‘That’s certainly our ambition’: Danny Cowley’s attitude on United’s loan signings
DANNY Cowley believes Colchester United want to sign their own players and rely less on loan signings next season.
The U’s signed nine loanees this season, with varied results, with many of them being young and inexperienced players from higher-placed clubs.
Joe Taylor was Colchester’s most successful loan acquisition, scoring the most goals after joining from Luton Town. However, other players struggled to maintain consistent form in League Two.
Colchester are unlikely to bring in as many loanees this time around, instead relying on their own promising young players and new permanent signings, with a custodian and striker at the top of their summer want list.
Head coach Cowley says the U’s squad’s dynamic was probably not right after battling relegation for much of the season.
Cowley stated: “In an ideal world, we’d like all of our own players to be fully devoted and focused on Colchester United, and that is definitely our goal.
“I believe one of the takeaways from last season was that we have our own young players here, and we have some fantastic young players with so much potential.
“You look at Samson Tovide, Bradley Ihionvien, Jayden Fevrier, and Jay Mingi; there’s so much talent at this club.
“But it truly does take a village to create one player.
“Probably last year, a mistake was made in that we brought in a lot of loans, and they were boys who had never played professional football before, as well as first-time loans.”
“As a result, we most likely misjudged the squad’s dynamic, and we simply had too many young players experiencing it for the first time.
“We weren’t able to provide them with the necessary support, either on or off the pitch, so there’s obviously some learning from that.
“I believe that one or two loans can be beneficial if they considerably improve the team.
“It can work, but they’re really the cherry on top.
“The base of the cake is made up of our own players, whether they be our brilliant young players who have come through the academy, the young players that we will try to recruit on permanent deals this summer or really reliable, battle-hardened, sensible, intelligent League Two signings.”
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