Richie Wellens

Richard Paul Wellens (born 26 March 1980) is an English professional football manager and former player who played as a midfielder.

He is currently head coach of EFL League One club Leyton Orient.

His only first team appearance for the club was as a substitute in a 3–0 League Cup defeat to Aston Villa on 13 October 1999.

Wellens began his career at Manchester United before signing for Blackpool in 2000, where he went on to win promotion from League Two via the playoffs in 2001.

Frustrated at the lack of opportunities at Manchester United, he moved to Blackpool in March 2000.

Wellens became an instant first team regular at the club and before long he was a fan's favourite.

While at the club he helped them win promotion via winning the 2001 Football League Third Division play-off final which he played in at the Millennium Stadium.

He would return to win at the Cardiff stadium two more times with Blackpool, both with the Football League Trophy; first in 2002 after scoring a crucial opening goal against Huddersfield Town in the first leg of the North Area Final, and again in 2004, the same season he was placed in the 2003–04 Football League Second Division PFA Team of the Year.

Wellens made the 2004–05, 2006–07 and 2007–08 League One PFA Team of the Year.

Overall, he made 101 appearances and scored 8 times for Oldham.

Wellens has made the claim in an interview with Look Sports Media that he was not paid during the final six months of his time at the club "I think by the time I was sacked by Oldham, I hadn't been paid for six months. I ended up getting it [payment] but I said I'll wait and make sure you pay the players that are due it. It was difficult but I do look back on it and it was a massive learning curve."

In 2005, he left to join Oldham Athletic, where he made 87 appearances in two seasons at the club, before moving to Doncaster in 2007, becoming an instant fans' favourite by helping get the club promoted to the Championship for the first time in 50 years.

He made 226 appearances with Blackpool before his move in 2005 to Oldham Athletic.

In 2005, he left Blackpool for his local side Oldham Athletic, with Scott Vernon going the other way.

This was done to bypass the 50% sell-on clause that Manchester United had added during Wellens' transfer to the Seasiders.

In summer 2007, after turning down an improved contract offered by Oldham, he signed a two-year contract with fellow League One side Doncaster Rovers.

Wellens was a member of the Doncaster side that gained promotion to the Championship in 2007–08.

His midfield performances brought him several individual awards, several key goals and helped the team gain promotion.

His first competitive goal for Doncaster was in August 2007 in the Football League Cup with the second strike in a 4–1 victory over Lincoln City; however, this wasn't the first time he had hit the back of the net for Doncaster: in his very first appearance in a Donny shirt, Wellens chipped the ball over the opposition goalkeeper and into the net from 40 yards in a pre-season friendly against non-league Retford United.

Wellens made 97 appearances, scoring 10 times, during his spell with Doncaster prior to his £1 million move to Leicester City.

On 7 July 2009, Wellens joined Leicester City for a potential fee of £1.2 million, signing a three-year contract.

Their biggest signing of the summer, Wellens was named by the BBC Sport as the club's key player for the 2009–10 season.

He made his debut in a 2–1 win over Swansea City on 8 August 2009, scoring his first goal in a 2–0 win over Middlesbrough on 2 May 2010.

Wellens featured in all but three matches for Leicester in the Championship that season.

He played a crucial role in Nigel Pearson's team that reached the play-offs semi-finals, where they lost to Cardiff City on penalties.

In his second season at the club, Wellens continued to play in midfield under the reign of both Paulo Sousa and Sven-Göran Eriksson.

After helping the club stay in the division, he moved to Leicester City, and during his time he won the club's Player of the Year in 2011.

He was named Championship Player of the Month for January, and won the club's player of the year award on 3 May 2011.

During the 2011–12 season, Wellens ended the season, back under the returning Nigel Pearson, with 46 appearances in all competitions and captaining the side 19 times, but his season ended early when he suffered a cruciate knee ligament injury, ruling him out of action for six months.

On 4 October, Wellens joined Ipswich Town a one-month loan deal, and returned to Leicester after an "impressive" seven game spell.

After a short loan spell with Ipswich Town, Wellens rejoined Doncaster in 2013, where he spent a further three years.

On 23 July 2013, Wellens left Leicester City by mutual consent, having played a total of 149 games and scoring 6 goals over his four seasons with them.

On 2 August, Wellens signed a short-term contract with former club Doncaster Rovers.

Having started five of Doncaster's first six games, Wellens extended his contract until January 2014.

Towards the end of his career, he had a short return to Oldham, before playing for Shrewsbury Town, and non-league clubs Salford City and Macclesfield Town, his final club before retiring in 2017.

Wellens' first role in management came when he returned to Oldham as first team manager from September 2017 to June 2018, when he was sacked following the club's relegation to League Two.

Wellens then took over the vacant managerial position at Swindon Town in the summer of 2018, eventually leading the club to the 2019–20 League Two title on PPG during the COVID-19 pandemic.

He left Swindon to manage League Two team Salford City in November 2020, but lasted less than six months in charge before being sacked, having won the rearranged 2019–20 EFL Trophy.

In May 2021 Wellens became manager of Doncaster.

Born in Manchester, Wellens started his career at Manchester United, playing alongside the likes of Wes Brown and John O'Shea.