Colchester United: A Club in Crisis. But then, Whose Isn’t?
Ask any Colchester fan and they’ll tell you it’s nothing but doom and gloom at the Weston Homes Community Stadium (that name is soon to change but we’ll go into that a bit later). According to the fans’ perspective, the club is going nowhere. Fast. Well, ask some others and they’ll tell you it won’t be long before United will be in a League Two relegation dog-fight.
Having said that: when you ask a fan of any team, is there ever a club that isn’t in crisis?
The trouble is, in football, success is an endless thirst that can’t be quenched. And once fans have tasted that sweet nectar of success, they just want more, more, more. Thus causing a continual cycle of success: satisfaction, less-success: dissatisfaction.
Look at most teams across all four top divisions and – guaranteed – if you ask a fan how things are going in the club, they’ll tell you that; it’s going down the pan, the chairman’s a crook, the manager doesn’t know what he’s doing, the stadium’s too old, or too new, pies are expensive, they shouldn’t have sold that player in 2013, they’d be in the Prem by now if…etc, etc, etc.
Indeed, ask a Man United fan and they would say that the club has been in ruin since Fergie left, or a Chelsea fan would say that things at the moment are a travesty. Even Tottenham: you can’t even look at a Spurs fan without seeing worry lines all over their face.
The thing is, it doesn’t matter where their club is in the league, in what division, at what point of the season, football fans are like fretful Mothers. Continuously panicking about what could go wrong. For example, how many times have you heard a fan say “Yeah it’s great we got promoted but I just hope we stay up next season”. That’s like a Mother saying, “Yeah it was great to give birth to him but I just hope he doesn’t end up going to prison”.
That’s the trouble. Fans are never satisfied. They’re always either looking through the memory book at the good old days or wringing their hands over the days to come.
Of course, Colchester fans are no better (including this Colchester fan). Always remembering either the success of the Conference days, and the Wembley FA Trophy win or the promotion from League One and those magical days at Layer Road in England’s second tier.
Indeed, as mentioned, most U’s fans would say that this period is one of the worst for the long suffering Colchester faithful. (The decades of monotony in between those couple of years of success seemingly forgotten).
However, perhaps it is true. Perhaps things are pretty bad at Colchester United at the moment.
The U’s were relegated from League One in 2016 and no fan at the club expected the team to bounce straight back up. In fact, according to Cowling, the chairman, The U’s were lucky to have been in League One for so long and League Two was where the club belonged.
So now, at the end of this season, two seasons after being relegated, The U’s are turning into a middle of the road League Two team with the same half-empty, half-hearted stadium as two other teams, no hope of promotion and 17 players out of contract at the end of this season (or players practically being kicked out of the team – striker Kurtis Guthrie recently had his contract cancelled by mutual consent). Supposedly, that’s right where the club belongs but you can’t blame U’s fans for feeling a bit melancholy and so, naturally, they’re not going to keep quiet about it.
However, the Chairman, Robbie Cowling, has reportedly said that he would ban anyone who went over the line with their protests. If abuse gets too personal, then of course, it’s out of order. But, what’s over the line? Chanting ‘sack the board’, ‘Cowling out’? Banners? Booing? Disgruntled murmurs? Angry tweets? Angry articles on football websites?…
What exactly is Cowling’s footballing vision?
I remember my mum telling me, when she went to the Soviet Union, she went to a football match. In every other row in the stadium was a row of armed police/army personnel. From the fans there was no booing, no chanting, no cheering when a goal was scored. People came, sat and watched, and went home, seemingly unbothered by the quality of the match or the result. Am I comparing Cowling’s footballing utopia to the Soviet Union? Apparently… But it’s a valid point.
The old saying goes that football without fans is nothing. If Colchester’s revenue is almost entirely dependent on fans walking through the doors, threatening them with bans for voicing their opinions is not going to encourage people to come and cheer on an average team in a dreary oversized matchbox of a stadium.
Speaking of which, to make matters just that little bit worse, Cowling has shockingly and cleverly decided not to renew the contract with stadium sponsors Weston Homes without finding a replacement first. Without a sponsor, Colchester United can’t pay the rent for the stadium. So, that’s something else for U’s fans to fret over.
Now, while I climb down from my soapbox, I’ll return to my original point.
U’s fans need to remember: regardless of an entire squads-worth of players out of contract at the end of this season, a stadium without a sponsor and the prospect of another monotonous season in England’s bottom tier, Colchester United fans can take solace in the fact that at every other club in the country from Man City to Chesterfield, every single fan is going through the same struggle.
Colchester United may be a club in crisis, but it is certainly not alone.
Up next for The U’s is Lincoln City away on Saturday 22nd April, managed by the mastermind and former Braintree Town manager, Danny Cowley.
Words by Piers Palmer D3D4 Colchester United correspondent.
Twitter: @Piers_Palmer. Email: [email protected]
Not every club is in crisis. I have supported Brentford for over 70 years and we have never been in a better position than we are now. This is all down to our wonderful owner Matthew Benham who has turned the club into a top half Championship outfit.
Our scouting system is as good as any in the country, finding young players and selling them on for large fees. Something we have to do as our budget is at the lower end of the Championship. We are moving into a new ground in the next two years and this should generate more cash.
Never in all my 70 years has the club been so well run, the backroom staff are brilliant and its upwards and on to better things.
We have languished in the lower divisions for most of my life, but that changed when Matthew became the owner.
There are parts of the media who find our way of doing things difficult to swallow but we love being under the radar.
We are loving where we are.