| Lolchester United 22:25 - Jan 1 with 2693 views | _clive_baker_ |
Wonder if they’ll come in for McGreal? |  | | |  |
| Lolchester United on 22:45 - Jan 1 with 2603 views | burnbudgiesburn |
8 managers in under 4 years apparently. |  | | |
| Lolchester United on 23:56 - Jan 1 with 2441 views | gainsboroughblue |
Shambles or what? He was only given the job permanently about six weeks ago. |  |
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| Lolchester United on 09:10 - Jan 2 with 2141 views | Sharkey |
| Lolchester United on 22:45 - Jan 1 by burnbudgiesburn |
8 managers in under 4 years apparently. |
To be fair, Bloomfield was headhunted by WW. Garner was then a good appointment, but he clearly got tired of not having the final say on some things. Etherington was a serious error based on a fluke run of results as caretaker, combined (I suspect) with the chairman being distracted by his son's court case.
As for McGreal, I wonder if he still gets interested in managerial jobs. Being U21 manager (for anyone) must be a strange life for someone with a competitive nature. Very few people care about results, very few players go on to the first team, games are organised at times that mean that fringe first-team players seldom get a run out. |  | | |
| Lolchester United on 09:40 - Jan 2 with 2067 views | _clive_baker_ |
| Lolchester United on 22:45 - Jan 1 by burnbudgiesburn |
8 managers in under 4 years apparently. |
It's a terribly run football club. Don't want to libel their owner on here as he's a bit of a loose cannon but his running of the club is very questionable. I know a couple of people very well connected at Colchester and it's a complete circus apparently. They'll probably stay up by virtue of the fact there are 2 seemingly worse sides, but if FGR or Sutton put a few wins together they could be in trouble, and getting back up from the National league is a harder ask than staying in L2.
I don't think they've spent a transfer fee for about 3 years now, they went through that approach of signing all of our cast offs and now seem to be giving the yoof a chance, they've got a lot of young players and as you say changing their manager every 6 months doesn't seem like a very well thought out strategy (albeit Bloomfield was nabbed).
I think they should go for someone like Mark Bonner who did a good job at Cambridge, although there's no guarantee he would be interested if he did his homework. | | | |
| Lolchester United on 10:36 - Jan 2 with 1949 views | Help |
Is Marcus Evans in charge of COL U?? |  |
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| Lolchester United on 11:26 - Jan 2 with 1843 views | Sharkey |
| Lolchester United on 09:40 - Jan 2 by _clive_baker_ |
It's a terribly run football club. Don't want to libel their owner on here as he's a bit of a loose cannon but his running of the club is very questionable. I know a couple of people very well connected at Colchester and it's a complete circus apparently. They'll probably stay up by virtue of the fact there are 2 seemingly worse sides, but if FGR or Sutton put a few wins together they could be in trouble, and getting back up from the National league is a harder ask than staying in L2.
I don't think they've spent a transfer fee for about 3 years now, they went through that approach of signing all of our cast offs and now seem to be giving the yoof a chance, they've got a lot of young players and as you say changing their manager every 6 months doesn't seem like a very well thought out strategy (albeit Bloomfield was nabbed).
I think they should go for someone like Mark Bonner who did a good job at Cambridge, although there's no guarantee he would be interested if he did his homework. |
Not many teams at L2 level spend transfer fees. The chairman has certainly splashed out on players - Matt Jay for example came for a big signing-on fee last year, and Jay Mingi and McGeehan probably didn't join simply for the love of the East Anglian countryside either.
As for 'now giving yoof a chance', that is not a sudden change of plan but has been the club's policy since the Braintree training ground opened, and consistently applied, and it was because he wanted that policy softened a little that McGreal left. Since then, more players in their mid and late twenties have been signed. (Connor Hall, for example, and those mentioned above.)
You won't find many Colchester fans who think Cowling has been too slow to dip in his pocket for players, and nor does the club have a problem attracting good loan players, which suggests the club has a good reputation. ( It will be interesting to see where Joe Taylor, who has just been recalled by Luton, turns up next. I doubt it will be L2, though his Welshness may appeal to Wrexham.)
What Colchester fans DO wonder is why, having put a good academy in place and brought in decent players, the chairman repeatedly seems to cut corners when it comes to appointing a manager to run the show. Even now that Tony Humes has finally gone, there is a feeling that Steve Ball has a lot of influence.
I think 'complete circus' is overstating things (head to the other corner of Essex for that) , and I don't see that Cowling is a 'loose cannon'. He's stubborn for sure, but he does what he says he will do and has a clear policy, ... which repeatedly fails. He doesn't spout off on social media, and to my mind doesn't seem to have a particularly big ego. He wants the club to be well respected and is clearly hurt when some fans let it down. (I'm interested what your 'loose cannon' opinion is based on). This will seem strange given how many managers there have been recently, but it seems to me that one of his biggest failings is that he doesn't like firing people and is loyal to a lot of people at the club. | | | |
| Lolchester United on 11:27 - Jan 2 with 1822 views | ronnyd |
Rooney has become available. | | | |
| Lolchester United on 12:06 - Jan 2 with 1708 views | _clive_baker_ |
| Lolchester United on 11:26 - Jan 2 by Sharkey |
Not many teams at L2 level spend transfer fees. The chairman has certainly splashed out on players - Matt Jay for example came for a big signing-on fee last year, and Jay Mingi and McGeehan probably didn't join simply for the love of the East Anglian countryside either.
As for 'now giving yoof a chance', that is not a sudden change of plan but has been the club's policy since the Braintree training ground opened, and consistently applied, and it was because he wanted that policy softened a little that McGreal left. Since then, more players in their mid and late twenties have been signed. (Connor Hall, for example, and those mentioned above.)
You won't find many Colchester fans who think Cowling has been too slow to dip in his pocket for players, and nor does the club have a problem attracting good loan players, which suggests the club has a good reputation. ( It will be interesting to see where Joe Taylor, who has just been recalled by Luton, turns up next. I doubt it will be L2, though his Welshness may appeal to Wrexham.)
What Colchester fans DO wonder is why, having put a good academy in place and brought in decent players, the chairman repeatedly seems to cut corners when it comes to appointing a manager to run the show. Even now that Tony Humes has finally gone, there is a feeling that Steve Ball has a lot of influence.
I think 'complete circus' is overstating things (head to the other corner of Essex for that) , and I don't see that Cowling is a 'loose cannon'. He's stubborn for sure, but he does what he says he will do and has a clear policy, ... which repeatedly fails. He doesn't spout off on social media, and to my mind doesn't seem to have a particularly big ego. He wants the club to be well respected and is clearly hurt when some fans let it down. (I'm interested what your 'loose cannon' opinion is based on). This will seem strange given how many managers there have been recently, but it seems to me that one of his biggest failings is that he doesn't like firing people and is loyal to a lot of people at the club. |
I don't expect Colchester to be writing sizeable cheques for players, as you say it's not the done thing at that level aside from a few notable exceptions, but I wouldn't say the club has invested to the level they've needed to in order to be competitive at the top end of the division, and the results are perhaps reflecting that.
McGeehan and Mingi were free agents without a club, I dare say they weren't deals that were too difficult to do financially. In Mingi's case it felt as much about him needing Colchester at the time and I don't recall too much competition for his signature.
The excellent Tchamadeu left for Stoke (no surprise really, and certainly not a criticism of Col), as well as O'Hara. Some presumably big (relatively speaking) wages also moved on in ex-ITFC contingent of Chambers, Skuse, Sears, Huws, Smith, Eastman.
There were noises of a top 6 budget for this season, I can't see how that has materialsed, if it has then where is it being spent? It feels to me like the budget has significantly reduced year on year and is likely way behind not just the top 6 but the majority of the division. That might be financial pressures coming home to roost, but I don't think it's as straight forward as pointing to the managerial changes and thinking that's where the problem lies. Bloomfield did OK with it, OK enough to get interest from Wycombe, but even he would tell you he didn't have enough tools to do the job. I think whoever comes in is going to inherit a poor squad at that level and will need funds to make it competitive relative to a lot of the competition.
Personally I like the approach of looking to the young talent, if supplemented appropriately with senior players. Colchester is really well situated geographically to pull them in whether it be in house or from other academies. It was fruitful under McGreal, and I think to deviate away from that to the extent the club has in recent seasons and the transfer strategy they've adopted has been ludicrous tbh.
I've come across Cowling several times, I don't dislike him as a bloke but I don't think he knows how to run a football club and frankly I think loose cannon is an apt description. I won't go into too much detail but you don't have to look too far to find people that have worked with him who will share that opinion. As for the social media, he doesn't spout off because he's not been allowed to. After a few ill informed press releases he was asked to relinquish control of that side, and his son started writing them for him. I'm not sure if he's taken that back since Mitchell's fraud case reared its head though. | | | |
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| Lolchester United on 13:29 - Jan 2 with 1483 views | Sharkey |
| Lolchester United on 12:06 - Jan 2 by _clive_baker_ |
I don't expect Colchester to be writing sizeable cheques for players, as you say it's not the done thing at that level aside from a few notable exceptions, but I wouldn't say the club has invested to the level they've needed to in order to be competitive at the top end of the division, and the results are perhaps reflecting that.
McGeehan and Mingi were free agents without a club, I dare say they weren't deals that were too difficult to do financially. In Mingi's case it felt as much about him needing Colchester at the time and I don't recall too much competition for his signature.
The excellent Tchamadeu left for Stoke (no surprise really, and certainly not a criticism of Col), as well as O'Hara. Some presumably big (relatively speaking) wages also moved on in ex-ITFC contingent of Chambers, Skuse, Sears, Huws, Smith, Eastman.
There were noises of a top 6 budget for this season, I can't see how that has materialsed, if it has then where is it being spent? It feels to me like the budget has significantly reduced year on year and is likely way behind not just the top 6 but the majority of the division. That might be financial pressures coming home to roost, but I don't think it's as straight forward as pointing to the managerial changes and thinking that's where the problem lies. Bloomfield did OK with it, OK enough to get interest from Wycombe, but even he would tell you he didn't have enough tools to do the job. I think whoever comes in is going to inherit a poor squad at that level and will need funds to make it competitive relative to a lot of the competition.
Personally I like the approach of looking to the young talent, if supplemented appropriately with senior players. Colchester is really well situated geographically to pull them in whether it be in house or from other academies. It was fruitful under McGreal, and I think to deviate away from that to the extent the club has in recent seasons and the transfer strategy they've adopted has been ludicrous tbh.
I've come across Cowling several times, I don't dislike him as a bloke but I don't think he knows how to run a football club and frankly I think loose cannon is an apt description. I won't go into too much detail but you don't have to look too far to find people that have worked with him who will share that opinion. As for the social media, he doesn't spout off because he's not been allowed to. After a few ill informed press releases he was asked to relinquish control of that side, and his son started writing them for him. I'm not sure if he's taken that back since Mitchell's fraud case reared its head though. |
I agree with most of that, though I think the club has several players who would easily get a game in one of the better teams in the league - Fevrier being one, if he was allowed a bit of rest to re-charge his batteries.
I was very surprised by Cowling's top 6 budget claim. It always seemed highly unlikely, with Stockport, Mansfield, Wrexham, Gillingham, Notts Co. and Bradford in the league.
Yes, Bloomfield did OK. While I'm glad he arrested the slide, it was the most attritional football I've seen, seemingly based on trying to win set pieces in the attacking third. He would probably say it was a case of 'needs must', but I was happy when he left. (It was a pity he pinched the assistant, Richard Thomas, when he left, because Thomas had clearly done good work improving the defence.
I don't disagree with you about Robby Cowling's overall ability to make good decisions. He's certainly mis-spent an enormous sun of money. But for me 'loose cannon' implies someone more volatile and rash, whereas I see RC as overseeing a long slow decline, Marcus Evans style. [Post edited 2 Jan 2024 14:12]
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