Leyton Orient can land Charlie Kelman 2.0 by beating Plymouth, Reading to Brighton transfer | OneFootball

Leyton Orient should make a move to sign Mark O'Mahony in order to replace Charlie Kelman.

Leyton Orient missed out on promotion to the Championship last season in the League One play-off final, with a slender 1-0 defeat to fellow Londoners Charlton Athletic at Wembley Stadium.

The O’s, under the management of Richie Wellens, now have a serious job on their hands with quite a big turnover expected as some crucial loanees have now departed, as well as some key first-teamers leaving at the end of their contracts.

For example, Tottenham Hotspur duo Josh Keeley and Jamie Donley have returned, whilst Jack Currie’s loan from Oxford United has ended and Dilan Markanday has also departed, signing for Chesterfield in League Two.

Dan Agyei has left the club for Turkish Super Lig side Kocaelispor, and there is interest from Huddersfield Town and Swansea City in key midfielder Ethan Galbraith, too.

Among all of that, Orient have also lost the League One top scorer from last season, Charlie Kelman, who was on loan from Queens Park Rangers and has now returned to Loftus Road.

Replacing the American will be a tough task for Wellens and Orient, especially with so much upheaval in the squad, however one player that they should be ensuring they get over the line to fill the void is Brighton and Hove Albion’s Mark O’Mahony.

O’Mahony following a similar path to Kelman so far

Basildon-born 23-year-old Kelman, who is a former United States youth international, began his career at Southend United and showed so much promise that he earned a move to QPR in the Championship.

He has made 23 appearances thus far in the second-tier for QPR, and is yet to score, with no goals in 26 matches across all competition for the Hoops since he arrived in 2020.

He endured a fairly forgettable loan spell at Gillingham in League Two, before an improved but still fairly underwhelming stint at Orient in the same division.

He took a step up to League One in the 2023/24 campaign and showed signs of quality with three goals in 14 appearances for Latics before maturing and bursting into life at Orient this season, thanks in large part too to the style of football of Wellens.

Mark O’Mahony, in comparison, is again a player of promise that appears destined to mature and burst into life with a bag full of goals in the near future.

Having joined Brighton from Cork City in 2023 for a fee believed to be in the region of £50,000, the 20-year-old spent the back end of last season on loan at Portsmouth.

He scored three goals in 13 appearances for Pompey as they avoided relegation, and, whilst not a disaster, perhaps showed he may need to take a step down a division to ensure he can eventually thrive.

Mark O’Mahony would thrive under Wellens

Kelman had basically struggled since earning his QPR move but, with the coaching of Wellens, he managed to fulfil his potential for League One, and has now ensured he will be playing in the Championship next season, whether with QPR or elsewhere.

O’Mahony is someone who would arrive with an even better record and at a younger age than Kelman did last summer, with O’Mahony having already notched in the second-tier, and having already scored for Brighton, too, in the EFL Cup.

Similar in profile, the two players could be labelled as a so-called ‘fox in the box’, but with the youthful energy to work hard in an intense Wellens style of football.

With the likes of Barnsley, Plymouth Argyle and Reading all interested in the Irishman alongside the O's, as exclusively revealed by Football League World, it would be a coup for Orient to get the deal over the line – and it could also be pivotal to their chances of replicating their relative success from last season.

There is every chance that O'Mahony could replicate Kelman's trajectory in East London and become the talismanic forward figure Wellens' side is now crying out for after his 27 goals across all competitions last season.