COLCHESTER United legend Karl Duguid believes his former club can have several leaders out on the pitch this season.

U’s boss Danny Cowley is set to name the club’s new skipper for the forthcoming League Two campaign, which gets underway this weekend.

Colchester will have a new player wearing the armband this season, following ex-skipper Connor Hall’s departure to Port Vale and vice-captain Noah Chilvers’ move to Ross County.

The likes of Ellis Iandolo and Mandela Egbo have led the U’s in pre-season games this season but with a number of leaders brought into the club this summer, former U’s skipper Duguid feels his old club can have more than one skipper.

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Duguid, who skippered the U’s 2006 promotion-winning side, said: “They’ve got a number of leaders, in that group.

“A number of them have been captains at their previous clubs, which bodes well.

“I think they needed that; it stood out last season that they didn’t have enough leaders.

“If you look at the successful teams that I played in, there wasn’t just one captain, there were a number of captains.

“If you look right through the spine of the Championship team, anyone could have put the captain’s armband on!

(Image: ROB SAMBROOK)

“That’s the sort of group it was and that’s the sort of group he’s trying to get together.

“They’re all leaders, they’re all captains.

“Some lead by example, some are big talkers and encouragers – they’ve all got their different qualities as captain.

“If you can have a little bit of something in each of them, then that helps the whole group especially helping the young boys in and around the football club.”

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Colchester have a new-look team in place for the start of the season, having made ten new signings this summer.

“I think it’ll be a totally different football team, a totally different football club, a totally different feel about the club,” said Duguid, who made more than 450 appearances for the U’s over two spells.

“It needed to start again and I think that’s what they’ve done.

“They’ve put in place all their other stuff from when they first came in until the end of the season, getting the fans back together and everyone feeling all as one again.

“Their PR stuff last season was brilliant and everything they did was really, really good, getting the club together again if you like when in other years, it’s felt like it wasn’t.

(Image: RICHARD BLAXALL)

“Last season, I think it was a case of them looking at the players they’ve got and deciding on what they need and what they don’t need moving forward and I think that was their aim when they came in.

“They had enough time to give everyone a chance and see what they’re all about.

“They know what they want and they know who they want and I think they were prepping that before the end of last season.

“They were probably speaking to people, speaking to agents about who they wanted in and that looks like what they have done.

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“They’ve needed some leaders, some guidance, not just from the players but the staff as well – I don’t think they had, with the leadership part of the game.

“The Cowleys will want to be judged on their squad; no-one’s really judged them on last season’s team because it wasn’t their team.

“They want to be successful people, they have been successful people and I’m pretty that will be their aim again, this year.”

(Image: ROB SAMBROOK)

Duguid is planning to be in the away end at Plough Lane on Saturday, as Colchester get the new League Two season underway with a trip to play Johnnie Jackson’s AFC Wimbledon.

He added: “It’s a tough game but it’s a game you all look forward to.

“The pitch will be unbelievable and it’s a lovely little ground there.

“It’s a great place to play and what a great place to start your season off.

“Jacko has done fantastically well.

“The game last year there was a really good game for the neutral, in the first half but for a Colchester fan in the second half, it wasn’t!

“You sometimes see some mad results early on and then after six or seven games, things start settling down.

“I’m sure they’re all looking forward to and can’t wait to start.”