Williams to leave by Mutal Consent

It is with considerable regret that I have to report that Geraint Williams will be leaving his post as the first team manager of Colchester United.

Following the 3-0 defeat against MK Dons, and the manner in which the team was defeated, it was mutually agreed between the board of Colchester United and Geraint that both parties would be best served if Geraint stood down from his role and that a new manager was appointed.

In my opinion, Geraint was badly let down on Saturday by some of his players who failed to play for him, some of our supporters who failed to support him and by myself for failing to publicly back my him before it was too late.

Geraint has been a very loyal servant of Colchester United for ten years during which time he has played for, coached and managed the team.

It is no coincidence that those years have also been the club's most successful years and Geraint led the club to its highest ever finish of tenth in the Championship.

That was despite working with a player budget which was significantly lower than any other team in that division.

In my time, I have been privileged to meet and work with some great people and Geraint is up there with the best of them.

In no way do I hold him responsible for last season's relegation.

The club could not give him the funds and facilities he required to maintain Championship football.

However, he proved without a doubt, during the one season where he did have a team capable of competing at that level, that he could manage very successful at that level of football and, probably given the right tools, even higher.

Despite being relegated back to League One, the club has progressed in many other areas and - for the first time in many years - we started a season where most of the talk was of promotion and not, as in previous years, of relegation.

However, although we have many reasons to be optimistic, we really must be realistic and accept that a new squad playing in a new stadium will take time to gel.

Despite our poor start, I have every confidence that Geraint has built a good squad which most certainly will gel.

Colchester United are an ambitious club and we are doing all we can to create a club that can sustain Championship football.

Source: www.cu-fc.com

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