Leyton Orient players forced to spend four nights in hotel by Italian owner

Life Beyond the Premier League: Punitive retreats are common practice in Francesco Becchetti's home country

Ian Hendon’s players and staff were forced to stay in a hotel after their latest defeat (Getty)

Four nights at a Marriott Hotel does not sound like the worst punishment in the world but that was the fate of Leyton Orient’s underperforming players this week. The Os’ defeat at Hartlepool on Sunday meant they had won just two of their last 12 league games and the response of the club’s Italian owner, Francesco Becchetti, was to inflict on them something his countrymen call the “ritiro punitivo” – or punitive retreat.

From Sunday night until Thursday, manager Ian Hendon’s players and staff slept and ate all of their meals at the hotel in Waltham Abbey, albeit while being free to spend time after training with their families. Yet if it was a shock to the system for a group of League Two footballers (and possibly the club accountants too), Becchetti himself might wonder what all the fuss is about as in Italy such retreats are common practice. Only last month, after Juventus suffered a surprise Serie A loss to Sassuolo, Patrice Evra reflected that they “deserved” to be shut away – and a few days later they responded by winning the Turin derby.

Hendon was hopeful it would “help team bonding” in an era when players seem to prefer an arm around the shoulder to your old-fashioned rollocking. There are certainly different ways to punish a footballer.

Graham Westley was infamous during his unhappy reign at Preston North End for staging dressing-room lock-ins for 90 minutes or longer after matches.

One of the most enduring memories of Martin O’Neill’s time as Wycombe Wanderers manager in the 1990s concerns was his tough love towards defender Jason Cousins, whom he dragged out of the shower at half-time one afternoon following his second red card in as many games. O’Neill pushed Cousins naked into the corridor, locked the dressing-room door behind him and declared him a “disgrace”. Cousins was still at Wycombe in 2002 when they took on O’Neill’s Celtic in his testimonial.

In the alpha male environment of the football dressing room, the forfeit is a popular form of punishment. During Bournemouth’s Championship promotion campaign last season manager Eddie Howe began the tradition of “spins” for players who had committed offences worthy of a fine. Rather than pay up, they could spin a “wheel of fortune” on the wall of the players’ lounge and accept a forfeit – such as putting on a magic show for team-mates or performing with colleagues as a boy band.

In the case of Orient, the main benefit of their stay at the Marriott could simply be a change of routine according to one of the most experienced managers in the Football League, Tony Mowbray.

“You look to change something if you’re getting beaten every week,” said Mowbray, the Coventry City manager. “I would change the routine – I’d have them train in the afternoon. Or I would change the match-day routine. I’d have them all travelling in on the bus rather than in cars, or we’d wear suits rather than tracksuits to try to give it a different feel.

“All he’s trying to do is galvanise the team,” he adds of Orient. “If it doesn’t, the chairman has lost a lot of money paying for the hotel.”

If Orient’s poor run continues at home to York City on Saturday, Becchetti could always resort to a ploy from his equally controversial compatriot Massimo Cellino up at Leeds United. In January, with Leeds on an eight-game winless run, Cellino cooked his squad a pre-match meal of pasta – and they duly beat leaders Bournemouth 1-0.