DANNY Cowley says he would ideally like to have the nucleus of his Colchester United team in place before the first day of pre-season.

The U’s have made two signings so far this summer, bringing in goalkeeper Matt Macey along with winger Harry Anderson.

Colchester are looking for several more signings this summer, with a number of players having departed the JobServe Community Stadium including Jayden Fevrier, Jay Mingi and John Akinde.

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The U’s first-team players report back for duty at Florence Park on July 1 and head coach Cowley says he would like to have the spine of his side secured by then, with more signings to follow.

Cowley said: “I think we are making gradual progress.

“In an ideal world, when the players come back at the end of June, we’ll have all of our squad together for six weeks where you can really mould the group, both on and off the pitch.

“In my experience, this has never been possible or reality.

“I think we would like to have the spine and the nucleus of the group together, come the beginning of pre-season but certainly, we’ll need to use that period as well to keep adding.

(Image: STEVE BRADING)

“I never think that that’s a bad thing, because on paper you can look at a group and it can look perfect and then you see it unfold and you see the boys train and you see games and you realise actually, you need something else.

“To have some flexibility once the pre-season starts and season starts is never a bad thing.

“We’re working every single minute of every single day to try to improve the squad and get a group together that we think can be competitive and consistent, in this division.”

Colchester have brought in Simon Bassey to assist them with their player recruitment drive this summer.

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He is working alongside sporting director Dmitri Halajko and Danny and Nicky Cowley to try and bolster the U’s ranks, ahead of the 2024-25 League Two campaign.

“We knew that there was going to be a lot of work to do, in this window,” added Cowley.

“I think naturally when you finish 22nd in League Two, you’re always going to want to be quite aggressive in terms of recruitment.

“We’re working really hard at it.

(Image: RICHARD BLAXALL)

“We’ve got a really good team of people that are working diligently to put us in the best position to help us make the best decision.

“It’s like anything in life; the more information you have, the more likely you are to make intelligent decisions.

“You see a lot of clubs do work in May and early June – they’re normally the clubs that are in a position to pay a financial premium which often you do, if you want to do your business early.

“I think for us, we have complete clarity over the players we want to bring in.

“We know the areas of the pitch that we really want to influence and improve and we also know that having worked with our group since January what we need to bring in to the dynamic, in terms of character and personality.”