Martin Ling says Leyton Orient would not have released youngsters Toby Stevenson and Teddy Perkins if they had an under 23 team.

Young defender Stevenson was released by the club just over a week ago at the end of his two year scholarship, having spent a large part of the campaign on loan with Heybridge Swifts in the Bostik North Division.

He subsequently signed a contract with League One side Charlton Athletic last week and follows in the footsteps of fellow defender Teddy Perkins, who earnt a move to Sean Dyche’s Burnley earlier this year after also being told that he would not be offered a professional deal at Brisbane Road.

Both players will initially link up with the under 23 teams at their new clubs and Ling provided more information on the duos departures last week.

He said: “If you’re a club like us, next year we’ll have a squad of about 23 players. All 23 of those are on my wage budget and people like Toby Stevenson who has ended up at Charlton Athletic and Teddy Perkins who ended up at Burnley, they are not considered to be first-team players at both clubs.

“If we had an under 23s, we wouldn’t have released Toby and we wouldn’t have released Teddy because we could have left them in our U23s and seen what they are like in one, two or three years. At this moment in time, I don’t think they are ready to come into our first-team squad, hence why they are being released.

“I think sometimes the U23s can give people a false pretext on where they are, because they get kept to make the U23s stronger. If they are going to make it into first team football, then they have got longer to see if they will. But it’s always an easier position to be in when you have an U23s because they can afford to do that.

“I can’t afford to have Toby or Teddy sitting about playing in our reserves. It doesn’t work for us so those decisions were made and I think that will happen more and more whilst there is U23s football.”