| The Summer of ‘24 - ins, outs and maybes 09:43 - Apr 28 with 81418 views | wessex_exile |
As suggested on the matchday thread, let’s kick off the traditional summer transfer speculation. I’ll start with our current loanees. I doubt Palace would release Owen Goodman, and if they did, would we want him or even be able to afford him? Of the rest, I’d definitely like to see Alastair Smith and maybe Riley Harbottle sign if they were released. As for the rest, they’ll be heading back to make room for new choices. |  |
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| The Summer of ‘24 - ins, outs and maybes on 11:20 - Jul 2 with 2517 views | TheOldOakTree |
| The Summer of ‘24 - ins, outs and maybes on 09:51 - Jul 2 by burnsieespana |
When a player comes on loan I wonder if they have the same medical? |
Yes, that's a good point and I guess a loan wouldn’t have been of interest, as it’s no good building a team around a player that could be recalled at any minute. |  | | |
| The Summer of ‘24 - ins, outs and maybes on 11:24 - Jul 2 with 2505 views | TheOldOakTree |
| The Summer of ‘24 - ins, outs and maybes on 09:51 - Jul 2 by RSCOSWORTH |
We've now sold five players in the last 12 months. Firstly I think that's pretty impressive for any club and secondly we've done that off the back of four consecutive relegation battles! Crazy! |
I understand your viewpoint and 100% respect your opinion, but is that impressive when you look at the bigger picture?
Surely the whole point of football is to make your way up the league in a sustainable fashion. Anything else is just fluff, we don’t get points for selling players. We’ve got £30M in debt and ended up 90th in the league by pursuing a policy of trying to develop our own players (and managers) and selling them on. It clearly isn’t working.
All it proves is that West Ham and Charlton have got good academies and that is the best place to get our youngsters from, when they are released. Out of Hall, Fevrier, Mingi, Junior and Ashley, only Junior had any significant connection with our academy, and he only arrived when he was 16.
Punchy started at Orient Academy. Only Noah and Bradley have ‘come through the system’. Is it worth the cost and hassle of a Cat2?
A Cat4 academy, from 18 onwards, must be a fraction of the cost and that is clearly the level where our recent transfer success has come from (and I would agree, that is very impressive recruitment). Every year there are hundreds of kids released by Prem academies that are more than good enough for us.
I appreciate the ideology is great and I desperately want it to work, but is it a case of 'there’s none so blind as them that don’t want to see'.
It could be more impressive if we found/developed good players and didn't sell them! [Post edited 2 Jul 11:54]
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| The Summer of ‘24 - ins, outs and maybes on 11:34 - Jul 2 with 2471 views | BLACKCAT |
| The Summer of ‘24 - ins, outs and maybes on 07:28 - Jul 2 by wessex_exile |
Kelleher would be an excellent call as captain, and according to a chap on X with a pretty good record of being itk, it was Smith who failed the medical. |
It's disappointing about Smith particularly if he was near the top of the list of the Cowleys' targets. From the Lincoln end Smith did not fail a medical. | | | |
| The Summer of ‘24 - ins, outs and maybes on 13:46 - Jul 2 with 2373 views | durham_exile |
| The Summer of ‘24 - ins, outs and maybes on 11:34 - Jul 2 by BLACKCAT |
It's disappointing about Smith particularly if he was near the top of the list of the Cowleys' targets. From the Lincoln end Smith did not fail a medical. |
Absolutely Blackcat and as he has gone on a season long loan to Wimbledon which seems incredibly bizarre.
Surely a permanent contract would have been preferable.
Oh well back to the drawing board |  |
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| The Summer of ‘24 - ins, outs and maybes on 13:49 - Jul 2 with 2369 views | durham_exile |
| The Summer of ‘24 - ins, outs and maybes on 13:46 - Jul 2 by durham_exile |
Absolutely Blackcat and as he has gone on a season long loan to Wimbledon which seems incredibly bizarre.
Surely a permanent contract would have been preferable.
Oh well back to the drawing board |
Jack Payne midfield dynamo will sweeten the pill.
Up the U's was | |
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| The Summer of ‘24 - ins, outs and maybes on 19:33 - Jul 2 with 2202 views | burnsieespana |
IMO bit of an odd signing as could have kept Akinde to do the same job! |  | | |
| The Summer of ‘24 - ins, outs and maybes on 20:23 - Jul 2 with 2171 views | durham_exile |
I saw, Taylor signs, then realised Lyle not Joe.
One year contract, should be good for some goals. | |
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| The Summer of ‘24 - ins, outs and maybes on 22:08 - Jul 2 with 2093 views | TheOldOakTree |
| The Summer of ‘24 - ins, outs and maybes on 20:23 - Jul 2 by durham_exile |
I saw, Taylor signs, then realised Lyle not Joe.
One year contract, should be good for some goals. |
Good job it wasn't Joe (or Joey to be precise).
According to Wiki, Lyles brother Joey plays left back for Whitehawk in the Isthmian League.
Both of them are internationals!
.....for the tiny volcanic caribean island of Montserrat (population about two thirds of Mersea Island). [Post edited 2 Jul 22:20]
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| The Summer of ‘24 - ins, outs and maybes on 22:45 - Jul 2 with 2070 views | TheOldOakTree |
Seriously, I’m hoping that’s not it for strikers, we’ve got one that’s past it, one that’s never got there, one with a disciplinary problem, one lightweight and young Bradley. Can’t see Goodman losing much sleep ahead of his debut at Wimbledon!
We need a Joe Taylor Mk 2.
There’s a way to go yet, but if this is the calibre of signings, then me must keep Read, McGeehan and Chilvers. Or at least Read plus one of the other two. We are going to need goals from midfield! | | | |
| The Summer of ‘24 - ins, outs and maybes on 23:22 - Jul 2 with 2048 views | CrashBandicoot |
He may rediscover his goalscoring form as he has been a decent striker in the past with a decent goal haul though I would have preferred a more consistent and slightly younger goal scorer.
Oscar Thorn could start breaking into the first team soon as well so it'll be interesting to see what he can do. |  |
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| The Summer of ‘24 - ins, outs and maybes on 05:54 - Jul 3 with 2005 views | franksic1988 |
Worrying for me about Ali Smith, obviously can’t speculate on the financial side of things as we are not privy to that info. But doesn’t sound like he was busting a gut to play football under our current set up.
The signing of Lyle does seem a strange one to say the least. Maybe the brothers feel like the younger pairing need another season to mature. But after watching us change team every week last season. I’ve given up second guessing the thoughts behind what’s rite and wrong.
One things for sure it will be like starting all over again this season. Let’s hope it ends better than last! | | | |
| The Summer of ‘24 - ins, outs and maybes on 08:37 - Jul 3 with 1960 views | bwildered |
First Xl
Macey
Hunt
Keller
Goodliffe
Landoo
Anderson
Read
Payne
Gordon
Taylor
Hopper |  |
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| The Summer of ‘24 - ins, outs and maybes on 11:32 - Jul 3 with 1893 views | TheOldOakTree |
| The Summer of ‘24 - ins, outs and maybes on 22:45 - Jul 2 by TheOldOakTree |
Seriously, I’m hoping that’s not it for strikers, we’ve got one that’s past it, one that’s never got there, one with a disciplinary problem, one lightweight and young Bradley. Can’t see Goodman losing much sleep ahead of his debut at Wimbledon!
We need a Joe Taylor Mk 2.
There’s a way to go yet, but if this is the calibre of signings, then me must keep Read, McGeehan and Chilvers. Or at least Read plus one of the other two. We are going to need goals from midfield! |
Just to back that up:
Last years goalscorers that we have said goodbye to, or haven’t resigned (figures from the BBC)
Taylor 12
McGeehan 10
Fevrier 4
Chilvers 4
Akinde 3
Cooper 2
Smith 2
Mitchell 2
Mingi 1
Dallison 1
That’s 41 goals that won’t be scored for Col U next year.
The replacements so far that the Cowleys have been able to afford
Payne 6
Taylor 3
Goodliffe 2
Gordon 1
Hunt 1
That’s 28 goals less than we scored when we finished 90th in the league.
Stats don’t win matches, and it's more complicated than that, but unless there are big funds available for some more firepower, and to keep McGeehan/Chilvers then DC/NC aren’t getting much of a chance at the job are they? [Post edited 3 Jul 11:42]
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| The Summer of ‘24 - ins, outs and maybes on 11:58 - Jul 3 with 1859 views | TheOldOakTree |
| The Summer of ‘24 - ins, outs and maybes on 08:37 - Jul 3 by bwildered |
First Xl
Macey
Hunt
Keller
Goodliffe
Landoo
Anderson
Read
Payne
Gordon
Taylor
Hopper |
As if I need to make my point for the 756th time. That ‘First IX’ does not have a single player from our academy. To make it worse, the players we’ve sold this summer didn’t come through our academy.
I don’t know about anyone else, but if I’d run up debts of £30M whilst building first class facilities and then gave what seems like ‘jobs for life’ to a crazy number of staff, I would expect a little something in return. If they couldn’t give me a single player good enough to be in the First IX of the shittest team to remain in the football league, then I think I would be slightly miffed, possibly even a little annoyed.
We get rid of players at the drop of a hat and managers even more often, but the white elephant and all its staff seem to be ringfenced? It’s a fair question, what the f### do they do all day at Florence Park? Is it simply that they cannot get the raw materials?
Do we really have to sell the silver every year to pay for this shitshow? You can only get away with that for so long before your luck runs out.
We heap all our expectations on the Cowleys like they can perform miracles to get us out of this shitfest. Their hands are tied, yet we are going to expect them to do what King Canute couldn’t. | | | |
| The Summer of ‘24 - ins, outs and maybes on 13:19 - Jul 3 with 1805 views | SparkfilmsTV |
I sometimes wonder if the owner of the club puts the Academy before the first team in terms of his priorities and vision. It has always appeared to me that there has been an imbalance at the club in this respect over the past ten years or so.
Having said that, it's Robbie Cowling's call and the scheme seems likely to continue.
I would be slimming down the Academy quite dramatically, and l would cut staffing levels too.
The Colchester United business model does appear to require an overview....just how huge will the eventual club debt become before Mr Cowling turns his attentions to something else?
As l expected the Colchester United side that represents the club at Wimbledon will be virtually a start up.
There are several decent signings, a shape and mode appear to have been considered, and l don't think we will struggle like we have done in recent seasons. | | | |
| The Summer of ‘24 - ins, outs and maybes on 14:36 - Jul 3 with 1764 views | burnsieespana |
| The Summer of ‘24 - ins, outs and maybes on 11:58 - Jul 3 by TheOldOakTree |
As if I need to make my point for the 756th time. That ‘First IX’ does not have a single player from our academy. To make it worse, the players we’ve sold this summer didn’t come through our academy.
I don’t know about anyone else, but if I’d run up debts of £30M whilst building first class facilities and then gave what seems like ‘jobs for life’ to a crazy number of staff, I would expect a little something in return. If they couldn’t give me a single player good enough to be in the First IX of the shittest team to remain in the football league, then I think I would be slightly miffed, possibly even a little annoyed.
We get rid of players at the drop of a hat and managers even more often, but the white elephant and all its staff seem to be ringfenced? It’s a fair question, what the f### do they do all day at Florence Park? Is it simply that they cannot get the raw materials?
Do we really have to sell the silver every year to pay for this shitshow? You can only get away with that for so long before your luck runs out.
We heap all our expectations on the Cowleys like they can perform miracles to get us out of this shitfest. Their hands are tied, yet we are going to expect them to do what King Canute couldn’t. |
Whilst 4 of the recent signings didn’t come through the Academy in the accepted sense of the word like Dammie E did they joined as young stars because of the Academy but quickly progressed to the first X1.
I don't think the Cowley bros have an eye to signing young players rejected by clubs higher up the pyramid.
Might be wrong as we have signed a few for the undervw1's somaybe DC concentrates on the first team and others talent spot for lower down.
It does seem several under 21's are close to getting I to the first team.such as Terry, Thorn and Sandah. | | | |
| The Summer of ‘24 - ins, outs and maybes on 14:49 - Jul 3 with 1753 views | franksic1988 |
| The Summer of ‘24 - ins, outs and maybes on 14:36 - Jul 3 by burnsieespana |
Whilst 4 of the recent signings didn’t come through the Academy in the accepted sense of the word like Dammie E did they joined as young stars because of the Academy but quickly progressed to the first X1.
I don't think the Cowley bros have an eye to signing young players rejected by clubs higher up the pyramid.
Might be wrong as we have signed a few for the undervw1's somaybe DC concentrates on the first team and others talent spot for lower down.
It does seem several under 21's are close to getting I to the first team.such as Terry, Thorn and Sandah. |
DC and NC I don’t think like younger players. They seem to favour experience or ready made over bringing players through. Apart from mingi last season who they tried in another position , I didn’t see one player improve or do anything diff to what they have done before under previous managers… have sat within ear shot of dc and nc since they took over. Half the time the more senior players look perplexed at the instructions.
Not that it accounts for much but from what I’ve heard myself NC has a lot more idea than DC. | | | |
| The Summer of ‘24 - ins, outs and maybes on 14:59 - Jul 3 with 1748 views | franksic1988 |
| The Summer of ‘24 - ins, outs and maybes on 11:58 - Jul 3 by TheOldOakTree |
As if I need to make my point for the 756th time. That ‘First IX’ does not have a single player from our academy. To make it worse, the players we’ve sold this summer didn’t come through our academy.
I don’t know about anyone else, but if I’d run up debts of £30M whilst building first class facilities and then gave what seems like ‘jobs for life’ to a crazy number of staff, I would expect a little something in return. If they couldn’t give me a single player good enough to be in the First IX of the shittest team to remain in the football league, then I think I would be slightly miffed, possibly even a little annoyed.
We get rid of players at the drop of a hat and managers even more often, but the white elephant and all its staff seem to be ringfenced? It’s a fair question, what the f### do they do all day at Florence Park? Is it simply that they cannot get the raw materials?
Do we really have to sell the silver every year to pay for this shitshow? You can only get away with that for so long before your luck runs out.
We heap all our expectations on the Cowleys like they can perform miracles to get us out of this shitfest. Their hands are tied, yet we are going to expect them to do what King Canute couldn’t. |
Totally agree. Ploughing money into a youth set up that doesn’t produce is like pissing in the wind. It would be worth running with if you was for example getting 2/3 good years out of 4/5 players every other season or every 2 season, and their contributions where lifting the club in a higher direction. One club that does this on higher scale is Southampton.
Like you say giving dc and nc a water into wine Job expecting greatness from them is not the answer. The structure and ethos of the club has to come under fire too. In league 2 you’re most probably better off putting the money down on a player that can play. | | | |
| The Summer of ‘24 - ins, outs and maybes on 15:25 - Jul 3 with 1748 views | TheOldOakTree |
| The Summer of ‘24 - ins, outs and maybes on 14:49 - Jul 3 by franksic1988 |
DC and NC I don’t think like younger players. They seem to favour experience or ready made over bringing players through. Apart from mingi last season who they tried in another position , I didn’t see one player improve or do anything diff to what they have done before under previous managers… have sat within ear shot of dc and nc since they took over. Half the time the more senior players look perplexed at the instructions.
Not that it accounts for much but from what I’ve heard myself NC has a lot more idea than DC. |
...but from what I've seen Danny can scream and shout louder and swear better than his brother.
In all seriousness, sometimes it only works as a double act, like Clough and Taylor, both hopeless on their own.
It is possible that nobody could have got last seasons players playing as a team, maybe the shouting and screaming comes from frustration that the players just didn’t do the simple things that were asked of them. Garner had Joe Taylor that made things far easier for him.
I agree in that so far, they haven’t shown any signs of being managers that have achieved numerous promotions. Had they gone to Bradford, 4 wins in 20 would most likely been more than enough reason for them to be shown the door.
It’s different here, we’ve run out of options, they will have their team, they will hopefully show why they have been so successful in the past. I just hope they are given enough time and understanding, because it may take a while and there’s not likely to be any credible options after them. In the meantime, this may be the last chance to change our fortunes, now is the time to make as much as possible available for the first team. Just one jump start and a little good fortune is all it could take to change our fortunes and the mindset and direction of the whole club. We need to ride the wave of the Cowleys enthusiasm, because that’s all we’ve got. | | | |
| The Summer of ‘24 - ins, outs and maybes on 15:42 - Jul 3 with 1731 views | franksic1988 |
| The Summer of ‘24 - ins, outs and maybes on 15:25 - Jul 3 by TheOldOakTree |
...but from what I've seen Danny can scream and shout louder and swear better than his brother.
In all seriousness, sometimes it only works as a double act, like Clough and Taylor, both hopeless on their own.
It is possible that nobody could have got last seasons players playing as a team, maybe the shouting and screaming comes from frustration that the players just didn’t do the simple things that were asked of them. Garner had Joe Taylor that made things far easier for him.
I agree in that so far, they haven’t shown any signs of being managers that have achieved numerous promotions. Had they gone to Bradford, 4 wins in 20 would most likely been more than enough reason for them to be shown the door.
It’s different here, we’ve run out of options, they will have their team, they will hopefully show why they have been so successful in the past. I just hope they are given enough time and understanding, because it may take a while and there’s not likely to be any credible options after them. In the meantime, this may be the last chance to change our fortunes, now is the time to make as much as possible available for the first team. Just one jump start and a little good fortune is all it could take to change our fortunes and the mindset and direction of the whole club. We need to ride the wave of the Cowleys enthusiasm, because that’s all we’ve got. |
Yes I’m in agreement … 100% we won’t get any better than the brothers… we don’t have the curb appeal. They need to make a go at Colchester or their stock will fall. This isn’t a dig at them. The clubs in such a mess it needs to have a clear plan for the next 2 years to stabilise and hopefully build some solid foundations. No matter what happens the brothers should be allowed to see their contract out… the constant revolving door of 2/3 managers a season soon as they speak out ( in garners case ) is not a good selling point for players or anyone in the club. It would be good to sign players on 24 month contracts. If given a decent set of players ( for league 2 ) and enough say, dc and nc should easily be able to keep our head above water. Until we establish that a good manger would be hampered and waisted anyway. [Post edited 3 Jul 15:44]
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| The Summer of ‘24 - ins, outs and maybes on 15:45 - Jul 3 with 1734 views | TheOldOakTree |
| The Summer of ‘24 - ins, outs and maybes on 14:59 - Jul 3 by franksic1988 |
Totally agree. Ploughing money into a youth set up that doesn’t produce is like pissing in the wind. It would be worth running with if you was for example getting 2/3 good years out of 4/5 players every other season or every 2 season, and their contributions where lifting the club in a higher direction. One club that does this on higher scale is Southampton.
Like you say giving dc and nc a water into wine Job expecting greatness from them is not the answer. The structure and ethos of the club has to come under fire too. In league 2 you’re most probably better off putting the money down on a player that can play. |
Let's just clarify something here, there are academies and there are academies.
If you sign up to provide a Cat 2 then you need all the staff and hassle that goes with it, you can't just scale it down a bit here and there. I think I'm right in saying that you are bringing in kids from 8 years old.
Whereas a Cat 4 is still an academy, but more like an old youth set up from 18+. That must be much cheaper and doesn’t it do the job we need and we are good at?
The original business model is questionable because of our geography. Can you imagine your average 8-year-old’s mum agreeing to send Jonnie to Colchester when they can see the bright lights of West Ham or Ipshite. That’s got even worse now that the binners are a top shite team.
Then as time has gone on it gets worse, “OK, so based on your past performance, how many of your former pupils have made the big time and bought their mum a villa in Tenerife?” …..eerm none.
“So, based on your past performance, if Jonnie comes to your academy, where can he expect to end up in 10 years’ time?” ….eerm on a building site probably, but he’ll still play football at the weekends.
I remember hearing Kevin Keen say that Gilbey would play in the Premiership one day. It’s just bollox. (Mind you if you’d told me Elokobi would be a regular in the Prem and score at Old Trafford, I would have said you had a screw loose).
Now everything will be fine if Bradley and/or Samson become the next Rashford.
It might happen, but what if it doesn’t? What's the point in it? We are a L1/L2 football club, let's just concentrate on playing football. [Post edited 3 Jul 15:48]
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| The Summer of ‘24 - ins, outs and maybes on 10:40 - Jul 4 with 1562 views | RSCOSWORTH |
Does the academy have any impact on the first team budget? I thought they were treated separately in terms of financial fair play rules? |  |
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| The Summer of ‘24 - ins, outs and maybes on 10:52 - Jul 4 with 1557 views | burnsieespana |
| The Summer of ‘24 - ins, outs and maybes on 10:40 - Jul 4 by RSCOSWORTH |
Does the academy have any impact on the first team budget? I thought they were treated separately in terms of financial fair play rules? |
They are as per something RC said last year. | | | |
| The Summer of ‘24 - ins, outs and maybes on 12:32 - Jul 4 with 1508 views | TheOldOakTree |
| The Summer of ‘24 - ins, outs and maybes on 10:52 - Jul 4 by burnsieespana |
They are as per something RC said last year. |
Can’t imagine what made me think otherwise.
Macey Free
Payne Free
Anderson Free
Gordon Free
Taylor Free
Hunt Free
Goodliffe? Guessing about £100k?
I appreciate that it’s not that simple and wages, agents fees etc. come into it, but as of yet, we haven’t exactly splashed it about. | | | |
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