COLCHESTER United have appointed Jonathan Duckett as their new first team analyst and coach.

Duckett, who spent more than a decade working at the U's in a number of different roles between 2006 and 2017, has returned to the club after leaving his role as Head of Player Insights at Championship club Norwich City, earlier this summer.

The 39-year-old UEFA A Licence holder returns to Colchester with nearly two decades of experience in professional football under his belt including at the Football Association, where he worked as a Player Pathway Analyst.

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The former U's head of recruitment and coach developer replaces Lorenzo Dolcetti, who left the role to take up a new position as assistant coach at Greek SuperLeague side Athens Kallithea FC.

Duckett worked with the likes of Aidy Boothroyd, Paul Lambert and Geraint Williams in his previous role at the U's.

Colchester boss Danny Cowley said: "We're delighted that Jon's back with us.

"We lost young Lorenzo at the beginning of pre-season to go to the Greek Superleague as assistant manager, which is a brilliant progression for him.

(Image: Richard Blaxall)

"I'm so pleased for him and he's been outstanding for Nicky and I but to replace him and bring Jon back was just great.

"He comes with a wealth of experience.

"He's been at Colchester United before so understands the club, understands the quirks.

"He went to The FA and worked with some brilliant people there and learned loads.

"He then went onto Norwich and worked with quite a lot of people that I'd worked with like Stuart Webber who was director of football at Huddersfield and then went to Norwich.

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"Quite a lot of the Huddersfield staff ended up at Norwich in one form or another.

"Jon helped us to bring Sammie (Szmodics) to Braintree and we're forever thankful for that, because that was such a pleasure working with Sammie.

"He really ignited our season.

(Image: Richard Blaxall)

"We found it really difficult to score in that early part of the season but Sammie came in and we won 1-0 at Macclesfield and then 6-3 at Halifax and he scored in both!

"We only had him for a month, maybe three or four games but we didn't look back, after that and ended up finishing third in the National League, which was a great achievement.

"But it's great to have Jon back and working with young Enda (Brannock), heading up our analysis department."