Should Steve Whitton remain as Colchester United's manager or should he go now? That's the major talking point dominating the thoughts of the Layer Road fans as the U's continue to struggle for Second Division survival.

Opinions are divided between those who feel the current manager is doing a great job with the limited resources available and those who are adament Whitton hasn't got a prayer.

So what are the options?

It's no secret the club is run very prudently by chairman Peter Heard and his board of directors and has never been in the habit of splashing the cash wildly to achieve hollow glory or blind ambitions.

As U's chief executive Marie Partner put it only this week: "It's no good having champagne ideas on ginger beer money."

Gates have continued to fall away alarmingly in recent years whoever the manager has been - not just in Whitton's reign.

As long ago as the mid-1950's former U's chairman Maurice Cadman was calling for crowds of 5,500 merely to break even - when was the last time those figures were achieved?

Believe it or not the two triumphant Conference seasons of the early 1990's which culminated in the U's winning the league and FA Trophy double, losing only a handful of games along the way couldn't even match that.

Perhaps the fickle fans should take a good look at themselves before looking to lay blame for the club's plight at anyone else's door.

For whatever reasons, lack of facilities; lack of parking; below par performances and lack of a cash injection through the gates, the Colchester public themselves are bottom of the League when it comes to watching football.

So who is out there that could do a better job than Whitton?

He will be the first to admit he's been no angel throughout his 25-year Football League career.

But taking over a U's squad when they were rock bottom of the Second Division with team morale at its lowest ebb since they dropped out of the League in May 1990, he has guided them onwards to a record fifth successive season in the Second Division.

Money is available to strengthen the team, but Whitton has spent very little of it, claiming the right sort of players, with the exception of Arsenal's Republic of Ireland international loanee Graham Barrett, simply haven't come along.

His observations have been strengthened only this week by the revelations that Portsmouth striker Lee Bradbury chose to join First Division strugglers Sheffield Wednesday instead of the U's while Fulham's 21-year-old goal-getter Calum Willock opted for Queens Park Rangers.

The U's hierarchy got their fingers badly burned when appointing Whitton's predecessor Mick Wadsworth in early '99.

Wadsworth's reign lasted just 25 games, a period in which it is alleged he seriously split the dressing room spirit and came within an ace of bankrupting the club with a handful of disastrous highly-paid players until his resignation later in the same year.

By contrast, Steve Wignall - another much-maligned U's boss - still took a lot of stick from the fans despite guiding the club to two Wembley finals and the Division Three play-off semis three times in the four seasons he was in charge.

George Burley caused uproar by walking out on the club for neighbouring Ipswich Town only six months into a two-year contract, having achieved the magnificent feat of taking the U's from the bottom to the top four in Division Three at the time of his controversial and subsequently costly departure.

Larger than life double-winning love him or hate him player-boss Roy McDonough had more than his fair share of enemies too, despite spearheading the U's out of the Conference back into the League.

All considered, Whitton's record stands with the rest

Published Thursday, January 16, 2003

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