Analysis: Cowleys face summer recruitment challenge

By Glenn Speller, BBC Essex

Your parents probably told you not to mix with the naughty kids at school.

Colchester United would do well to heed a similar warning.

For four seasons they have been hanging around at the back of the EFL class and facing the prospect of expulsion to the National League from which escape is never a sure thing.

Only some late good behaviour has saved them on each occasion.

The U’s downward spiral can be tracked from, perhaps ironically, the night of a backs-to-the-wall victory on a filthy night in Scunthorpe.

The fact they were battered for much of that 1-0 win in December 2020 should have been a clue but instead the headlines were ‘U’s show character in away win’ and there was much backslapping about good teams winning when not playing well.

Colchester, as it turned out, were not a good team.

Since that evening they have gone through seven head coaches, countless resets and some extremely hectic January transfer windows which always just about did the trick.

Credit for that must go to the owner, Robbie Cowling, realising it is far easier and cheaper to prevent relegation to the National League than trying to get out of it.

But while the chairman can take credit for coughing up the funds when they were desperately needed, he will also have to take some of the responsibility for rushed internal coaching appointments and an unerring dedication to having a category two academy in English football’s fourth tier.

Fewer than 1% of academy players make it to the professional ranks, so, with Colchester’s League Two status and proximity to London’s Premier League clubs, their chances of finding that rough diamond to sell on for millions are slim.

As a parent, if Tottenham, Chelsea, West Ham and Colchester are promising your child the world, which one are you going to choose?

Many of those who have come through at Colchester have already been discarded by those higher up the pyramid so would likely have found their way there without the costs of the academy.

Given the amount of money it takes to run it, even taking into account the extra help from the EFL, it looks like a folly they can ill afford.

And, so, having dodged the bullet for a fourth year, where do Colchester go now?

To start with, no-one connected with the club doubts they have the right guys in charge. The Cowleys had been perpetually linked with the U's and with the stars aligning, they got their men.

What that appointment has done has virtually refloated the passion and enthusiasm for the club from a fanbase disillusioned and left wondering whether they might end up in the same mess as Essex neighbours Southend.

The Cowleys work on positivity, a never-say-die attitude and an unquenchable thirst for the game. It is infectious, as Braintree and Lincoln supporters in particular will attest to.

Countless times they have had negative statistics or facts quoted at them to illustrate Colchester’s woes and countless times they will turn those into a positive or a quick retort of ‘yes, but that’s the Colchester before we arrived, that’s not us now…’

All this augurs well but they must be allowed time and space to work.

At Braintree and Lincoln they were given their head, at Huddersfield they did the hard work but had the rug pulled from under them, while at Portsmouth a 43% win ratio wasn’t enough when it did not deliver promotion.

They will need to look carefully at the current squad. Most of the players were recruited to be part of a technical, possession-based team and have had to adjust.

Those adjustments can come with coaching but what is more worrying is the alarming number of individual errors which have led to goals and defeats. The mental fortitude of many has to be called into question; when the going got tough, did they get going?

The evidence in performances and results would point towards the answer 'no'. There are many examples but conceding a 92nd-minute equaliser to Crewe on the final day surely puts the tin hat on any argument you might want to offer to the contrary.

Only a handful of players are out of contract this summer which leaves the coaches with a headache as there will be many they will want to move on and, if those players are honest, could probably do with a change of scenery themselves.

If there is to be true and meaningful change, the Cowleys have to be given the opportunity to call the tune where recruitment in particular is concerned.

Few expect them to compete with the budgets of Wrexham, Mansfield, Stockport, MK Dons, Salford or Bradford, but when you have only won 28 home league games over the last four seasons, you are starting from a low base.

The demands from the fans should not be high given what has been happening. Just winning a few more games and steering clear of trouble would put some smiles back on faces, but the Cowleys will have other plans.

To quote Danny Cowley: ‘We like winning, we’re used to winning and we expect to win.’