Town have confirmed the appointment of former defender John McGreal as interim manager following Paul Cook’s sacking on Saturday, and that the former boss’s coaching team, Gary Roberts, Franny Jeffers, Ian Craney and John Keeley, have also left the club.
McGreal, who rejoined the club last week as an U23s coach, will be assisted by Rene Gilmartin, his deputy during his short spell as manager at Swindon in the summer, U23s manager Kieron Dyer and head of academy goalkeeping Carl Pentney.
The club say the 49-year-old "will be in charge of Town for Tuesday night’s trip to Charlton”, suggesting his tenure may not be too long.
All McGreal's games as manager were at Colchester, one game as caretaker in 2015 and a spell between 2016 and 2020 during which time the U's were in League Two. In his 204 matches in charge, he saw the North Essex side to 76 wins, 55 draws and 73 defeats.
He saw the U's to eighth, 13th, eighth and sixth in his seasons in charge with the latter campaign ending in play-off semi-final defeat.
Dubliner Gilmartin is a former keeper, who played for Walsall, Plymouth and Colchester, during McGreal's time in charge of the U's, among a number of others.
The 34-year-old will be well-known to CEO Mark Ashton having been a back-up keeper at Bristol City for two years until the summer. He has also worked as the Republic of Ireland U21s coach since 2019.
Departing first-team coach Roberts, a Town winger under Jim Magilton, was appointed to his role by Cook in March, hanging up his boots as he did so having been in his third spell at Accrington Stanley.
Jeffers joined as another first-team coach in the summer from Everton, where he had been coaching their U23s, while Craney was recruited as a coach at the same time having previously worked with Cook at Wigan as kitman, although the Blues manager subsequently said that while that was his job title with the Latics that wasn’t his job, that was the only way to get him on to his staff.
Keeley also moved to the Blues in the summer having previously worked with Cook at Portsmouth.