⁠Leyton Orient and Richie Wellens have to face up to summer reality right now | OneFootball

Richie Wellens will have a tough summer window ahead of him after losing key loan players.

Leyton Orient are flying high in League One this season.

The O's sit seventh in the table, with games in hand on multiple teams inside the play-off places.

Tuesday's 3-0 victory over Mansfield Town continued a tremendous run of form that has seen just one league defeat since the end of November.

However, it has become increasingly alarming that many of the key players are only in East London on temporary deals.

Leyton Orient's loanees have been on fire this season

Loan signings are a risk and have returned mixed results for Orient in recent years.

While the likes of Idris El Mizouni and Ed Turns will be forever etched into club history after helping secure the League Two title in 2023, there have been plenty of loanees that are completely forgettable or indeed memorable for all the wrong reasons.

This year, Orient's recruitment has been incredibly successful.

Jamie Donley, a highly touted prospect at Tottenham Hotspur, joined the O's this summer on a season-long loan following reported interest from the likes of Birmingham City and Luton Town.

Starting off slowly, Donley was actually dropped entirely from the matchday squad for a short period of time in late November but has since turned into one of the key figures in the Orient attack and even scored a screamer in the O's cup tie with Manchester City.

Josh Keeley was also brought in from Spurs on deadline day. Originally, he started off as the backup keeper but poor performances from Zach Hemming saw Keeley inserted into the side in mid-October - as he now sits on an impressive 13 clean sheets in 19 League One games.

Charlie Kelman had previously been on loan at E10 during the League Two winning campaign of 2022/23, scoring seven goals and assisting three times in 43 league appearances.

This year he rejoined the club for the season and has already surpassed that tally with 17 games left to spare and solidified himself as Orient's starting striker.

While all three have been thoroughly impressive this year, the likelihood of them returning to Brisbane Road seems very unlikely.

Leyton Orient board should look ahead to summer window

There are still several questions to answer ahead of next season, some potentially regarding the future of manager Richie Wellens.

Whether the 44-year-old remains at Brisbane Road next season or not, Orient have some serious planning to do ahead of next season.

While the obvious contract extensions to the likes of Dan Agyei and Omar Beckles will be a priority at the moment, replacing the current loan players with ones of similar qualities and character will be incredibly difficult.

Orient's squad can be stretched pretty thin as it is with a few injuries, so the recruitment needs to be just as good as last summer's in order to continue this year's momentum going forward.

Whether the O's will be planning for life in the second or third tier, the reality is that the stars of this year will most likely not be there to help next year.

Wellens and the club chiefs need to prepare themselves for that. Of course the play-off race is the main focus but behind the scenes, the recruitment cogs should be whirring already to put a strategy in place that helps them fill the gaps that are expected to be left when a number of their key men head back to their parent sides.

Failure to do so could mean Orient fail to build on the progress they've made this term.