Richie Wellens’ relationship with Manchester United, as a player, and the Class of 92 as Salford manager, had a profound impact on his career: two negative, bitter experiences from which he has learned to take the positives.

With Leyton Orient sitting top of League Two, losing one of their 15 games, Wellens is a strong contender to win his third successive manager of the month award. Despite this weekend's FA Cup setback, his reputation is soaring.

But there have been tough times, painful memories of wasting his talent as a player, the drink driving episode that finished his career at Old Trafford and the betrayal felt when he was sacked by Gary Neville.

At the age of 42, Wellens is happy again. He talks excitedly about ridding Leyton Orient of its “negative mindset” and “little old Orient” limitations, as he warned the rest of the league they “have not hit top form” yet.

It is the sort of statement his first manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, would have made. Wellens made only one first-team appearance for United, but it has been his two spells in Salford that has shaped him into the manager he is at Orient.

“My career wasn’t straightforward,” he said, sitting in the cramped physio’s office at Orient’s modest training ground in Chigwell.

Leicester City's Daniel Drinkwater (left) and team mate Richie Wellens (right) battle for the ball with West Ham United's Kevin Nolan
Wellens, right, enjoyed a long career in the Championship and below after being bombed out by Manchester United CREDIT: Nick Potts/PA Wire
“I’ve had a lot of hardship. People come up with this idea of me as a chirpy Manc, but if you’re growing up in Moston, you need to be streetwise, you develop a thick skin. I’ve needed it.

“I was probably one of the most talented players in the country from the age of 16-19. I certainly thought that. My age group was Wes Brown, Luke Chadwick. With England, it was Steven Gerrard and Joe Cole. I took it for granted. I wasn’t professional, those guys were.

“I didn’t think I needed to work hard because I had the talent. I was better than most of the guys my age. I didn’t work on my physique, my mobility, my fitness. That held me back massively.

“I was training with the first team at Manchester United when they won the Treble in 1999. I just thought it was inevitable I was going to make it.

“I went away with England and I was one of the better players, but when I went back to United, I was way short. They were stronger and fitter. Playing with the boys my own age, I was fine, but when I got to the men’s team, I started to struggle. I couldn’t bridge that gap because I wasn't looking after myself. I wasn’t focused.

“I was binned by United, there is no point sugar-coating it. I had a lot of issues. I was done for drink driving in the end, smashing my car up. Spent a night in a prison cell and waiting for Alex Fergsuon to call you into the office the following morning. Horrible night that. 

“He wasn’t shouting and bawling, but he was brutally honest. I was done, but he didn’t sack me. He let me train and play with the reserves for two or three months and I got a move to Blackpool because of that.

Richie Wellens portrait
Wellens is on the threshold of winning a third successive manager of the month award with his League Two-topping Leyton Orient CREDIT: Paul Grover for The Telegraph
“He could have thrown me on the scrapheap. I started working harder. I went to Blackpool, which was not the level I should have been playing at, but it was where I deserved to be. 

“The nights out didn’t stop straight away, the drinking didn’t stop immediately, I could still get away with it in League Two, but it was the start of the turnaround.”

Wellens helped Blackpool win promotion to League One, beating Orient in the play off final at the Millennium Stadium. From there he went to Oldham. He helped Doncaster win promotion to the Championship, beating Leeds United along the way. 

He spent four years at Leicester City where he was established “as one of the best midfield players in the Championship.” He turned down a move to Birmingham in the Premier League.

“I forged a decent career for myself,” Wellens explained, with no hint of self pity. “But I paid the price for my mistakes and my [lack of] professionalism. That has massively shaped me as a manager.”

As a Leyton Orient fan, I feel well placed to congratulate him on the brilliant job done. Wellens swiftly shifts praise on.

“The budget is exactly the same this year as it was last year,” he said. “I got a little bit lucky, the squad was in pretty good shape. At the end of last season, I was able to play around with the team in competitive games and have a proper look at what we had. 

Placeholder image for youtube video: cSaio6qIFLU
“It was incredibly useful, much better than having players on trial, playing in friendlies. We released four or five and brought in some quality footballers, Rob Hunt from Swindon and George Moncur from Hull ...

“It’s a stable club, the foundations are strong, the owners are great and we haven’t tried to change too much, too quickly. It’s been a fantastic start, but the players deserve the credit for that.

“This league, by the time you get to December and January, it can become a war of attrition. We have players who can adapt to opposition, conditions and win in all sorts of different ways. That is what's really good.”

When I point out that Orient fans are conditioned for disappointment by years of underachievement, Wellens is irritated.

“It’s the biggest load of rubbish I’ve ever heard,” he interrupts. “Every supporter base in the country will say the same things. That we do things the hard way or are going to mess it up. 

"We don’t think like that, we think we are a big club for League Two. We don’t think we are little old Leyton Orient… we are here to change that pessimism. That isn’t the outlook we have and the players don’t think like that.

It is at that point that Wellens is taken back to what happened at Salford. “I made a mistake, a young manager’s mistake really. 

“I’d got Swindon up into League One, I was at a big club that I could have built up and taken them into the Championship. 

“I had a chairman I really liked, but we lost players and then Covid hit. I couldn’t get my head around the fact I was going to have a lower budget in League One than I'd had in League Two.”

Salford were waiting. Owned by Gary and Phil Neville, Paul Scholes and David Beckham, Wellens could go back home, they were ambitious and supposedly had money to spend.

“Salford, from the outside looking in, looked like a great opportunity. We were 10th when I arrived, eighth when I left. We beat Portsmouth in the JP Trophy but I was gone after 3½ months.

“I think the club has to take some of the blame. I didn’t get any support in terms of finances compared to previous managers. I thought I'd be able to get the squad right over three or four windows. I got one window and three loan players.

“I got no support and no time, but it was also my fault. I didn’t manage upwards properly. My communication skills were lacking. Lee Power at Swindon was my mate, I had a genuine connection with him. 

“I went into Salford and it was totally different. I was shocked at how little time I got. I’ve got to be honest about that. It was the best thing for me to leave for the sake of my mental health.

“I felt isolated at times. If you ask them, deep down, I think they would say they didn’t give me the best opportunity to succeed. If they said they did, I think they would be lying…”

Another short spell at Doncaster, meant Wellens' managerial career was in trouble when he arrived at Leyton Orient back in March.

“I watched Orient at Colchester, a poor game, we got a last minute equaliser. I watched them at home to Stevenage, a very poor game. I left with 10 mins to go, thinking I’m not so sure about this. 

“I knew I had to get it right. I’d been sacked twice, get this one wrong and that might be me done. I liked the people, liked the owners… I was on the M11 and Theo [Archibald] scored a last minute equaliser. They had some fighting spirit at least, that was it, that convinced me.”