Orient striker Jonathan Téhoué has thanked the club for giving him a lifeline back into football after he signed a new contract extension last week.
The 25-year-old striker, who joined on a short-term deal, did enough to convince boss Geraint Williams that he was worthy of a longer stay.
Téhoué, who spent months on the sidelines after a contractual dispute with Turkish club Konyaspor, is grateful for the chance the O’s have offered him to play over the next two-and-a-half years.
“Leyton Orient is the club that gave me the chance to play football again,” he said, “So at the moment I have to stay focused on Leyton Orient”.
“The gaffer, the assistant coaches, everybody tried to help me a lot, and I’m really thankful to Geraint Williams for giving me the chance to play football again. I like him as a person and as a manager”.
The striker indicated that he was happy to have tied his future to the club.
“I know it’s not a massive club or a big club, but for me at the moment that’s what I need,” he said. “I don’t need something more.”
But he also suggested that Orient fans won’t see him at his best until he has got a pre-season tour under his belt.
“At the moment my aim is to finish this season the best way I can, and wait to for pre-season, to make a very good start next season.”
With this year’s campaign not yet over, he was under no illusions about the importance of the side’s 2-0 victory over Walsall last Saturday, which ended a winless run of seven matches.
“It was important for confidence because we were in bad times,” he said. “We needed to win, and furthermore we won with a clean sheet.
“We have good players with a lot of abilities, but sometimes it doesn’t work. We needed to score a couple of goals, and now that is done, we can move on.”
The Frenchman will no doubt be hoping the team can continue their resurgence with a victory over Huddersfield at Brisbane Road on Saturday.
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