Football Season Guide

Colchester United flirted with relegation in their previous two campaigns, but this obviously was not enough for people in charge of the club to make more money available for transfers, as the U's will have to enter the new season following an underwhelming summer transfer window which saw them signing no proven League One players. It is well known that Colchester have been strapped for cash for years now, and it is all but certain that they would have conducted their transfer business differently had Joe Dunne had any real cash at his disposal. First and foremost, the U's once again failed to address their lack of quality strikers, which has been the U's Achilles' Heel for years now, with the sole new striker who joined the club being Braintree man Dan Holman, who is unproven at League One level. Other signings include Sean Clohessy and Ben Gordon, two more players who are unknown in the English third tier, who have been signed as like-for-like replacements for departed starting full-backs Ryan Dickson and Brian Wilson, who joined the U's League One rivals. The fourth summer signings is keeper Chris Lewington, who is unlikely to jeopardize Sam Walker's hegemony between the goal posts, and who probably signed as a replacement for departed backup keeper Mark Cousins. All in all, the U's summer transfer activity has been rather underwhelming, but their fans will drain some hope from the fact that Colchester had a major injury crisis last season that lasted for months, and that they would have probably done better had it not been for the lengthy list of absentees. Despite being likely to have less injury troubles in the new campaign, things do not look too good for Joe Dunne's men, who failed to add some much needed flair to one of the arguably dullest squads in the third tier.