having snagged "a proper manager" and indeed we got off to a flying start in our second season losing only two games in 17.

This was due in large part to Kenny bringing in Darren Pratley, Omar Beckles and Tom James in defence and Paul Smyth, Theo Archibald and Aaron Drinan in attack. The infamous January 2022 transfer window (Jordan Brown being the only survivor) came amidst another COVID disruption, and punctured the positivity that had culminated in our 4-1 defeat of Swindon in early December.

When the football got going again, our form dropped off a cliff, losing nine out of 11 games. Jackett was relieved of his duties in March 2022 with the Os lying 19th and with a return to the NL starting to feel like a real possibility. Overall his record at Orient was P38 W12 D14 L12.

Kenny was quite old school with a certain formality about him and didn’t particularly crave the limelight. As a result he never really developed much of a rapport with Os fans or allowed us to get to know his personality. He is spoken of warmly by pretty much everyone who knew him, though, and was clearly a good guy, thoughtful, meticulous and very knowledgeable about the game, although in hindsight perhaps he had passed his peak of desire and energy for the day-to-day hassle of management by the time we brought him in.

Consequently, when Richie Wellens rocked up he felt modern, lively and interesting in comparison. The rest is history as they say (in more ways than one). However, our L2 promotion and our first two overachieving seasons in L1 were due in no small part to some stalwarts that Kenny brought to our club, a detail sometimes overlooked by some of our supporters. Thank you Kenny and RIP.