Colchester United boss Danny Cowley on player meetings

And the U’s boss has revealed he has had some ‘really difficult’ conversations with players this week, as the club build for next season in League Two.

Cowley, along with his brother and assistant head coach Nicky Cowley and sporting director Dmitri Halajko, have been meeting all of Colchester’s first-team players over recent days now that their season has finished.

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A number of U’s players are out of contract this summer while their loanees have returned to their respective parent clubs and the club are expected to announce their retained list, early next week.

Cowley said: “There’s going to be a lot of change and there needs to be a lot of change.

“There’s been some really difficult conversations this week, because there’s been some players that have given their all for the cause since we’ve been in and have been really good professionals and have a special place in our heart, as a consequence of them giving their all to the cause.

“But we have to try to do what is right for the football club and that’s meant for some difficult conversations.

“Sometimes in football, you have to make some decisions that you don’t like and you don’t want to make but are actually the correct thing for the football club, moving forward.

“It will allow us some scope to be able to move forward.

“The week after the season is always a really tough week.

“It’s a week where you need to meet with players and you need to meet with staff.

“Because of the precarious situation that we were in, we were in no position to hold contract talks in season, particularly bearing in mind we didn’t know the division we were going to be in.

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“This week has been pretty fully on and myself, Nicky and Dmitri have been having conversations with the players; we haven’t quite got to the staff yet.

“We’ve been talking to the players with regard to their future, whether they’re in or out of contract and also the loan players.

“It’s in part a review of the season so that players can take some learning away from the season and also a look to what the future looks like.”

It promises to be a busy summer at Colchester, as they aim to build a foundation to challenge at the right end of the League Two table following several years of struggle.

“We have to look at everything really,” added Cowley.

“I think this is our responsibility to our wonderful supporters and obviously to Robbie Cowling, the owner, to try to take all of the learning from the season and try to make some really intelligent decisions, moving forward, whether that be in terms of personnel and recruitment and also the provisions that support the first team.

“Part of our job this summer is to try to recruit players that can make us significantly better but then also once we get those players in the building, how can we maximise their attributes and their potential.”